Needlepoint rug w/o frame?

I just finished one roughly that size. I have a metal floor frame like a Lowery and used that to hold my frame which was about two inches wider than the needlepoint and half the length. I stitched until it was cumbersome then unpinned the canvas from the frame and moved it along a bit. It worked fine.

When I was all through, I simply disposed of the frame. The likelihood of needing something that large again is remote, I wouldn't bother buying a frame especially for it.

One thing you may consider is to stitch it using Victorian Cross. That way, you may use more wool, but will not have any bother of it being out of square when you finish it. It also gives a lot more body to the piece, making it much more sturdy.

Go here for more >I'd like to needlepoint a rug that is 40 inches wide and 57 inches long.

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Dianne

I did an E. Bradley cushion in Victorian Cross Stitch. It's exactly the same as cross stitch. It uses double the wool and indeed is long lasting and durable. The cushion I made was for my daughter, then the mother of two baby boys. They are now 13 and 15 and even though it had a torture trial, it looks as good today as it did when finished. I've washed it twice for her in the intervening years.

When you look at it, there is no difference, you don't see a crossed stitch it just appears as very even needlepoint. I did find that it was tiring on the hands at first as the thread needs quite a pull through on the cross over stitch.

Dianne, I think if you look at the fourth rectangle down on the left side ( It has a red flower on it, and is names "stitch") it shows the Elizabeth Bradley stitch, which appears to be from the Victorian times.

Gillian It is a lovely site, and I have bookmarked it.

For some reason the link is taking you to the home page. To get to this stitch, drag your cursor on top of the boxes in the body of the page and it will be the fourth down from the top on the left side. It should say, "The Stitch." That, is a Victorian Cross.

Try that.

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Thanks to you, Gillian and Victoria for taking me to the right spot. :-) The page of directions was interesting to read.

I know that in the not too distant future, needlepoint is probably a direction I'm going to pursue with more vigor. I'll keep Elizabeth Bradley's name in mind when I decide to shift gears.

Dianne

Lucretia Borgia wrote:

Victorian cross stitch:

Up at lower left, down at upper right; up at upper left, down at lower right; then along to the left to start again.

It uses a lot of wool, but you'll end up with a very sturdy fabric, with long horizontal stitches at the back to act as padding. Plus you'll have the advantage of no pulling out of shape. The usual method of working the E Bradley designs is to stitch "in hand", so you can do the cross stitch from the front in only two movements. (I still prefer a frame...)

Hope this helps,

When you do decide to do needlepoint, it would behoove you to search out the Blueline canvas and wool on your own, as well as the wool and just buy her books with patterns in them. I say this because I have stitched some of the kits. I have done the Gloucester Spot and her Piglets and the Lambs and each kit was about two hundred dollars, all told with shipping.

Another really delicious needlepoint designer is Beth Russell

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wouldn't

I recall you mentioning this before, and I believe you said the frame consisted of 4 slats of wood joined at the corners(?) How did you fasten the canvas to the frame? Staples?

I've read somewhere (may have been a rug hooking book) of carpet tack strips being used. They were fastened to the frame, the fabric stretched out over the tacks, and then a strip of foamcore put over the pointy parts to protect the needleworker. Then the worker pulled the fabric out of the tacks, pulled it along, and repositioned the working area when it was time to do so.

I thought it was an interesting idea for working with very large pieces. I've also heard of carpet tack strips being used for hanging large pieces btw. Dora

I just used four pieces of one by 1/2 inch - the place I purchased it did joints for me, the same sort one finds on artists canvas stretchers where you slot them into each other.

One of the corners gave up towards the end but I bound it with plastic packing tape and it held well enough to get to the end.

I just used thumbtacks, but staples would do as well. I think altogether I only moved it about three times. At one stage I decided to work the other way round, going the other way if you can understand what I mean. I worried it might show, but it didn't.

I think doing it in cross stitch would be an option, but heavy on the wool and I am not sure it would have been that easy doing it in hand. I believe sitting and addressing it on a frame was easier in the long run.

People who have seen it now (I have it in my bedroom where the carpet underneath is white) think it looks lovely and I am just about starting to like it again lol Certainly my cat likes to stretch out on it, but then he was lying on it while it was still on the frame lol

plastic

understand

Yes, I tend to like frames as well. The disorder is somewhat controlled. I can imagine what my cats would do if they encountered me wrestling with a large canvas in the living room.

However, I have Dorothy Kaestner's book on needlepoint rugs, and although she did her rugs in Continental I don't believe she always put them up on a frame. With regards to one (very large) rug, she says she just laid it out on a card table, and stitched all of it one summer sitting out on the porch in her tank top and shorts. I'm wondering if the weight of the canvas tends to counteract warping somewhat.

She also mentions her mother hooked rugs, and she used a frame set-up of 4 boards balanced on top of 4 dining room chairs, so I believe in regards to our OP's question, there are options other than buying an expensive frame, although some are less elegant than others.

A rapid recovery is a good sign.

I don't know how cats could resist a large frame like that. I'm working on a needlepoint using a stretcher frame at present, and the only thing that keeps my cats from lying on it when I'm working is that it a bit unstable. Of course the only reason they want to get on it is for attention, which they usually misbehave enough to get in the end anyway. Dora

I think that would be another way to do it, though sitting at a table does not suit me personally. My stitching is relaxing and I like to do it in a comfy chair with some nice music or maybe even a little bit of television.

Woow! Trying to picture that! Like anything else though, what suits you is what works best.

I read once that when for instance a person is reading a book, the reason that cats want to inject themselves between you and the book is because they pick up the waves of concentration directed at the book. Now whether that holds water I do not know, but I do find my guy definitely seems to sense when my attention it dedicated to something at hand, other than himself.

Well, I think in this case she was doing 'production stitching', a woman obsessed, because it says she stitched 6-12 hours a day, which physically I don't think I would want to do. The book says she worked from the centre to one end, with the other end rolled up and pinned. She says she took it with her to the hairdresser. (A 52x105" rug, can you imagine?) Then she worked from the centre to the other end. She only started using the table when she started work on the second half.

With needlepoint, I usually sit cross legged in a big old 60's office chair, with the frame leaning on a table in front of me, with the chart in front of me. Needlepoint yarn also all over the table. Lots of things for cats to sleep on. They seem to like snuggling into the top of plastic sweater bag full of yarn skeins.

set-up

Talk about a project taking over your house, huh?

The boards were fastened together at the corners, which if one didn't use a stretcher join to keep square, would still be fairly cheap to do. I think you can get metal braces at the hardware store that would do the job, or a brace could be fashioned out of wood. The chairs must have had fairly low backs in order to keep the frame at a working height.

I think the last half of the sentence is the key. Dora

That sent a mouthful of coffee to the monitor!

Obsession sounds the right word. I didn't set out to take five years or so, but I also did not feel I had to keep at it full time.

Yes, I like comfort too and I think that is why I always return to needlepoint, it's like nibbling at a bowl of peanuts, compelling.

Yes, those self-centred cats lol

Wow. Lots of good ideas to consider. The "disposal" frame sounds great. But so does sitting out on the porch all summer at a card table!

Thanks for the input!

Nancy

Nancy Mar> I'd like to needlepoint a rug that is 40 inches wide and 57 inches long.

An addendum, if I may.

I came across an article in a 1989 issue of Threads magazine (Aug/Sept, No. 24) by Rosalie Hamer called Banishing Needlepoint Bias.

According to this article, the essential points for reducing distortion in needlepoint canvas, greatly abbreviated, are:

- tension, a firm but loose stitch

- a stabbing motion if a stitch goes straight **under** a canvas thread or diagonally over more than one

- avoidance of continental stitch - use cross or basketweave stitch instead

- yarn. The heavier the yarn is in relation to the canvas mesh, the more distortion prone the work will become.

- a firm, well sized canvas of good quality

- working on a frame. One of the advantages cited about using a frame is that crushing or over-working a canvas breaks down the sizing and can make it too soft to hold its shape. If worked off frame, the unworked canvas has to be constantly rolled and unrolled to stay out of the way. Frames eliminate excessive handling.

She also blocks face side down and irons on fusible interfacing to the wrong side to keep it in line, but I can't imagine doing that on a rug.

It made sense to me, and I thought I would pass it on. Dora

Very interesting. I agree the fusible interfacing would be easiest but I don't think too durable for a rug. The day I was cursing that sewing machine though, I would have cheerfully gone with fusible lol

I have done rugs without frames and with them. If you are an experienced needleworker and are aware of tension when you work, I see no reason why you would have to use a frame. Tension is the key. I built a huge frame once that was ugly and in my workroom to hold a 7x8 foot rug I was working on. If I had it do over again I would have just been careful with tension. I feared huge swaying since it was heavy and I was doing it in needlepoint. If you are using the cross technique, that alone would aid in holding tension correct I should think. I had a short stool and started wondering what I was getting into with that frame idea that time. Back aches. Arm aches. Do what is most comfortable because it is hours and hours and hours and should be fun not torture.