Recently I had the pleasure to visit Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and take a trip to Rittenhouse Needlepoint! I went there in search of the Needlework System 4 table/lap stand, but there was so much more to discover in this charming store.
The store is on the second story of a mixed commercial/residential building at 1737 Chestnut Street in downtown Philadelphia. I love the building; it has a lot of old-time charm.
The shop’s entrance with colorful needlepoint canvases peeking through the door
The neat old letterbox in the building’s lobby
I didn’t get many pictures of the inside of the store because 1) my camera battery was dying and 2) I was too busy looking at all the beautiful needlepoint canvases, yarns, threads, flosses, and beads.
A small sampling of the selection at Rittenhouse, with a glimpse at the nice view of Chestnut Street below
The store had a great atmosphere, complemented by the friendly and outgoing staff. The large windows let in lots of light and interesting views of the street below. There’s also a big table tucked into the back corner where you can sit and take needlework lessons. They offer a free beginner’s class every Saturday at 10am and paid lessons at other times.
The store obviously caters to the needlepointer, with a wide selection of hand painted canvases, crewel wool, and the like, but they also had DMC floss, evenweave linen, aida, and charts for us cross stitchers.
The customer service here was really great. I wanted to take a look at the Needlework System 4 and they had both the lap stand and the floor stand models set up in the store to try them out. My non-needle-working parents were with me, and the women who helped us were very patient in answering their questions, even if some of them were kind of silly.
The women also helped me pick out some Evertite bars to go along with my new frame. In addition to the new bars, they have gently-used Evertite- and generic-brand stretcher bar frames for a fraction of the original price — $5 per bar for the Evertites and $1 per bar for the other stretcher bars.
I haven’t gotten around to setting up my new stretcher bars yet, but I love the Needlework System 4 stand, even with my old hoop!
As icing on the cake, this shop is also devoted to charity stitching — they accept donations for needlework supplies as part of a program for bringing stitching into local hospitals and halfway houses, where it can be a meditative exercise for people who could use some relaxation. Some of the donated items are sold in the shop to raise money for supplies that they need to buy, and others are used directly in the program. If you’re interested in donating some of your excess needlecraft stash, find more information here.
Shopping at Rittenhouse Needlepoint was such an enjoyable experience and I would recommend it to any needleworker who is in the Philadelphia area. The selection was great and the staff were very devoted to making sure we left as happy customers. They even gave me these adorable ‘crewel world’ and ‘crewel to be kind’ pins for free when I admired them in the display case as my order was being rung up.
Visit Rittenhouse Needlepoint on the web at rittenhouseneedlepoint.com or in person at 1737 Chestnut Street, Suite 201, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103.
I wasn’t compensated for writing this review; I just enjoyed my visit to this great local needlework shop & wanted to share it with my readers!
PDXstitch 