You can see the actual piece at the store. Click here to view.
Eileen is working on a stitch guide.

Ridgewood Needlepoint is the only needlepoint shop featured in May’s New Jersey Life’s article “The Ultimate Shopping List.” The article selected the best specialty stores in 32 New Jersey destination towns – 147 specialty shops. The author, Lisa Cohen Lee, had this to say about Ridgewood Needlepoint:

"A needle store this good is hard to find. Check out the hand-painted canvases for pillows, purses or belts; quality threads; and superior finishing services that can turn your needlework into works of art. Don’t needlepoint? There are beginners’s classes among the store’s on-site workshops."

(Click for full size)

Eileen Aird, the owner of Ridgewood Needlepoint, was awarded a second-place prize for her submission to the American Needlepoint Guild Exhibit, which was held in Nashville, Tennessee. The prize was awarded for L'Ete ("Summer"), a needlepoint piece of a girl at the beach. The piece is featured in the current edition of Needlepointers, the national publication of the American Needlepoint Guild. In October 2005, Eileen attended the Guild Exhibit seminar, which was attended by over 1,000 stitchers from across the United States and abroad.

L'Ete was entered in the category of Painted Canvas with A Stitch Guide, Professional. The canvas, which was designed by Birds of a Feather, features a girl, surrounded by shells, sea grass and sand, at the beach in the summer. The stitchguide was done by David McCaskill who suggested the stitches and threads utilized. The needlepoint canvas was stitched using a variety of threads, including silk, silk and wool, over-dyed cotton, cotton plus rayon, and mohair. A wide variety of stitches were used to give the picture texture and the feeling of a sunny day at the beach.

The actual piece is on display at the store.

Eileen Aird
Ridgewood Needlepoint
6 South Maple Avenue
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
www.ridgewoodneedlepoint.com
stitches@ridgewoodneedlepoint.com

Storefront: Ridgewood Needlepoint

Saturday, April 26, 2003

Ridgewood Needlepoint
6 S. Maple Ave., Ridgewood
(201) 612-7770

Worth-the-trip rating: four cars

Stores are rated on a scale of one to four cars, with one car meaning a store is worth a short trip, and the top rating, four cars, meaning a store is worth going the distance.

Listen up, Hollywood. Here's your next chick flick idea. Think "Steel Magnolias" meets "How To Make An American Quilt." Call it "Ridgewood Needlepoint."

The script? A plucky mother leaves the corporate world and returns to the town her children love to open a store and spread the joy of needlepoint. Every guy she encounters, from her contractor to Walter the wisecracking UPS guy ("I thought 'Yeah, this is going to last a month'") tells her she's crazy.

But women flock to her store. They beg for the chance to work there. ("I said I'd sweep floors," said one.) They stitch, they talk, they share sad stories and happy stories. Some use the store as therapy, others as a stitching support group. They become so close-knit one husband calls the store "the clubhouse."

The store has been thriving for more than a year, and gets so many deliveries that even Walter is a believer. And stitchers pay $15 for the privilege of hanging out at the store and stitching with experts at the two-hour "Stitch & Chat" sessions.

The plucky mom who owns the store is Eileen Aird. She's filled the store with the newest in needlepoint and is attracting a multigenerational group of stitchers. College student Christine Emery of Fair Lawn tipped us off to this store and she said her mother and grandmother are hooked as well. "You cannot walk into this store without wanting to go home and needlepoint. ... Simply walking into the store relaxes a customer." The prices, she noted "tend to be a bit high, but all of their canvasses are hand-painted, real pieces of art."

Emery didn't steer us wrong. The love for needlepointing in here is infectious. Everyone is talking about the next project, customers come rushing in for their third or fourth feel-good fix of the week, and everywhere you look you see elegant pillows, tote bags, and pocketbooks, eyeglass cases, belts, and ornaments made with needlepoint. The store has craftspeople who can turn your needlepoint canvas into anything, and artists who can paint custom canvasses.

Men are welcome in this club as well. A few male needlepoint addicts are among the regular customers.

The women who work here are so warm and funny they'll have you in stitches. Add a part in that script for the skeptical reporter who walked in hating needlepoint and walked out loving this store.

- Joan Verdon

Have a Storefronts tip? Call (201) 646-4419 or e-mail verdon@northjersey.com

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