punchneedle

I received a piece as a gift (it is a design of my sheltie based on photos of her) and it is framed in a wooden hoop with a ruffle around the back edge.

There is a needle work shop in Elkader IA (The Backstich, I believe) and one of their employees designs punch needle patterns for retail. I talked with her once at an EGA needlework show a year or so ago and she was pleasant and very good about answering questions as she demonstrated the technique. She might be worth a contact. Sorry, I don't have any contact info for her but I'd think you could find something online.

I have done a couple of things - one which we did up as a band around a pillow - very cute. It was a class (when I was working at the LNS, there's a local gal that designs for punchneedle, and distributes the good Russian needles - and she was teaching at the shop). She's done classes with little brooches, small, tiny kind of purses, etc. If done right - they wear pretty well.

I was in the shop the other day and noticing that SamSarah is doing "doubles" - a cross stitch chart and punchneedle or similar in the same folio.

Seems punchneedle is a bit more mindless in that you don't have to concentrate on a chart, or complicated stitches, once you get used to it. Big thing to me was getting consistency in the loop spacing, and learning to use spacers on the needles to get different depths for texture, etc.

It is fun, and I've done it using pieces from the quilting stash.

ellice

Since becoming obssessed with embroidery, I've been trying to learn many different techniques especially three dimensional ones. I really like doing punchneedle projects. Some commercial designs have come with preprinted designs; others have iron on transfers. Almost all of these have been less than 4x6; some of the patterns are too primitive for my tastes. To get around this, I've used various methods of tracing to put my own 'designs' which are mostly copies of patterns or pictures that appeal to me on a ground. The trick with do-it-yourself punch needling is to use the right fabric. Experts recommend using weavers' cloth. I've found that for most projects, 3 strands work as well as 6, thus using less floss.

I'm not creating heirlooms and am extremely frugal so I tend to do the framing and finishing myself. I like wrapping a project around a not too thin backing board, pasting that onto another backing, adding cording to the edges, and then putting a frame around the results. I don't look to closely at any of the pieces so I don't have a clue if they're dusty or not

Sorry to be reviving an old thread, but I had no interest in punch needle a month ago, and now have at least enough of the makings to begin.

Yesterday, I attended the Stitches and Crafts Show at Caulfield Racecourse, here in Melbourne, Australia. Most of what is there are stalls of all sorts of craft shops trying to sell you their wares. There were 3 stands that had punch needle stuff. I believe that at all of them it was possible to "give it a go". The 2 I tried used quite different needles from each other, and worked a bit differently too. They were called Masha's Designs (or pretty similar), Punch with Judy, and Dancing Needle Designs.

What made me look closely at these stands was attending a workshop session with Pamela Gurney from Dancing Needle Designs. At the session she didn't show us how to do punch needle, she handed around samples and talked about equipment.

I won't go on about all she said. I suspect all 3 of these companies have websites. I do however remember her showing us how weavers cloth stretches more in one direction than the other. She didn't say not to use it, she just pointed that out. She herself sells a different type of cloth that looks linenish and is Polyester Viscose, Flax blend. It comes in white, cream and black.

Anyway, I have not sat down and done anything yet, but think this may be the technique I can use to convert a repeating floral design, done by my grandfather, into stitchery.

Bye for now.

Rosemary

I'm in lust!!!! I've been wanting to visit Australia for a long time and shop hopping may be the push I need to make plans for 2008.

Topic drift alert -- is it better to come in your summer/my winter or your winter/my summer? Is there a list of needle-related stitch ins or shows in areas near Melbourne or Sydney online?

Hello Anne,

I'm leaving the topic the same, so it will follow on from the previous message.

My suspicion is that most shows would be in Autumn or Spring, and they are probably reasonable times weatherwise too, although our weather varies a lot over the whole country.

As I said, I've just discovered Punchneedle, so I don't know if the LNSes have supplies or not. I have now had a look at the Dancing Needles site (during a quiet moment at work today) and she lists which shows she will be at in the near future. Maybe you could get the names and locations of some from her website, then have a look at a map, then see what else is nearby that you may want to visit.

There's a lot to see once you get here, and we do have a few good needlework shops. I know you do a variety of stuff, so you'd find something of interest.

Bye again.

Rosemary

On one of the sites Rosemary mentioned, I noticed a project that used Rainbow Paper. A machine embroidered design (butterfly, monogram) was done in white. The paper was put on top of the completed design and ironed thus transferring colors to the embroidery. This technique might be useful to create colored background fabric for those of us like me who can't or won't paint or dye it. You can see what I'm talking about at

you know of a source closer to home (aka US) or another product that does something similar, please let me know.