A beginners guide to choosing decorative needlepoint stitches and planning your canvas.
Welcome to the colorful world of needlepoint!
If you’re just starting out, the thought of choosing the right stitches for your canvas can feel overwhelming. But fear not—there’s no right or wrong way to stitch! Even seasoned stitchers experiment, rip out, and try again.
The beauty of needlepoint lies in its creative freedom. As you practice and explore different stitches, you’ll gradually build a treasure trove of favorites and develop a knack for knowing which stitches work best in various situations.
In this blog post, we’ll share essential tips for selecting decorative needlepoint stitches and planning your canvas with confidence!
1. Less Can Be More.
When it comes to needlepoint, simplicity can be striking. You don’t need to cover every inch of your canvas with elaborate stitches. Basic Needlepoint Tent stitches, such as Continental and Basketweave, provide a beautiful, smooth texture and versatile foundation.
Use Tent stitches in areas that require clarity, like faces, lettering, or intricate details where decorative stitches might be too busy. Begin by identifying which parts of your design will benefit from the subtlety of a Tent stitch, and then plan decorative stitches around these areas to enhance your canvas without overwhelming it.
2. Decide what needs to "pop".
Take a moment to think about the focal points in your design. What elements do you want to stand out?
Use eye-catching decorative stitches to draw attention to these key features. For example, in our Shakespeare Silhouette design, we adorned his clothes with unique stitches while keeping the background more uniform.
When stitching, start with less prominent areas before moving on to the key elements. This way, the more intricate stitches will sit slightly on top, ensuring they capture the viewer’s attention.
Shakespeare Silhouette needlepoint kit
3. Small Stitches For Small Spaces.
Every stitch has its space requirements. Some, like Upright Cross or Brick stitch, fit beautifully into tight spots, while others need more room to flourish. If you’re looking for stitches that work in small areas, a quick online search for "small needlepoint stitches" will yield plenty of inspiration. We also have a blog post with Six Needlepoint Stitches for Small Spaces.
This Reindeer needlepoint kit is filled with small needlepoint stitches.
For larger backgrounds, the possibilities are endless! You can use open stitches, darning patterns, and stitches that cross several intersections.
Check out our Stitch Library and the blog post on Three Surprising Needlepoint Background Stitches to discover fun options for filling in those expansive areas.
Leaf Vase—part of a blue and white trio with fun background stitches.
4. Direction is Important
Consider the direction of the stitch. If you are stitching water or sky, look for a stitch with flow or direction. Needlepoint decorative stitch books are often laid out with chapters on stitches that have directional movement. You can also use a search engine to search for “stitches for water”, or “needlepoint stitches for sky”. Gain inspiration from others—look at stitched canvases on websites and Pinterest to see how other stitchers have used stitches to imply movement. We also have a blog post on Needlepoint Stitches for Sky.
Conversely, some stitches 'block' movement and you might choose these for things that stand still. Square and straight stitches do this and are good choices for buildings, borders, and geometric shapes. Needlepoint stitch books are usually laid out to direct you to straight stitches, or stitches that don’t have a directional flow. Here is a blog post on Needlepoint Stitches for Borders that has ideas for square and straight stitches.
This Grand Teton needlepoint design has sloping stitches impying movement of the sky, straight or tent stitches for static snow and mountains, and a highly textured stitch for foreground trees.
Knots, surface embroidery, and stitches that layer, add the most texture. A French knot has a 3-D effect and is great for hair, beards, and flower centers.
French Knots and surface embroidery add texture to this Flower Market design
For more 3-D effect, the Rhodes stitch creates a lovely raised circle and is good for wheels and anything else that is round. (We have a blog post with three great stitches for round objects).
Whereas, a Satin stitch is long and straight and has a smooth, flat appearance. It's a good choice for anything you want to look smooth (and even glossy if you're using a thread with sheen).
Develop a repertoire of 6-10 stitches that you use regularly and get to know well. You can build on this with each canvas by considering what shape, flow, or texture is needed, and then look for a stitch that might create this. If you can’t find one, it doesn’t matter—you have your solid favorites to fall back on. And, when in doubt, use a Tent stitch!
4. Try Before You “Buy”
Unsure if a stitch will work? Stitch a small area and leave it while you continue working on the rest of the canvas. This will allow you to assess how the pattern fits into the overall design. If something doesn’t work, it’s easy to replace a few stitches.
Every stitcher makes mistakes or sometimes wants to re-do an area. The Essential Needlepoint Tool Kit has super-handy tools for efficient ripping out!
The Essential Needlepoint Tool Set
5. A Good Book is a Good Investment
While the internet is a treasure trove of inspiration, having a couple of solid needlepoint stitch books in your library is invaluable. They allow for easy searching of specific stitches and techniques. We recommend starting with a comprehensive book for basic stitches, and then branching out into more specialized titles as your skills grow.
Two basic needlepoint books we like are...
SharonG's Needlepoint Stitch SENSE is packed with information and is sized to take traveling. Find out more.
For a prettier book that is not as portable, but is filled with How To Needlepoint information as well as decorative stitch ideas with color photographs, you can't go wrong with Emma Homent's Needlepoint Stitch Directory which is available on Amazon. You can read our review of it here, or find it on Amazon here.
In summary, when deciding what type of needlepoint stitch to use, consider the following:
- How large is the space you are filling?
- What are the key features on the canvas that need to draw the eye? (Stitch it/them last if you can).
- Does the object or feature move (in real life) or have a directional flow?
- Browse websites and Pinterest to get inspiration from other stitchers.
- Consult your reference books.
- Put a few stitches in either on the edge of your canvas or where you want to try the stitch and see if it works, always being prepared to rip it out to try something else.
Most importantly, have fun! Your skills will develop with practice, and every project will teach you something new.
Happy stitching! If you found this post helpful, please share it with fellow needlepoint enthusiasts!
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