Needlepoint Knowledge | All Access | 227
Anita Goodesign goes through many
creative processes to come up with new
collections and projects monthly. How
did you first get the idea for Needlepoint
Florals?
HANNAH: I went into Steve Wilson’s
office to talk about something entirely
different, and somewhere down the
line of conversation, he said he wanted
to try a different spin on floral designs,
maybe something like needlepoint. I love
a good challenge, which is exactly what
you get when you try to recreate hand
embroidery techniques with a machine. I
messaged Carol, our Art Director, about
this idea of Steve’s and she got right on
assigning the artwork.
Needlepoint artwork is probably easier
said then done when it gets to your
department to digitize. How did you
tackle turning that style of artwork into a
stitch-able file?
HANNAH: Traditionally, needlepoint
is created using a grid, and so this is
exactly what our artist did - created floral
arrangements using tiny squares of color.
With the artwork complete, I had to figure
out how to translate this colored grid into
stitches. My mom does needlepoint and
creates beautiful Christmas stockings that
can take her 3-4 months to complete by
hand. When I mentioned to her that I was
working on a way to mimic needlepoint
with a machine, thereby drastically
reducing the time it would ordinarily take
to create these timeless designs, she was
over the moon. I asked her to walk me
through how needlepoint designs are
made. I figured that if the machine could
copy the same actions a needlepointer
would make, I stood a pretty good chance
of making convincing fakes.
So, how exactly does a machine mimic
the handstitched designs?
HANNAH: When stitching needlepoint
designs by hand, you stitch from the
bottom left corner to the top right corner
of each tiny square. Because you use
a heavier thread for needlepoint (wool
threads like Persian yarn or tapestry
yarn, or even multi-strand cotton
threads), this diagonal stitch appears to
fill that little square.
Machine embroidery thread, however, is
much thinner. I used that same diagonal
line, but as you stitch these out you’ll
see that the machine makes multiple
passes over each stitch, 15 to be exact.
The results are pretty persuasive - you’ll
have all your friends thinking you’re a
needlepoint master!
This collection was so much fun to
create and I personally hope you enjoy
stitching these as much as I enjoyed
digitizing them!
You’ll be amazed to learn these
Needlepoint Floral designs
were digitized to replicate the
handstitched technique by using
15-ply stitches!
Q & A WITH HANNAH