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Originally posted 2008-01-31 11:29:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Yesterday I was getting some stuff off my old Mac and came upon a list of “Do You Knows?’ leftover from About.com days. These are short comments, tips and information about needlepoint.

I thought I’d share them with you.

~ Compensation is the process of making partial stitches in order to fill up a space which is not filled by complete stitches.

~ If you are using furry threads, always stitch with them last. That way your other stitches don’t get furry too.

~ When stitching a piece with beads, do the beads after the stitching around them is completed.

~ Use up odds & ends of threads–put them into a bag & pull out a thread at random, stitch with it until it is gone, then pull another one.

~ If you have French knots in a piece, stitch them after the surrounding area is stitched.

~ You can use a small bag with a corded handle for your orts. This can hang on your frame.

~ Stained glass patterns can make beautiful needlepoint, just trace them onto your canvas.

~ You can use one of those stitcher’s magnets on any metal surface to hold an extra needle.

~ Making marks every ten stitches or so on your canvas is a great way to keep from going off count in charted needlepoint.

~ You should always use a hard lead drawing pencil (4H) to draw on needlepoint canvas, the others will flake off and discolor your thread.

~ Keeping cotton floss on spools in closed plastic boxes can weaken the thread. Whenever you store in plastic for a long time, keep it open.

~ Using penelope (double thread) canvas allows you to work both petit point and regular needlepoint in the same piece.

~ Rank your unfinished projects, so that when you finish a project you know which one to work on next.

~ You can organize your projects more easily and neatly by putting them into the wire baskets in a storage unit.

~ When working from a chart, remember that one square equals one stitch, in needlepoint that means one intersection covered by a tent stitch.

~ Use a colored pen to mark out the center lines or squares on a chart. Color in all the squares from arrow to arrow.

~ If working tent stitch, you can turn your chart upside down, but never turn it a quarter turn, your stitches may slant wrong then.

~ When using a chart or stitch diagram, check your relative position often, you will find (and be able to correct) mistakes sooner.

~ Wondering how many ply to use? Stitch a small sample on scrap canvas & hold it up to the light. If you don’t see light, then it’s OK.

~ If you end threads by working it through the back, don’t put dark threads through light, it will show through.

~ When working a chart, plan the shortest route between areas of the same color, this makes you less likely to make mistakes.

~ When stitching with perforated paper, the smoother side is the right one.

~ If using perforated paper, mark the cutting lines on the back with a soft pencil.

~ When stitching on perforated paper, complete stitching before cutting out the shape.

~ Always look for a piece of fabric with a minimum of slubs and imperfections.

~ If using waste canvas, cut it at least 2 inches larger than the design all around.

~ If using a large mesh waste canvas, stitch through the smaller holes, it will help you stabilize the stitches.

~ After you remove the waste canvas, check for missed stitches, then add them in with a sharp needle in the empty spaces.

~ Plastic canvas shapes can be used as lining for 3-D needlepoint pieces, to give them stability and shape.

~ When using penelope canvas and working petit point, separate the canvas threads with a large tapestry needle before stitching.

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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Random Thoughts on Needlepoint

Why are Hand-Painted Canvases So Expensive?

in Design,Nuts About Needlepoint

Vicki asked earlier this month if the designers actually painted the canvases they sold.

It’s a good question. Although there are designers who paint their own and custom canvases are painted by the artist, most canvases you buy in shops are not painted by the designer. It is the designer’s own design, but after painting the master (and sometimes a few more for models and shows) the canvases are painted by copy painters.

These people have two important skills needed for reproducing the artist’s work. First, they can paint on canvas. This isn’t easy to do and the result needs to be appealing enough for you to buy it. Second, they can accurately reproduce the piece from the master.

I’ve tried this and I’d almost rather have my fingernails pulled out. It’s hard, nit-picky work.

Some designers hire their own copypainters (some of whom become designers in their own right) and some work through services who might do work for several designers.

Once the copies are painted, they are sent to the designer who checks and approves them. In turn they are sold to shops and then to you.

The time and resource intensive nature of painting canvas contributes to the cost. Painting canvas is rough on brushes and uses lots of paint. The work needs to be done accurately which is also hard. The skills are specialized and not easy to find. Artists can be trained to do this, but not every artist likes this kind of work.

While hand-painted canvas needlepoint is never cheap, there are some rough guidelines. A stitch-painted canvas is more expensive than one that isn’t because painting each intersection takes more time. A large canvas is more expensive than a small one because it takes more time to paint. A more detailed canvas is more expensive because, you guessed it, it takes longer to paint.

This holds true within a single designer’s line and, in general, across designers.

Yes, hand-painted canvases can be expensive, but they are produced by hand every one of them.

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Why are Hand-Painted Canvases So Expensive?

Printed vs. Painted

There has been some discussion around the web this week about fine art reproductions on canvas and it’s getting me a concerned. It seems to me that people want every decision to be made for them before they stitch (no room for interpretation) and that many seem to want a needlepoint version of a painting to be, I’m sorry to classify it this way, a stitched “paint by number” version of the original art.

As a result I’d like to clear something up. I’ve spent a long time studying both the different ways needlepoint designs can be produced, the different ways to stitch them, and the difference between needlepoint and other mediums.

There are two ways to get a design reproduced on needlepoint canvas, by hand and by a mechanical process. By hand the design is either drawn (line-drawn) or painted on the canvas. A painted canvas can either follow the intersection exactly (stitch painted) or not. Which it is depends on the designer and the design. But it is done by hand, means that irregularities in the canvas can be compensated for.

Because we stitch so many canvases that are created this way, we are fooled into thinking that needlepoint canvas is straight.

Quite simply it isn’t.

So when something is produced by mechanical means, no matter how good or how expensive, there will be drift and things won’t always be straight. This is true whether it is stamped (cheap kits), silk screened (Ehrman and Bradley kits), or computer-printed (Art Needlepoint, Patt & Lee, etc). I’ve seen cheap kits close to perfect and expensive kits to be way off. There are things manufacturers do to minimize this, but the plain fact is that it cannot be helped.

This necessary limitation in the medium. The effect this has on your stitching is that intersection will be more than one color. But the same thing happens in canvases that aren’t stitch painted and we don’t complain. In fact we often enjoy the challenge of working on these more “painterly” canvases.

Why is this lovely in a hand-paint, but not in a computer-printed canvas?

The second limitation is the one of adapting one medium to another. There are two things working here. First a painting is solid, there aren’t holes. Needlepoint canvas js mostly holes. As a result much of the information in the painting disappears into the holes. Think about it. If you took the same exact outline and put it on 13 and 18 mesh canvas, you could get lots of detail on the 18 mesh. Same thing here. Things are lost on needlepoint canvas.

This has two effects. You will have to fill in details, and you will need to make decisions about the missing details.

Second, painting is a two-dimensional medium. In it, texture is indicated by changes in value and color mostly. In needlepoint texture is indicated by thread, color, and stitch. If you tried to reproduce in Tent Stitch the variation in a painted surface you would find, as many of you have, that you are frustrated beyond belief. If you do end up doing this, you may find that the end product looks a but like paint by numbers, it has no soul.

But if you make a change to the stitch or switch to an overdyed thread you would be much happier. What you have done is not just make the stitching easier, but you have also made a decision about the painting and what it means to you. You haven’t made a reproduction, you have made a work of art, adding your artistic sense to the original artist’s through your art — needlepoint.

We are all, I think, to quick to praise the needlepoint on the expensive hand-painted canvas, and too quick to condemn the mechanically produced canvas. But I’ve seen plenty of lifeless expensive stitched pieces and stunning printed ones.

It’s your choice and your art, but don’t let it be a source of snobbery.

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Printed vs. Painted

Stitch your Stash – My Colors

Originally posted 2008-08-11 18:51:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Palette of threads for Stitch your Stash

I finally got around to getting this project in gear. I cut the canvas this morning. Based on Barbara’s block size, it’s about 9″ square on 18 mesh and a little over 11″ square on 14 mesh.

I’m using 18 mesh.

I was going to use Silk & Ivory, but decided on using Gloriana’s Lorikeet,a simply stunning wool, because it’s hand-dyed, so has a lovely variation in color. Because it has nine strands in a bundle, it’s versatile as well.

I want this to work with our beach glass + coral color palette for the new house, so I went with aqua for colors 1 & 2 (they will also be 7 & 8). I picked corals for colors 3-5 and a very dark gray for the neutral.

The colors are:
1 & 7: Jewel Turquoise Pastel (020W1)
2 & 8: Tropical Sea (019W3)
3: Cinnamon Pastel (151W1)
4: Pomegranate (139W3)
5: Cinnamon Light (151W2)
6: Charcoal (001W3)

You can see them spread out in the picture above. Gloriana can be found (with superb on-line color cards) at: http://www.glorianathreads.com/.

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Stitch your Stash – My Colors

A Perfect Tool for Boo-boos

Originally posted 2008-11-08 06:09:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

A friend of mine is learning needlepoint and asked me a couple of days ago about ripping out. I explained to her that I use scissors with sharp points, a needle and tweezers, I cut a but from the back, pull the thread out with the tweezers or the needle.

But what if that isn’t enough?

As luck would have it, I stitched red on white canvas where it should have been white (I know, but I’m designing the piece). So this process, while it did a good job, left me with red fuzzies which needed to some out.

I tried using my needle, but it couldn’t catch many of the threads.

That’s when I turned to Judy’s Boo-Book Stick. It has two ends, one which looks like a mascara spoolie brush and one which looks like an overgrown dental brush. The spoolie is black, the brush is white. You can run the spoolie through the holes in the canvas. It catches the threads.

But I had lots of this stuff. I tried running the dental brush through the hole, but it was too thick. Then I tried running it over the top of the canvas.

And, a Gomer Pyle would say, “Shazam!” All those threads disappeared and I have lovely white canvas again.

What a perfect tool. You can buy them through Nordic Needle.

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A Perfect Tool for Boo-boos

Donation Special – Rick-Rack Mini Sock

rick rack trianglepoint scrap bag stash buster needlepoint

detail of Rick-Rack pattern

For everyone who donates $5 or more to Nuts about Needlepoint by clicking the button on the left until April 15, I have a lovely printed gift. Rick-rack is a trianglepoint pattern based on a Depression-era kit. I made it as a mini-sock, but it also looks great as a larger piece.

Because it’s Trianglepoint, it’s all easy straight stitches. Because it’s Scrap Bag Needlepoint, you can customize it to fit your decor, a friend’s favorite color, a new baby’s room, or your stash. Since today is St. Patrick’s Day, what about one using all the green threads in your stash?

The many scraps are unified by the light background. This is the perfect place to use one of those Silk & Ivory “almost whites” that are so fun. Depression quilts generally used less saturated pastels and somewhat faded colors, in fact colors I associate with a Martha Stewart kind of look. But this could be fun in bright, bold colors against black or in a tropical color scheme. The only limit is your imagination.

Shipping is included with the donation, so take advantage of the offer today.

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Donation Special – Rick-Rack Mini Sock

Why to Smell the Lid When Buying Scented Candles and Other Secret Candlemaking Details

by Craft Articles

in Craft Shopping

Candles started to wane as the main lighting source because of the introduction of the light bulb, they became a more ornamental product. Candles ended up being suddenly available in a wide variety of sizes, designs and colours. Customer fascination with scented candles started to escalate.

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Why to Smell the Lid When Buying Scented Candles and Other Secret Candlemaking Details

What Do those Canvas Painters Do?

Originally posted 2008-07-16 07:53:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

If you’re like me, you’ve probably wondered how those lovely canvases get painted.

If you’re also like me, you may even have tried painting your own a time or two. And then left the room screaming at how bad the results were.

Bu Tingaling does paint canvases and has posted a great article on her blog, that shows you step-by-step wht goes into painting a needlepoint canvas.

The design is one she did for a friend to stitch and it’s adorable. It’s also fairly simple as these things go. But the process to paint the canvas well is not simple at all.

You’ll come away with new respect for needlepoint designers and canvas painters.

Read the original here:
What Do those Canvas Painters Do?

Needle Blending for a Dramatic Sky

needle blending shading of sky on botswana angel

needle blending creates a dramatic sky

Blending more than one shade of stranded thread in a needle greatly increases your color choice. Even so, it’s most common (and best( use is to shade needlepoint. For this it excels. Better yet, it’s much easier than it seems. Anne Stradal uses this technique often for skies and has blogged about it when she uses it. You can also find detailed descriptions of how to do it in some of her stitches, such as this one.

I’ve used needleblending often and for many applications, but the sky on this Botswana angel really stumped me. It’s so dramatic that I wanted something that would make it the focal point, but still allow the sky to be dramatic. I chose to do needleblending but with two complementary groups of colors.

botswana travel angel needlepoint from painted pony designs

canvas from Painted Pony Designs

The entire sky is stitched with only four shades, three Mandarin Floss and one silk. There are two oranges and two blue-violets. As you can see from the picture of the unstitched canvas, the sky is irregularly colored, that means you must stitch slowly top make the sky look good.

To complicate matters I also decided to use a textured stitch. With textured stitches and shading, the process works the same, but if the areas are irregular, you will need to park threads in order to keep the background stitched in straight lines.

The darker shade of orange runs along the bottom, so I put my first row of Nobuko there using this color. Next I created a transition area, irregular in height, using two strands of each color of orange. Above that is the lighter color of orange.

The lighter orange is also irregular in depth and butts up against different colors. Near the giraffe there is some blue-violet. Towards the center, there is dark orange. Near the elephant it is quite high and goes to the top of that tree. I stitched all the light orange and then the solid dark orange (there is no transition here).

With the introduction of blue-violet things become more tricky. Blue and orange are complementary colors. Mixtures of complements tend towards brown and that would be a problem for this piece. I wanted a mixed color, like the canvas, but not a grayed one.

My first try used the darker shade of blue-violet, but the colors were too different in value and it looked weird. I didn’t get gray or brown. I didn’t get an intermediate color. I just go weird and unmixed. The goal in blending is to get either an intermediate color or to get random mixing. The closer the colors are to complements, the more the blend will look mixed.

By changing to the lighter blue-violet, I was able to get a thread equivalent of the mixed color on the canvas. Using the canvas as my guide, I added the transition (2 light blue-violet strands and two light orange strands) stitches. Then I added the solid light blue-violet.

Some of the drama of the sky comes from the reappearance of orange, so these stitches were done next. The arms and top of the dress have shading going to the darker shade of blue-violet. I stitched up the center. then down each arm.

While very challenging to do, I love the end result. The sky is dramatic and it shows how needle blending can be expanded to create special effects.