Porcupine Needlepoint Shop in Sewickley a long-standing business
Nancy Schurman will keep you in stitches — she will make you laugh and also teach you how to do some of the finest needlepoint.
Owner of one of Sewickley’s oldest businesses, The Porcupine Needlepoint Shop, she guides customers on how to select a hand-painted needlepoint canvas and use tapestry needles and fibers to create everything from Christmas stockings to purses, belts, pillows, coasters, eye-glass cases, advent calendars, liquor bottles, picture frames and more.
The store is bursting with hundreds of choices of needlepoint canvases, including a custom canvas of your pet made from a photo. There is a room full of bright and bold fibers in wool, silk, cotton and lots of sparkle.
Schurman works with local or national companies that will “finish” the completed canvas and turn it into a final product.
“You just feel good when you walk in here because it’s just so colorful,” said Dorothy Pusateri of Sewickley, who is currently making a large stand up Santa Claus. “Nancy’s taste is wonderful. Needlepoint is fun and it is relaxing and you can continually learn new stitches.”
Pusateri learned needlepoint from her father. She started with making holiday stockings and often works on more than one project at the same time.
”Needlepoint is a craft you can do all your life,” said Schurman, a lifelong Sewickley resident who fell in love with the art from her mother, Nancy Burtch. “So many people have a love of needlepoint and we are seeing some younger stitchers. It’s a generational craft.”
Laura Pangburn of Sewickley Heights was dropping off an ornament of a bride and groom to be finished so she can give it to her daughter, who is getting married later this year. While in the shop, she picked up an ornament her daughter had made.
“I love this shop,” said Pangburn. “I always feel welcome and they keep me going by encouraging me. Nancy is wonderful and has an eye for this work.”
Because holiday items are some of the most popular, those choices are up all year to allow people to continuously work on stockings, ornaments and gifts. It can take weeks to several months to get something finished.
Ornament canvases start at $30.
Schurman can look at a canvas and know the correct colors and how much of each fiber a customer will need. She then goes to a back room filled with fibers to help a customer choose what works for a particular project. She buys from 75 different vendors.
“I come in and drop something off to be finished and then I see something else I want to try and make,” said Pangburn.
There is something for every skill level and so much you can do with needlepoint, said Nina Snyder, a sales associate from Sewickley, who has worked at the shop for five years and been doing needlepoint for five decades.
The store opened in 1972.
For most of its time, it has been in the current location.
“There are very few towns like this in the country,” said Schurman, who has owned the store since 1996, and has a co-partner Barbara Ward, a former Sewickley resident, who handles the books from her Florida residence. “It is home and people are so friendly. Customers come from all over to shop at this store. I love that.”
Schurman said she likes that needlepoint is about creating something with your hands and it keeps her away from her smartphone and computer.
“What you make is beautiful,” said Schurman. “And it is an art that you do for a long time. It is very relaxing and good for the heart rate and blood pressure. I try to make it creative and fun.”
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a TribLive reporter covering the region's diverse culinary scene and unique homes. She writes features about interesting people. The Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist began her career as a sports reporter. She has been with the Trib for 26 years and is the author of "A Daughter's Promise." She can be reached at jharrop@triblive.com.
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