Scrappy Squares Needlepoint Quilt

Scrappy Squares Needlepoint Quilt is a quilt portrait needlepoint. I love patchwork and quilts but don’t have the sewing ability to make them. Therefore, using quilts as my inspiration I turn them into needlepoint. Many of my free projects on this blog, as well as ebooks and club projects draw on this rich store of boldly graphic designs.

This design is based on squares that are multiples of each other. That’s easy to do in needlepoint with Box Stitches. A Mosaic Stitch is twice the size of a Tent Stitch. A Scotch Stitch over 4 threads is twice the size if a Mosaic Stitch. A bigger Scotch (or in this case a Mosaic in a Diagonal Gobelin border) is twice the size of the first Scotch.

Knowing this you can mix and match squares to create a lively design.

This quilt uses all solid colors. If you chose to use hand-dyes, as I did, you will mimic the slightly shaded look of batik quilting fabrics.

To make this piece you will need:

• 5×7 piece 18-mesh mono canvas
• at least 12 colors of solid or hand-dyed threads
• a metallic thread in an accent color (optional)
• a border color (optional)

Most of the threads I used were Dinky Dyes stranded silk. A few colors of Grandeur were used, and white Crystal Braid was my accent thread.

The design is 32 stitches wide and 48 stitches wide without the border. To make it fit into a 2″x3″ frame I added a row of Tent in the metallic at the top and bottom and a two row border of Diagonal Gobelin around the entire piece. Although I chose to use one of my main colors for the border, another color could be used that does not appear in the quilt.

Your choice for what color should go in each square should be picked at random from among your palette of colors. Just don’t put the same or similar colors next to each other.

Instead of a complete diagram of the quilt you’ll find a map below. A single square on this map is a Mosaic Stitch. Most groupings of four squares of the same color are Scotch Stitches over four threads. Among these there are a few blocks of four Mosaic Stitches in the same color (you can see these in the finished stitching). Eight blocks together in the same color are the Mosaic-Diagonal Gobelin BLocks.

The original quilt had very simple stitching and quilting which is why these stitches are flat. If you’d like more texture or variety you can substitute other stitches covering the same area.