“It’s Not Your Grandmother’s Needlepoint”

It’s all about breaking rules and being creative for Senior HR Officer Shirley Chin.

“At work I have to deal with conflict and conform to rules,” she said, “but with needlework I don’t have to follow the rules. It’s a great way to take the stress away.”

But if you saw her intricate work you might think it would be exceedingly stressful to make all those tiny stitches (see examples below).

Chin, who works in the Agriculture, Weights and Measures department, is an award-winning needlework expert. She has been president of the local chapter of the American Needlepoint Guild three times, and she teaches others how to do it. Her diminutive projects take months to complete.

For example, she won first prize at the San Diego County Fair this summer with a small heart-shaped piece made out of 18-karat gold thread. To create it, she used the same needlepoint technique that has been employed since the Middle Ages to create ornate, ecclesiastical garments for priests.

It took her about six months to create a little gingerbread house that is actually an etui, a French word for a small ornamental case that holds tiny valuables, especially sewing instruments or cosmetics. The gingerbread house took a second place at the County Fair this year.

“A long time ago, needles would be handmade and were valuable so women would keep them in these special containers,” Chin said. The gingerbread house has a pin cushion and places to keep multiple needles.

She tries to put her two daughters into her projects, too. At the back of the gingerbread house you can see their faces peering out the windows. Chin printed the girls’ pictures on special fabric before sewing them into the little house. On other pieces she has hidden their initials somewhere in the elaborate work.

One piece that is a picture of flowers and butterflies displays different kinds of “thread painting” techniques including actually painting on the fabric, fusing Japanese paper and needlepointing with real gold and silver foil.

Some might ask, “What is the difference between needlepoint and embroidery?” It’s in the fabric, she explained. If the fabric has a loose weave and you count your stitches to complete a pattern, it is needlepoint. If the fabric is silk or has a tight weave, you embroider on top of it.

 “This is not your grandmother’s needlepoint,” she laughed. Chin explained she uses suede thread, glow-in-the-dark thread, silver and gold thread, and wire thread.  Also, she hates doing pillows - a traditional use for needlepoint.

“Pillows are boring. I like to push the boundaries of a traditional medium. I like to take something that is two-dimensional and make it three-dimensional. Plus these materials are different from what our grandmothers used,” she said.

A few years back Chin was a crime victim advocate in the District Attorney’s Office. She found that creating something with her hands helped release the terrible negative energy she encountered so much in her work. She also said working imaginatively on her off hours makes her more creative on the job.

Chin almost always has a dozens of projects in the works. When she tires of one technique, she moves to another technique on a different project. Chin does her needlework at her daughters’ dance rehearsals, while watching TV, at airports and on special needlework cruises. Soon she will branch out and create her own designs.

“This is fascinating. I love to use my imagination and see it come to life,” she said.