In contrast, needlepoint uses a variety of stitches on a stiff, gridded canvas with a design painted on it. The end result resembles a tapestry.
Needlepoint as a social outlet
Heitlinger chose needlepoint not only for its aesthetic appeal, but also as a social outlet. When you are in your late 20s or early 30s and you do not have kids , it is not easy to make friends in the suburbs.
Heitlinger lives in the Morris County town of Madison, New Jersey, and wanted to find a compatible peer group. She found Stitch Club of North Jersey and went to one of the group’s monthly meetings.
“Everyone was about 25 to 35 years old, all girls,” Heitlinger said. “It was fun to be at a table with 12 girls and see what everyone’s stitching.”
Generation after generation, women have gathered together in this way, sharing tasks or hobbies. Many of the younger women who have recently discovered needlepoint will tell you how it differs from the craft of yesteryear. As Heitlinger put it, “It’s not just something your grandma would make.”
But is that so? There are differences, but they are subtle: Colors, materials and motifs go in and out of style; needlepointers find new ways to use and display their work.
What has changed more is the world beyond the needle and thread.
Pat the Bunny needlepoint pillow by Clara Sharp. (Photo: Courtesy Clara Sharp)
‘Everything old is new again’
Millennials came of age in a digital world which, for all its efficiency, can lack warmth. Analog items can offer a luxurious contrast. They appeal to the senses: The smell of books, the crackle of vinyl records, the nuance of flavor in a craft beer, and the soft, bumpy texture of a handmade needlepoint pillow. Is it any wonder that they’ve all become cool again?
“Everything old is new again,” said Diane Baxter, owner of Threads Too in the Monmouth County, New Jersey, borough of Fair Haven. “I’ve been encouraging this shift, and I see on Instagram a lot more young people are doing canvases.”
A needlepoint paperweight is analog with a capital “A.” Clara Sharp, a millennial who lives in Chappaqua, in New York’s Westchester County, sewed one for herself. It depicts Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Sharp also has made a needlepoint belt for her husband and a “Pat The Bunny” needlepoint pillow for their 3-year-old daughter.
“It keeps me from scrolling through Facebook and Instagram all night,” Sharp said of her new hobby.
Anything can become an obsession, however. Even something as quiet and productive as needlepoint can be a time suck.
“I find it addictive,” Heitlinger said. “I have to set a timer.”
Alicia Benedetto works on one of her needlepoint projects at her home in Somers, New York Nov. 8, 2019. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)
“After I put my kids to bed, I’ll sit down and start needlepointing and I’ll have to stop myself,” said Alicia Benedetto of Somers, in Westchester. “I say, ‘I’ll do one more row and then go to bed,’ or I’ll just keep going.”
“You just follow the colors,” Benedetto said. “It’s kind of mindless.”
“Basically, it’s paint by numbers,” Heitlinger said. “Once you get it, it’s a matter of picking out your thread. It was so much easier than I expected.”
‘Yoga for the mind’
Ask a needlepointer what she or he likes about the craft, and you’ll likely hear the word “meditative.”
“On that one vacation I took this year, I sat on a porch in Nantucket and did needlepoint,” Heitlinger said. The sense of calm she felt was a revelation.
“It forces you to step away from phones and computers,” Heitlinger said. “I like to listen to audio books while I needlepoint. It’s very meditative.”
“They’re calling it ‘yoga for the mind’ now,” said Baxter.
Benedetto and Sharp are friends who serve on the board of their local Junior League. They joined with another friend from Junior League earlier this year to start a fledgling needlepoint club. So far, they’ve only met two or three times, Sharp said, but their goal is to meet once a month. They hope more of their peers take up the hobby.
“Within my social circle, we do it, but it’s not that common in Westchester,” Benedetto said. “There’s not a huge number of us right now.”
Barbara Potter, 94, of Applewood in Freehold, with some of her needlepoint pillows and art work. (Photo: Courtesy of Applewood)
When Barbara Potter began needlepointing, some 80 years ago, it was something many girls did. “My mother did it, and I enjoyed sewing, so I learned it, too,” Potter said.
At 94, her apartment in Applewood , a senior living community in Freehold, showcases her many needlepoint pillows and elaborate framed canvases.
“I always found it relaxing,” Potter said. “I would do it in my spare time. I’d take it on cruises and, during days at sea, I’d sit and do it. People come up and talk to you while you’re needlepointing.”
Potter had to give up needlepoint in her mid-70s, because she could no longer clearly see the tiny squares on a canvas. But she continued with crochet, and enjoys meeting with other Applewood residents at a needlework club twice a month.
“It’s a lot of talking,” she said of the club, “but you get some work done, too.”
Barbara Potter, 94, of Applewood in Freehold, was an avid needlepointer for most of her life. (Photo: Courtesy of Applewood)
Today’s needlepointers try to think outside the box. They make key chains and coin purses, but also phone cases. They’ll make a belt, but use it as a strap on a canvas tote.
“I find that my younger customers, 20s to 40s, are willing to take chances using new fibers, different stitches, and are very receptive to newer options for canvas finishing,” said Francine Kaplan, who teaches needlepoint. “They are energetic and willing to take chances. And will always finish their canvases. No leaving it in a bag in their closet for years for them.”
Kaplan owns The Stitchery , which was a brick-and-mortar shop in the Middlesex County town of Jamesburg, New Jersey, until this year, when she began operating out of her East Brunswick home.
“Many of my customers are tired of having their canvases framed,” Kaplan said, by e-mail. “One of their biggest complaints is that they ‘don’t have enough wall space.’ We suggest our customers work on smaller pieces and have them mounted onto beautiful rich-looking trinket and jewelry boxes, to be given as gifts. The pieces stitch quickly because they are small and our customers see finished products with a short turn-around time.”
Francine Kaplan recommends customers display their needlepoint on a canvas bag for maximum effect. (Photo: Courtesy of The Stitchery)
“We also suggest completed canvases be mounted onto tote bags,” she said. “With the new push to ban plastic bags in grocery stores in many New Jersey towns, we sell a lot of canvas tote bags which serve to display finished needlepoint canvases, which we sew onto a side, inside a protective sleeve.”
‘Beyond cats and flower baskets’
At Threads Too, Baxter sees younger customers “making things they can wear and use.”
“We’ll put a canvas on a denim jacket,” she said. “Or use a Lucite acrylic tray, instead of a wooden tray, for a modern, clean look.”
“They’re doing a lot of wearables, clutches and handbags, key fobs and totes,” Baxter said. “There are way more threads: velvet, silks, ribbons, beading, special threads for eyelashes, big furry threads.”
Alicia Benedetto is pictured with some of her needlepoint projects at her home in Somers, New York Nov. 8, 2019. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)
Contemporary needlepoint canvases go beyond “cats and flower baskets,” as Benedetto described it.
“Younger people are designing the canvases, so there’s more variety,” Benedetto said.
Because her family loves Martha’s Vineyard, Benedetto made souvenir Christmas ornaments of the vacation spot for her mother and sister.
Amber Reed, who lives in Williamstown in Gloucester County, New Jersey, took up knitting more than 10 years ago, while serving in the Army. Now a mom in her mid-30s, she continues to knit and is involved with “craftivism,” knitting caps for children and adult migrants at the Mexican border.
“It’s become cool,” Reed said. “I see yarn tattoos.”
Not a hobby for everyone
Needlepointing is less likely to become as commonplace as knitting for a simple reason: Cost. Serious needlepointers tend to seek out high-end materials.
“It’s not a cheap hobby,” Sharp said, “because of the handpainted canvases.”
Handpainted canvases, which needlepointers prefer over mass-produced ones because of their accuracy, easily cost upwards of $75 or $100. Thread prices vary, but a single skein of commonly used silk thread runs from about $5 to $10.
Then there’s “finishing.” When you complete your canvas, you bring it or mail it to a needlepoint store, where it is then transformed into the object of your choice — a clutch, a picture frame, an ornament, a pillow, etc.
To finish the belt for her husband, Sharp spent $130.
“You don’t want to have to think about how much it’s going to cost while you’re doing it,” Sharp said.
The Nimble Needle, in Merchantville in Camden County, New Jersey, has been a source for needlepointers since 1974. But running a brick-and-mortar business is much harder than it once was and, as owner Karen Milano put it flatly, “The trend is not there.”
“There are very few of us,” said Milano, who has owned the store since 2006. “Fewer people are interested, and nobody’s making a lot of money doing this. There is definitely a demand for it, but I sell so much on-line.”
In the past 20 years, Milano said she’s seen a shift toward small projects that are less costly and time-consuming “and more whimsical and fun.” Practicality still plays a role, however, with many of Milano’s customers opting for round, zip-top boxes to hold cables and phone cords.
Needlepoint store owners have to be innovative to stay in business. Threads Too has plans for a class in needlepoint Lucite coasters, for example, and periodically holds open stitching sessions.
“I’m trying to put together meet-ups at my store,” Baxter said. “A ‘Mimosas and Millennials’ one Sunday a month, to get together and craft.”
When Kaplan closed The Stitchery’s downtown retail store, she had to get creative. She offers free instruction to customers who buy canvases through her. She’ll come to a customer’s home. She gives presentations at libraries. She hosts “Stitch ‘n’ Go” events at local tea houses, including One Steep At A Thyme i n Jamesburg, at which an eyeglass case or change purse can be completed in one session.
“What has become very popular recently are needlepoint parties where a customer will host an event, similar to a Pampered Chef party,” she said. “We offer perks to the host and discounted canvas to the guests. Most of the time customers will leave this event with their canvases and threads all ready to begin stitching. No waiting for their orders unlike many structured events.”
Some needlepoint projects being worked on by Alicia Benedetto, at her home in Somers, New York Nov. 8, 2019. (Photo: Mark Vergari/The Journal News)
As millennials look to Instagram for fun things to do, their newfound hobby ends up bringing them back to real life.
To keep up with her role as a social media influencer, Heitlinger readily admits that she spends “a disturbing amount of time” on her phone.
“Instagram for me is work,” she said. “Maintaining the status quo, answering DM’s.”
Whether she’s sewing in solitude or in a club with new friends, needlepoint gives Carly The Prepster a chance to be off-line, in real life.
“The reason why it’s taken off is that it’s a chance to create something beyond a screen and do something with your hands,” she said.
Hi, there! I’m Kelly-Jane Cotter. My needlework is limited to sewing on my daughter’s Girl Scout badges, along with the occasional lost button. Read more of my stories below. Follow me @KellyJaneCotter , reach me at kcotter@gannettnj.com, and please consider supporting local journalism with a subscription.
