If you’re like me all too often the canvas that shrieks “Buy Me!” in the store, looks like a terrible mistake once you get home. On the other hand, you regret, sometimes for years, that canvas you didn’t buy. Your stash is bursting with lovely hand painted canvas needlepoint, but none of them are quite right.
You want a new canvas, but you want a bargain. There are three wonderful places on the Web where I go often to find these bargains. Since each of these sites only has the canvases another stitcher has provided to them, it’s worth checking often to look at their inventory.
The first place, and the one with the biggest inventory, is eBay seller, Stitch in Peace. In the intereats of full disclosure, I should say that I’ve used them to sell things from my stash in the past.
Stitch in Peace specializes in selling needlework and knitting supplies. Sometimes it’s from a needleworker’s estate, sometimes it’s from a shop which has gone out of business, and sometimes it’s a stash reduction. Their auctions always start at $0.99, but people follow them and rarely does a price stay really low.
They know their needlework, describe things accurately, almost always with designers’ names, and have good close-up pictures. This morning they have 39 canvas lots, many with multiple canvases.
Every piece has a picture and is classified as with thread (needlepoint kits) or without (needlepoint canvas).
Another great place is Canvases Be Gone from Arizona, run by Dale Miller. On the home page, the selection is divided into broad categories. If you click on canvases, they are divided further in subject areas, including belts, oriental, and southwestern, three popular categories. In each category, the canvas has a thumbnail and a description, along with the price and shopping cart. If you click on the thumbnail, you go to a detail page with the description and a slightly larger picture. Mesh sizes and stitching area are always listed.
These are not auctions, but fixed price sales. I bought a charming Juell canvas here a couple of months ago and just got the threads to stitch it. It’s supposed to be a purse, but I’m doing it as a banner.
Finally, noted teacher Susan Portra has a section of her site devoted to painted canvas resales. It too is divided into categories (there’s even a special one for sets). This takes you to one or more summary pages for the category. This page shows you a thumbnail with the inventory number and the price. To get more information, click on the inventory number.
This goes to a detail page with a larger pictures (additional pictures are shown in a pop up window). Designer, mesh, and size are all shown on this page.
I think this site has some flaws, I don’t like that I have to click so much to get the information which, as a stitcher should be presented immediately, and I find it difficult to navigate. I sometimes feel as if the folks who know needlepoint and the folks who made the site didn’t really talk to each other. In addition, I think this prices are too high.
But even so, they are well below prices in the store, so this site, along with the others, should be on your list to visit.
With sites like these, needlepoint window shopping is so fun, it can seriously cut into your stitching time.
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