In Stitches
Have you caught the needlepoint bug? Have you heard of NeedleTok? What I learned from the most delightful social club in Baltimore.
Do you needle? Is this a thing, like “Do you Pickle”? I’ve been needlepointing since I was in high school. My grandmother taught me the basket weave stitch probably in Destin during a summer break in the last century and I’ve been hooked ever since. I remember thinking it was kind of “old lady” when I was young, but then a friend in college was also into it and I got excited all over again. I love that this next generation is truly embracing this craft and thriving.
Last night I joined a local needlepoint club for a “stitch and sip” at Hillside Needle Arts in the Stevenson Shopping district. My husband gave me a gift card last Christmas and I happened to cash it in the day before. Being the shy girl that I am, I introduced myself to the owner Leslie and team member Christy and they encouraged me to join the party. I’ve been quietly stalking this fun crew of stitchers and found Hillside from my beloved Kohli from Beckett Hitch. Turns out an old friend and blogger bestie, EAS, helped form the group with another friend of a friend. Gotta love a Smalltimore moment.
The Hillside team was so helpful gathering my threads for this WIP (work in progress) on Wednesday. If you are new here (welcome and thank you for your support, it means the world to me), I have a Partridge Christmas ornament obsession collection that I started for Eric 21 years ago! I squealed when I saw Inslee’s partridge ornament collaboration with Coco Frank and snagged it the minute it came out. It’s even cuter and more colorful in person.
Read more about the Partridges on my old blog post here on Blogger. This is where Erin and I met honestly also about 18 or 19 years ago! Those were the olden days, pre-Instagram, and somehow I think we found each other with the #preppyfistpump hashtag, or just in the comments of our favorite blogs.
I learned more in the first twenty minutes at this meet up about everything that is new and “on point” in the needlepoint world that I was excited to share the skinny here with my readers (so fun to have readers again!). I’ve already had Baltimore friends ask where this shop is and I look forward to running into many pals again at Hillside soon.
New to Nellie Needlepoint Deets:
Project bags! How darling are these In the Works project bags by What’s the Stitch? This 26 year old is crushing the canvas game.
NeedleTok! Warning you could get sucked in and lose hours here, but I had no idea there was such a thing. I adore this account and am so impressed by her dedication and skill after only a year. If you are a beginner, this is for you. You can find so many incredible tutorials on NeedleTok. Who knew? I also just learned about BookTok so I’m a bit tardy to the party on all things TikTok.
Stretchers: Working on a stretcher is new to me. I had more fun talking to Kohli’s friend Tracy and she shared so many ideas and tricks. Loved meeting you Tracy. Please let’s meet up to Sip and Stitch!
Snag Nab It Tool: Again Tracy for the Win, watch the video below of her explanation, it cut off a bit early, but it’s a tool to help you bring a snag, or unwanted thread back through the canvas at the time of finishing a project. The textured edge literally grabs the thread like magic. She gifted me one! Thanks so much for your kindness and intel. This is why I love going to meet ups with like minded people. It’s so rewarding to learn from other and share knowledge in general.
Needlepoint.com has fabulous canvases.
One of the most helpful tools at Hillside Needle Arts was this stitch book. Leslie has captured every style of stitch, diagonal, cross, etc and given an example in this reference book. I’m excited to try Diagonal Mesh, Corduroy and more. She also has little sample pieces of canvas to test and learn on the tables in the shop.
It was so wonderful seeing what everyone was working on and shopping with a 20% off discount! I loved looking at new style fibers like this Silk Road that looked almost like ribbon, and how people were going to finish their projects.
I shared last night that when my grandmother was sick in bed with shingles I sent her these two pillows to finish for me and keep her busy. I treasure them and remember her thanking me for giving her something to do while she was miserable in bed. What a gift that she completed them and then had them finished for me as a Christmas present. I remember finding the kits with wool thread at the Woodlawn gift shop in Virginia, in 1995 when I was doing events for WashingtonInc. I have no idea what lead me to such an expensive project as a 22 year old, but man I’m so glad I splurged. Little did I know I’d be married and living in Baltimore with our crab pillow.
Thank you Leslie, Christy, Erin, Sally and Kohli for such a fun night.
Please share in the comments your favorite places to find canvases.
I love this! I used to do all sorts of needlepoint when I was a kid and have recently been looking for canvases. Thanks for the tips in here, I'll check them out and let you know how it ends up!
This sounds like SO MUCH FUN! I remember as a kid loving cross stitching! Is it the same? similar? I loved going to this craft store with my dad called Pleasures and Pastimes to get the thread and the patterns. I also loved quilling then and loved getting colored quilling paper. All old hobbies are new again!