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Archive for the ‘NeedlePaint Inspiration’ Category

Glamorous Needlepoint Wedding Gifts

At NeedlePaint.com, we love to design Custom Needlepoint projects.  This blog post features amazing custom needlepoint ring bearer pillows and Wedding Needlepoint designs that were recently stitched.

This first custom needlepoint ring bearer pillow we stitched for a customer on Etsy, and was photographed by: Chris Bailey Photography

Custom Monogram Needlepoint Ring Bearer Pillow

Custom Monogram Needlepoint Ring Bearer Pillow

Next are some amazing custom wedding needlepoint projects that were stitched by our customers.  The Chap Lane Inn was stitched by Tish in VA.  Note the bride and grooms names repeating in the background!  The Fleur de Lis and Celtic Cross were needlepointed by Denise in KY.  She uses lots of lovely stitches.

Wedding Family Name Gift Needlepoint

Needlepoint Wedding Gifts

The last two custom wedding needlepoint designs have a fun, modern edge taken from the bride and groom’s wedding invitations.  The Acorn design was stitched by Susan in CT.  I love the beads and mosaic needlepoint stitch in the background!  The modern heart design was stitched by Betsy in SC.  Thanks so much for sharing your pictures!

Modern Wedding Needlepoint

Modern Wedding Needlepoint

If you are looking for a unique wedding gift or the perfect ring bearer pillow for your wedding, please let us know, we’d love to help!  www.NeedlePaint.com

New Baby Birth Announcement Needlepoint Designs

It is spring time again, and we have some fun bright ideas to needlepoint for that special new addition to your family!

I love them all, and we’ll personalize the design with your details when we make your order.  Follow the links here to see them in our shop: Rocket Birth Announcement Needlepoint Canvas, Rubber Duck Baby Needlepoint Kit, Dinosaur Birth Announcement Needlepoint Kit, and the Baby Panda Birth Announcement Needlepoint Canvas.

Custom Baby and Kids Needlepoint Birth Announcement Kits

Custom Baby and Kids Needlepoint Birth Announcement Kits

They are all available as needlepoint kits and can be hung on the wall or can be made into fully stitch needlepoint pillows.

There is one more new design that I love!  The Graphic Baby Announcement Needlepoint Kit for the modern baby’s room.  We’re happy to adjust the colors per your request.

Modern Baby Birth Announcement Needlepoint Kit

Modern Baby Birth Announcement Needlepoint Kit

 

More Mosaic Needlepoint Projects

By Peggy Bond

Geometric designs occur frequently in Pompeii as well was throughout ancient civilizations. Most often they are used as floors and many are black and white. In Pompeii are several polychrome mosaic floor treatments. One was found at the House of Publius Fannius Synistor where it was a threshold in the summer dining area. The mosaic stones were red, green, yellow, and gray on a white and black background. Discovered when the villa was excavated by Vincenzo de Prisco in 1894-5, the mosaic was removed to the excavator’s residence where is resided until acquired by the Archaeological Commission of Pompeii. The NeedlePaint recreation of this mosaic is a 22 x 40 inch 10 point canvas to be worked in Waverly wool and suitable for a rug or wall hanging.

Threshold from the House of Publius Fannius Synistor

Threshold from the House of Publius Fannius Synistor

Pompeii Mosaic Needlepoint Rug Kit

Pompeii Mosaic Needlepoint Rug Kit

Another distinctive geometric polychrome mosaic treatment is found on the columns in the appropriately name House of the Mosaic Columns. The columns are on display in the National Archeological Museum of Naples. The Needlepaint mosaic design is the section of the base of a column and is a 16 x 16 inch 14-point canvas to be worked in DMC threads or 2 stands of Waverly wool, ideal for a colorful pillow.

Column section from the House of the Mosaic Columns

Column section from the House of the Mosaic Columns

Polychrome Mosaic Needlepoint Pillow

Mosaic Column Needlepoint Pillow

These canvases are designed to be stitched using the mosaic stitch and thus much quicker to stitch than using the traditional continental for tent stitches.

Bringing Ancient Mosaics to Needlepaint

By Peggy Bond:

While I walked through ancient Rome and Pompeii, the mosaics on floors, walls, and columns were transformed in my mind to needlepoint pillows, wall hangings, rugs and a myriad of new projects..

Transferring a mosaic design to a canvas had several advantages over the same task for a photo. The number of colors is limited, the design or subject is not too complex, and the background is uniform, except for the grout lines.

Throwing caution to the wind, I attacked the Pompeii guard dog mosaics from the House of Orpheus – 4 colors and a simple image.

Guard dog from the House of Orpheus

Guard dog from the House of Orpheus

The challenge was not creating canvas, but giving the stitched canvas the feel of the mosaic. An individual continental or tent stitch was too small to approximate a mosaic tile, but the mosaic stitch is just as its name suggest. A perfect stitch for the mosaic guard dog!

Mosaic Stitch

Mosaic Stitch

Additionally, the cashmere stitch (a rectangular mosaic) which can be stitched vertically or horizontally could be used to outline the dog as done by the ancient artisans with stone.

Horizontal and Vertical Cashmere Stitch

Horizontal and Vertical Cashmere Stitch

The canvas was designed on a 2 x 2 pixel grid (the size of 1 mosaic) instead of the usual 1 x 1 pixel. Then the number of colors on the image were reduced to 4 – black, off-white, dark brown, and red. There was editing to do to fill most of each grid square with only one color. In some cases, this was not possible and when stitching these areas were filled with the continental stitch.

Close-up of canvas image design

Close-up of canvas image design

As scene in the finished canvas below, I used the cashmere stitch to outline the dog and the leash.

Guard dog from the House of Orpheus Needlepoint Pillow - Finished!

Guard dog from the House of Orpheus Needlepoint Pillow – Finished!

The canvas was 12 point and is worked in Brown Sheep Waverly wool for a16 x 16 inch pillow.

Canvases for three other Pompeii dogs are also available.

Cave Canem Needlepoint Canvas

Cavae Canem from the House of the Tragic Poet

Guard Dog from House of Paquius Proculus

Guard Dog from House of Paquius Proculus

Sleeping Dog from the House of Lucius Caecilius Lucundus

Sleeping Dog from the House of Lucius Caecilius Lucundus

Custom Bulldog Needlepoint Pillow

Happy New Year!  It has been quite a ride, and finding time to post this year has been hard.  We are taking steps to improve our response time on our custom design and emails.  (Long-time customers may have noticed that it may take up to 48 hours for us reply to an email, and 3-5 business days to finsish a preview).

While this is still faster than any of our competitors that I’m aware of, I really want to keep our customer’s happy and respond quickly to all of our projects.  Emily is taking the role of lead designer now, as she’s shown over the last 9 months that she is a better designer than I am, and really enjoys working on custom projects!  I will still be around to assist with designs, and always available to help answer questions.  This will also free me up to work on new design ideas and projects with Peggy and Karen so I hope 2017 we will WOW you with lots of fun ideas.

This post is about a Custom Bulldog Needlepoint Pillow that we stitched for a Christmas gift.  It was ordered late, so we provided a gift card to the customer (see below) to give on Christmas, and we just shipped it last week.

What I love about this design, is the more modern feeling it has, the zoomed in closeup on the face.  Our customer designed this herself on our website, www.NeedlePaint.com.  You can upload a photo of your dog and see how it would it would look like in needlepoint for Free!

The cool thing to notice in the image below, is that while I think our digital previews on the website look great, the real needlepoint pillow looks much better!

Custom Bulldog Needlepoint Pillow

Custom Bulldog Needlepoint Pillow – The Final pillow up top, and Gift Card sent to customer is below

If you don’t have a great photo of your bulldog, please email us, we’d love to help and can assist editing your own photo upon request.

***Last thing I’d love to post about are some more reviews we recieved over the holidays.  You can see we now have over 100 5 star reviews on our Etsy Shop.

And below are some that were emailed to us over the holiday season.

The U.S.N.A. belt is stunning! My husband was more than thrilled. I appreciate all of the time and effort involved in creating this piece of art.”  Jeanne – 2017-01-24

“With the holidays and craziness I neglected to say thank you again and the belt is fabulous!!! I want to search your site for 2 more son-in-laws.”  Kelly – 2017-01-05

“The piece is truly exquisite. Exactly what I was hoping for. Cannot thank you enough, my brother is going to love it.”  Erika – 2016-12-24

“The guys LOVED their belts, thank you so much! I will send some pictures once I get them back from our photographer. The best man said it was the coolest gift he’s ever received.”  Courtney – 2016-11-22

A Very Needlepoint Christmas to All

Christmas and Hanukkah are almost here!  Our little workshop has shipped over a hundred belts this past week and almost as many needlepoint kits.  We hope they all arrive and bring smiles to families across the country.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year, and are looking forwards to 2017.  We’ll be offering some new services for our needlepointers and for our customers who are looking for fully stitched products.

Those of you thinking of taking up a new hobby, please check out what an art needlepoint really is.  You’re in for a treat, we have a Customer Spotlight at the bottom of this post.

Needlepoint Christmas Belt

Our first Big announcement for 2017 is that we’re now selling fully stitched custom needlepoint stocking!  We’ve sold some over the years, but finally have put a listing online in our Etsy shop.  Our designers are here to work with you, whether you’re trying to match an heirloom needlepoint stocking, or looking for an updated needlepoint design, needlepoint stockings truly are timeless.

Personalized Nutcracker Needlepoint Christmas Stocking

Our Fully Stitched Nutcracker Needlepoint Stockings in wool with velvet backing.

What better to give than a gift of personal memories!  These custom needlepoint pillows are going to a fishing lodge, but I had to sneak some pictures under the tree.

Needlepoint Fishing Pillows

Needlepoint Fishing Pillows

And those of you who made it this far are in for a treat.  Lisa, in New York just finished her second project ever.  She stitched this amazing Clara Nutcracker Stocking!  It is the same design as above (we did customize the background a bit), but you can see her talent in selecting her own colors and especially choosing fun stitches and embellishments that add even more depth and texture to the stocking.  Nice work Lisa!

Needlepoint is Fun and amazing. I hope you share these images with your friends and help inspire them to learn to needlepoint in 2017!

Fun Stitch Needlepoint Christmas Stocking

Fun Stitch Needlepoint Christmas Stocking

Christmas Needlepoint Ideas

Are you looking for that special gift that will be cherished for generations to come?

We’ve got a LOT of ideas here that are sure to not only show off your talent as a needlepointer, but that are all sure to be loved by the younger generations who often seem to be too busy to learn the art of needlepoint.

For the beginner stitcher.  We’ve recently added some great Christmas Needlepoint ideas that are smaller and simple, but for the experienced stitcher, leave plenty of space for fancy stitches to spice up.

Needlepoint Ornaments are small and quick.  Our custom needlepoint ornament listing lets you decide what to stitch!  Think of a favorite photo, pet, old home, sport, or cherished memory.

Christmas Needlepoint Ornament Ideas

Christmas Needlepoint Ornament Ideas

A Custom Needlepoint Belt will be a huge hit under the tree.  We offer custom designed needlepoint belt kits, or fully stitched needlepoint belts.

Custom Needlepoint Golf Belt

Custom Needlepoint Golf Course Belt

Needlepoint Wallets and needlepoint Flasks are both easy projects for beginners and we now offer leather finishing as optional extra.

And the my personal FAVORITE, a Custom Needlepoint Stocking!  We’re now happy to offer fully stitched and custom needlepoint stocking kits.  We’ve got dozens of designs under our Christmas Needlepoint theme that are made to be personalized, and of course we’d love to design something custom for you!

Custom Christmas Needlepoint Stockings

Custom Christmas Needlepoint Stockings

Last but not least, for the more experienced stitcher, you can Needlepoint your own Photo!  Most popular are dogs and cats.  We’ve also done hundreds of homes, landscapes, and art needlepoint projects.  These can be turned into a pillow or hung up on a wall.  We now offer Pillow Finishing and if you don’t needlepoint, even offer fully stitched custom needlepoint pillows.

***Custom needlepoint kits available with standard shipping until Dec. 12th.  Our order deadline for fully stitched products in 2016 was Nov. 1st.  But we do offer custom designed Gift Cards that show your design that is being stitched, so you would not be empty handed if you decide to give the gift of needlepoint but don’t have the time to stitch it yourself.

Also, a special thanks to Jen in VA, who stitched the two custom needlepoint projects below!  Thanks and happy holidays to all!

Custom Needlepoint House and Cats

Custom Needlepoint House and Cats

Christmas Needlepoint Order Guidelines and Customer Highlights

Happy Friday!

We’re approaching Christmas again, and I wanted to let you know our timeline this year.

Fully Stitched Needlepoint Belts, Wallets, Dog Collars, and Flask – orders must be placed by November 1st.

Fully Stitched Pillows and Stockings – we cannot finish any new projects before Christmas.

Needlepoint Kits and Canvases (stock designs) – December 12th for free shipping, and Dec 19th for an extra fee.

Hanukkah = same as Christmas this year!

All right, now that is out of the way, onto the fun stuff  🙂  If you’ve worked with us before or follow our blog, you may have noticed that I’ve been lagging behind.  Our customers have been sending me amazing pictures and I have not had time to post them online yet!  Below are two custom needlepoint projects designed from photos:

The first project comes from Chunyen in VA.  She stitched an amazing portrait that she custom designed on our website NeedlePaint.com, she did not skip any details!  Nice work!

Photo to Needlepoint Portrait

Next is a dog portrait turned into pillow by one of our customer’s mothers!  Stunning!

Dog Photo to Needlepoint

Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket Landmark Needlepoint Belts

Summer is coming to an end, shops will be closing and school bells ringing.  We’ve been working hard on some new designs and Love them!  Now you can see our new Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket belt designs, too.  I think they will help you extend the good memories all year round.

These needlepoint belts look sharp around the waist and really can prep up your style.  It is sure to be the choice to wear out to parties or around town.  If you’ve got a favorite spot not listed, let us know, we’re happy to customize a belt for you.

Cape Cod Needlepoint Belt

Cape Cod Needlepoint Belt

The Cape Cod Needlepoint Belt Features (from left to right): Canal Bridge, Woods Hole Marine Biological Lab, Hyannis Lighthouse, Wellfleet Harbor with fishing boat, Chatham Windmill, Chatham Lighthouse, Rail Bike Path, Providence Pilgrim Monument, Race Point Lighthouse and Sand dunes with lifeguard chair.

Marthas Vineyard Needlepoint Belt

Marthas Vineyard Needlepoint Belt

Our Martha’s Vineyard Needlepoint Belt includes Gay Head Cliffs with Gay Head Lighthouse, Larsen’s Fish Market, Grange Hall, Black Dog Tavern, Flying Horses Carousel, Edgartown Yacht Club, East Chop Lighthouse, and the Ferry.

Nantucket Needlepoint Belt

Nantucket Needlepoint Belt

The Nantucket Needlepoint Belt has the Coskata Refuge, Sankaty head lighthouse, Chicken Box, Nantucket Whaling Museum, Hadwen house, The Old Mill, Jetties and the Brant Point Lighthouse.

All of our designs are available as needlepoint belts or you can order it as a needlepoint kit and stitch them yourself.

I’ll be out on the Cape next week, so it may take a day or two to get back to your emails and/or phone calls.  Emily and Karen will still be in the workshop, so we’re not really closed, but customer service will be delayed.

Last are some reviews that have been emailed to us recently.  We love doing a great job and are happy to have so many customers coming back with new custom ideas.  We even offer a discount to returning customers as our way of saying thanks!

“It arrived today and it does look great! Thanks so much.” – Barbara 9-9-2016

“the belt canvas is terrific! Thank you.” -Julie 9-9-2016

hey there, received the canvas, Iuv, luv, luv it. can’t wait to work on it and show u the finished product. thx soooo much.” -Gloria 9-4-2016

“Just wanted you to know that my husband loves his new belt. I will send you a photo soon.” -Janet 7-29-2016

I  love the SpaceX belt.  I am stitching it with paternayan yarn and I will send you a picture when it’s completed. Thank-you so much.  It’s just beautiful.” Beth 7-28-2016

“Everything looks spectacular! Thank you”  -Molly 7-6-2016

“Thank you so much!  The package arrived a couple days ago and it looks great.  I like the color substitutes.” –Chunyen 6-23-2016

“Canvas just arrived. Looks great! Oodles of thanks.” -Sarah 6-20-2016

“My canvas arrived yesterday and it is awesome! Thank you! You’ve done a wonderful job, I only hope I can do it justice. ” -Stellamarie 6-14-2016

“My belt arrived today and it looks great!” – Lisa 6-13-2016

“The canvas arrived today. Brees looks great!  I’m eager to get started with him. Your blog is impressive and I’ll certainly let others know about it.  It has been a pleasure working with you and hope to have the opportunity again.” -Kathy 6-13-2016

“I received the canvas and color palette yesterday.  It looks great, and I really appreciate your help.” -Pat 6-7-2016

And of course we have a bunch of new reviews on our Etsy shop.

Custom Kippah Yarmulke Needlepoint Canvas

We’ve been designing custom kippah needlepoint canvases for about a year now, and they are fun!

The latest project was sent to us and stitched by Carin, in NY.  And finished by Stitch by Stitch in Larchmont NY.

The team is the Portland Timbers and is for a grandson who loves soccer.  Thanks Carin for sharing!

Custom Needlepoint Kippah Yarmulke

Custom Needlepoint Kippah featuring the Portland Timbers