Oldest needlepoint shop in Northeast Ohio reopens in Bath
by Sheldon Ocker
Taylor Simenson points to a dollhouse with two large windows framed in green that sits on a shelf in a corner of her store. She flips open the faux shingled roof to reveal a replica of a needlepoint shop done in obviously loving detail.
In June, Simenson purchased I of the Needle from Lauren Greenberg, who opened the Fairlawn business in 1986, making it the oldest needlepoint shop in Northeast Ohio, according to Simenson.
The dollhouse is the original needlepoint shop done in miniature, explained Simenson, built by Greenberg’s husband, a surgeon who made dollhouses as a hobby.
“When we bought the business, she wanted us to keep it,” Simenson said. “She was so happy that we were bringing it back to life. … It would have closed, and there would have been no needlepoint shop in Akron.”
Simenson reopened I of the Needle in mid-August at 837 N. Cleveland-Massillon Road in Bath Township, almost directly across from Lanning’s restaurant.
For those who are needlepoint-challenged, Simenson explained, “We have a variety of hand-painted canvases. People stitch the canvases, then finish them into a pillow, or they frame them, however they like them to be done. It’s basically your personal piece of art.”
Simenson sells needlepoint kits for adults and children that include everything needed to complete a project, starting at about $35. There are canvases made to cover a brick used as a doorstop and canvases for dog collars, birth announcements and picture frames.
The shop also sells non-needlepoint gift items, such as tea towels and scissors.
Canvases are priced from $30 to more than $400. A piece of needlepoint might need $20 or $100 worth of thread, so cost is largely a matter of choice.
“A lot of people make them for gifts,” Simenson said. “It takes time and effort, and they are unique items, handmade. The time it takes to make them is part of the gift.”
Like all hobbies, there are different skill levels.
“You can make a rug if you’re ambitious and if you have some time,” Simenson said. “People like to do [Christmas] stockings for their grandkids or heirloom stockings. You can have them for years.”
The variety, size and complexity of the canvases are almost endless. Cotton, wool and silk threads come in virtually every shade of every color of the rainbow.
“We also have specialty threads like metallic,” Simenson said. “The list goes on and on.”
Customers can buy blank or “counted” canvases and draw their own design before stitching it. If a customer has an idea for a design, Simenson will paint a custom canvas for them.
“One customer wanted a pickup truck with tulips in the back,” she said. “Another wanted owls.”
Selling needlepoint is only part of her mission.
“My goal is to get more people doing needlepoint and enjoying it,” said Simenson, who has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Ohio University. “We will be having beginners’ classes, probably in October. I’m not an expert, but we will have one come in to teach.”
Not all of Simenson’s customers are female.
“I have a couple of men,” she said. “Usually, they want to do something for their family, like their son-in-law likes a certain team.”
Simenson said one male customer has done seven canvases this year.
“That’s the thing with needlepoint,” she said. “When you start one, you want to do another one.” I of the Needle is open Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and by appointment.
Feature image photo caption: A dollhouse replica of I of the Needle was gifted to Taylor Simenson by the shop’s original owners. Photo by S. Ocker
