Dimensions Needlepoint Kit, Hydrangea Bloom, 14" x 14"

Customer Reviews

• S. I. C.

  Good value for the money but May need to grid it out

  This is a review of the Hydrangea Bloom needlepoint kit.Kit comes with 3 ply tapestry wool (sorted out), needle, paper schematic map of canvas, interlock canvas with design printed atop and brief instructions.Kit is worked in tent stitch (half cross), but kit provides enough yarn to do it in continental style or basketweave (background areas mostly) which gives a nice heavy coverage on the back side for durability. There are also double French knot accents.Cons:Very difficult to see the highly detailed areas on the canvas in order to discern the small color blocks. Mostly in upper right hand bloom. Solution: I scanned the black/white schematic map and superimposed a 172 x 168 square grid atop using markup R-XP cross stitch software. (Really inexpensive I pad or iPhone app available on the App Store) You can likely overlay a grid using Photoshop as well.Quality of the interlock is poor but you get what you pay for.Pros:The color palette of the yarns is beautiful. On par I would say with Ehrman or Elizabeth Bradley palettes (31 colors). No garish, tacky shades here.The yarn is just slightly fuzzier than the old 3 ply Paternayan (now Colonial) but in general very comparable. Coverage with 2 strands on this 12 mesh is great. I prefer the smoothness of a non divisible wool like Appleton or DMC. However for this amount of yarn you would pay twice the kit price or more.Wishes:I wish that Dimensions would properly chart their needlepoint designs out similar to higher end needlepoint books or cross stitch charts an include that along with the blotchy schematic. Not that costly to add a sheet with a proper chart. I would simply prefer to count the design out as opposed to trying to make out the color blotches.Conclusion:Worth the kit cost. Avoid it if you are not willing to chart it out for yourself or you have trouble seeing.Update:After working with this for a few weeks I would suggest that you photo the color photo on the package then blow it up on your phone or pad in order to see the stitches in the difficult areas. The grid I suggested above is just too cumbersome and not as accurate as just counting from the enlarged photo where you can see the stitches. Also be very careful about yarn usage. They are cutting it extremely close with the yarn supplied. Honestly I wish DIMENSIONS would have charged 10% more and been slightly more generous with the yarn. I’m a frugal stitcher and am finding it difficult to not run out.

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• B. t. B.

  29,000 Stitches: Encrypted Jig-Saw Puzzle

  This was my first needlepoint project. It consists of about 29,000 stitches ( I did not count them; I calculated: {(13 stitches/inch X 14 inches) + (2 stitches off the canvas at the end of each row)} squared, + 2 stitches/each yarn color and/or position change ). It took about 3 weeks to complete, and that's a lot of stitches. I had to use a lighted magnifying lens mounted on a headband to do the work. There was an ample quantity of yarn, but the yarn is of low quality; each of the three strands per piece of yarn is of a different diameter and is loosely twisted, which must adversely affect stitch quality. I have enough yarn left over to darn a lifetime of hole-y sweaters, should I get the urge.I have a good sense of color, but many of the 29 shades of yarn are indistinguishable to me. Worse, the yarn colors have little to nothing to do with the colors printed on the canvas. For example, a combination of a strand of light green and light olive green worked together is represented on the canvas by a brownish purple. You can't just look at the colors on the canvas and start stitching. There is a color key printed on the vertical sides of the canvas with numbers that correspond to the colors, but many of the canvas colors look completely the same. There are areas on the canvas where it is impossible to see the printed pattern that is to be stitched because the colors look so similar.There is a "Chart" provided, which is printed in black and white, with tiny numbers in various areas that correspond to the yarn colors. Instead of numbers, some areas are represented with solid black (not the black areas, go figure!), or various squiggly lines, wavy lines, brick patterns, slanted lines, polka dots, and so on. You have to look at the "Chart" and then locate the corresponding area on the canvas, which could be as tiny as three stitches, and with 12 to the inch that's only 1/4 inch.This "map" is not printed in the same dimensions as the canvas; it is 10 3/8" square instead of 14" square, so one can't lay one over the other to determine the position of the patterns on the canvas and the colors to be used. I would have marked both with a fine-point Sharpie in a 1" grid to help me locate all the little areas, but I would have had to figure out the scale difference. It took a tremendous amount of time just trying to find where to fill in each little shape on this chart and then to find the corresponding area on the canvas so I could then stitch it with the right color of yarn for each little area. In many areas, I had to guess.This project was like working on a map of an encrypted jig-saw puzzle, in yarn.I did not use a frame, which I bitterly regret, since the canvas did get distorted, and blocking was not enough to square the piece. I wish I could upload photos to this review. I am pleased with the resulting pillow, but it could have been much, much easier to make with better printing on the canvas and a better designed "Chart."

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• L. H.

  THREAD ROUGHNESS

  GOOD THREAD ORGANIZATION BUT IT IS TOO ROUGH, NOT SOFT

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• P.

  Came Out Great and I am a Beginner

  Very happy with this purchase. I have never done needlepoint before. It was a bit of a challenge, but definitely not difficult. I found it best to highlight the chart as I completed areas so I didn't get "lost". This was fun to do and took me less time to do than I thought it would. In fact, my mother loved it so much, I'm an doing another one for her for her birthday. There is plenty of yarn and everything is clearly marked. The only negative thing I can say is that the printed meshes were a little "off" square, but all I had to do was do a few extra rows to "straighten" it out. The edges are hidden once in the frame anyway. The suggestion is to make a pillow, but after working on this, I personally felt that putting it in a frame was much better way to go. I couldn't see this falling on the floor or someone actually sitting on it or using it as a pillow!! I have since done several other Dimension Needlepoint kits (six 5" x 5"). All came out great. This company does put out a great product at a reasonable price.

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• A. C.

  complete wool kit

  Great kit with high quality wool and canvas

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