The Sweatshop of Love Blog

Yes it’s Tuesday and yes, for the past four weeks I’ve been debuting how to videos on Tuesdays, but my director got a new job! It’s terrible exciting because he hasn’t worked in three months, but it sure puts a damper on my demanding production schedule.

More on PT’s new job later, and more how to videos later, too.

How to Make Needlepoint Art

Friday I told you I had big crafty plans for the weekend, and big crafting surely happened!

I needlepointed 5 fruits and veggies on 6″x6″ pieces of counted cross stitch fabric I picked up at Michael’s. My beet kinda looks like the Star Ship Enterprise, right?

I did google image searches for fruits and veggies (like, cartoon grape), and then drew them in Xs on graph paper, just like I did for my Charley Harper needlepoint last year.

Turning needlepointings like these into hang-able artwork is pretty simple, actually!

I bought a few cheep embroidery hoops at Michael’s. These were about $1.29 a piece and I don’t see how they could be used to actually embroider. They are so flimsy! I’ve got a nice embroidery hoop that I use for actual embroidering and was worth the $4ish I paid for it. But these cheep ones will do for hanging!

And that light colored wood can be stained darker with wood stain or painted to give your art a little kick. I chose this fun purple acrylic paint and painted the outside of the hoop and both edges.

I let my outside hoops dry on their inside hoops to a little Two Towers. The inside hoops and the inside of the outside hoops won’t be visible once they are around your needlepoint.

Be sure to give each piece a quick ironing to get rid of any creases left by your working embroidery hoop.

With your inside embroidery hoop on the bottom, your embroidery fabric in the middle, and your painted hoop on the top, you are ready to set your piece! Make sure it is lined up with the hardware at the top, since you will use this for hanging.

Press down on the hoop so that it slides over the bottom hoop, securing your embroidery between the two hoops. Tighten your fabric and make sure both hoops are flush with each other.

Flip your work over and, with a tiny pair of scissors, cut off the excess fabric close to the hoops.

Use a hot glue gun to glue together the hoops with the fabric between it. Let it cool and dry completely before beholding your beautiful needlepoint art!

My kitchen was in desperate need for some color on the walls, and since we have no idea how long we are going to be here I didn’t want to actually paint the walls.

I love needlepoint art in kitchens and bathrooms, and I’ve wanted little fruit and veggie needlepoints to hang in my house forever.

And the best part? I can add more whenever I want! I can make two every weekend until I run out of fruits and veggies and have an entire wall dedicated to needlepoint art.

And then I would have the most amazing kitchen in the entire world.

Related Sweatshop Love:

• August 2, 2011 -- Hobby Week Day 2: The Princess and the Pea Embroidery
• July 29, 2011 -- Next Week is HOBBY WEEK!
• January 28, 2011 -- The Worst Weekend of the Year
• May 27, 2010 -- Charley Harper Needlepoint DIY Wedding Present