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Archive for November, 2014

Friday Favorites – Cool Dog Needlepoint Kits – Needlepoint Hobby Canvases – Colorful Designs

This week we’ve broken our record for the number of canvases ordered in a single week!

Below are some of our favorite custom needlepoint canvases we made yesterday, enjoy!

Have a great Thanksgiving! – From all of us at NeedlePaint.com

Cool Custom Dog Needlepoint Kits

Cool Custom Dog Needlepoint Kits

 

Modern 12 Days of Christmas and Go Ro Needlepoint kits

Modern 12 Days of Christmas and Go Ro Needlepoint kits

Custom Hobby Needlepoint Belt Canvases

Custom Hobby Needlepoint Belt Canvases

DIY Needlepoint Monogram Pillows

DIY Needlepoint Monogram Pillows

Colorful Needlepoint Kits

Colorful Needlepoint Kits

Custom Needlepoint Portraits

Custom Needlepoint Portraits

Labryinth and Governor Sign Needlepoint Canvases

Labryinth and Governor Sign Needlepoint Canvases

Cute Dog Needlepoint Canvases

Cute Dog Needlepoint Canvases

 

Custom Needlepoint Belt Canvases

Custom Needlepoint Belt Canvases

Last note are some more great feedback we got this week:

“I got the kit and it is beautiful! Can’t wait to get some free time to work on it.” Patricia 2014-11-19

“received the belts, they look very nice.  I think the members will really like these.”  Ken 2014-11-15

Shaded Backgrounds – Needlepoint Stitches

Thinking that it might be nice to have snow falling behind the penguins of the Alexander and Issac stockings, I tried a blue and white mosaic strip as diagrammed below in blue and grey.

TwoColor Sky GridLargePenguin

TwoColorSkyThis was a “NO, NO!” The penguins got lost with the business of the background. I was back to the drawing board. And time to remove the unwanted stitches. (It is good to remember that removing stitches should be done in the reverse of LIFO (last in first out). Unless absolutely necessary, you don’t want to reuse thread, particularly when working with wool. )

I really liked the stitch. It covered the canvas well and was quick to do.  And the added bonus was that the white was easy to take out.LittlePenguin

By changing the white in the photo, to a slightly lighter blue on the Isaac stocking’s large penguin, I got a background that gave some depths and movement.

For the Alexander’s little penguin, I reversed the direction of the stitches (i.e., rotated the diagram 90 degrees) and used a darker blue for the grey stitches.

My fingers were flying and ready of Isaac’s Santa. Santa got a variegated blue sky, the puffy snow for his airplane’s exhaust, and a shiny propeller (more about metallic threads in my next blog).

Santa

 

Friday Favorites – Football Needlepoint Belts – Photo Canvases and Reviews!

Happy Weekend!  It is snowing again in Colorado, which is great for the ski resorts or for getting some good quality time to spend on your Christmas projects.

We got some really great feedback this week:

“Whew! You are great. You were recommended to me by a friend… I expect to buy from you again – working with you has been amazing.”  Pam – 2014-11-14

@NeedlePaint @moosh2 thank you for the canvas. It’s amazing!!”  Posted to Twitter on 2014-11-10

“Just finished my belt! It looks great, thanks for all the help!” Libby 2014-11-10

“It arrived and I love it!”  Lisa 2014-11-07

But, on to the new projects!  We did a lot of custom belt needlepoint canvases this week.  Three for football lovers.  The other canvas I slipped into the picture is also called football in the rest of the world.

Football Belt Needlepoint Canvases

Football Belt Needlepoint Canvases

Sporting Belts Needlepoint Canvases

Sporting Belts Needlepoint Canvases

Fire Rescue Needlepoint Canvas

Fire Rescue Needlepoint Canvas

Dog and Cat Photo Portriat Needlepoint Kits

Dog and Cat Photo Portrait Needlepoint Kits

Solid Sound Custom Needlepoint Kit

Solid Sound Custom Needlepoint Kit

 

 

 

 

 

Fun Needlepoint Christmas Kits – New Designs!

We’re excited to have started working with some new artists!

These Christmas needlepoint designs are just the beginning, over the next several months you will see a lot of new, original, fun designs available in our shop www.needlepaint.com.

These designs are ripe for choosing non tent stitches and adding embellishments.  Rather than going over the details of each, I’m posting the pictures with a link to our shop page which tells you more.

To start we have the Patch Angel Needlepoint Canvas (or you can buy it with thread for a kit)

Patch Angel Needlepoint Canvas

Patch Angel Needlepoint Canvas

Next up is a modern twist on the 12 days of Christmas in Needlepoint.

12 Days of Christmas Needlepoint Kit

12 Days of Christmas Needlepoint Kit

The holidays are all about sharing and family, so we spelled out some of our favorite things in the Sharing Christmas Tree Needlepoint Kit.

Sharing Christmas Tree Needlepoint Kit

Sharing Christmas Tree Needlepoint Kit

The last design is my personal favorite, a modern version of the three kings.   This still is a work in progress, so not on our shop yet, but if you love it, let us know!

Three Kings Christmas Needlepoint Kit

Three Kings Christmas Needlepoint Kit

Let It Snow – Needlepoint Stitches

Of course, the penguins on the Isaac and Alexander stockings have to be walking on snow. Should it be soft and fluffy or icy and crunchy? My answer is both.

The large penguin on Issac’s stocking is walking of soft fluffy snow which is a variation of the oblong cross stitch. I have worked it across only one horizontal canvas thread rather than on two canvas threads as shown  in The Needlepoint Book by Joe Ippolito Christensen.

PuffySnow

This diagram shows it done in two different thread colors because it is worked in two separate parts. First worked the light yellow stitches and then the dark yellow stitches, but both with the same slightly off-white thread. I used a slight off-white thread so that the stark white of the penguin would be more pronounced.

LargePenguin
The Santa Penguin looks like he is walking on a cloud. Having worked the stitches over just one canvas thread, I got a thick, dense stitch which added a nice dimension.

And yes, he is not finished! He will get an eye for which I will use a glass bead and maybe a tie around his sack.

When I got to the penguin on the Alexander stocking, I decided that I didn’t like him floating in the blue as printed in my design.  I thought that I would put him on some soft snow like Santa penguin. It didn’t work. So, he was bound to get the icy snow. Using a vertical giant knitting stitch, I put him on ice.

 

Icey Snow

I worked the stitches from left starting at the top of each column of stitches. Since there wasn’t any snow printed on my canvas, I was free to put in an many icy spikes and as irregularly as I wanted. The fact that the printed background was blue, the finish stitches have an even icier feel because a bit of the blue peaks through.

Again I used a slightly off-white thread to contract the little penguins white and he needs an eye, too.

LittlePenguin

 

 

If you look closely at the two penguins, you might notice that the two skies behind the penguins look irregular.  It is not just the lighting, They are! In the next blog, I will explain the stitches and threads I used.

I’ll probably use the same oblong cross stitch for the exhaust of Santa’s plane on Issac’s stocking. What do you think?

Friday Favorites – Kids Needlepoint and other Fun Projects

Looking for great ideas to stitch for your kids?

We’ve got a bunch of kids needlepoint designs ready to be personalized, or if you’ve got a great photo you would like to needlepoint, try it out on our website for free, or email it to us and we’d be happy to help!

Also, we do custom designs upon request, so if you have an idea that you can’t find anywhere let us know.

Below are some of the custom needlepoint canvases we made this week!

Ninja Turtles Legend of Zelda and Mocs Needlepoint

Ninja Turtles Legend of Zelda and Mocs Needlepoint

Kids Photo Needlepoint and Personalzied Wedding Pillow

Kids Photo Needlepoint and Personalized Wedding Pillow

Custom needlepoint belts are fun.  We have done kids designs and children’s sizes.

Fun Custom Needlepoint Belt Kits

Fun Custom Needlepoint Belt Kits

Below is the Busy Bee Personalized Needlepoint Canvas

Kids Flower Pillow Personalized Needlepoint

Kids Flower Pillow Personalized Needlepoint Kit

 

 

 

 

Back to Christmas Needlepoint Stockings

(Written by Peggy Bond)  I had a little more time this year than I had with the War and Peace stocking. Time is not the issue but the challenge is two needlepoint stockings for my nephew’s twins Alex and Isaac – same but different designs are the order of the day.

isaac-stocking_final alexander-stocking_14

With plenty of time this season, I decided to experiment with some texture and color variations while stitching.  For example, I dressed up the Christmas present in the heel of Isaac’s with a green and yellow checkerboard pattern.

present-green-and-yellow

And, then I stitched the background in an oblong reversed cashmere box stitch, but in two different shades of yellow.

yellow-background

For the background diagram above, I have accentuated the yellow color differences. The finished stitching is below. Unless you are aware of the slight variation in the yellows, you probably wouldn’t notice it. However, it does give the finished stocking an added dimension. It almost looks like variegated thread.

Close up of Present Needlepoint Stitches

Close up of Present Needlepoint Stitches

 

More information on these stitches can be found in The Needlepoint Book by Joe Ippolito Christensen.

I am now working on the Isaac’s penguin walking along the powdery snow, and will post my progress in a day or so…

Custom Golf Course Needlepoint Belts and Wholesale Needlepoint Belts

We’ve been very lucky to have word of mouth about our needlepoint designs spreading around the needlepoint community.

We have had two golf course pro shops contact us recently about making custom needlepoint belts.  In both cases, it was one of our customers who told them about NeedlePaint.com!

We just delivered 10 belts to one and the other shop manager ordered one for himself and is deciding if he is going to do purchase stock or do a a display setting and let customers order on demand instead of stocking them.  That way they can personalized the design with their own monogram.

Lets see if you can recognize either of their logos!

Custom Golf Course Needlepoint Belt Back

Custom Golf Course Needlepoint Belt Back

Golf Course Needlepoint Belts

Golf Course Needlepoint Belts

Custom Golf Course Needlepoint Belt Side

Custom Golf Course Needlepoint Belt Side

And just for kicks, here is a close up of a diver and mermaid for a custom design we did for an olympic water polo player.  Unfortunately I did not catch the water polo ball in the pictures, but I can email a design preview to you if you are interested, it looks great! You can contact us here.

Swimming and Diving Belt and Close up Details of a Custom Needlepoint Belt

Swimming and Diving Belt and Close up Details of a Custom Needlepoint Belt