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Archive for the ‘Pillows’ Category

How to Design a Needlepoint Wedding Ring Bearer Pillow

wedding ring bearer pillow designsNext summer’s weddings are fast approaching.  While most “save the dates” and invitations have still not been created, the forward-looking needle pointer will want to consider getting ahead of the game and start a personalized needlepoint ring bearer pillow.  An experienced needle pointer should find a wedding ring pillow to be a fun project since it is small enough to be finished in a few weeks, and it’s very affordable.

Some tips on where to start:

#  Has the couple already created their wedding invitation?  Often the invitation can be used as the inspiration for the design and colors that go onto the pillow.  For example, if there is a flower on their invitation, that flower could go on the pillow.  You can either try to draw it onto the canvas yourself, or you can email a picture of the invitation to the designers at NeedlePaint.com, and they will prepare a preview, free of charge.

#  If there is no invitation to look at yet, consider looking at our personalized needlepoint shop at www.needlepaint.com.  Most of our needlepoint kits include space for the bride’s and groom’s names and a date.  The colors can be adjusted to match any color theme.

#  Talking to the bride or her parents before selecting the colors can be very helpful.  A well designed ring bearer pillow will be one of the best gifts the couple receives, as it will be used during the ceremony, and will always bring them back to their special day as a piece of decoration in their home.

Once you have decided on a design, you will need to select the type of thread.  NeedlePaint.com currently stocks DMC cotton embroidery floss.  They have hundreds of great colors and are very easy to work with.  But if you prefer wool or pearl cotton, then you can also work your canvas with these.

After you have your needlepoint kit figured out, you can order it online, taking only 2-7 business days for your custom needlepoint canvas to be made. The next steps are simple enough for all level needle pointers, including those that are trying needlepoint for the first time!

There are a number of stitches when needlepointing, some being quicker than others.  The classic stitch is the continental; but if you have some large areas to cover, you can really add to your design by picking out a fancy stitch.  Often these stitches take less time, and will make the pillow sparkle.  Please look at NeedlePaint’s blog to see some examples of all types of stitches.

Once the canvas has been finished, it is time to make your needlepoint canvas into a pillow.  You’ll need some fabric for the background, and probably want to add a small bit of piping.  A quick search on the internet for “make a pillow” will make this part easy, even for inexperienced crafters.  Or, if you contact us, we can email you links to videos we like.  If you decide you want somebody else to make your pillow, NeedlePaint does offer this service to its customers.

Almost done!  Just one more detail.  To attach the wedding rings to the ring bearer pillow, you will want to be sure you use something secure.  Some suggestions are safety pins, ribbon, or even a piece of twine.  Any method is OK, but be sure to test it before the wedding day, to be sure the rings can’t come off.

We hope you’ll share your needlepoint ring bearer pillows with everybody!  You can upload your ideas to our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/NeedlePaint

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.

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.

Cat Needlepoint Pillow from a Photo

I worked with Susan Segalla a few months ago, to resize two of her photos of her kats (Josie and Tinker) to make into 12 x 12 needlepoint cat pillows.  She ordered two needlepoint canvases.  We discussed removing the background, but she thought it would be no problem for her to stitch over it.  See the image below, it was 10″ high, but we changed the “Advanced Settings” so the canvas would be 14 x 14.

The Cat's (Josie) Image on the Canvas

Advanced Canvas Options

Look how great Susan’s pillow looks!  She found a great brown rope trim, and matching faux sweud backing, but the other thing I love are the whiskers!  She made them from paint brush bristles.  If you are looking to make a needlepoint pillow, Peggy wrote a blog about needlepoint pillows that would be good to read.

cat needlepoint pillow

Josie the Cat in Needlepoint

Do you have any good links for making pillow’s for other stitchers? Please add your links in the comments to this post!

Cat Needlepoint Pillow

The finished Cat Needlepoint Pillow

 

Custom Dog NeedlePoint Pillow Canvases

We were a big hit at an office recently.  One of our customers told people in their office about NeedlePaint and our custom needlepoint canvases

Within 3 days, we had 3 dog pillow needlepoint canvases under way!

We all agreed that 12.25″ x 12.25″ will make a good size pillow, and the pillow forms are easily available at JoAnn Fabrics or Michaels.

From there, we stuck to 14 point mesh since it will be faster to stitch on this size canvas.  And then the fun started…

I was thinking that it would be cool just to put the dog’s profile on the pillow and remove the background (this will be faster to stitch, too).  We also added borders as to frame the image, and this was a big hit!
In the end, we had three completely different designs!

#1.  The original image and original background, with a double border
#2.  The dog’s face, with name below the face
#3.  The dog’s profile, with a simple border and green background

#3. The dog profile with a simple border and background ( original image removed)

They all are special, and it was fun.  I have designed another fun background and will be happy to do more, just email me your ideas!

A fun deisgn for a black dog!

All three needlepoint canvases are under way right now, so we are waiting for images, but I’m guessing it will be a few more months.  One of the needlepointers just emailed me an image of their last kit we made for them!

***We are now showing designs on Etsy!  Check out our designs at our NeedlePoint Shop.

Needlepoint Ring Bearer Pillow

My fiancé was looking at pictures at stylemepretty.com to get ideas for our wedding this summer and came across an amazing needlepoint pillow!

Ring Bearer Pillow

Ring Bearer Pillow

I love the idea of a ring bearer pillow, so I have gotten to work on designing our own custom needlepoint kits to make a pillow for the wedding.  I don’t want the pillow to be too large, so we’ll need to work on a way be sure that our names fit.

This also got me thinking that these are great wedding gifts!  Once I get project underway, I’d love to help more people design ring bearer pillows.  I’m also working out how people who would like to give the gift, but don’t have the time to make it themselves, could buy a finished pillow.  I’m hoping to find somebody in Colorado…

The size I’m making is 5” x 7”, which we plan to leave in the house as decoration.  A 10 x 10 will also be fine, and may be more practical, but I want something a little smaller for my nephew.  You can see the preview of my design below, after I uploaded it to Needlepaint!

Custom Ring Bearer Pillow

I had to adjust some things, and I’m a sailor, so I put in a square knot, but I’m excited about this!  I’ll upload images as the project continues…

Needlepaint Traditions

Most of us have our favorite causes to which we devote time, energy and often money. One of mine is The Colorado Trail, a 500-mile Denver to Durango hiking trail that was built by and is maintained by volunteers. With the launch of Needlepaint .com, I decided that the Colorado Trial logo would look great on a custom needlepoint pillow and would made a wonderful door prize that the annual Christmas party in Golden, Colorado.

The logo is a simple stylized green mountain on a white background. Maybe a little too much white for a pillow?

So, why not needlepoint it in reverse! (needlepaint screen shot)

This was a perfect project for something other than the traditional continental stitch. The lettering was done in an embroidery-styled satin stitch, working where possible with vertical and horizontal stitches to cover the canvas completely. The white mountain was done in the Shingle stitch, the green center of the mountain in Leaf #3 stitch, and the background in Giant Knitting from The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christensen.

The pillow was finished with matching green cotton piping and backing over a 10-inch polyester-filled form from JoAnn Fabrics .

The finished pillow made it to the 2009 Colorado Trail Christmas Party. It was not given away but auctioned off bringing in $200.00. In 2010 another Colorado Trail volunteer came forward to needlepoint a second pillow which was also auctioned. We may have started a tradition. Why not do it for your favorite group?

Cool Needlepoint Pillow Kit Concepts

I went into a Jonathan Adler store a few months back, and the pillows there still stick out in my mind.  I love them!

Attached are a few of my favorites, but what is great for needlepointers, is that you can use these ideas to create your own  custom needlepoint kit.

Needlepoint Pillows from Jonathan Adler

Look below to see what I designed.  I could imagine lots of ways this could go.  Kids names, lake names, or your city name!

A NeedlePoint Pillow for the a Summer Home

As far as pillows go, we don’t supply pillow kits yet, but I do have some website links that are very helpful.

This ehow article is pretty informative.  One important thing to note is that the canvas size should be slightly larger than the pillow form.  So if you want a 16 x 16″ pillow, you’ll want to order a 16.25 x 16.25″ canvas…

Another suggestion I have, is to follow Jonathan Adler’s lead, and use velvet for the back. 

Anybody who wants help designing a pillow, I’d be happy to talk and do the design that you want, free of charge if you are buying a kit! Our phone number is on our website.

For Pillow Forms, the best sites I’ve found are Fabric Farms and JoAnn Fabrics