Great Idea for Small Pieces — Stitch a Needlepoint Garland

Updated September 13, 2019.
Small needlepoint projects are always popular, but a bigger problem is figuring out what to do with them.

If you stitch holiday-themed pieces you can, at least, put many of them out as decorations. But what do you do when the tree (or trees) are dripping with needlepoint, you have stockings for everyone, but you still love those small projects.

Mary Agnes, late owner of the Florida shop, Needle Nicely, had on a marvelous idea; she stitched starfish to make a garland.She did not not use painted canvases to do it but drew the shape on canvas and then filled it with an interesting stitch.

Even if you use another shape, you could easily adopt this idea as the basis of your own garland. Just find a shape and fill it.

Several years ago put up a post that is of tremendous help in planning this kind of project. It discusses how to plan the finishing so the garland will look nice.

This advice is great for any project where you will be doing a group of items that will be displayed together.

To this I’d add some additional steps in planning.

Think out your unifying theme. For this garland it’s starfish shapes. But any grouping should have something that unifies them. If you have lots of pieces, it can be eclectic (look at my mini-socks garland pictured here). If it’s designed as a set, the unifier is already there. You can use that as a jumping off point to extend the idea.

Often the unifying theme is not enough. You should look to other aspects: color, one stitch (not Tent) used in every piece), similar cording, the same type of embellishment, the same shape, or even the same frame for finishing. The more the pieces of needlepoint look as if they go together, the better your finished garland will look.

If you use a self-finishing item or frame that can be hung, you have a great and easy way to make a garland. I have a bunch of round and square silver ornament frames. Because they are not Christmasy shapes or colors and don’t have tags, they could easily be the start of a garland. I could easily use a seasonal silk flower garland and these to make a great decoration. Because these finish so easily and can be changed, I could make different sets and change them. I love this idea!