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Daphne Back Road Bears
Laconia, NH USA
Posts: 6,568

I do NOT need another thing to make, buy supplies for, spend time on, etc. BUT.... I'm really intrigued by punchneedle embroidery... think it might be something I can do w/o using up too many brain cells and might make some great homemade Christmas gifts. (OK, I'm kind of late to be trying this but I've got exactly a month... I can do this!)

Amy Thorton was showing me how it's done at the Schaumburg show and her fancy needle. Now I'm dying to get my own and give it a whirl!

QUESTION: Where, online, is a good place to buy supplies... patterns/kits...???????????

Anyone have suggestions?

Tami E Tami Eveslage Original Teddy Bears
Milford Ohio
Posts: 2,367

I have no suggestions, but I will be waiting for the answers along with you. I love the ornaments I've seen made this way.

Cleathero Creations Cleathero Creations
Ripley, Queensland
Posts: 1,925

patterns

http://www.sublimestitching.com/allpatterns.html

umm  a blog craftdaisy has some patterns too for free.
 
http://www.patternbee.com/FREEPATTERNS.html

http://mytransfers.blogspot.com/ I have seen these done in BOTH cross stitch nad embroidery.
I hope some of it helps.

Pumpkin & Pickle Bears Pumpkin & Pickle Bears
East Sussex
Posts: 2,047

To be honest, I've never heard of punchneedle embroidery before. I just googled it and came up with a few sites.

This one is in Sacramento and sells patterns and supplies:
http://www.gailbird.com/

This one is in Australia but looks as if they stock lots of supplies:
http://www.punchneedleembroidery.com/

The finished pieces look amazing. I bet they're time-consuming though! I love any sort of needlework but I barely have enough time for bear making so I REALLY mustn't spend too much time looking at these sites or I'll get WAY too tempted to have a go!!!  bear_rolleyes

elle Ellifolks
Eastern Ma.
Posts: 494
Website

Hi Daphne,

I do punch needle embroidery.  It's fun, and I love the look!  Here's a website with all kinds of punches.

http://www.punchneedlemarketplace.com/   I got the Cameo and like it.  It comes with 3 changeable tips.  You can use 1 stand of embroidery floss in the smallest tip, 3 stands with the medium tip, and all 6 strands with the largest tip. 

I also got the Super Luxo 4 needle set from Woolen Whimsies Miniatures.  http://www.woolenwhimsies.com/index.html       The owner, Linda Repasky, wrote a nice book on punch needle embroidery, Miniature Punch Needle Embroidery.   Another book I like is Punchneedle Emboidery Dancing Needles by Pamela Gurney.  She also has a website,  http://www.punchneedleembroidery.com/pa … ge_id=1671  with lots of information, some free patterns, and supplies.  She's in Australia, though.

Weaver's cloth makes a nice backing fabric for working on.  You should be able to find it at fabric stores.  Woolen Whimsies Miniatures also carries it.

For threads, I mostly use cotton embroidery floss, but also add silk threads and hand-dyed cottons.  Basically, punch needle embroidery is the same as rug hook punching but with a tiny needle.  You can use any thread or yarn that will fit through the needle and flow easily as you work.

Do you come down to the Boston area sometimes?  There is a wonderful shop, The World in Stitches, in Littleton, Ma. on 2A.  They have all kinds of beautiful threads and yarns -- lots of hand-dyed and over-dyed, silks, etc.  They have a website, but it's under construction.  http://www.twisinc.com/    I can't tell if they sell from the site.  It's great fun to go to the store though, if you get a chance. 

For hoops, I recommend the "gripper frames" at the Woolen Whimsies Miniatures website even though it is more expensive.  I found the round, plastic ones frustrating to use because they don't hold the fabric tight enough and loosen as you work.

Feel free to pm or email if you have any questions, etc.

Hugs,  :hug:

Ellen

Daphne Back Road Bears
Laconia, NH USA
Posts: 6,568

Thanks for the links! I'd Googled too but always get overwhelmed when it's something I know little about! It helps to have experienced suggestions! If Australia wasn't so far away I'd have ordered from there... their site looks great but I want to make Christmas presents with this technique so getting it all in the mail finally the day before isn't going to help me much! :(

I ordered from the place you suggested, Ellen.... Punch Needle Marketplace. Got the Cameo, a bunch of patterns and a wooden hoop.... I wasn't sure which size so got two! LOL!

I'll keep the shop in Littleton in mind.... sounds like a great adventure for a sunny winter's day in January! We have a great shop nearby with oodles of embroidery floss and yarn. They even have loads of punchneedle patterns. But those patterns and kits they have drop shipped from the supplier as they get orders so it takes 2 weeks to get anything. Had a chat with the owner about that yesterday!

Anyway, thank you all! Ellen, you can bet you'll hear from me if I have questions! Oh, and those books... thank you! I wondered what ones might be good. Like with bear making books.... not all are created equal!

Thank you! bear_flower

DebbieD Posts: 3,540

Hmmmm....that pic look suspiciously like the latchhooking I did in the late 70s.  If that's the case, you've left it too long to do big projects for Christmas, Daphne.  I know because I tried to do one for my brother one year, and only got about 1/3 of it done before Mom and I realized it was going to take a lot longer to finish.   bear_ermm

Its a lot of fun to see the picture forming, and its even more fun if its your own pattern  bear_flower

rkr4cds Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)
suburban Chicago
Posts: 2,044

Well, Ellen's whole picture *would* take a long time to create, but if tightly-woven fabric were used, and cut out into interesting 'ornament' shapes, were 2-sided withe a line drawing on one side (holiday theme) and the giftee's name, date/year and Daphne's initials in a single line text on the other, they could be ready to sew together (in that interesting shape!) in a few hours each.

And idea can be used: the designs don't need to be fully filled in designs like Ellen's pic. I typed out a long reply last night, hit something on this 'foreign' PC which erased it and I was too tired to re-type.

In essence it said that anything from a line-drawing to a fully shaded photo can be used. The ideas can be transfered to the back of the fabric (use very tightly woven fabrics to hold the looped threads in place) via tranfer (carbon paper-like) papers or by counted thread methods. When I'm home the end of the week, I'll put in 2 pix I have of 3" Uncle George and Mr.Lucky, who both have a 3 color plaid vest punched into the Body parts before sealing and cutting out the fabric. The plaid lines were carefully drawn onto the reverse side, complete withlittle tuxedo points along the bottom edges and the fronts had a 1-button overlap for the front vest closure, all drawn on before cutting out and sewing.

With the signle line of punching (with a single strand of floss) you will go over the lines several times to get nicely tufted lines on the front side. Occasionally (eapecially if your thrwad is not free-flowing through the needle guide and the tool) you'll get a longer loop showing on the front side. Just trim those off with the top surface. That's the beauty of going around your lines several times (and with the holiday looming in 3+ weeks, I'd opt for line drawings - like the single drawn lines as in cartoons), that there are no gaps or thinner spots along the design.

Gosh, the ideas are kicking in as I think of them, any idea like bells, wreaths, candy canes, snowmen, Xmas trees, Santa face - they can all be freeform sketched on the reverse side and gone over a few times with the needle. I likt to trim off the loop tops so it looks like chenille (sp?). To make sure that no loop pull out, I use a touch of glue on myfinger tip or fine-tipped syringe applicator and run over the bacxk side of the punching to seal them in place. (If you pull on a longer loop on thefront, you could conceivably pull out the whole design.

Daphne Back Road Bears
Laconia, NH USA
Posts: 6,568

Debbie - punchneedle embroidery is much different than latch hooking.... jeesh, I remember doing that when I was a kid! Still have the Garfield pillow somewhere! LOL!

Punchneedle embroidery is done with a special needle threaded with one long piece of yarn with which you punch in and out, in and out, in and out of the backing fabric creating loops to fill in a space with color. It's similar to rug hooking (not LATCH hooking) in a sense only with yarn instead of wool strips and on a MUCH smaller scale! Most of the punchneedle pieces I've seen have been about 6 inches or smaller.

Bobbie - we posted at the same time! Thanks for the suggestions and tips. I ordered some real simple kits so I'd have the designs already on the fabric and the yarn included so no guess work, chasing after the right supplies, etc. I have LOADS of designs in my head and plan to created lots of fun things next year when I have time to experiment. I figured starting out simple and easy would be a great way to learn and get something done for Christmas.

rkr4cds Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)
suburban Chicago
Posts: 2,044

Daphne, we were typing at the same time... The wireless keyboard I was using 'died' and there's no one here to revive it so I had to submit or lose my post.

Back to a Mac that I'm familar with - I hope it will post now!

The latch hooking can be either the yarn lengths pulled to the front side or the push through from the back with the larger rug yarns. The similar work is now called locker hooking. It pulls loops up from below in a continuous strip of very narrowly cut wool, through the backing to the front (worked from the front.) The mastery of this is to align the folds in the the continuous strip in a certain way so that the folds of the strips that you see as the surface also form patterns - it's beautiful....

So you have your line drawing on one piece of fabric - the wreath/candy cane/etc - and what makes it special is the you will date it and put your initials and theirs on another pc, sandwich them together (carefully centered) and sew them into the ornament shape. I can just see one on those elongated ovals with the spire points at top and bottom, with a little shiny tassle (sp?) at the tip to finish it off (Drapery dept as upholstery trim or individual tassles.) Or square/rectangle, with narrow ribbons to tie them up to look like presents. Lightly stuff to pad them, keeping them more 2 dimensional  - perhaps adding a few quilting lines? or tack-down points? Oh, the possibilities....

Anywho - these shouldn't take more than a few hours each, once you get into production mode. Just spread them out far enough on your muslin or whatever fabric you choose, so that you can reposition the hoop w/o crushing down the tufted lines of a prior needling. You'll have some fabric loss, but it will really save more in time in not trying to keep the edges tight in the frame/hoop. Long loops may appear on the front surface (and sometimes in the back) if the thread is not free-dflowing, If there is any resistance - the floss skein weights it down or your palm has caught the thread - it won't catch properly and will leave a loop. Just trim those off. You can't add too much thread to any of your lines - the more the better.

In the 2 bear's pix I'll post late this week, the 'plaid' lines with the vest were easy to keep algned because they were all on the same horizontal lines. After I went over each line 3 or 4 times, lightly sealed each line on the back and the trimmed all of the loop tops off, giving a chenille-tuft look that spread out beautifully into little fuzzy caterpillers lines of color. This can be done on plain fabric just as easily, w/o the added nap from Malden Mills'  upholstery fabric.

I'm thinking that this will be an excellent present by our boy Grandies next year, as it will be Mom's turn for presents from the 2 boys in 08.

Be sure to post to inspire others - these make great presents all year round with different seasonal themes - shade pulls, pin cushion tops....

Tami E Tami Eveslage Original Teddy Bears
Milford Ohio
Posts: 2,367

Debbie, I think I know what you are talking about. I made a rug picture in elementary school that was not at all like the latch hooking kits you buy in the craft stores, but it was in fact very much like needle punch. My art teacher called it rug hooking. I had a special tool that had a handle and the other end looked like a needle with an eye. The yarn was not in little pieces, but you kept it on the skein. When you pushed the tool in and pulled it out of the burlap, little loops were formed. Needle punch seems to me to be a tiny version of that!

OOOPS! :redface:
Daphne already said that! bear_laugh

wazzabears Wazza Bears Australia
Bulli
Posts: 623

I love Punch needle. I saw it at a craft fair 4 years ago and bought the kits. Its so easy and relaxing. My kids do it too, as it so easy and they love the fact they can acheive something that looks great that they have made themselves. I got my stuff from http://www.punchneedleembroidery.com/ she was at the show
and bought a heap of colour threads from ebay from thread teds.
I have amde minature mats for my bears.

Daphne Back Road Bears
Laconia, NH USA
Posts: 6,568

Peta - great idea!
I've got all kinds of bear related ideas for this!
Wish I had all kinds of time!
:crackup:


Bobbie - I've printed your instructions. Thanks!

DebbieD Posts: 3,540

bear_laugh ah, thanks for letting me know the difference!  Best of luck with your Christmas gifts Daphne  :hug:

rkr4cds Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)
suburban Chicago
Posts: 2,044

Tami - or anyone else - was your tool a sort of small violin shape?Mine is split down the middle, with the centered needle attached to one half and it works by keeping tip of the non-needled half against fabric back and the needles side slides in and out of the heavy fabric on the back to form the loops on the front.

Mine are about 8" long, 5" wide: one I have in natural wood and the other was painted/enameled black with sprays of flower decals applied. Mom let us play with her sewing & accessory tools but I don't know the history of these 2 tools of Mom's (Grandmothers' ?)

Does anyone know of a website or method of using the search engines, when you need/want to identify something but don't know even its common name?

Mutz Mutz's Tootsz Bears & Buds
New Berlin, Wisconsin
Posts: 397

Hi Daphne,
I belong to a Yahoo Group for punchneedle: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Primitive_Punch_Needle/
It is a great bunch of really talented PN artists. It is worth it to join the group just to browse the photo albums.
Linda, who runs the group has a great website: www.woolenwhimsies. com. She is always very helpful!

A good needle to start out with is a Cameo.  It isn't as expensive as a Super Luxo (what I use) so if you decide PN isn't for you, you won't have too much invested.
TTFN
Amy

elle Ellifolks
Eastern Ma.
Posts: 494
Website

Bobbie,  is this what you're talking about?  They call it a Wilson Rug Needle Punch in the listing.  bear_original

http://cgi.ebay.com/Wilson-Rug-Needle-R … dZViewItem

Ellen

rkr4cds Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)
suburban Chicago
Posts: 2,044

Yes! EXACTLY! TY!!!!!!
Except that is a very primitive, rudimentary version. Definitely Bare Bones style..

But! You've lead me down a path... there were 2 other versions there: one just a wire-like frame and the other looking like a type of 'gun'. One is now mine (BIN) and the other will be at auction's end. You Bad Girl, Bobbie....
Hey, I figure that my descendants have a better chance of continuing any collection of mine, or disposing of it!, if they have a larger, more well-rounded number & variety! That's what I'm doing - helping my heirs!!!!

Daphne Back Road Bears
Laconia, NH USA
Posts: 6,568

That's what I'm doing - helping my heirs!!!!

Bobbie... I love it! Mind if I borrow that reasoning??? :crackup:

rkr4cds Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)
suburban Chicago
Posts: 2,044

Sure! It's been working for me for years!!
In a round-about way, it also follows a Picasso quote I heard on NPR today - and intend to quote:
"He who does not imitate, produces nothing."
So - if you don't adopt my way of thinking, you'll NOT gain more collectibles!!!!

rkr4cds Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)
suburban Chicago
Posts: 2,044

The funny thing about these rug hookers I collect (6 is officially now a 'Collection'!) - they're all shown against braided rugs. They have nothing to do with braiding but I guess that gives it a vintage-look.................

elle Ellifolks
Eastern Ma.
Posts: 494
Website
rkr4cds wrote:

But! You've lead me down a path... there were 2 other versions there: one just a wire-like frame and the other looking like a type of 'gun'. One is now mine (BIN) and the other will be at auction's end.

Oh no, Bobbie!  I'm responsible for a shopping spree of antique punch needles.  bear_grin   Anyway, it sounds like a lovely collection.  I have an oldish one (probably from the 70's) similar to the metal one but shaped more vertical.  It works by pushing and pulling little handles at the top.  Not very fun to use, though.  Ooh, I found a photo on eBay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Rug-Crafter … dZViewItem

I love the Rumplestiltskin eggbeater style the best.  Here's a photo of what looks like an antique version of the Rumplestiltskin. 
http://cgi.ebay.com/Antique-STAR-TUFTIN … dZViewItem And also have an electric one (which I can't control  bear_laugh and also an electric one for punch needle embroidery) and a small assortment of hand punches (not really old).

Ellen

fredbear Fred-i-Bear
Johannesburg
Posts: 2,243
Website

From ages 6 to 106, man, woman or child, you can do it.

ok maybe when I am 106 I can try this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lynette

makafelts Charlotte Des Roches Designs
Adkins, Texas
Posts: 1,543

punch-needle-001a.jpgOhhh thanks to this topic & the link Ellen posted, I finally found out what the gadget is I got that was my grandmothers.

I used to do Punch Needle Embroidery..years ago. It was a lot of fun & I even did an eagle on the back of a denim jacket for my son...wonder where it went...

Hugs &

Daphne Back Road Bears
Laconia, NH USA
Posts: 6,568

Wow! Look at that needle, Charlotte!
I bed the eagle on the denim jacket was amazing!
Now that you know what that is for perhaps you'll make something with it!  bear_original

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