Upcoming Classes

Stitch of the Week
It's the return of Stitch of the Week! We're now going to be having a Stitch of the Week class again every Saturday morning at 12. Wendy will be teaching a fun new stitch every week. The class fee is $5. We will supply you with a piece of canvas, thread, a needle, and chart. These classes are a lot of fun and a great way to add new stitches to your repertoire. Our next class will be on January 21st. We hope you can come and take part!

Biscornu Pincushion

Our next Embroidery class will be a fun one! We'll be making a Biscornu Pincushion!

A biscornu is an eight-sided pincushion that has become very popular recently. In fact we have one in our Bargello trunk show and the accompanying book by Janet Perry called Bargello Revisited, which we have in stock. "The word biscornu (sometimes written biscournu) is derived from a French adjective, meaning skewed, quirky or irregular." ("Biscournu Basics", 1999, 2009) They are made from two squares sewn together on point. Many are finished with a button in the center. Adorable!

This class is going to be a lot of fun. You'll learn a few stitches, and once you've completed it, our finishers can finish it for you into a pincushion. This class takes place on Saturday, January 28th, from 3:30 – 5:00. The class fee is $20 and includes fabric, thread, needle, instruction, and a beverage. Give us a call if you'd like to sign up for this great class!

Stitch of the Week: Chain Stitch

The Chain stitch is a surface embroidery technique that transfers well to canvas work. It creates a textured or knitted look which is perfect for clothing, stems and trunks of flowers and trees, reins for horses or reindeer. It's also useful for outlining and for creating a spiral filling.

A note before you start stitching: It is very important when doing the chain stitch that you maintain a loose and even tension so that your results are consistent and visually appealing. Chain stitch is started at the top of the canvas and proceeds straight down.

When you begin stitching, bring the thread to the front of the canvas and hold it down with the left hand, forming a loop before bringing it to the back side of the canvas through the original hole. Do not pull the thread all the way through. There should be a loop on the front side of the canvas. Re-emerge to the front side of the canvas two to three horizontal threads below your original hole. Then bring your needle up and over the working thread, forming another loop on the front side of the canvas before returning to the backside through the same hole. Repeat.

This stitch is very diverse, and has a few great variations that you can try.

One variation is the Long tailed chain. It is an attractive filling stitch that is started at the top left hand corner and is worked diagonally down and to the right. The main element is worked over two horizontal threads. Tie down the stitch over six horizontal threads. The next stitch is dropped down two horizontal threads and one vertical thread to the right.

Another variation is the Detached chain. A half drop space of four vertical canvas threads is left between individual stitches in a row when they are worked horizontally across the canvas and the stitches in the following row fit exactly between those of the previous row (with a drop of one half the length of the stitch).

I hope you enjoy trying this stitch out. If you try it in one of your projects, send us a photo. We would love to see it!

Stitching Every Day

Lucky Jackson is a self taught artist residing in Peterborough, Ontario. Recently she decided that she was going to fulfill one of her longtime goals: to create something every day! For 365 days she is going to create something and post it on her blog. You can click on the title of this blog to go to her blog and see more of the photos of her finished pieces. Also check out her website for more information about herself.

Her pieces have all been visually exciting and fun to look at. I love seeing the photo of the embroidered and appliqued piece and then reading the caption. Most have a funny little story that really adds to the charm of the pieces!


This lovely piece is called "Joan Love" and represents Joan from Mad Men. It is hand embroidered on vintage fabric with applique. I love the way she combines the different threads and stitches with the fabric choice for the background to create a piece that really represents Joan!


Frequently she has theme weeks, where for each day she'll stitch a piece that has to do with a larger topic. The picture above (one of my favorites!) represents one of the days she illustrated different jobs she had in the past. She named this series "Take this job and shove it week." I loved her story behind this piece and instead of paraphrasing, I'll just share her words: "I worked in a bakery and got to be around the smell of baking bread.... Yum right? The only down side was that my apartment at the time was located above another bakery... there was no escape from the smell though delicious it was . Maybe that's when I started having problems tolerating wheat ;). And no my uniform wasn't as cute as this one."


This last piece is also one of my favorites because it has such a warm feeling. I love the hand-quilted top and the feet sticking out. One of my favorite things about all of her pieces is her composition. She really has a knack for combining different shapes and textures to really make the whole piece look cohesive.

This series and each post I see on her blog inspires me to do more of my personal work every day. I look forward to seeing all of her future pieces and hope that they have inspired you to do a little bit of stitching each day! :)

Piano Benches

If you have a piano and would like a way to make your piano bench stand out, a great thing to do is to have a piano bench made! We have had a number of customers stitch piano bench covers, and have been enthralled with the results!


The most recent piano bench is one that our custom painter specially painted for her. It is a reproduction of the "Heavenly Chorus" panel from Klimt's Beethoven Frieze in Vienna. You can see a section of the original painting above.


Stephanie has come a long ways since last fall, when we had it painted for her, and is about half way done. She sent us an update with a picture of it, and it looks great! You can see the picture above. I'm sure that it will look fabulous once it's been finished into a piano bench!


This spring we had another customer who is a very prolific stitcher have a piano bench finished. She chose to use Bargello for this one. It looked great! I love the colors, and am sure that it looks fabulous next to her piano!

We just got a piano bench in stock. Our painter is very qualified, and has the ability to paint exquisite canvases per your directions. If you are interested in having one painted for you, or perhaps would like to take a look through our catalogs and pick one out, come on in! We'd love to help you! Also feel free to ask about our finishing! We have finishers who can finish your piece into a pre-existing bench, or you can even have a custom bench made! There are so many options for piano benches. It's fun to see all the ways you can make one special and personal!

Small Business Saturday

November 26, 2011 is "Small Business Saturday," a day when America comes together to celebrate the Shop Small movement and support small businesses like ours.

To help make the day a huge success, American Express is giving Cardmembers who register their card for the Small Business Saturday a $25 statement credit when they spent $25 or more at businesses like ours.

Don't miss on this opportunity to buy products you love and need for your needlepoint projects, and also get a savings in your credit card statement! Visit their facebook page today to register your card for this great event! We hope to see you on Saturday, November 26th!

Needlepoint Your Special Memories

As you may know from reading our previous blog entries, we have a fantastic custom painter on staff who can create any needlepoint canvas that you would like. This is a great example of how to take a special memory and memorialize it in needlepoint.


Recently we had a customer by the name of Alison who did just that! Her daughter got married this year, and Alison loved the bouquet so much that she wanted to do a needlepoint pillow of it! From a photo of the bouquet, shown above, our painter was able to create a detailed sketch.


After Alison approved the sketch, our painter converted the sketch to a beautiful painting large enough that once it had been stitched, it would be a lovely pillow.


As you can see from the photo above, Alison stitched this gorgeous pillow up, and is very happy with it! Our finishers were able to put the final touches on this special project, giving it a gusset using the fabulous special fabrics we have on hand from a local high end fabric shop, and incorporating the same colored threads she used in her piece to make a lovely cord for it.

This project was a work of love, and I am sure that Alison's daughter just loves it! If you would like to do a project that is special to you, and would like some ideas, or need help in making it come to life, give us a call at the shop, or email Jia, our lead painter at painting@rittenhouseneedlepoint.com.

Happy stitching!

Focus on: Accentuate

Accentuate is a gorgeous poly thread that is comprised of 70% polyamide and 30% metallic polyester. It is sold in 50 meter spools, in 148 different colors. This very fine metallic filament is very strong and flexible. You can use it alone or blended with other threads to give your color a little bit of a pop of glitter. You would use this filament in a 2:1 equivalent. If you're using Accentuate alone, you should select simpler stitches. It would be a waste of time to execute a complicated stitch with sparkly metallic threads like Accentuate because the pattern would not be apparent.


Use the Ashley stitch, shown in the photo above, to create a lovely background, a special clothing pattern, or wallpaper. In the example above, Stephen used 12 strands of Accentuate by itself to create the effect of this stitch. It's nice to see how beautiful this thread comes out when you're just using it by itself.


Another stitch that uses this lovely thread is the Framed Reverse Scotch Stitch, which you can see above. This stitch would look lovely in a design with a tablecloth, a pattern on curtains, and rugs. Once again, the thread is not blended with another color, but is placed next to another contrasting color. This little pop of shimmer really makes the yellow pop and gives this stitch added character.


The Raised Maltese Cross, seen above, is another fantastic example of a stitch that this thread really shines in. The combination of the loveliness of this stitch as well as the beautiful colors that Accentuate comes in, would make this an excellent stitch to use with Accentuate to create a patch of flowers or shrubbery.

Try this lovely thread out for yourself. By all means let us know how it works for you, and what you use it for! We love to see everyone's projects!