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Posts tagged ‘custom needlepoint kits’

NeedlePoint Custom Stitch Guide

Finally!  All NeedlePaint.com orders will now ship with custom stitch guides.

Trying to needlepoint a photo or custom needlepoint canvases can be very tricky.  Especially since many colors in shading of faces or shadows are very similar.  These similar colors on a canvas often are hard to distinguish.  But, when the embroidery floss is laid out and the project is underway, these shades are key to making a stunning work of needle art!

Most custom needlepoint kit makers don’t have the ability to go into the amount of detail that NeedlePaint.com allows when using photos.  When discussing with needlepoint shop owners who sell handpainted canvases, they have reviewed our product and agreed that NeedlePaint.com offers a better and more real looking product than most handpainters are able to produce.

To help our customers tell the colors apart, we have been working on a counted stitch guide that shows the exact location for every stitch and color.  When this is combined with our color stitch aid and the printed canvas, it allows a needlepointer to quickly and easily figure out exactly where each color goes.

Needlepoint Stitch Guide, Color Aid, Canvas, Color Chart

Our new stitch guides are counted in rows of 10, and each symbol is referenced in our color chart which displays the color and number of the floss to be used.

Our color stitch aid is also organized in rows of 10, so cross referencing the color aid is very helpful when looking at the image on the canvas.  Our customers have been very happy with this new addition!

At the Wedding – The Ring Bearer Pillow

One of our March Posts was Seth’s ring bearers pillow. I was out of town and he was going to take on the needlepointing himself. Well, running Needlepaint and wedding plans got the better of him and I returned in time to get it done.

Custom Needlepoint Ring Bearer Pillow

A Custom Needlepoint Ring Bearer Pillow

I stitched most of the needlepoint canvas with the continental stitch, and added a braided stitch to make the knot stand out and a tied stitch for the inner light blue boarder. It was fun!

With the stitching completed, I headed to the local fabric store for pillow backing, polyester filling, piping, and ties for the rings. Since the wedding was to be on the beach in Cape Cod. I opted a navy backing and piping. For a more formal indoor wedding I would probably have picked a white brocade or satin. I also spent a lot of time decided on what to use for the ring ties. I was sorely tempted to get metallic cord, but it was rough and easily unraveled. The this white polyester braid worked wonderfully and looked great. It was easy to untie lest the Best Man find himself entangled in unraveling, scratchy thread.

E-how has a good tutorial for how to finish your pillow. OR ADD FINISHING SERVICE………  PLEASE CONTACT US ABOUT  OUR CUSTOM NEEDLEPOINT PILLOW PRICES.

Needlepoint a Dog Collar for Man’s Best Friend

Looking for a small needlepoint project, consider making a dog collar. The needlepointing itself went quickly on a 1 in. x 17.5 inch, 18-point  needlepoint canvas and your choice of colors will allow you to match your dog’s personality.

After needlepointing the canvas, I blocked it, trimmed the excess canvas  leaving a ½ in. border, folded back the canvas, steamed it in place, and finished the edges with a binding or edge stitch. There are several binding techniques. The quickest is a loop stitch worked over the last completed row of needlepoint and the adjacent vacant row. But, the most elegant is the braided binding stitch shown in this video:Binding Stitch Video

The Neeplepoint kits come with thread and matching canvas.  Email us if you would like a Clip and D ring shown in the images.  Position the finished collar in the center of the polyester strap. There should be 6 inches on each side of the collar. Sew in collar in place. Insert the left end of the strap into the side of the buckle with a single bar. Adjust so that the finished needlepoint is snug with the face of the buckle. Sew through all thicknesses as close to the buckle as possible. Side the D-ring onto the collar and position approximately 2 inches from where the collar is attached to the buckle. Sew through all thickness on each side of the D-ring.

The other side of the buckle can be adjustable when threaded as shown below. Optionally it can also be sewn making the collar a fixed size.

Horse Needlepoint Canvases

Needlepaint Picture of the Week

Last week, we made a really beautiful custom horse needlepoint canvas.  
The horse is really beautiful, and I'm looking forward to seeing it finished!

A Custom Horse Needlepoint Canvas

Tiger Needlepoint Canvases and Needlepoint Kits

I was inspired by an order for a tiger needlepoint canvas a few months ago.  It was such an amazing photo that I had to put something together for the rest of the needlepointing world!  The customer is busy finishing their project, and will email us photo’s when it is done 🙂

Tiger Needlepoint Canvas 8 x 6 inches on 18 mesh canvas

Tiger Needlepoint Canvas 8 x 6 inches on 18 mesh canvas

You can buy this canvas at our ETSY needlepoint shop.

More animal needlepoint canvases are at our shop, but check out the Leopard!

leopard needlepoint canvas

Leopard Needlepoint Canvas 10 x 7.5 inches on 18 mesh canvas

 

Custom Needlepont Dog Collar

We’ve been thinking of what other projects are great for custom needlepoint, and realized that the answer is laying at our feet!

A custom needlepoint dog collar can be beautiful and make a great gift for your furry friends.

Peggy is currently working on a project for her son who asked for a ‘tough looking’ collar for his male dog, Jack.

I worked on designing this and created a simple design that looks great!  And is very tough 🙂

1.25" x 17" Needlepoint Design for Jack

Now, look again, and see how ‘tough’ becomes girly when I change the colors!

1.25" x 17" Custom Pink Needlepoint Design for a Dog Collar

This project is just underway, we hope to have lots of designs and complete needlepoint dog collar kits on our Etsy needlepoint shop soon.  All designs are customizable, please contact us if you would like us to design your dog’s needlepoint collar!

Some ideas worth considering:  Stitch in a phone number, extra wide collars

Fun Needlepoint Pillow Ideas

I’ve been designing more needlepoint pillows for our ETSY shop.  It is pretty fun!  Taking some pretty simple ideas, and putting them with fun colors brings a fresh feeling.

Christmas Star Needlepoint Kit for 10 x 10 inch pillow

Seafoam Snowflake For Winter Decor

A Christmas Ornament Pillow

Designing needlepoint kits on NeedlePaint.com is fun.  I just came up with a list of ideas, then started to design needlepoint canvases.

My list:  Snow Flakes, Christmas Ornament Needlepoint, Christmas Tree Needlepoint, Angels, Snow Man, Stars

Another fun experiment is below.  See how different these two identical designs feel!

A Traditional Christmas Needlepoint Pillow Design

Modern Christmas NeedlePoint Colors

See!  Colors play such an important role in the holidays.

Dog Needlepoint Canvases

We’ve been searching the internet for great pictures of dogs to offer as stock needlepoint canvases and needlepoint kits.

We found some great ones!

Breeds:

Chocolate Lab Needlepoint Canvas 18 mesh, 8" x 5.5", 12 colors

Beagle Needlepoint

Border Collie Needlepoint

Boston Terrier Needlepoint

Bullmastif Needlepoint

Chocolate Lab Needlepoint

Cocker Spaniel Needlepoint

Coonhound Needlepoint

Daschund Needlepoint

German Shepherd Needlepoint

Boston Terrier Needlepoint Canvas (Colors can be adjusted when ordered)

Golden Retriever Needlepoint

Jack Russel Terrier Needlepoint

Nova Scotia Duck Terrier Needlepoint

Pomeranian Needlepoint

Schnauzer Needlepoint

Scotch Terrier Needlepoint

Shetland Sheepdog Needlepoint

Yellow Lab Needlepoint

***More to come!

Also, check out our vintage dog needlepoint

Vintage German Shepherd Dog Needlepoint - Customize with your dogs Name!

Vintage Collie

Vintage Fox Terriers

Vintage German Shepherd

Vintage Puli

Vingate Pumi

Vintage Vizsla

How to Design a Needlepoint Canvas

Do you want a unique needlepoint canvas that has special meaning for you or the person you are making it for?  Creating custom needlepoint canvases has never been easier.  There are some great websites out there explaining how to paint a needlepoint canvas.  But, if you are interested in designing your own canvas and then having someone else make it for you, then you should read this.

Basically, Needlepaint.com allows users to design a needlepoint canvas online, and preview the design before placing an order.  Please note, our canvases are not hand painted, as we find that we can get more accurate photo details using digital artwork than doing it by hand.

Step One – Pick a Design and Idea

Hopefully if you found this blog, you already have something in mind.  If you want more needlepoint design ideas please review our entire blog.

Our most ordered designs are: Dogs, Cats, Kids and Houses.  Other favorites are:  Needlepoint Ring Bearer Pillows and Needlepoint Kindle Covers

Really any artwork or photo will work, as long as it is saved as a .jpg, .png or .gif file on your computer.  If you have a photo that is not yet digital you can go to a local copy store and have them scan it and save it for you, or you can mail it to us.  If you want us to help do the digital artwork for you, please contact us.

Step Two – Select the size and product you want to make

For most photo’s, you may not want to stitch the entire image, but the exact size is not important.  The key is to get close in on the subject, especially if the canvas is smaller than 10″ x 10″.

If you are making a pillow, kindle cover, or other “functional” type needlepoint project, you will want to be sure to make your image the right scale to fit exactly to your project.  An example: if you are making a 12 x 12 pillow, then you will want to be sure your image is square.  If you are making a Kindle Cover, then you will want your image to be 6″ high, and 2″ wide or an equally proportioned size so the needlepoint canvas will be 18″ x 6″.

Step Three – Cropping your Artwork

iPhoto Edit Option

OK, so you have a photo, but you don’t want to stitch all the background, or you have an exact size you want to design.  In many of the photo viewing software, there is a Crop feature.  This will allow you to select only the part of the image you want on your canvas.

***In the example below we actually did a 12″ x 16″ rectangle.  This means that we need to be sure we use a rectangle of around 3″ x 4″.

Cropping in iPhoto

Step Four – Uploading your Design

Once you have the image ready, you can go to NeedlePaint.com to create your custom needlepoint canvas.

Upload your image to NeedlePaint.com

Now you can see your own design in Needlepoint!  You will automatically be taken to our “Stitched Preview” which shows an approximation of how your canvas will look once you stitch it.  There are many adjustments on this page, please read below, we will explain each.

Stiched Needlepoint Preview 12" x 16" Husky

Canvas Options

Mesh Count:  This is a very important feature.  18 mesh will show more details, but has many more holes per inch (324 holes to stitch vs 196 stitches in 14 mesh).  If you are doing a smaller canvas, 18 mesh will help capture more detail from your photo.  (We also are able to supply 8, 10, and 12 mesh, but these need to be special ordered).

Design Size:  Here you can select your height or width.  Please note, this will keep the exact same proportions as your original photo, if you want to adjust it, please go back and read the “Step Three – Cropping Your Artwork” section in this blog.

Advanced Options:  This allows you to order a larger canvas.  Normally or canvases include 1″ of extra canvas on all sides, but if you want more blank canvas, you need make the adjustment here.

Thread Colors:  Another very important feature allows you to select the number of colors you will use on your needlepoint project.  We suggest reducing the number of colors as much as possible to make it easier to stitch but where it still looks good.  If you are very experienced needlepointer, have lots of floss hanging around, and don’t mind using lots of colors, than by selecting a high number of colors, you will get more details onto the canvas.  To adjust the color, click the line on the right or left of the bar.

Thread Type:  You can also adjust the type of threads.  Since we match digital colors to real floss colors, the DMC and Presencia will show different results in the preview.  DMC is often better for images of people because there are a lot more flesh tone colors to pick from.  (If you are ordering floss from us, you will also notice that fewer colors is less expensive).  Please note, we do not supply wool, as the color options are very limited, but it can be used on any project.

Click Finish to see pricing.  You can also view our price chart before uploading an image if you want approximate pricing details.

Personalized Needelpoint Chrismas Stocking

It is never too early to start planning for Christmas particularly if there are several little ones in your family. There are nine little ones in my extended family circle, and each now has his or her custom needlepoint Chirstmas stocking printed by Needlepaint and lovingly stitched by me.

I had some assistance from Needlepaint’s designer, who created two designs to which I could add the individual names. (Luckily there are only 2 little ones per family and they live in different parts of the world.)

My first two stockings were stitched with the traditional Continental  Stitch. After that I got creative and used a variety of different stiches as shown in the completed stocking below.

To finish the stockings, I lined the canvas with red cotton and then made the back of the stock out of red wool cut on the bias so there was some give to allow for more goodies to be stuffed in by Santa.

These design are available on our Etsy NeedlePaint Shop and can be customize with your name(s) on the checkout page. Please limit names to 12 letters. Stocking design is printed on Zweigart Mono 14 point , and is 16” x 10.25″.

And more designs are coming soon!