Needlepoint pieces look great, but can be arduous to create

I swore I’d never do it again. Well, I’m doing it again. I’m talking about needlepoint, a needlecraft that never appealed to me very much. Oh, I love what it looks like as long as someone else has done the stitching. I don’t like the rigid texture of the mesh canvas foundation fabric. The intricacy of needlepoint stitches fails to interest me. The basket weave stitch baffles me, and the only stitch I know how to do is the continental, or half-cross. Trying to figure out which color to use when and where in those badly painted designs on the mesh canvas frazzles my patience. I always miscount when I try to follow the charted patterns. I’ve never been tempted to design a needlepoint piece.

But here I am, doing needlepoint. And it’s all the Brewer Marden’s fault. The store has needlecraft kits in stock, some of which are needlepoint. Sure, I could have chosen silk ribbon embroidery, counted cross stitch or a kit with beads. But no, I had to reach for the needlepoint kit. I must have been way out on a whim that day. Or out of my mind. Again.

I was 20 the first time I met someone who actually did needlepoint. I was living in Portland then, and the middle-aged woman who lived in the apartment below mine invited me in one afternoon. She showed me the needlepoint pieces she had done – classic designs of fruit and flowers, very Victorian, very detailed and intricate. She had done Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy” and Lawrence’s “Pinkie,” needlepoint interpretations of famous paintings. She purchased pieces with the central motifs already stitched by some anonymous hand. She stitched in the background color, usually in ecru or black, using the continental stitch. I marveled at the woman’s devotion to a craft that seemed to me seriously dull and colorless.

But out of curiosity, I tried one or two small pieces in the ensuing years. I didn’t like it.

My attitude toward needlepoint changed somewhat in the 1970s when needle arts of all sorts enjoyed, if not a renaissance, a major design overhaul, and books featuring needlepoint in jazzy designs and bright colors were published. Movie stars and football players did needlepoint then, and wrote books about it. I decided to try needlepoint again. I still didn’t like it. The canvas chafed my skin, the fine wool yarn frayed and split. I liked what it looked like when it was done, but I didn’t like doing it.

Years went by. A friend who was accomplished at doing needlepoint gave me a piece she had done. I found several antique pieces and added them to my collection. After that, I didn’t give needlepoint another thought until the late 1990s, when a family member needed surgery. Wanting a project to occupy my hands and mind while I waited at the hospital, I went – where else? – to Marden’s seeking a needlework kit. For some perverse reason, I chose a needlepoint pillow kit, which oddly enough, turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. It was challenging enough, an intricate medieval design with mazelike elements, to divert the anxiety I felt, yet repetitious enough to require little thought. It took me more than a year to finish the piece, and it turned out to be gorgeous.

But after that, I said, “Never again.” Famous last words.

The piece I just finished is an eye glasses case. The design is a patchwork-y thing featuring a flower, an apple, a bird, a rising (or setting) sun, a shell, a heart and a butterfly. The design is painted – badly – on the canvas, and stitched with embroidery floss. Fourteen stitches to the inch. The result is silky to the touch. The colors are muted shades of blue, yellow, green purple, red and orange. I really like how it looks. I didn’t like doing it.

Those just developing an interest in needlepoint have a golden opportunity to build up a needlepoint library. Used books on the subject often are more available than other kinds of needlework books because needlepoint is at a low ebb in popularity.

Needlepoint has many useful applications – as upholstery for chair seats and footstools, and as handbags and pillows.

It’s worth trying at least once. You might like it.

Needlepoint Web sites: www.stitching.com; www.needlepointnow.com; www.needlework.com; www.prairieschooler.com.

Snippets

“A Peace of Work Performed by Me: Historic Fiberarts from the Collection” will open July 9 at the Maine Historical Society in Portland. The exhibit will feature more than 20 embroidered samplers dating from 1755 to 1860. Also included in the exhibit will be examples of beadwork, lace, Victorian hair-work, sewing tools and supplies and a coverlet made in 1818 by Delphos Turner of Palermo.

The exhibit is part of The State of Fiber 2004, a yearlong statewide celebration organized by Maine Fiberarts.

Ardeana Hamlin welcomes suggestions. Call 990-8153, or e-mail ahamlin@bangordailynews.net.