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needlepoint twinchie patchwork quilt block gift tags, free needlepoint project by needlepoint expert janet m. perry

Get these free gift tag patterns at My 365 magazine's site.

These four almost Twinchie (34 stitches square) quilt blocks are really quick to stitch and can be finished quickly to make simple ornaments or gift tags.

They are stitched in colors to compliment the overdyed canvas colors, but any scrap of mono canvas will do.

I just love the bright bold look.

The patterns for the quartet are free and can be found in My 365‘s holiday issue, out today. The beautiful magazine is on-line and free.

As a part of the issue, I’m participating in a giveaway of my books. Visit the site to learn how to enter.

BTW to turn any of these into a true Twinchie, just add a one row “binding” in Continental as a border.

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Four Needlepoint Gift Tags – Free Pattern

Christmas Star Freebie

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Carol’s Counted Canvaswork has this simply delightful free pattern for a Christmas Star. It’s tiny 1.5″ square, so it will be really quick to stitch up.

And you can stitch it in so many different colors.

What a delightful little piece.

See her post for the charts and instructions.

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Christmas Star Freebie

New Needlepoinr Products – Threads, Tools, & Things

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint,tools

Crescent Colors has new shades in both silk & floss. Belle Soie has added Beach Grass, Velvet Rose, Porcelain Pink, and Spruce. The new colors of floss are: Brwon Hen, Eggshell, Polliwog, Pebble Beach, Wilderness and Honeycomb.

HiyaHiya Puppy Snips are tiny little snips (squeezable scissors) that are less than 2″ closed. They come with a cover and chain. If you have problems with traditional scissors, take a look at these.

Another tiny clever thing is the Ott Light Mini Flip Light. It can clip on your belt or purse and has 12 LED lights. Perfect for shops with poor lighting.

Puffin & Co has three seasonal designs for their accessories:a snowman, a star, and a mitten. There are also rumors of some Santa pieces as well. The Graph Gripper is a two-ended clip. One end goes onto your frame while the other holds your chart or instructions.

The Lint Remover Sticky Book has 50 large sheets of a special paper that can pick up your stray fibers.

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New Needlepoinr Products – Threads, Tools, & Things

New Needlepoint Products — Charted Needlepoint & Whole-Stitch Cross Stitch

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

There are lots of amazing new charts out, including a couple of Cross Stitch charts I have to tell you about.

DebBee’s Designs has lovely new additions to Diamond Delights and Glitz & Glamour. Opals is the newest Glitz piece. It’s amazing to me how she has managed to capture the elusive colors of the gem so well; it’s a stunner. The ninth Diamond Delights is out, featuring bright shades of orange, purple, and green. It also features a unique Memory Thread background.

Moonflower has three unique stitch samplers with one work sayings, Recycle (in greens), Conserve, and Welcome (in blues). These are simple enough to be a great first charted project. Laura Perin has teamed up with Nordic Needle for a series of four exclusive music box designs.

Brenda E. Kocher has two great new designs, Alivia’s Stocking, a Bargello full-size Christmas stocking (the first that I have seen), and Log Cabin Christmas, with lots of pattern texture, and stitches, including Hilton Stitches.

Handblessings has four Halloween Silhouettes in whole-stitch cross stitch that would make terrific needlepoint pieces with their combination of modern punch and a classic Halloween look. I just adored Ink Circles Project “99,” which has the canonical 99 bottles of beer on the wall and even includes guide to what they are.

Free Pattern from Fabric Design

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Fabric,Nuts About Needlepoint

This charming needlepoint pattern is adapted from a repeating fabric pattern by the designer herself.

It’s her first needlepoint pattern and only her second needlepoint. You can read about her foray into needlepoint and get the chart here in her blog post.

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Free Pattern from Fabric Design

Patchwork of Peace – Needlepoint Book Review

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2009-07-28 07:02:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I know this book has been out awhile and is very popular. I’ve not looked at it because I didn’t want to stitch the project. But I looked at it recently and have to say that it’s a disappointment.
In order to get enough out of the book to make it worth the cost, not only do you need to stitch the project, but you also have to be an experienced needlepointer, able to read stitch diagrams and also decipher a stitch from a sample. Why? Because every stitch is charted and many of the charts have mistakes in them so you need to do the stitch from the picture of the block.
The book says it has 247+ stitches, but far too many of them are simple variations of each other. This is fine when I’m using it as a guide to stitch the canvas, but limits its usefulness after. Without a guide or table to stitches and how they relate, how can I use this for another canvas? The two indexes there are include one with stitches to use for particular areas and another with a listing of stitches with the stitch and page numbers.
Information needed to stitch the canvas is sketchy as well. There is a table showing you thread types and colors, but no indication of amounts or where they are used. As a result, I am left completely to my own devices to decide which two blues are used for stitch 18 and which of the blue threads is used for stitch 26. Maybe I should just be willing to use whatever takes my fancy, but it might have been nice to have added a line telling me what the model used, since the picture of the block is right there.
There is a full color picture of the finished project after the thread table and then another table, with no explanation, that shows, I think, which stitch (by number) is used where. The stitches in the book seem to be put into the book with no rhyme or reason. Stitch 1 is in the upper left, stitch 2 is in the lower right, 3 is in the lower left, but where is stitch 4? It’s two thirds over in the middle. Having a variety of block colors on each page makes for a pretty book, but not a useful one. I’d hate to try to stitch the project from this book.
The diagrams are in color with two thread stitches being diagrammed in two colors. But often the diagrams are poorly drawn or have obvious mistakes I opened the book to a page at random; there are three stitches diagrammed. One stitch is correct. Another one has stitches that charted so that if you didn’t already know the stitch, you couldn’t know how it was made. There is no text to help me with the stitch, so I can’t even try to figure it out. The third stitch has colors and stitch outlines that don’t line up, making it look like the stitch is vibrating there on the page. Many pages have mistakes such as these.
The pictures are uneven in quality with some being very fuzzy.
My feeling after examining this book is that it was put together quickly after the project was stitched without any real thought about how to make it a successful project book or stitch guide, and with no consideration about how people might use it later. Just because the original piece is good, doesn’t mean you can slap a book together and expect stitchers to pay over $60 for the book when you can’t even be bothered to give people enough information to stitch the canvas.
We, as stitchers, deserve better than this.

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Patchwork of Peace – Needlepoint Book Review

More New Canvases from your Favorite Designers

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Here are even more great canvases from may designers. Most of these premiered at the TNNA Summer Market earlier this month.

Deborah Mix, the designer behind Dragon’s Tale has an equally talented sister, Christine, who is a children’s book illustrator. Deborah has adapted 8 of Christine’s fairytale illustrations to needlepoint canvas. These designs are full of great detail and they would fire any child’s imagination.

Canvas Candy, that great company that pairs needlepoint with blown glass ornaments in many styles has a set of four juvenile ornaments that include a rocking horse, a teddy bear, a piggy bank, and a baby duck. They also have some great retro canvases that include a biker jacket, saddle shoes, and a motorcycle. If you thought they just did food, look around — there’s lots more!

Amanda Lawford has many new designs, including a new Santa, lots of wonderful bugs, flowers, and animals, and new brick covers. There are also some whimsical dog and cat canvases. But my favorite of all is a cow jumping over the moon.

Renaissance Designs has two new series that are particularly fun. One, Frosty Friends, is colorfully dressed snowmen in 2.5 rounds. That’s a great size for using the self-finishing ornament items. There is also Heartfelt Thoughts. These are one-word thoughts inside colorful patterned hearts. The first 6 of a planned series of 12 are available.
Kelly Clark has added a series of figures and other canvases for Thanksgiving. She also has a simply glorious Wisteria topiary (along with three others), several “Please Come In” signs with different colors, decorations and backgrounds, and some delightful old-fashioned toy ornaments.

And in other needlepoint news, A Dragon’s Tale Needlepoint will be opening an Etsy store soon to sell discontinued and discounted canvases at savings of at least 50% off. Until the shop is open, you can email or call to get a price list of what’s available sent to you. Click on the link to their site for contact info.

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More New Canvases from your Favorite Designers

New Summer Needlepoint Products

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Ashley Bradley has added a line of cat mini-socks to her line of dog mini-socks. So here’s another addition to the many cat ornament canvas and stitched cat ornaments in my collection.

Squigee has some delightful new canvases including a T shirt with a charm that says “When pigs fly”. There are several other witty pieces as well. If you like black poodles, and I do, she has an adorable black poodle roll-up, named Omar.
Among other designs, Patt & Lee has a lovely stitch-painted Christmas Tree with presents under it (a Stitch Guide is also available).

Brenda Kocher has two new designs, an offset Log Cabin sampler featuring lots of Hilton stitches called Lavender Logs, and a new Bargello design called Bodacious Bargello.

Melissa Shirley, as always, has tons of new things. These include several additions to the sky blue, yellow, an white Texas hearts (my favorite is the armadillos), a charming procession of the animals to Noah’s Ark.

Geishas seem to be a big deal this summer, with new ones from Lani, Melissa Shirley, and others.

Lani also has some really elaborate bracelets and some lovely masks in different color. Rebecca Wood has a new series of banners, showing off fondant cakes for each month.

Kreinik has doubled the number of Hot Wire colors, bringing it to 18. They have also added for new Rainforest colors to Japan #7, and brought out Easter Grass in 1/16″ width. They are also expanding their selection of boxed kits, adding 28 count silk gauze, and bringing out new embellishments.

Coming in early July, Crescent Colours will be introducing hand-dyed chenille, rick-rack, and cotton lace. Such interesting ideas for embellishment.

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New Summer Needlepoint Products

March Random Thoughts on Needlepoint

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2008-03-31 17:29:42. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Here’s another batch of great needlepoint tips:

~ Early samplers often had unworked canvas surrounding the motifs.

~ In England brown needlepoint canvas is called antique in the US it’s called ecru.

~ When combining overdyed & solid threads, check the enire length for clashes in tone or color.

~ When using muti-colored threads, make sure the color with which you want to start is at the knotted end.

~ If you are adding buttons to a project, pick a thread color which matches the button.

~ If you are attaching a charm to your needlepoint, pick a thread color which matches the canvas or the stitching directly below the charm.

~ Don’t feel that just because the background is painted a single color, you need to use that color throughout. You can make parts of the background stand out by choosing a different thread or color.

~ Often a contrast in thread can make a piece. Doing the focal point in shiny threads? Think about using a matte or wooly thread for the background.

~ A great tip from a book by Sylvia Sidney. If you are having problems with a part of your focal point, add some leaves, flowers or grass in front of it on your design to hide the problem.

~ Look to books for other needlecrafts and other types of design for inspiration for stitch patterns. Books on architecture, weaving, knitting and lots of others are full of wonderful ideas you can translate to needlepoint.

~ Make a needlepoint to commemorate any special event. My daughter is getting the needlepoint ornament I was working on while I waited for her to pass her driver’s test. It has nothing to do with cars, but it will be a remembrance.

~ This week’s tip come from Linda, one of our readers took a very small, inexpensive Rubbermaid type container. It’s square and probably only 3 inches by 3 inches. I cut out an opening in the top which allows me to push my orts in easily yet if turned upside down they don’t fall out. And the top pops off easily for emptying. It’s plastic so it won’t break and weighs next to nothing so it carries in my bag very well.

~ If you are used to stitching on fabric canvas, it can be hard to stitch when the plastic canvas is cut out first. I generally stitch first and then cut.

~ If you are padding a stitch and using floss or silk as the top, don’t pad with the same thread, pad with wool, you will get a nicer finish.

~ Always stitch from light to dark when you are using fibers which are fuzzy, not just with wool.

~ It’s easy to get off base when you are doing a stitch like Rice Stitch. Avoid this by only working in horizontal or vertical rows. Pick a direction and stitck with it. Then you won’t get off by half a stitch.

~ Use some of those colorful coffee mugs or small creamer and syrup jugs to store permanent markers and stitching tools.

~ This tip comes from one of our readers, Charlene: I was told to purchase one of those touch lights you see for closets that take batteries (that are all over TV at night) and put it on your lap and turn it on and that way you will
be able to see what you are doing.

~ Make a lap cloth for under your needlepoint. Make a pillow case with one white side and one dark side, put the dark side up when working on light canvas and the light side up when working on dark. Since it’s a pillowcase, you can store your needlepoint in it.

~ I’ve been doing a piece which using black thread on black canvas –not always fun. In daylight itís not too bad, but at night, my hand casts a shadow which makes it even harder to see. To prevent this, I move my floor lamp around while I have my hand on top of the canvas. One way to prevent this is to put the light n the opposite side from the hand on top of the canvas, the shadow will fall in the other direction.

~ Have a small project you are stalled stitching? Make it your “car project” and take it with you to work on in your little bits of time. I’ve finished three small
projects this way this month. See a stitch you like but aren’t ready to use? Save your
scraps of canvas and start a stitch notebook. Use up odds and ends of thread and keep the canvases in plastic page protectors to start your own notebook. You can use dividers
to divide according to stitch type. Index cards work well for keeping notes.

~ If you are working on a very large project, take a day off
every now and again and work on something small to keep
yourself from getting bored.

~ Some metallic threads work better if you stitch more slowly

~ There is evidence from the time of the ancient Egyptians
that they were doing needlepoint.

~ Did you know that Turkeywork got its name because the
finished look of the stitch is like Persian (or Turkish)
carpets?

~ Is the head of your stand too thin to accommodate stretcher bars? Go to the hardware store with your current bolts in hand and buy some which are an inch longer. An inexpensive repair to make.

~ Buy inexpensive flexible clamps from the hardware store to
have a quick and easy clamp for taking to class.

~ I wondered just how many needlepoint do I finish in a year? So I got a small notebook and keep a running log of the stitched projects I finish — it’s lots more than I
suspected. I just note the date the project, who designed it and who gets it.

~ To keep them from staining your embroidery, clean metal charms with a paper towel & coat the backs with clear nail polish.

~ If you are working a chart in beads, first pull the threads & then match the beads to the threads. This makes it easier to match.

~ Be careful when using bright yellow or orange beads, they often overwhelm the other colors.

~ Add names or the date to a piece to make it unique.

~ Make labels to put on the back of your work to sign it.

~ Make copies of your charts (if you are using one) and put stitching notes on it.

~ Stumped by chenille? Only use it on the surface — couch it or work it over other surface stitches.

~ Using a sharp needle instead of a blunted one to couch, makes it easier to get a smooth curve and invisible stitches.

~ Turkeywork is not named after the bird, but after the Turkish (Persian) rugs, the finished stitch resembles.

~ Needlepoint is the strongest and longest-wearing of all forms of embroidery, also one of the oldest.

~ You can challenge yourself by taking a canvas from your stash and threads from your stash and completing the canvas without buying new threads.

~ The four elements of design are: color, balance, scale & texture. Does your piece have a balance of all of them?

~ For instant art, stretch old, unfinished needlepoint on a frame and hang it — you might get inspired to finish it!

~ You can use those plastic boxes comforters come in to store large needlepoint projects.

~ Short stitches wear better than longer ones, so chose them for any piece which will get lots of handling.

~ Other names for Double Running Stitch are Holbein Stitch or Romanian Stitch.

~ Sampler comes from the Latin word exemplum, meaning an example to be followed.

~ Samplers with little motifs scattered all over them are called “spot samplers.”

~ Outline an area with whipped backstitch to make the edges look smoother & to give it an edge which stands out from the canvas.

~ Crewel wool gets its name from the Anglo-Saxon word “cleowen,” meaning a ball of yarn.

~ You can clean needlepoint with raised areas by using a sable paintbrush.

~ Look at tag and estate sales for unfinished needlepoint. Great for covering chairs, footstools & benches from flea markets.

~ “Pricking the ground” is the technical term for splitting apart the threads of penelope (double thread) canvas.

~ Before stitching that canvas, trace over the outline so you have a paper template to follow for blocking to size.

~ While all needlepoint canvas ravels (except for interlock), older canvas ravels more than newer canvas.

If you liked these tips and want more, why not get a copy of my book, Needlepoint Trade Secrets? It’s packed full of tips about needlepoint from start to finish. You can buy it at your local needlework store, from Amazon.com (here) or from Nordic Needle.

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March Random Thoughts on Needlepoint

Fun New Needlepoint Items!

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

With the big needlepoint market in just a couple of weeks, there will be lots of new needlepoint items coming out. Here are just some of them (with more in Thursday’s post).

One of my favorite stitcher’s magnets had a thin ribbon connecting the two halves. Parking Lots (distributed by Bryson) do just that with stickers covering each half and a ribbon rose for decoration. I’m so glad someone is doing this.

Custom House has added two stitch books to their thread line (Gumnuts) and their delightful charted needlepoint. Quick Stitch Help and More Quick Stitch Help are small but have over 50 stitches and variations in each, all diagrammed and explained by Julie Sackett.

Anne Cram Designs has a glorious painted side table called Hampton Roses. The top is 17″ square and can hold a 14″square canvas. The sides and legs are beautifully painted.

The Elizabeth Turner Collection has some fun stocking toppers. The two I saw were either presents or ornaments in a contemporary style on black. They are a cool alternative to making a stocking. Sally Corey has a delightful welcome home needlepoint that can be personalized for any serving soldier.

Keep Your Pants On has 4″ round ornaments showing college sports logos on gold. There isn’t much college stuff out there so this is great. Lees Needle Arts has a whimsical series of animal canvases for kid’s rooms called BaZoopies. They include a lion, an elephant, and a zebra among others.

YLI has added a new color set to their line of Painter’s Threads, Kirchner, a dark blue. The also have Perle #12 added to this line.

Divine threads has added a new color, Autumn Splendor to their line of overdyed rayons. DMC has bought out a new sliding magnetic needle case with a decorated top.

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Fun New Needlepoint Items!

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