Needlepoint of View

If the needlepoint scene caught the attention of the New York Times Fashion and Style section, we’re doing well. Now’s the time to invest in needlepoint everybody! Don’t wait until it’s too late! A while ago, I bought a Tucker Blair needlepoint headband and took it apart. It is made very well. Neat hand stitching [...]

Buried in the bottom of a story about President Barack Obama’s visit to Canada, we find this interesting passage: Although there were no public events planned for Obama in Ottawa, about 3,500 supporters ventured to the snow-covered lawn on Parliament Hill in the hopes of catching a glimpse. Vahid Saadati travelled from his home in [...]

I always thought needlepoint had a lot of math in it, with its formula for forming smooth bezier curves out of 13-count bargello stitching, it’s pattern tessellations, and of course 3-dimensional color space. But it turns out that at least one mathematician, Daina Taimina, has actually written a whole book about it, Crocheting Adventures with [...]

Microsoft Office 2010 will undoubtedly increase productivity in offices worldwide. Apparently, Microsoft is keen on getting consumers to recognize that Microsoft Office is useful for everyday at-home tasks, too. According to blogger Mary Jo Foley, quoting David Webster, the chief strategy officer in Microsoft’s central marketing group: “People are defining work pretty broadly these days,” [...]

Truckers, too, need something with which to spend time while waiting for a job. And apparently, for many truckers, needlework fits the bill nicely. It’s relaxing, and productive, and convenient. Great quote: “The fact that you can take strands of thread and basically make something out of it, that’s awesome I think,” he said. “It’s [...]

Dr. Andes took up needlepointing upon his retirement. Read about his work but mostly, enjoy the photos that accompany the article. Somehow, articles such as these only are written about men that needlepoint. As if this should be a female-only occupation. Now why would that be?

Encouragingly, the news is carrying stories that contain leading indicators of an upwards trend in needlepoint. Here is a story about Ten Home Trends for 2010 that says needlework is getting preppy again: We’ve heard “This ain’t your grandma’s…” A new buzz phrase just might be “That’s so granny.” Patricia Shackelford of Kansas City, author [...]

Poor families in Pakistan are supporting education initiatives by creating needlepoint pieces and sending them over to the U.S.A. for sale. “To make the schools self-supporting, the women also have been learning for the first time to create needlepoint and embroidered pieces that they could sell profitably in the United States, with its higher currency [...]

Check out Appraisal Day Offered at the Daily Tribune of Oakland County, where another needlepoint canvas was appraised by experts with an especially fine appreciation of needlework: “We’ve had things appraised as high as $50,000,” said Colleen Barkham, a historical society member and organizer of the event. “It was a needlepoint that came from England [...]

This segment from KX News about Elmer Jose is both interesting and inspirational. In all, Elmer has created over 200 of these needlepoint works of art, some containing nearly 170,000 stitches. He doesn’t usually take requests, but if you have something in mind, chances are, he’s already done it. Oh and by the way, “he [...]