More Handmade Presents For Christmas - Last Year's Punchneedle Kits and Subsequent Gifts

I just love trying all sorts of different crafts and decided that I wanted to try punchneedle last year. So, when I was shopping at a colonial store in Sturbridge I decided to buy a few punchneedle kits.

If you don't know what punchneedle is it is basically the weaving of DMC embroidery floss onto a reverse pre-printed even-weave type fabric to create a specific picture. You are basically punching the reverse pre-printed side of the fabric to follow the design and are creating the punch-needle effect on the wrong side of the fabric (i.e. the non pre-printed side).

At first punchneedle seems a little intimidating, but once you understand how to thread the needle, how to position the needle tip, how to set the depth to set the needle, and how to continuously punch in a straight line using very tiny spacing it's easy to do.  Plus, if you don't like how the stitching turns out you can just rip it out and start again.  What tends to be more irritating and annoying is separating the long floss threads and trying to keep the long floss threads from knotting.

Well, I have to tell you that I absolutely love punchneedle. You can complete most of the punchneedle kits in a day or so and I was easily able to take my kit and embroidery hoop with me where ever I went so I could work on it in my spare time. Like I have any of that! LOL



I used a Cameo ultra punchneedle tool kit and finished my first few punchneedle kits rather quickly.  So, I decided to buy more kits for some of the handmade Christmas presents I was giving to my Mother, Sister, and Sister-In-Law last year.

As I was working on my punchneedle kits I was thinking about how I wanted to finish my pictures as I had planned on giving most of them away as Christmas gifts.

Did I want to use picture frames and a mat, cloth, or wood? Did I want them hung on a wall like a picture or create a stand alone box?

I decided to create wood frames for my punchneedle pictures that were capable of standing alone on a bookshelf. That way you wouldn't have to worry about hanging something on a wall and it could even be taken to work to decorate an office cubicle.  So, I enlisted the help of my younger brother and his amazing workshop to build my wood borders and to finish my punchneedle pictures.

The first frame took us a little longer than all the rest to work out all the kinks, but we got it down and completing the rest was relatively easy as we decided to wrap the punchneedle  to size around a 1/4" wood square and then create a border around that. We also decided to use a box inset to create a framed affect. The borders were painted and then I added heavy fabric wallpaper to finish the backs.

Here are the results of my punchneedle efforts and the shadowbox frames we created:

This is a punchneedle pattern by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle & Thread Designs called "#PN111 The Homestead" that I added a burgundy colored wood frame to.  The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.  With punchneedle you work on the reverse side of the fabric when punching to create the image on the front side. DMC floss had to be purchased separately.

This is a punchneedle pattern by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle & Thread Designs called "#PN112 Redbud Lane"  that I added a colonial blue colored wood frame to.  The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.  With punchneedle you work on the reverse side of the fabric when punching to create the image on the front side. DMC floss had to be purchased separately.

This is a punchneedle pattern by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle & Thread Designs called "#PN117 Garden Sampler" that I added a teal green colored wood frame to and lace trim edging. The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.  With punchneedle you work on the reverse side of the fabric when punching to create the image on the front side. DMC floss had to be purchased separately.

This is the same punchneedle pattern by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle & Thread Designs as above, but I changed some of the DMC colors and added a colonial burgundy colored wood frame to it.  The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.  With punchneedle you work on the reverse side of the fabric when punching to create the image on the front side. DMC floss had to be purchased separately.

This is a punchneedle pattern by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle & Thread Designs called "#PN126 Snowflake" that I added a burgundy colored wood frame to.  The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.  With punchneedle you work on the reverse side of the fabric when punching to create the image on the front side. DMC floss had to be purchased separately.

This is a punchneedle pattern kit by Linda Coleman of Jeremiah Junction called "Punchneedle Kit Salt Box House" that I altered to make the punchneedle picture square so I could add a colonial blue colored wood frame to.  The pattern and kit creates the scrolled top and bottom and is pictured in a 5x7 wood frame with the linen cloth serving as the mat.

The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.  With punchneedle you work on the reverse side of the fabric when punching to create the image on the front side. DMC floss had to be purchased separately.

What I also really liked about the Jeremiah Junction pattern was that it not only included a diagram with the colored DMC floss numbers but included a picture colored with the DMC floss colors and a table that included a small square of the DMC floss color and it's respective DMC, ANC, or JPC floss number.  The kit included the pattern, DMC embroidery floss, and pre-printed cloth.

This is a punchneedle pattern kit by Linda Coleman of Jeremiah Junction called "Punchneedle Kit Summer Flower Basket" that I altered to make the punchneedle picture square so I could add a colonial green colored wood frame to.  In the pattern and kit the top left and right hand corners are slanted and it is pictured in a 5x7 wood frame with the linen cloth serving as the mat.

The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.  With punchneedle you work on the reverse side of the fabric when punching to create the image on the front side. DMC floss had to be purchased separately.

What I also really liked about the Jeremiah Junction pattern was that it not only included a diagram with the colored DMC floss numbers but included a picture colored with the DMC floss colors and a table that included a small square of the DMC floss color and it's respective DMC, ANC, or JPC floss number.  The kit included the pattern, DMC embroidery floss, and pre-printed cloth.

This is a punchneedle pattern kit by Linda Coleman of Jeremiah Junction called "Punchneedle Kit Flower Basket" that I altered to make the punchneedle picture square so I could add a colonial green colored wood frame to.  The pattern and kit creates the curved scrolled top and is pictured in a 5x7 wood frame with the linen cloth serving as the mat.

The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The pattern included the pre-printed weavers cloth.  With punchneedle you work on the reverse side of the fabric when punching to create the image on the front side. DMC floss had to be purchased separately.

What I also really liked about the Jeremiah Junction pattern was that it not only included a diagram with the colored DMC floss numbers but included a picture colored with the DMC floss colors and a table that included a small square of the DMC floss color and it's respective DMC, ANC, or JPC floss number.  The kit included the pattern, DMC embroidery floss, and pre-printed cloth.

This is a punchneedle pattern by Linda Coleman of Jeremiah Junction called "Punchneedle Kit Flower Checker Planter."   The  kit was for creating a  framed picture with the fabric serving as the picture mat but I had decided to create shadowboxes for all my punchneedle projects.

This punchneedle design was the most challenging to create the frame for as we were dealing with a circle. So, we decided to add a colonial blue colored wood mat with a circle cut-out for the punchneedle picture and colonial blue colored square wood frame.  I also decided to change the colors of the flowers to more closely match the decor of my home.

The pattern and instructions were easy to follow and the diagram was well laid out and easy to read. The kit included reverse pre-printed fabric, DMC floss, and pattern with instructions.  The design was printed on the reverse side of the fabric and you work on the reverse side when punching to create the image on the front side. DMC floss had to be purchased separatel

What I also really liked about the Jeremiah Junction pattern was that it not only included a diagram with the colored DMC floss numbers but included a picture colored with the DMC floss colors and a table that included a small square of the DMC floss color and it's respective DMC, ANC, or JPC floss number.



This is a Midnight Snowman Punchneedle Kit-3 Inch X4 Inch pattern kit by Rachael T. Pellam of Rachael's of Greefield that I added a burgundy colored wood frame to. This pattern included detailed instructions and tips for punchneedle as well as an iron-on transfer sheet that you had to iron on to the reverse side of the foundation cloth which was included in the kit.  With punchneedle you work on the reverse side of the fabric when punching to create the image on the front side.

It also included a piece of paper with the DMC floss numbers printed on it and each of the floss strands grouped by clolor tied to a punched out square next to it's respective DMC floss number.  It did not include a diagram with the detailed numbers on it but included a listing on the back of the pattern indicating which DMC floss numbers were to be used and where.

I have to admit I'm really hooked on punchneedle and have bought a few more kits. Just don't tell my husband or my brother. I think they'd both throttle me!