This past winter, I took up needlepoint again after about a 10 year hiatus. I decided to start with coasters, since (1) they didn’t feel like too much of a commitment and (2) I found this great tutorial at the Purl Bee on how to make coasters. (My previous foray into needlepoint coasters ended with me finishing them in an improvisational, ad-hoc way that left my coasters thicker at the edges and not great for seting under tippy wine glasses.) This time, my coasters are flat and I’ve backed them with wool felt.
I am so happy to have discovered the Purl Bee’s method for preparing the canvas to make coasters. I am also happy to have used the vintage needlepoint books given to me by my mother in law. Leafing through her books form the ’60’s and 70’s, I was inspired to try new, geometric fancy stitches, rather than my usual basketweave stitch.
For the first two coasters, I used a stitch called Scottish Stitch from Carolyn Ambuter’s Complete Book of Needlepoint, where puffy diagonal “scottish stitches” are framed with regular basket weave/tent stitch.
For the second two coasters, I used a flat stitch diamond to make puffy diamonds of color and then outlined with V-stitches, from A Pageant of Pattern for Needlepoint by Shirlee Lantz and Maggie Lane (pg. 202).
I used the same colors for all 4 coasters to create a unified set, but varied the placement of colors to keep things interesting. In the end, they seem like a bit of a scruffy bunch, but I’ll be thrilled to use them now that they’re done.
Bottle Branch 
Fabulous – and I didn’t even know you could get flat needlepoint! Lovely choice of colours and textures you’ve got there. I am a tiny bit jealous that you’ve even managed straight lines – I just have to accept I’m the queen of the wonky…
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Thank you, Anny. Much credit for the flatness is due to the Purl Bee tutorial and of course there are flaws the photos don’t show 🙂 like where the blue pen I used to mark a corner bled through when it got damp.
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Gorgeous colours–perfect for offsetting glasses of chilled white wine! I have some great secondhand sewing books from the 60s/70s that I refer to constantly, mainly because the artworks are so much clearer than many in my more recent books.
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Thanks! nothing like a little craftiness to enhance a glass of wine 😉 I agree some vintage books have really amazing illustrations… maybe thats part of the appeal.
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These are so cute!
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Thanks so much, Fran!
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These are so pretty – your stitching is great, and the colours are just lovely.
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Love the colours and the way they are like little mosaics with different shaped pieces.
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Thanks so much, Camilla!
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These are so pretty. I love the colors you used. The Scottish Stitch looks very interesting and they way you blended the colors is fantastic.
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Thanks so much, Martha!
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