The Franks, an Orthodox Jewish family of whom I am a proud member, reside at an intersection of country roads named “Wiener” and “Synagogue.” This was a curious enough coincidence to attract the attention of Oscar Meyer, the well-known purveyor of kosher hotdogs. They even offered a large sum of money to feature us in one of their marketing projects (we declined).

I’ve heard of similar fortuitous street names, such as the dentist who grew up on a street named Colgate, the brewery that opened in Brewster Court (an old carriage house built in 1894), and the man named Downing who opened an oyster place on a street already conveniently named Downing Street.

I was wondering the other day whether an avid needlepointer could be the subject of such a fortunate geographic placement, and after researching a bit I came up with the following:

Needle Point, Tahoe National Forest, California, a mountain peak. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia in an article about the forest. Deep snow persists through April.

Needle Point, St. Helena Island, South Carolina, an island cape. Photo is of a tourist attraction on the island.

Needle Point Drive, Guyton, Georgia, a small road.

Needle Point Drive, Cheboygan, Michigan, another small road off Mullet Lake. Above is a home for sale on the road.

Needle Point Court, Columbus, OH, an enclave in a busy neighborhood.

Needle Point Road, Evans City, Pennsylvania, a street in a green area of PA. Above 2-bedroom, single-family home on this street is selling for $159,000.

Marion Crawford was the governess of princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose (the daughters of the Duke of York) for 24 years, and wrote a memoir of her experiences. From “The Little Princesses“, pg. 36:

The Duke was astonishingly expert with a needle. He once made a dozen chair covers in petit point for Royal Lodge. I remember he got rather tired of filling in the background, so I obliged with that while he went on with the more amusing part of the design.

Ah, the pleasures of royalty. How many times did you wish you could simply summon a servant to do the boring parts of the canvas…

Check out the pictures in this blog post about the Hotel Recamier in Paris.

Among other things, we were enamored with the seamless needlepoint lining the elevator walls.

Screenshot of the Threadbands.com Home Page

I put together a website that is dedicated to the new product I discussed in a previous post about Needlepoint Headband Kits. It’s called Threadbands.com, appropriately enough, and it serves to introduce the product to the world, and to help with working on the project.

It will also direct you to the best place to buy threadbands, and where to send your questions.

An Old Printing Device

Here’s an email recently received by the folks at Pointseller.com:

I would like to know why you think your printed canvas is superior to handpainted. It has been my experience that the printed canvas does not have the life of a handpainted canvas. Tapestries from the 1400′s have lasted 600 years. Will yours? Doubtful.!!!

Here was my response:

To quote “from experience” that printed needlepoint canvas doesn’t last 600 years, is quite an interesting claim. To my knowledge, printed canvas is only around for a few years, so it isn’t possible to have conducted this type of experiment.

 

In fact, I had some of my designs handpainted by an offshore shop, and compared them to my printed versions. I couldn’t find any appreciable difference.

 

Indeed, my printed canvases have proven themselves durable and up to the task. The cost of a printed canvas compared to handpainted, inch per inch, is far more economical and much faster to produce. And in the end, both printed and painted designs will be covered with stitching. The quality of the design is the most important factor in choosing a canvas, not the method with which the ink was applied.

One of these days I will need to post a longer article on the pros and cons of printed vs. handpainted needlepoint. But the email I quoted above does cover the main points.

Exterior of the Gryffon Winery

I’ve visited needlework shops combined with knitting shops, with Judaica shops, and even with framing shops.

But a combination needlepoint and wine shop?

That could get confusing. “I’ll take two bottles of the Rainbow variegated, and 1 skein of the Sauvignon blanc, please.”

A Needle Point Pen

On one of my frequent sightseeing tours around the Internet, I chanced upon another meaning of the word “needlepoint” of which I wasn’t previously aware. I’m referring to an ink writing instrument known as a “Needle Point Pen”. Here is a review of the Uni-Ball 207 Needle Point Pen by Sanford.

Any business that involves a word that is ambiguous, is harder to find using Google or one of the other search engines. For example, if you are looking for a product for your nails, your search will turn up the other type of nails as well. Not everyone is savvy enough to type in “fingernails” instead of just nails. Needless to say, it isn’t good for business.

Our industry up until now has been free from this particular ailment. Let’s hope Needle Point Pens don’t become wildly popular. Searchers have a hard enough time finding our websites already.

On the other hand, it’s a perfect gift for a needlepointer friend!

Congratulations to us at Pepita on our very first blog entry!

Why set up a blog, you ask? The purpose of this blog is manifold:

• Photos of needlepoint work. When a proud customer shows us a completed needleart work, we ask permission to post a photo here on the blog. This is a great way to share your creative techniques with other people so everyone can benefit. Comments from our readers discussing the piece will make for very interesting reading as well. Do you have a needlepoint work you’d like to share? Send it to us! Use the email link on the side of the page to let us know about it.
  
• Communication. It’s a great way to share our thoughts with customers and partners, and have them comment right back at us. Communication is key to any business, and critically so to a creativity-based business such as ours. Do you have a suggestion for improving our website? Our products? Anything? Let us know!
  
• Stitch Guides. Many customers ask for stitch guides to help them complete a needlepoint piece. We can use this blog to publish different needlepoint stitches and techniques. Over time, a wealth of needlepoint-related resources will accumulate here for the benefit of the entire online needlepoint community.

Here’s to a long and healthy blogging future!