The official blog of Pepita Needlepoint
Mazel Tov to my dear son, Yossi, on his Bar Mitzvah! Yes, I know the tefillin bag was ready over a year ago. Well, he is proudly using it every morning. He’s getting lots of compliments on his bag. His Bar Mitzvah dinner was beautiful. He outdid himself with his speech. Mazel Tov to the Frank and Friedman families! Yossi, we hope to have lots of Yiddish Nachas from you and all our children.
Our customer Phoebe B. placed a custom order with us for a tallit tree of life canvas with pomegranates growing on the trees in lieu of the flower buds usually there. Look at her stunning results! The contrast of the rich colors is what I like best about the finished bag. It is also immaculately stitched.
Thanks, Phoebe, for giving us the opportunity to enjoy the “fruits of your labor!”
I don’t mean to brag 🙂 but I’m artist of the month at Needlepaint Nook, a upscale needlework shop in Merrick, New York. We have stitched samples and canvases on display there. Go and check them out!
Hi everyone, who wouldn’t want to get some of Pepita’s famous canvases at 25% off? No true stitcher could possibly resist that! Go shop at pepitaneedlepoint.com or judaicaneedlepoint.com and use promo code HOLIDAYS-2014 at checkout. All canvases in any category are included (except for custom designs).
Hamsa, otherwise known as a hand amulet for good luck, is a luck symbol in many religions. This Judaica piece has the word “Chai,” which means life in Hebrew, stitched in the center. The rope/stem stitch gives the border a 3D effect. Buy the canvas or the kit at judaicaneedlepoint.com. This stitched sample is not for sale, but a customer at a craft show begged to purchase it. Sorry, Alice.
The stitching is perfect on this classic stained glass design.
This customer wanted shades of blues, greens, and yellows. All “girlie” colors were omitted.
This tallit bag was built out, or finished with a velvet border to enlarge the tallit bag. The background was stitched with DMC #939 dark navy, so the stained glass colors stand out brightly.
This is a yamulka expertly stitched by a customer. The professional finishing is top notch.
The variety of results amaze me even though the canvases all started out identical. The matching yarmulka is a perfect companion.
Shmuel S. is celebrating his bar mitzvah this year. He loved the tefillin stained glass design, but we needed to incorporate his long name into the design. His dad used his prior experience as a graphic/marketing designer and came up with this brilliant concept. Shmuel’s grandmother then stitched the tefillin bag. Mazal Tov to Shmuel!
Thanks to our talented customer, Erica B., we have this gorgeous tefillin bag stitched in a camel tartan plaid. I admire the preciseness of her stitching. The results are rich and classy. This design is available in tallit, tefillin & yarmulka canvases. Gavriel Chanan (that’s the name stitched in Hebrew) is one lucky boy!
This is it. The navy and copper challah cover banner style that I referred to in the last post. It is finished in copper and navy ultrasuede. It is stitched in the diagonal hedge row stitch in DMC perle cotton #3 alternating with Kreinik medium braid #16 060.
It’s fascinating how the same idea can be stitched differently. The two challah covers don’t even look like first cousins.
The summer projects are all back from the finisher. Check back often as I show off some of my customers’ masterpieces!
In May this year I blogged about how to quickly stitch a challah cover by just stitching the center. Here is another idea, where I stitch a swath across the middle from end to end, and add material to the top and the bottom to fill it out. This reduced stitching time by about two thirds, and the results are very impressive.
I have a customer doing this project in copper and navy, and another one (on bed rest due to a complicated pregnancy) doing it in burgundy and gold. I’ll post those pictures when I have them.