Church Needlework

One of the most asked questions I get is “how did you get into doing church needlework?”

As a child, growing up in the Episcopal Church, I never ever noticed needlework in the church. When we would go up to the altar for communion, I never noticed the kneelers, and to this day, the church I grew up in (was baptized, confirmed, married in, and had youngest daughter baptized in) I still couldn’t tell you if they have needlepoint kneelers at the altar.

It’s true once you pick up a hobby or sport you’ll start to begin to notice that said hobby or sport everywhere. I started needlepointing at 21 and began to see it everywhere . I noticed old pieces prior family members had made decades earlier. As I got more into needlepointing, not just belts and a failed attempt at shoes when I was pregnant with my oldest, I moved into larger sized projects.

Decades later, I had been needlepointing for years when mother’s church, All Saint’s Episcopal Church in Lakeland, Florida, was getting ready to do a needlepoint project of large bricks to go at the railing of the chapels for communion. Each would have a Saint on them with a cross pattern throughout. They were big and long and no one there could stitch them properly. Needlepointing had not picked up and become trendy like it has in the past 5 years, so it was a dead art as far as they were concerned there. So I was gifted a kit and went to to town. I got about one left corner in and the main Saint image completed and into the closet of unfinished projects it went. One New Year’s Day about six years later I was cleaning out projects and decided right then and there this was getting finished this year. I worked on it every day for at least 2 hours. It had Paternayn Wool and it was awful, but I kept with it. And 9 months later it was complete. I was never so proud of myself. This is where the designing of kneelers began.

Mother’s church continued on with their project of kneelers, and the woman who had designed these canvases in the early 1990s was not alive so I was commissioned to paint and kit new kneelers for them. The few we have done so far are woman saints and they have been the most fun to see come to life and see how they come to life. Now that needlepoint has become fashionable again, their church has stitchers and they are going through them quickly. My church St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA asked me to join their newly founded Needlepoint Guild about ten years ago when the plan had been put into place by our then rector, Gary Jones to do kneelers for the two small chapels. We started with the Holy Spirit chapel and were very fortunate enough to work with Nancy Luckosie of Fancy Finishing in Easton, MD, to do our first chapel. As we moved onto the Good Shepherd chapel I was tasked with the designing of them. Mainly because I had the time and the talent, and also for cost. Kneelers are expensive. The designing is expensive. The process is expensive. So to make it more affordable for our church members to buy them as well as helping to build up our account.

I set out with a mock of of a design. We would use the Episcopal red as the background as well as gold crosses and the center would be a shield of some image that is meaningful to the church. The design was chosen and approved by the vestry and we had a plan to design them and sell them as a kit to fell stitchers who’s sample was approved or we would provide a ghost stitcher to those who wanted one and did not know how to needlepoint. The front pew of theGood Shepherd chapel is two long kneelers instead of four like the other 66 so I came up with the idea of doing the Virginia diocese from sunrises to sunset and would have all the churches across the Commonwealth that are significant. They are simply stunning!

We assumed this process would take up to 8 years to be completed and within two and a half years the entire chapel was done and installed! It is one of the most cherished things I have done in my life. I am so proud and honored to leave such a lovely labor of love for my girls and future generations to enjoy. Our family kneeler is the beehive with four bees. The beehive is the symbol of St. Ambrose and the four bees represent the four members of my hive.

Many are daunted by the size of a kneeler. Lots of churches use a brick style like these that are from the Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota, Florida, where I was fortunate enough to be able to work on a rug with their prize group of stitchers. This group is one of the elite in the country and it was a thrill to sit with them and work on it. Knowing I finished one of the Jerusalem crosses out of thousands was fun.

The biggest challenge of needlepointing a church kneeler is the wool used and the basket weave stitching. Every church that I have worked with either as a stitcher or designer or both, requires potential needle pointers to submit a sample of their stitching. It’s not done to be snooty or to criticize your stitching, but necessary because as you know needlepoint is expensive but it is meant to last. Doing basket weave is generally the only way that kneelers are stitched because it strong and will hold up with use.

If you are considering doing a kneeler for your family or for someone else here are a few tips.

1. Make sure you feel up to the task. I say this because a left handed stitcher should never take over for a right handed stitcher because the basket weave is backwards and you will notice it from the front.

2. Understand the church’s timeline and your own sense of your pace. This means if the church is thinking a year would be long enough to have this finished, and you do not think you can do it, speak up with them and look into getting a “Holy Ghost” stitcher to do it for you, or maybe they can make some leeway with letting more time.

3. Make sure you have a good idea of the wool or fibers that they church is planning to use. Some wools, Paternayn wool and Appleton wool are generally multi stranded, and are used more in Europe for crewl work and will require more than one strand of the fiber if the canvas is on 13 or 14 mesh. The pulling of these can leave bumps and require it to be pulled out and fixed. I know this from experience of checking several that came back to us.

4. Start with the background first. When doing kneelers it is usually a LOT of background. It’s just the way it is. By starting with the boring part first as you finish a section switch up to do the color as a reward. This keeps the project not as boring and you will finish.

5. Take it with you on trips! I had fun taking mine on vacations with me, it helps remind you later when it is done, all the places you were while working on this piece of church history.

Being part of church needlepoint is special. It’s forever. We have some kneelers in our church from 1975 and many of the women who did them are not alive but their family members are still there and it’s a wonderful legacy. Take a chance and I promise you will not regret it!