A Heart for Independence (in Needlepoint)

I've been digging in the old boxes again, and found this piece - made a number of years ago for a shop here as a practice piece for using beads and textured stitches.

As I remember, the inspiration for the design was a little enameled pin I saw in a catalog. It looks lopsided only because it has been wadded up under a pile of other things for at least 8 years. Oh dear.

















I had not finished the stars yet, but decided to show it this way so as to make the method simpler to understand. Stars, at best, are not easy in needlepoint, and I wanted the effect of the misshapen and irregular look anyway - so worked this out for the stitching.

I used YLI Ribbon Floss because it is perfectly flat (and shiny) so it easily cover the canvas. The background stitching needs to be done first, (I used #5 pearl cotton in a bright navy) right up to the edge of the drawing of the stars. Then it's a simple matter to just "draw" with needle and ribbon floss as we did as children, the five pointed star. Follow the diagrams, and just continue making the star "motion" until the area is covered. You can see one in progress where the black line ends.

To draw your own, simply start with the counted outline as described on previous posts. This piece is 5" x 5" on 18 mesh canvas, so you will need to center it on an 8" square of mono-canvas.

The second scan of the drawing on canvas is the actual size, so you can simply trace the stars onto your drawing. (It might be easier if you first outline them with black ink so they show up better through the canvas.)

The red stripes are 9 stitches wide, and the white ones are 7. You can see the correct placement of the dots for the beads, which also make the Hungarian criss-cross stitch easier to do in this narrow space.

The little bracelet is outlined with Kreinik metallic gold 002 #12 braid, and the bump stitch "silver beads" are made with Kreinik metallic silver #12 braid.




The red stripes are worked with a stitch I thoroughly enjoy using, but have no idea what the name is or where I found it - I've been using it for many years, and something shiny could be inserted instead of beads if you wish. I'm showing it in two colors simply to illustrate the construction. This post is a bit of a mess - I have no idea where all that blank space at the bottom came from or how to get rid of it.

Oh well - Enjoy!! I was thinking earlier, that the stripes might be worked in bargello instead of with these stitches.