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Posts tagged ‘dog needlepoint kit’

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.

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NeedlePaint Inspiration, Needlepoint, Pillows

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St Patrick’s Day NeedlePoint

Instead of just needlepointing a normal photo, this week I was thinking that it could be fun to add a theme around an image on a custom needlepoint kit.

St. Patrick’s Day is a great opportunity!

I was thinking a clover with your dog in the middle would look pretty cool!  It took me a little while to find what I wanted, but as I’m learning to edit photos better, I found that taking the face works pretty well.

St Patricks Day Doggie Artwork

Below, we have just 10 colors on a 12” square canvas.  I did 18 mesh in this case, to catch the details in the dogs eyes.

St. Patricks Day Needlenoint Doggie Kit

Of course the ideas here are unlimited!

If you are interested in having us help to design a background photo, please contact us, we’d be happy to talk over some ideas and help create your design for you.  We offer this service free of charge on orders larger than 12 x 12”.

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NeedlePaint Inspiration, Needlepoint

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E-Reader Needlepoint Cover

According to shopping reports, Christmas 2010 was the Christmas of the e-reader, and I was the recipient of one – a Barnes & Noble color Nook. On Christmas day with e-reader in hand, I was not only excited about the present but itching to get started on a new project – a personalized  needlepoint cover for my Nook.

I blocked out a simple three-color pattern for 18-mesh canvas and decided to use a trianglepoint stitch made popular by Sherlee Lantz in her 1976 book Trianglepoint, because it covers the canvas quickly and I wanted to get the cover finished before I scratched the screen of my new Nook. The canvas was the same width of the e-reader and an inch longer.  I planned the cover to be like a narrow box with a flap at the top which would fold over the top and fasten to the back with two snaps.

I was in such a hurry to start that I forgot to photograph the canvas before I started. Sorry!

The photo above shows the finished canvas with the piping, backing and gusset fabric, and white fleece for lining which I used. The fleece lining serves a dual purpose. It protects the screen from being scratched and it also cleans the screen as the Nook slides in and out (Figure 2).

If I were to make this design again, I would extend the length of the needlepoint cover by another inch to have a longer flap. But mine is done now and I am a happy traveler with it.

I have to confess that I don’t read all my books on my e-reader, and I probably never will. But I travel a lot, and when I travel I always take books and needlepoint along. Now, my suitcase is lighter with reading materials on the Nook, including my essential needlepoint reference book The Needlepoint Book by Jo Ippolito Christensen

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NeedlePaint Inspiration, Needlepoint

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Dog NeedlePoint Kit Tips

Dog Needlepoint Kits have to be one of the most popular themes at NeedlePaint.  Not only do we put them on our homepage, but our craft space and warehouse also is dog friendly with normally 1-3 dogs here on any given day.

As they are such great friends, I’m writing today to help people who have amazing photos of their dogs to select the best photos for needlepointing.

First of all, face images look best, but you do NOT need an actual close up photo.   So, I cropped the image of only Rusty’s face to 267 x 277 pixels. (upper left)

Rusty on a Hike

Rusty as a 10 x 9.5" NeedlePoint Canvas Preview

OK, so that is not as good as I hoped.

But, I think there is a lesson here.  Lets go back to the original image.  The background is very similar color to the dog, which when transferred to needlepoint, will loose a lot of contrast.  Also, the shadow below the dogs nose effects the dogs face on the canvas.

So, lets try another.  This one is a closer image, again, the top of the head came out well, but the bottom of the image is too dark.

 

Another Rusty, Closer Up! The cropped image was 533 x 531 Pixels

Hmm.  Still not what I want.  I think trying to focus even closer on the face may help.

Our Best Rusty Today

Yep, it looks better.  So, cropping very close to the face looks better to me.  This is a 10 x 9″ canvas preview, with 16 colors.  The cropped image was 408 x 363

Overall, I have to say, that I tried a lot of uploading today and I learned a few things.

#1.  Photo Image size should be at least 250 pixels x 250 Pixels for a 10″ x 10″ canvas

#2.  Images with a contrasting background seem to look better.

#3.  Dogs with markings really look great!  See the image of my friends husky.

Bear - Cropped Image size 311 x 390 pixels

On a final note, we are soon adding DMC threads to our site.  This will also help our current situation, because DMC offers more colors, especially in the lighter pinks, browns, and creams.  We’ve noticed improvement on images of people, which is the main reason for this, but I think Rusty will also look better!

If you are using NeedlePaint and having trouble, you can email me your image, and I will adjust it and try to help!  My email address is seth (at) needlepaint.com

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Needlepoint

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