[Title]

Meet Your Needlepoint Guide…

Hi there! I’m Ellen Johnson, a former needlework shop owner turned online needlepoint teacher. When I opened Serendipity Needleworks in 2003, I thought I knew everything there was to know about needlepoint.

Then I attended my first market. Boy-oh-boy was I ever W R O N G!! 

After stumbling upon the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous pieces of needlepoint that I’d ever seen, I decided - right then and there - that I had to learn how to stitch like that, too. 

So I bought some kits with stitch guides and the adventure began. After experiencing success with a variety of professionally written stitch guides, I decided to try my own hand at choosing stitches and threads for a project.  

It. Was. AWFUL!! I’ll even go so far as to say that my first attempt at writing a stitch guide was downright hideous. (And no, I didn’t keep the canvas, although I should have. It would’ve been a terrific teaching prop. Teehee!)

Like so many stitchers, I couldn’t figure out the “how” behind the stitch and thread choices in those professionally written stitch guides.

So I was back to square one. And that’s when my stubborn streak kicked into high gear. Not being one who gives up easily, I dove in - head first - and started learning all that I could about using canvas embroidery stitches to embellish painted canvases. 

I read every article and book I could get my hands on. I watched every single video I could find. And I took every class I could sign up for when Market rolled around. Heck, I even hosted guest teachers in my shop so I could learn from them alongside my customers. 

And slowly, but surely, ideas began to form. Then concepts crystallized. I tested my theories on my own canvases and I was pleased with the results, so I shared my strategies with the students who took my classes at the shop - and they had success, too.