One of my regular dollhouse needlepoint customers, called Natalia, has just sent me some more pictures of the dollhouse stitching she has been doing lately. She has been working on the largest carpet kit that I have on my website, which is called ‘Tabriz (large)’.
It measures 12 1/4 by 9 1/2 inches, and is stitched in needlepoint on 18 count canvas, so it has been quite a challenge to get it completed – but doesn’t it look stunning? This dollhouse is not Natalia’s – she stitched this Tabriz carpet for her friend.
If you look carefully, you will see that there is also the matching Tabriz bellpull on the wall between the two display cases.
One of my customers, called Natalia, from Russia, has just sent me some images of her doll’s house, with my ‘Esther’ carpet kit in it, which she has stitched beautifully. The Esther carpet measures 10 3/4 x 7 inches when finished, and is to be stitched on 18 count canvas. The kit includes everything you need to complete the carpet, including fine thread to make the fringe. You can see it in the online shop here (the first one on the page). There is also a smaller version of the Esther carpet available (in the medium-sized carpet kits section), if the rooms of your house are smaller than Natalia’s!
I have displayed her pictures on the Customers’ Gallery page on my website (each person has a page just for them – Natalia’s page is here). If you’d like to go and have a look, you can see the huge selection of amazing inspirational pictures sent to me by my talented customers!
Here’s Natalia’s pictures – isn’t her doll’s house lovely?
Natalia wasn’t sure that the carpet, as presented on the colour block chart that comes with the kit, would fit in her room. So, she adapted the border slightly, and left off the fringe.
But once she was sure she *did* have room, she ‘retro-fitted’ a fringe, and it worked!
I have spent the summer working on these new doll’s house needlepoint kit designs – mainly carpets – and have just launched these three collections on my website – these ones are more ‘traditional’ styles (the ones I launched a couple of weeks ago were all Art Deco style).
This first collection is called ‘Yvonne (olive)’ – as there is a red version already available – and it was inspired partly by a customer of mine, who took the red version and amended it to be in these subtle shades of olive green and tan brown. When she sent me a photo of what she’d done, I liked it so much I have decided to bring out my own version! There is a staircarpet and a little cushion (measuring just 1.25 inches square) to match. The staircarpet looks like this when it’s on a staircase:
Both the staircarpet and the rectangular carpet are to be stitched on 18 count interlock canvas, with one strand of Appleton’s wool. The little cushion is stitched on 22 count canvas with two strands of Anchor cotton thread.
The ‘Tabriz’ collection
The next collection is called ‘Tabriz’. I already had the bellpull and the bolster cushion in my shop available as kits, but I thought matching carpets would be good. The ‘large’ carpet is VERY large, by doll’s house standards – it measures 12.25 x 9.5 inches before the fringe is added, so it would fill most doll’s house rooms completely. But customers have been asking for larger carpets for a while now, so here is the first one that I have designed – more should follow next year, hopefully. I’m working on matching dining chairs to go with this design, too, as I think a dining room with this carpet in it, and matching chairs round a large dining table would look fantastic.
The ‘Esther’ collection
The last collection is called ‘Esther’. This is an Aubusson design, in both large and small formats. More co-ordinating kits will be available for this design next year, too. The large carpet measures 10.75 x 6.75, and the small one 6.75 x 4.75 inches.
All the kits are available on my website, and chart packs are also available for the carpets and staircarpet designs.
If there’s one style of carpet kit for doll’s houses that I get asked to design more than any other these days, it’s Art Deco. A few years ago, all doll’s houses seemed to be made in the Victorian style. Georgian was sometimes an option, but more often, only Victorian style houses and furniture were produced. So, people wanted Victorian style soft furnishings to go with the houses that they’d bought.
But in the past few years, the doll’s house hobby has diversified hugely, and now almost any era is being catered for. More and more, Art Deco styles of house are being produced, so, obviously, those houses need some carpets to go in them 🙂
During the past summer, I started to design the new range of Art Deco carpets, based on authentic motifs and colour schemes. I have just launched the first four – more will follow in the spring of 2014. These are all to be stitched in needlepoint on 18 count white canvas (ample canvas is included in the kit, and the design is counted from a colour block chart). Each kit also contains Appleton’s crewel wool, detailed instructions, and a suitable needle. They can be bought here.
The new collection of doll’s house scale Art Deco carpet kits
I have around seventy carpets for doll’s houses in my range already, and I do love designing Victorian carpets – there are several dozen carpet kits on my website in the Victorian style. The carpet shown below measures 6 x 4 1/2 inches, and is a typical example of the swirling, strong design style that the Victorians loved.
A very traditional Victorian carpet design from my range, called ‘Sarah’
I have several Arts & Crafts designs in my range, too, such as this William Morris ‘Hammersmith’ carpet design which I call ‘Elizabeth’ – it measures 9 x 9 inches.
And then there’s the Art Nouveau style – I love this style, too. This one’s called ‘Josie’.
What do you think of the new designs? Do you like Art Deco as a decorating style? Or do you prefer the more traditional Victorian/Arts and Crafts kind of carpets? Or modern?
Janet Granger's Blog 