New Needlepoint November 2019

I have a question for you — How is the needlepoint industry like the fashion industry?

It used to be that both premiered new products in definite “seasons.” For fashion, these were based on seasonal weather. In needlepoint, the seasons were based on the needlepoint wholesale markets. Today, that has changed to a more year-round market. Although the majority of new products come out for the seasons, there are new items showing up all the time.

I was thinking about this last week as I got my newest issue of Needlework Retailer, a trade publication about new products in the needlework industry. A few years ago I could figure an off-market issue, like this one, wouldn’t have much needlepoint. Today there is plenty to share with you. While some of the items won’t come out until the new year, many of them are available now.

Kangaroo Paw will premiere a line of Santa’s home polka dot state outlines next year. Home wears a Santa hat and the states have white dots on a soft lime background. She also has a New Orleans Louisiana outline in yellow dots say “the big easy.” Madeline Elizabeth, a young designer, is only a sophomore in high school. Her Jungle Friends canvas features realistic and colorful animals on a dark background. Annie Lane has a new Christmas Carolers canvas that has her animals caroling at the town bandstand.

Voila has small, round wicker crossbody bags with openings for round needlepoint. in Rittenhouse’s growing line of hand-painted reproductions of art, they have added Erte reproductions. Sisters & Company has a lovely small oval design featuring a Provencal farmhouse surrounded by lavender fields. & more has added designs from a new licensed artist, Ilona Fekete. One of her canvas features a town square at Christmas with the nativity pageant, the town tree, and snowman along with a skating rink,

Kelly Clark has added four new nutcrackers to her line, bringing the total to a dozen. She has a lovely new egg series that is available to shops as a club, beginning in February. It features primroses on some eggs and bows on others, all using bright ribbons. I’m just crazy about her new 3-D Noah’s Ark. Besides the ark itself, there are Noah and his wife as well as a dozen pairs of animals. The design is classic and would be a lovely showpiece for any stitcher. It’s available on 13 or 18 mesh.

Juiia has a lovely series of flower-filled hearts with a bright butterfly on each. Patricia Sone has a 4×2 clean/dirty canvas to give your dishwasher’s status. Finish it over a magnet in colorfast threads to keep it close at hand. Gone Stitching has acquired Magic Needle. They will be offering the company’s Judaic and fine art reproduction canvases to their line. Pippin has a line of easy-to-stitch kits called PDQ (PippinDarnQuick). The kits come with a hand-painted canvas, #5 pearl cotton, frame, needle, and instructions.

JP Needlepoint has a wonderfull Christmas woven ribbons square with delightful patterned and motif ribbons on a bright yellow background. Judi & Co has canvases of ladies with wreaths of flowers in their hair licensed from artist Vladimir Prodanovich. They also have ‘Needlepoint . . . yoga for the mind” available both as a needleminder and as a canvas

One of the coolest things I’ve seen is called Framelok. They look like miniature carpenter’s squares and are made to sit inside the corners of your stretcher bars. The story behind them is really cool. They were designed by a 14-year-old boy using his 3-D printer to help his needlepointing mom. She wanted something that would keep the corners of her stretcher bars straight. The brackets come in sets of four packaged in a clear plastic box. They come in blue, green, pink, orange, and yellow. The plan is to have them in shops by Christmas.

Sullivan’s has a new twist on the idea of thread snips. Their Handy Clippers are slim and have what’s a pair of scissors without fingerholes at one end. It has a plastic top to protect it. The Meredith Collection has a new Beading Essentials kit that hs what you need to bead in one place. The kit includes a beading needle, wax, a bead nabber, thread, Bead Buddy, and beading mat.

Updated 11/12/19: This morning i got details on several new products. Planet Earth is now making their square jewelry cases in grey. You can pre-order these from your local shop now. Laura Perin has a new charted geometric out. It’s called Autumn Trails.

Finally, I have the list of new Threadworx colors that came out in September. In floss there are six new colors; five of these are dark semi-solids., the sixth is ‘Mardi Gras (purple, green & yelow). The different sizes of metallic braid have six new colors as well, including a metallic version of Santa’s Beard (white and pale grey).Overdyed Vineyard Merino Wool has five new colors, three almost solid colors and two semi-solid colors a great and a lovely sky blue. Overdyed Ice Chenille also has five new colors, in these are both a light and a dark gold.