What Makes Something Scrap Bag Needlepoint?

Updated 9/29/18
Because Scrap Bag Needlepoint continues to create some of my favorite needlepoint projects, I thought I’d take today’s post to explain a little bit about my philosophy for making (and designing) stash busting projects.

My motivation for learning to use my stash had its origins in many things.

First, I love quilts and I’m particularly fond of of quilts that “make do” by using up little scraps of fabric. I thought these would translate well to needlepoint, as indeed they do. Many of these projects are free and here on Nuts (search here) and my book, Scrap Bag Needlepoint is available in my Etsy store here. You’ll also find on Nuts lots of articles about creating scrap bag designs yourself.

The pictures immediately above and the next two below are projects from that book. Stained Glass is the very first project I made using this idea. It’s syill one of my favorites.

Then there was my husband asking me to shop my stash first. This took care of many things, but I still had odds and ends of thread.

Finally, there was a realization that when we buy threads for projects we always end up with leftovers.

I wanted to make something lovely from them, so I thought back to those quilts.

Essentially a Scrap Bag Needlepoint is any project that uses small bits of many colors. So it’s easy to get out stuff you have and make them. It can be as small as an ornament or as big as a pillow or a rug.

But the important thing is that the design does not require continuity of color, so it won’t matter much if the color changes.

That’s why quilts are so often my inspiration. I have also done many pieces that were painted canvases, some geometric, some not. The brand-new (September 2018) vintage canvases from JP Needlepoint are perfect examples of this, as is the Maggie pillow below (you can find similar ones in her line currently), and the A pictured at the top of the article by an unknown designer.

The important thing is color, lots of it and in discrete bits. Look for those things and you have great stash-busters.