MY NEEDLEPOINT CLUTCH ADVENTURE

before I painted, stitched, and sent my bag strap off to the finisher I already knew what I wanted to try next - a tri-fold clutch. I had seen one by anne fisher needlepoint on Instagram and wanted to make something based on the business postcards of my hand-painted beads. I made a puzzle using that image and knew it would translate well.

I did some quick clutch size research and decided to make mine 10” x 18” for a finished bag size of 10” wide x 6” high. and I now know a circle isn’t a circle unless you count it out and stitch paint but we were quaranting and I had limited supplies so I just winged it. I mapped out the placement by tracing my beads and outlining them in different colors to figure out the color scheme before committing. I painted the color patterns but when it came to stitching, I just winged it and had to make things as circular as I could. it’s CRAZY looking because there isn’t a single circle on the entire piece but I don’t care - it’ll always remind me of the start of my needlepoint ‘journey’.

these are more like octagons. 😂

lessons learned:

• I used an app on my ipad called stitchsketch and learned to count out the circle stitches to make them as ‘round’ as possible.

• I have a painted clutch canvas that I use now as my pattern/template so I’m not reinventing the wheel every time I paint one. it saves me so much time from overthinking and ‘designing’ as I go.

• I now have two size circles I use - the bigger size is used for most canvases I paint now (and 1.5”) and the smaller size on the little canvases. I LOVE how many colors are possible on this original but the small size is just too labor-intensive on such a big canvas.

• the finished canvas/clutch is the same size but you can see the difference in circle size below.

• I wished I sorted out my initials before I started because that’s not where I would’ve put it.