Say it with Needlepoint

Sayings and needlepoint just seem to go together. From a canvas with a complete sayings to one word affirmations and needlepoint names, they remain popular items for hand painted canvas needlepoint.

But what if the thing you want isn’t available?

Then you need to look no further than the three delightful series of letters from Marie Barber at Colors of Praise.

Marie has come up with the best idea. She has three series of letters, the 100 and 200 series are upper case only and the 300 series has both upper and lower case, each with a different background. YOu can see them all on her letters page.

Each letter is different and bold enough to stand out from the colorful patterned backgrounds.

Now the fun begins. You can specify the word or phrase you want and even specify the backgrounds and even the colors. Marie says “[A] customer might like the “M” in the 300 series on a 200 background and that would be indicated
LE313b (letter) on LE213(background) or LE203(lets say they need a capital C) on LE338( wants this look). Size and mesh needs to be specified and if a letter needs to be a different color that also has to be indicated upon the order.”

Because each canvas is a custom order, it can take 1-3 weeks for your LNS to get the piece, more of it’s ordered at a trade show.

Marie goes on to say “There are so many options with these letters and how to arrange the words if that is what’s being used. The words can be in a linear row or stacked upon each other for example. If it is a word, I need to know the spacing in between each letter(I normally leave 1/4″). Same for Initials, the spacing needs to be indicated( I normally leave 1″).”

Sometimes shops call to talk through the plan with Marie, other times they just leave it up to her taste. Marie has a great idea for you to plan out your order: “print out the pages from my website and cut and paste, that would give them a better idea what it might look like if they are trying to create a word.”

The picture here, taken from Marie’s site is a great example of the possibilities. While many of the letters are from the 300 Series, others, the “L” for example, combine the letter from one series with the background pattern from another and put it in a different color scheme.

I love this great idea for making fun custom needlepoint without fuss.