Monday, March 23, 2009

Needlepoint Panel

In my spare time (cough, cough) I have a few projects on the go. One involves needlepoint as I find slowly filling in a zillion little squares with colour to be strangely relaxing. My latest project is using mini squares (5"x5") as this size does not require a frame to keep the work from stretching/skewing before it is finished.

I started with 1 square, then moved up to 4 thinking I would frame the 4 as a set in either a large square or a long rectangle. I couldn't find a pre-matted frame that I liked (and I hate cutting mats) so I thought some more until I decided on stitching the squares together into a panel. I found 9 kits that I liked that fit a floral/bug theme:

I'm using Patons silk bamboo in black to create the connecting borders as a skein of yarn was infinitely cheaper than the equivalent amount of floss. Each picture ends in a row of 729 DMC (gold), followed by 7 rows of Patons, 2 rows of DMC 321 (red), and 7 more rows of Patons to connect to the 729 DMC row of the next square.

If I'm pleased with the finished size, I'll probably back the piece in red cotton. Or I may just decide that the panel needs to be bigger and add more squares.

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