Improve your Needlepoint with these New Books

For far too long needlepoint has been a hit or miss affair. While practitioners of almost every other art can find books and classes that teach them both how to do techniques but ways to know, before the first brushstroke is put on canvas or the photo is taken how to get the results you want. In short how to get predictable results.

That’s important because knowing this will give you more and better ways to stitch your canvas. It will help you make better choices when buying canvases, and it will help you make every piece you stitch look great.

Giving you the knowledge and tools you need to achieve this is the motivation behind the new series, Predictable Results. The first two volumes came out this week.

At the top of the column you’ll find the cover picture from Color my Needlepoint. Color is a fascinating subject, but can often be frustrating. This book goes beyond the usual description of color schemes by showing you stitched examples and giving you ideas and formulas to make them work for you.

But color schemes are only a part of what makes a needlepoint work. Here you’ll learn about contrasts in color, by seeing examples, all available as canvases, that are typical of each type. You’ll learn how to analyze a canvas for contrast and why it’s important. You’ll also have real needlepoint canvases analyzed for color contrast and improved if needed. All of this is written with you, the stitcher, in mind, giving you the knowledge you need to improve every needlepoint project you do.

You won’t have to figure out how to adapt a book on mixing paint to thread, and I’ll explain why those books don’t work so well. You won’t have to deal with a new technical language or work on obscure exercises. What you’ll learn is how to understand, analyze, and use color in your needlepoint.

Above you’ll find the cover for Exciting and Easy Background Techniques. Backgrounds can be one of the most troublesome areas of a canvas to stitch (do you have piles of pieces waiting for backgrounds? I do.) This book looks at techniques you may not have considered, for example laid stitches, with stitch suggestions and diagrams to start your exploration. It also covers using fabric as a background, a technique you’ll see here in the next several months. Finally you’ll get lots of ideas for creating realistic backgrounds.

There are more books in this series coming out. The next two volumes cover threads with more practical information than you will find in other books and shading techniques that give you many great ways to shade with all kinds of threads and stitches.

How do I know that these books work? Because the ideas in them have worked for me. I’ve studied art and color literally all my life and I’ve been a serious student of needlepoint for almost 45 years. But when I started to work on this series of books that I found my needlepoint taking a great leap forward with better color choice, more definition of focal points, more exciting backgrounds, and better stitch choice.

The techniques in these books will allow you to get the most out of every single needlepoint, large or small, that you stitch.

They are a small investment but one that will pay for itself over and over.

Visit my author page on Amazon to buy yours at special prices today.