San Francisco Needlepoint

There’s a reason the City by the Bay is so popular with visitors — it’s very scenic. I’ve made the Bay Area my home for over 35 years and my DH has lived here all his life. I love all the great canvases of San Francisco and have stitched more than a few.

I thought today we’d look at the range of San Francisco needlepoint. Most of these designs work for beginning stitchers, but some are much more complex.

I have an eBay search in needlepoint for San Francisco and get updates via email. I’ve seen lots of easy older canvases there.

For an easy canvas you will want something that is stitch-painted and not overly detailed.

I like smaller canvases, so this is slanted that way. I am also pretty picky about stuff being accurate, so my list reflects that as well. The links in this article go to the referenced area of the designer’s site.

Danji makes a lovely San Francisco oval that has several iconic buildings in outline. It’s about ornament sized. This would be, by far, my top choice for a beginner. You can find it on this page, second column, tenth row. If you want a different city, there are several others in this series. You can find them on the same page.

Kathy Schenkel has several SF ornaments. you can find them in the other section of her site. These vary in how hard they are. There is a Golden Gate Bridge & an SF round on page 3 (both easy), the Alamo Square Victorians (these are the famous ones), and a cable car on page 4 (harder), and Lombard Street on page 5 (most complex of hers).

The Princess & Me has a charming but not accurate GG Bridge but I couldn’t find it on their site. This canvas comes with a stitch guide, so it may be more difficult than you want. A picture of mine partially stitched is above.

Painted Pony has an adorable SF angel, it’s detailed but probably do-able. There are many other cities and countries from Painted Pony. I’ve stitched several of them and they are such fun.

Silver Needle has an SF canvas in their travel rounds but I don’t like it because it isn’t accurate.

Looking at larger canvases, Raymond Crawford has an SF square with the bridge, cable car & Marin headlands (fifth row, first column). Amanda Lawford also has a City square, which would be very easy to stitch (middle of top row). Both designers have squares for a few other cities.

Ruth Schmuff has an SF map canvas. There are a few others in her map series.

Going really big, and challenging for a beginner, Trubey has an SF bell pull (page 1). Finally DJ Designs has some stunning but pretty complex Christmas designs. Both designers also make these styles of canvases for other cities as well.

Designers you might consider if you find them on eBay although their canvases range in difficulty are Peter Ashe and Euro. Both were based in the area and have many SF canvases. The San Francisco heart pictured at the top of the post is by Euro. They also did a wonderful mini-sock of the Bay Bridge (Oakland to SF) that I just love and stitched. In fact I love it so much I bought it a second time when I found it.

Peter Ashe lived in San Francisco for many years and has many lovely canvases of the City’s famous “painted ladies.”