I have devoted much time and energy to learning, designing, teaching, painting, and writing about decorative needlepoint stitches. I was reading a blog, Needlepoint in the 21st Century, this morning about "this fascination everyone in my *needlepoint world* has with ever more difficult stitches." It really got me thinking about why I have dedicated a great deal of my design techniques and my blog to decorative stitches. Personally, I started stitching decorative stitches because I had a "need for speed". As a designer I needed finished samples to display at shows. I'm a one woman operation. Using decorative stitches helped me stitch canvases faster. The result of using decorative needlepoint stitches was the finished item looked more interesting. People asked questions, wanted to know what I did. The same result occurred when I used specialty threads. Most of all I was learning something new. I had a sense of accomplishment. I could needlepoint the exact same canvas as someone else and it would look different. It would be mine! My hope when designing a canvas is that each stitcher will make it their own by changing colors, choosing specialty threads and adding decorative stitches. In my opinion, needlepoint is decorative, enjoyable, creative and functional. Each canvas I design hopefully has each of these components. My business mission statement includes "uncomplicated, clear colors are easy to needlepoint for the novice or creatively embellish for the veteran stitcher." This morning I was going to post another decorative stitch completed on the Poppy Plaid border, but I had to stop and think why was I doing this? I do this because I want to pass on what I've learned and hopefully help someone else learn in a simple, straight forward way, too. I'll keep you posted as I continue to create hand-painted needlepoint featuring clear color, specialty threads, and decorative stitches.
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