A Mother’s Needlepoint Restretched on Acid-Free Board and Reframed

My customer had a beautiful needlepoint woodland scene hand-stitched by his mother that had been water-damaged. Mainly, though, it needed to be removed from the old cardboard backing that someone had originally stapled it to for framing.

                              

Close-up photo of water damage, acidic cardboard and tear in canvas:

 

I began by removing the staples and getting the needlework off the cardboard. Next, I patched the torn area with interfacing fabric. Then I machine-stitched clean, unbleached muslin fabric to all sides of the piece. This fabric doesn’t have any starches or finishes on it and it’s very sturdy. It should last a long, long time and be “healthy” for the needlework.

    

Once the fabric was on, all the seams were hand-stitched together and the edges turned under, preparing the piece for lacing it to a piece of Canson brand acid-free art board. Here it is, pinned for lacing:

 

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“Friendship is the Heart of Needlework” finished project

This project was a doozy, but I like the results:

As I’d said earlier, my customer (Gayle) had this project that remained unfinished at the time of her mother’s death. She hired me to complete it. I followed written and graphed directions for 4 hearts that needed to be done, plus the saying and the remainder of the hearts border in the middle. Here is an example of the instructions, and also a 4x6 photo of the completed “example” piece from a workshop that I believe Gayle’s mom took (thru White Pine chapter of the Embroiderer’s Guild of America):

		How I did it! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

When I first realized that Gayle’s mom had taken a workshop for this piece, I was a tad intimidated. There was cutwork on here that I haven’t done before. But luckily I didn’t have to do any other cutwork. I would have simply practice on scrap canvas until I got it right! I don’t like not knowing how to do something, and that doesn’t ever stop me!

So, here are the hearts I added to Gayle’s mom’s beautiful handiwork:

My favorite is the one on the top left, and it intimidated me the most! I had no instructions for this heart, so I had to “wing it” just by looking at the heart in the 4x6 photo, and that thing was SMALL. I looked through my Mag Eyes magnifiers and was able to sketch out just about what was used in the original piece. I love it, and it took me quite a while to complete that heart. But they all did, because I didn’t know some of the stitches before I did them, and I wanted them to be just as lovely as the hearts that Gayle’s mom did in her hearts. I hope she would be pleased with my results. I hope Gayle enjoys her mother’s piece for many, many years. It’s truly a wonderful needlework sampler.

Oh, and in case you’re interested, these are the stitches I did (in no particular order) and just for added interest, I’ll tell you beside them which ones I’d ever done before:

*Type of Stitch*                              *Had I done it before?*

French Knot                                                                     yes

Colonial Knot                                                                   no

Rosette                                                                             no

Cross-Stitch                                                                      yes

Satin Stitch                                                                       yes

Beads added                                                                     no

Backstitch                                                                         yes

Outline (Stem) Stitch                                                        yes

Long-arm Cross-Stitch                                                      no

Kalem Variation                                                               no

Rhodes Half-Drop Stitch                                                  no

Waffle Stitch                                                                    no

Woven Cross-Stitch                                                          no

Chain Stitch                                                                      yes

Herringbone Stitch                                                           no

Not having done these stitches before wasn’t a problem because 1) most stitches build on each other or are variations of the basic embroidery stitches, and 2) I enjoy learning new ways to stitch. So now I can add to my repertoire.

Oh! I forgot the most difficult stitch, and one that is, oddly, named after a town in Italy: The Casalguidi Stitch! Below is a much more intricate example, but the one I did forms the outline of the heart with the “P” initial inside. I had to resort to learning this off an online tutorial that another kind stitcher has provided. It wasn’t even in my reference library, not even in “The Complete Encyclopedia of Stitchery.”