A large (by doll’s house standards) needlepoint carpet

My customers often send me images of the doll’s house scale items that they have made from the kits and charts on my website. Heide is from Germany, and has been stitching my designs for over ten years. She recently sent me photos of her latest creation – a very large paisley carpet.

In 2010, Heide donated one of her earlier houses, the Big House, to a museum of childhood – but first she took out some of the carpets, and put them into her second house, The Café! But The Café will follow the Big House to the museum in 2014, so she says that again she will take out most of the carpets to put them into her third project, The B&B. In her words, ‘Double shame on me!!!’ for not letting her carpets go with the house. ‘I thought my age of 70 would make me a wise and unselfish woman, but there are obviously a lot of things I would miss.’  I think that is perfectly understandable!

This huge paisley carpet is based on a very early design of mine called ‘Phyllis’, which appeared in my book ‘Miniature Needlepoint Carpets’, but is no longer available as a kit. Heide’s carpet measures 13 by 4 1/2 inches (32 by 11 cm) – large by any miniaturist’s standards! It will fit one of the three lobbies in her B&B, which is in the process of being made.

This group photo shows many of the carpets that Heide has stitched over the years. She alters some of the colourways to suit her houses, and some she stitches as per the kit. It’s easy to see, from this photo, that Heide has a ‘favourite palette’ for her stitching! Clockwise from the top left, these carpets are: Elizabeth, Patricia, Heide’s adapted version of a carpet of mine called ‘Jessica’, Rebecca, Jessica (the same design as my original, but different colours), Carole pastel, Heide’s design based on Phyllis, and Ruth. Most of these are available from my online shop as full kits (to be stitched on 18 count canvas with crewel wool), and as chart packs too.

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