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How far can you go with long stitch?

How Far Can You Go With a Long Stitch?

Long Stitch is a stitch over more than one intersection (hole). It’s companion is the Short Stitch, which is over one hole.

Similar to Continental, but not on the diagonal. It is done by following the direction of an area of your canvas.

Image on the right was stitched with long stitch in every area of the canvas with smashing success!

There are many canvases on our site where long stitch can work wonders.

Reflections by Kathleen West on the left is a good example that might not seem obvious.

Try long stitch for the trees
and the wavy lines in the water.

Thin or wider stems are another way to use long stitch.

The Patchwork Geese at top of the email can be done with a combination of short and long stitches for the feathers.

Let us help you find a canvas to work with short and long stitches

Happy Stitching!

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Brick Stitch

Use Brick Stitch for all types of spaces instead of Basketweave. It’s a fabulous stitch for small and larger areas. It can be stitched horizontally and vertically.

It’s easy to execute.

It will make a round space with texture.

For a moon – maybe vertical is better, but you decide depending on the size

of the moon or any other circle.

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Satin Stitch Variations

Satin stitches are simple stitches. They will fill a circle nicely in the same or varied lengths.
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Give me a home where the sheep do roam

Give me a home where the sheep do roam

In February 2021, the rescue of a runaway Merino sheep gained international fame when it was found in the outskirts of Victoria, Australia with 35 kilograms (77 lbs!) of wool on its back. This extraordinary occurrence was simply the result of a lack of contact.

If Merinos are not sheared by humans, their fleece will continue to grow indefinitely. Picture on the left by Wendy Darker and immediately above is one of the various breeds of Merino sheep in full wool.

Why the fuss about merino?

Silk is a beautiful thread and  a lot of our canvases looks great with silk. Merino is also a wonderful choice. Creates depth or a layering effect to the canvas. Imagine the sheep on the right – Dressed for Winter by Two Can Art – soft merino wool/silk blend for the background in a quiet stitch such as the T Needlepoint Stitch.

The sheep in wool with short and long. then stitches to  create those wonderful curly cues between the scarf in the center bottom of his body.  

And that scarf! It has to be wool or wool/silk blend for a bit of a flatter look for those colorful designs. We love merino wool!

The first picture is a luscious blue from Essentials silk/merino wool blend, stitched in Nobuko.

You can always get all the Essentials you need separately at a discounted price and almost always have the choice between silk and silk/merino blend with our kits.  There are fewer color choices in Essentials line than the silks, so the design matters.

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What’s Being Called 5 Best Needlepoint Kits for Beginners

What’s Being Called 5 Best Needlepoint Kits for Beginners

Needlepoint is a craft that has been done by people all over the world for centuries. The art of creating works of art using only a needle, colored yarn, and a canvas. The fascinating part of needlepoint is that you don’t have to be an advanced needle pointer to create great-looking art. Thanks to kit makers, they create needlepoint kits and you can be making your works of art. In no time you make things worthy of hanging on your wall or covering your throw pillows in your family home. 

5 Top Needlepoint kits for beginners

Thankfully, there are websites like ArtneedlePoint.com that offer hundreds of projects from the beginner to the most advanced crafters. For this article, we picked 5 examples of beginner kits that are available. Each kit is unique and offers the buyer what is necessary to complete the project from start to finish. 

319 Abstract Pillow by Jane Parkes – This needlepoint kit comes with everything that you will need to get started and to complete the project. This includes a 14 mesh mono canvas that measures 9” x14”. You have a choice of the thread type between wool, silk, or pearl cotton in multiple colors. It also can be purchased in several other sizes including large seat cushions, and rugs. 

A Day at Sea by Jennifer Holbrook – If you are looking to create a nice wall hanging for a child’s room, this would be a great choice. It comes with everything you need and it even allows you to customize your selection. It comes in three different canvases; 14, 16, or 18 mesh (thread count). You can also select your own thread type as well; silk, wool, or pearl cotton. It features an 11” x 14” mono deluxe needlepoint canvas. 

255 Abstract Me Cushion Kit by Jane Parkes – This 18” X 18” kit includes everything that you need to create an interesting wall hanging, large pillow covering, or seat cushion. It includes the 14 mesh mono deluxe needlepoint canvas and all of the necessary colored thread to complete the project. You can even select the type of thread that you prefer to use; wool, silk, or pearl cotton. 

Appetizer Kit by Jim Stratton – Are you looking for a unique wall hanging for a den or man cave, check out this beginners project. It includes all the necessary materials needed to get started and complete the project. Choose between wool or pearl cotton thread types that are all included. It features a 13” x 16” 14 mesh mono needlepoint canvas. It can be ordered in different sizes and you can call for pricing. 

4 Canvas Set of Tis the Season by Tourtilloutte – Are you possibly looking for a seasonal project for the Christmas holiday. Then check out this project which is designed for all skill levels from novice to advanced. It is separated into four different 4” x 4” canvases or it can be put all together for larger wall hanging. Your choice of 14, 16, or 18 mesh mono deluxe needlepoint screen. It comes with all of the thread you will need to complete the project in your choice of thread types; pearl cotton, wool, or silk. 

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Why Use Silk Threads on Needlepoint Canvases

Why Use Silk Threads on Needlepoint Canvases

Why Use Silk Threads on Needlepoint Canvases

While the first textiles were probably made from intertwined stems and grass or animal hairs, very little has been excavated from tombs or monuments throughout the world that remains intact.  In various found fragment  from between 5000 BC & 500 AD contain crude stitches with silk threads.

By the 4th-10th century, silk & gold threads were staples of early needlework. An Egyptian fragment ca 4th-7th ce was discovered with silk threads in brown woven cloth. The vestments of  two sisters, St. Harlindes & St. Relindis, who each became an abbess, were the earliest surviving examples  of Anglo-Saxon handwork that we have today, stitched in silk on linen.  

Checking Silk above is a 12th century painting depicting women checking on silk that will be made into cloth.

Durability and ease of use are the major factors for our love of silk threads. Why use anything else when you want it to last!

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Botanical Needlepoint Kits inspired by Mary Delany

Stitching Gorgeous Botanical Needlepoint Kits by Mary Delany

Mary Granville Delany bloomed in her 70s, when she embarked on her life’s work — creating 985 life-size botanical masterpieces inventing a form of paper-cutting or decoupage, which she called her “paper mosaiks” now held by the British Museum.

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“I have invented a new way of imitating flowers,” she said. And so her life work began, at age 72. Delany began work on her celebrated Flora Delanica – not a herbarium of dried plants but a florilegium of images of flowers made of tiny pieces of colored cut paper.

Using tissue and papers of all hues and shades, she cut the wafer-thin tissue without any drawings or apparent planning. She pasted the cut-outs of the intricate parts of the flowers collage-fashion onto black paper to create perfect reproductions of living plants. 

Amazingly, these pictures are actually paper mosaics. They are not paintings.

Gardeners and amateur botanists from miles around sent her flowers so she could record their achievements for posterity. Exquisitely beautiful, Delany’s work was also valued for its scientific accuracy.

Mary’s flower collages caught the interest of two neighboring amateur botanists —King George III and his wife, Queen Charlotte- who became her patrons.

They gave her a cottage at Windsor where she lived out her last three years, surrounded by her great-niece Georgina,age 17 (whom she’d raised) and many of the King and Queen’s thirteen children, to whom she taught botany.

We have exclusive access for needlepoint to most of her collection.

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Floral Art Needlepoint by Marie Sibille Merian

Stitching is Blooming
Needlepoint by Marie Sibille Merian

Mary Granville Delany bloomed in her 70s, when she embarked on her life’s work — creating 985 life-size botanical masterpieces inventing a form of paper-cutting or decoupage, which she called her “paper mosaiks” now held by the British Museum.

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Stitching is Blooming

Whether Up Close Flowers as above, a bouquet or field of flowers, who doesn’t love flowers!

Today, we introduce two female artists who were pioneers and began their life work late in their life who bring out the extraordinary beauty of flora from near and far.

Some of each of their expansive oeuvre graces this page

Maria Sibylla Merian, age 52, in 1699, more than a century before Charles Darwin explored the Galapagos, she set sail for a projected 5 year expedition to Suriname, the northern coast of South America.

The voyage afforded Merian a unique opportunity to explore new species of insects and plants. She changed how the human world understood the insect world. Her floral paintings were exact and most often included insects such as the one here.

Her exacting art also changed the world view of flora and fauna

150 years after Merian’s death, scientist Ernst Haeckel coined the term “ecology” for the study of relationships among organisms and their environment throughout their life cycles.

Today, Maria Sibylla Merian would be most proud that many scholars consider her the world’s first ecologist. 

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Another Sample Blog Post

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Sample Blog Post

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.