stitch guides

Binding Stitch is a tremendously useful needlepoint stitch.

It allows you to join together two pieces of canvas or to create a clean finished edge on your needlepoint.

M’s Canvashouse has put together a helpful You Tube video on How to Make the Binding Stitch.

Read more from the original source:
Learn Binding Stitch with this Video

The Prince & the Lady – Sneak Peek

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2008-08-08 07:17:50. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Needlepoint version of Jane Cather drawing.

Don’t you just love it!

I finished this yesterday and I’m crazy about this Cooper Oak‘s canvas of the Jane Cather drawing.

I love all the texture which comes from a combination of textured stitches and great threads. The Prince’s shirt looks like pique fabric by using pearl cotton and Staggered Cross. The Lady’s hair is really textured because I used a simple stitch, Whipped Backstitch, using two threads, one solid and one overdyed. More texture was added because I deliberately stitched messy, so that the hair would have more texture.

The fringe on the pillow is done in a simple beading technique.

Everything combines to make a piece which is fun to stitch and easy for the advanced beginner or intermediate stitcher.

The guide will be available with the purchase of the canvas from Copper Oaks.

Go here to read the rest:
The Prince & the Lady – Sneak Peek

Finding the Perfect Background

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2008-07-23 10:11:12. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Picking backgrounds can be one of the most challenging aspects of needlepoint. I’ve been doing needlepoint so long (almost 40 years) that I can usually see the background early on in planning the piece.

But I ran into a wall over the weekend on the Cooper Oaks piece “It’s so Nice When the Prince Remembers.” As you can see from the pictures, I’m making nice progress on it.

From the beginning I had the idea to make the background look kind of like wallpaper. One of my favorite techniques for doing this is Needlepoint Damask, a tent stitch technique which uses two threads of the same color & different textures to make something which looks like damask fabric.

It’s always worked beautifully in the past, but it isn’t working here. You can hardly see the metallic fleur de lis. I think I know what happened. The metallic I used (from Kreinik’s Gourmet Collection) is rather flat for a metallic. The other thread, Silk & Ivory, has a lot of life to it because of the silk. There just isn’t enough texture to make it work.

So I’m ripping it out and looking for a new background. Often a more textured stitch will work. But not here, a real contrast between the foreground and background is needed. And the foreground has lots of texture.

So what about a larger stitch? That might work, but it has to be easy to compensate because of the lettering and hair. I am doing Basketweave around the hair, but I want it to fit in.

In those considerations, the wallpaper idea has been lost. But it’s still a good one. So I need a background which will look like wallpaper, not have too much texture, and have longer stitches (but not too long).

Stripes!

Stripes of all kinds make outstanding backgrounds. They can be subtle or bold, scale easily, and work well in the background because we often see stripes in real life, so the brain accepts this as a background.

Lots of stitches can work as stripes and I’ve got two in mind, Diagonal Beaty and Diaper. I like the Beaty idea best because it’s a bit larger and, I think, will work better with the scale. Also Diaper has Mosaic Stitches in it and I’m already using those on the chair.

You can see a bit of the Beaty along the bottom.

I’ll keep you posted.

Originally posted here:
Finding the Perfect Background

The Lazy Stitcher’s Guide to French Knots

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2007-03-31 07:38:14. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I hate French Knots. In fact, I hate them so much that I try to avoid stitching them whenever possible. I don’t like their massed tight curls and so I have developed a way to stitch an area with French Knots so that it looks more natural and shaded. I shied away from using them in needlepoint for years.

I made the great head on some beer using Flair and organdy ribbon in a bunch of widths. I also used it on a sheep for a nativity.

I begin by putting a layer of stitching using thinner than normal thread all over the area to be covered with French Knots. Then I don’t have to worry about covering every little bit of canvas and getting that French Poodle effect.

I make the French Knots in passes using at least two different sizes of needle (the bigger the needle, the bigger the knot), and two different shades of thread. Usually it’s more.

The first pass uses the smallest needle and the darkest thread. I scatter these knots all over the canvas, clumping them in groups. The second pass is the main color, I use the smallest needle and the lighter color of thread. These take up most of the area, but are still stitched in clumps.

The third pass uses the darker thread again and the bigger needle. These are groups of one or two knots and there are very few, just to give definition.

The final pass uses the bigger needle and the lighter thread. I concentrate these knots where the light will hit the object.

If I think there isn’t enough light hitting, I will add just a very few small knots in an even lighters color.

The Knots overlap each other and the effect is quite realistic.

You can also do this technique with an underlayer of green and knots in different color to make a flower-strewn field.

BTW, the insturctions for the beer are in a set of four dirnks coasters available from Raymond Crawford. The instructions for stitching the sheep are available in my nativity stitch guide for Needledeeva.

View original post here:
The Lazy Stitcher’s Guide to French Knots

Barbara Elmore on the History of Stitch Guides

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Barbara Elmore has written a delightful blog post on the early history of stitch guides (mostly pre-computer).

I myself appreciate guides that are nicely laid out with computer-charted stitch diagrams. I often find hand-written guides with hand-drawn diagrams difficult to read.

How about you?

Free Stitch Guide from Barbara Bergsten

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in accessories,Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2008-11-04 18:11:12. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

needlepoint stitch sampler from Barbara Bergsten

Barbara has posted a one-page stitch guide for this Small Patchwork Tote.

As you can see from the picture, it’s bright, it’s cute, and it’s a wonderful way to learn stitches in Barbara’s delightful style.

Thanks for posting this!

Read the original post:
Free Stitch Guide from Barbara Bergsten

The Best Laid Plans . . .

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

A little more than a week ago, I planned out how I was going to stitch this canvas. I planned to do the letters, rope, and antennae in whipped backstitch. The lobster was going to be in Offset Mosaic. The signal flags would be in various stitches. The background would be in T Stitch and I left the water till later.

I planned on using mostly cotton threads, with the lobster in Grandeur and the letters in metallic.

Then I shopped my stash to pull threads. Instead of Grandeur I found this amazing “boiled lobster” color of Pebbly Perle. But I did keep the Offset Mosaic.

I couldn’t find four Pebbly Perles to match the signal flags, so I went and looked at Impressions, thinking I’d mix the fibers. But I did have all the colors in Impressions, by using a dark gray instead of black, so I went with them. But I could still keep the stitches I had planned.

Next I went to pick out the metallic. I found this great blue-gray. But in the same drawer I found a lovely “almost white” pale blue metallic and decided it would be perfect to add sparkle to the background. So instead of light coverage, I have much more complete coverage in my chosen stitch, T Stitch.

At the same time I decided that I wanted the antennae and eyes to be different from the rope, so I picked a metallic for them.

While I stitched the lobster I thought about the antennae and decided I just didn’t want the fuss of whipped backstitch, so I did them in tent and reverse tent.

Thinking about the letters, I decided whipped backstitch wasn’t thick enough and whipped chain would be too thick. So I’m stitching them in a mixture of tent and reverse tent.

The rope will be whipped chain though, in Impressions. And the water will be an overdyed Gloriana silk.

This illustrates something important to remember whenever you plan something out or buy a stitch guide — it isn’t Holy Writ. Change it when it suits you.
Change it if you don’t like a thread.
Change it if you hate doing a stitch.
Change it if you feel like it or want to do something different.

Nothing is harmed and you’ll like your stitching better if it’s what you want when you stitch it, not what you planned — no matter how good the plan was.

A quick note, shortly after the mini-sock is finished, it will be available as a free stitch guide. I’ll announce it here.

Continue reading here:
The Best Laid Plans . . .

Lose your Heart

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2007-03-15 07:52:36. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Lose your heart but not your scissors with this Hearts of Gold Scissors Case!

I’m a big fan of Whimsy & grace’s stitcher’s accessories and I’ve created Needlepoint Stitch Guides for many of them, But this one is the one I like best. I started stitching it Monday and in three days (about six hours of stitching), I’m almost done with the front.

This design is really witty. It’s called Hearts of Gold and, as you can see, it has golden hearts in many of the patches. There is the large solid heart near the bottom, the over all interlocking heart design to the right, and the tile-like pattern of four hearts near the top center. One the back there are several more hearts.

Another great aspect of this design is the way it combines many different metallic threads into a sublte color palette. Throughout, it uses five different gold threads, and four silver. The non-metallic shades of cream and white create a lovely backdrop. It features threads from Kreinik and Rainbow Gallery.

The front has these regular diamonds while the back has elongated diamonds which have a more contemporary look. There is a matching needle case as well.

The Stitch Guide is available now from your local needlepoint shop. If you’re introgued by Whimsy & grace’s stitcher’s accessories ask your shop about booking a mini-trunk show of them. The show consists of the canvases (and stitch guides) available and gives you a chance to pick your favorite. If you’re like me, it will be an extremely difficult choice!
tags: whimsy & grace,whimsy,grace,scissorscase,scissors case,needlepoint stitch guide,stitch guide,whimsy and grace,stitcher’s accessories,mini trunk show,trink show,Kreinik,Rainbow Gallery

Go here to see the original:
Lose your Heart

The Morning After – Stitch Along with Pierrette

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2008-07-31 17:01:16. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I’m so excited, my friend Pierrette has chosen Anne Stradal’s The Morning After as the canvas for her stitch-along.

Read her first blog post about it.

When she posts more updates on her progress, I’ll link them in here.

Read this article:
The Morning After – Stitch Along with Pierrette

New Site for Weeks Dye Works

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Image from Thread Express (http://www.threadexpress.com).

Weeks Dye Works has updated and redesigned their website.

The site features drop down menus for their products. For each type of product there are great clear pictures and a listing of links to their different color, laundry care, and order forms, all in PDF format.

There is also information about their history, a FAQ, and a listing of retail shops. I love their designer section of the site. There you can find a list (with thumbnail pictures) of free patterns from different designers featuring Weeks products. There is also a listing of designers using their products, information about their designer program and more.

For retailers there is a link to a credit application and a password-protected area for customers.

All in all, this would be close to a perfect thread site if they would make on-line color cards and switch from white-on-black to the more traditional black-on-white.

The rest is here:
New Site for Weeks Dye Works

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