The Needlepoint Book: New, Revised, and Updated Third Edition

1260 Pages·2015·88.4 MB·English

by  Christensen

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CONTENTS
Epigraph
Foreword by Amy Bunger
Preface
A Word of Thanks
PART ONE: GETTING STARTED
1. Basic Information
2. Basic Procedures
PART TWO: INTERPRETING THE PAINTED CANVAS
3. Choosing a Design
4. Choosing Colors
5. Choosing Stitch Techniques
6. Choosing Fibers and Threads
7. Choosing Stitches
8. Choosing Background Treatments
9. Choosing Embellishments
10. Putting It All Together
PART THREE: BLOCKING AND FINISHING
11. Blocking
12. Finishing
PART FOUR: THE STITCHES
13. Straight Stitches
14. Diagonal Stitches
16. Cross Stitches
17. Tied Stitches
18. Eyelet Stitches
19. Leaf Stitches
20. Line Stitches
21. Decorative Stitches
22. Ribbon Stitches
23. Open Stitches
Appendix
Plates
About Jo Ippolito Christensen
Bibliography
General Index
Stitch Index
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO
Perry Rosenthal, M.D., ophthalmologist,
Founder, Boston Foundation for Sight
For his gift of vision
PERRY ROSENTHAL, M.D., is the award-winning founder and former director of
the Boston Foundation for Sight, Inc. He is also an assistant clinical professor
of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. His career has been devoted
to the study of contact lenses and corneal diseases that rob patients of vision.
Dr. Rosenthal invented the plastic now used to make rigid gas permeable
contact lenses. In so doing, he co-founded Polymer Technology Corporation,
now a subsidiary of Bausch & Lomb.
Dr. Rosenthal developed the ocular surface prosthesis at the Boston
Foundation for Sight; it restores vision to those suffering from a range of
debilitating corneal conditions, such as keratoconus, Stevens-Johnson
syndrome, graft-versus-host disease, extreme dry eye, failed Lasik surgery, and
others. While I was at the foundation’s offices one summer, a woman came in
for treatment, unable to even see light. Within two hours of being fitted for
the device, she was seeing 20/40, and she left two days later with 20/20
vision.
The only laboratory in the world that makes the ocular surface prosthesis
is located on site, in the Boston area. There, two special lathes that cost nearly
a million dollars apiece produce these miracle appliances. The lathes were
generously donated by Bausch & Lomb. The Boston Foundation for Sight, a
nonprofit organization founded in 1992, relies on tax-deductible donations to
treat everyone, including those unable to pay the high cost of the device.
I was diagnosed with keratoconus in 1972, while I was doing the research
for The Needlepoint Book. I have had four corneal transplants since. In 1982,
my third corneal graft took the close vision that I need for stitching. By 2007,
the disease in my corneas had advanced to the point where contact lenses
would no longer reliably stay on my lumpy corneas; the contacts popped out
regularly, sometimes irretrievably. Without them, I was legally blind. In spite
of the fact that my eye condition continues to decline, my vision with Dr.
Rosenthal’s ocular surface prosthesis is now 20/20 in both eyes! Truly a
miracle!
Though no longer seeing patients, Dr. Perry Rosenthal continues his
research into eye pain through Boston Eye Pain Foundation, also nonprofit.
Canvassing Cuties! Life-sized soft sculpture. Designed and stitched by Elaine Warner.
THE HUSBAND’S COMPLAINT
I’ve heard of wives too musical—too talkative—too quiet Of scolding
and of gaming wives and those too fond of riot; But yet of all the
errors I know, which to the women fall; For ever doing fancy work,
I think exceeds them all.
The other day when I went home no dinner was for me,
I asked my wife the reason; she answered, “One, two, three.”
I told her I was hungry and stamped upon the floor.
She never even looked at me, but murmured “One green more.”
If any lady comes to tea, her bag is first surveyed,
And if the pattern pleases her, a copy there is made.
She stares too at the gentlemen, and when I ask her why, ’Tis, “Oh my
love, the pattern of his waistcoat struck my eye.”
Ah? The misery of a working wife, with fancy work run wild; And
hands that never do aught else for husband or for child; Our clothes
are rent, our bills unpaid; my house is in disorder; And all because
my lady wife has taken to embroider.
—M. T. MORRALL, A History of Needlemaking, 1852
FOREWORD