BLOOMINGTON - Mary Roper was just 3 when she first tried to mimic her mother's crochet skills using a piece of string she'd tie into knots.

She mastered it quickly, a sign of things to come.

As a child and young woman, Roper was enamored with sewing, crocheting and knitting anything and everything she could find. First doll clothes, then her own.

"I've done handiwork all my life," she said. The fascination never ended and, with each pull, the thread slowly drew out an artist.

Today, just two years shy of 90, the great-grandmother continues her passion.

Her split-level home in Bloomington is overflowing with displays of her medium of choice, needlepoint, and its more complicated sister, petit point.

Working on the craft requires patience and creativity, a sharp eye, and careful finger work with a half-inch-long thin needle.

She starts her work in the middle of a canvas to make sure it's centered. "I like to see it unfold. I say 'Oh, here it comes,' as the image develops," she said of her detailed works.

One July morning, Roper visited in her living room with her daughter, Nancy Reed of Bloomington. Sitting in her armchair, she worked on a knitting project to pass the time.

When she gets serious, the medium she chooses is petit point.

"I like the challenge of it," said Roper. Petit point (pronounced 'pedipoint') refers to needlepoint that goes beyond the standard stitches-per-inch counts. "I think an 18-count is on the border," she said. Roper doesn't use painted canvas, though she recommends those for beginners. Rather, she refers to charted books.

Using a textile canvas, a complicated spread of tiny fibers in various shades, a wooden hoop, and tapestry needle, she weaves her pieces. Currently, she's working on a replica of the painting "Bouquet of Flowers" by Joseph Nigg. She turns on a powerful lamp stretched directly over her work and armchair, and then refers to a complicated book charting each color, and blends color. This pattern uses 32 stitches to the inch.

Roper came across petit point in the 1980s while living in the Quad Cities. She'd already been needlepointing 20 years. On her first project, in the early 1960s, her husband painted a dining room table and she needlepointed a design on the chairs to match. "We did a lot of work together," she said, pointing to some needlepoints on the walls based on his drawings.

Mary Lynn Mullins, who owns the Yarn Garden in Bloomington, met Roper about 10 years ago, and has been in awe since.

"My friend said, 'You won't believe her needlepoint.' Now, I thought of myself as pretty good at needlepoint. But when I saw Mary's work, it was something," said Mullins.

Most people who needlepoint stitch about 14 points per inch, she said. "But Mary does 30-, 32-, 36-count," said her friend.

And it isn't just the pack she punches into each inch that's impressive.

"Her stitches are done perfectly. There's no separation of fibers."

Mullins describes an impressive use of silk thread, and Roper's tendency to separate a 12-ply fiber and blend colors to make a new one. "She can almost paint the canvas. It looks like an oil painting," said Mullins, who last month hosted an exhibit of Roper's works at her store in the CII East Building.

"It must have taken her a week to put everything up here. And it only was supposed to be up one week, but through word of mouth everyone wanted to come see it so we held it week after week. It actually was there four weeks," said Mullins.

The display honored Roper's 88th birthday on June 14.

Back home, and in their proper places, the framed works hang on every wall between paintings created by her late husband. Her bedroom alone has about 80 separate 10- by 14-inch pieces, each depicting an angel. And around every hallway corner is a stool, chair, or pillow needle-pointed into a design. Hanging in the closets are fashionable sweaters she's knitted, and on the beds are beautiful quilts she's crafted.

One room is devoted to her thread passion. A cabinet full of tiny drawers contains fibers for her craft. And, of course, the walls are full of her petit points.

Now retired and a widow, Roper almost always is doing some form of handiwork, or sometimes a crossword puzzle, to keep busy. But she admits, even when hers was the hectic life of a minister's wife and working mother of five, she tried to do needlepoint as often as she could. These days, when she does go out, it's often to Village Stitches or The Yarn Garden, local shops catering to the needle arts. She also likes to meet with informal knitting groups at the shops, socializing while working.

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Needle basics

• Needlepoint: Traditionally, needlepoint has been embroidery done on canvas, using wool to execute the tent stitch (also called the basketweave or half-cross stitch). But other stitches also are used. While such embroideries are needlepoint, today's needlepointer has available a much broader palette of stitches and techniques. The American Needlepoint Guild defines needlepoint as "any counted or free stitchery worked by hand with a threaded needle on a readily countable ground."

• Petit point: Translated from the French, meaning "small point." This is a tinier form of needlepoint, and requires more stitches per inch.

• Cross stitch: This is a more simplified version of needlepoint, using X's to make a design.

• Embroidery: Both embroidery and needlepoint use fabric, thread and a needle. But embroidery is done on plain fabric and is a sort of freehand style. Stitches such as the blanket stitch, outline stitch, running stitch and chain stitch are combined with decorative knots to make designs such as flowers and to outline shapes in the fabric.

Local resources

These shops specialize in needlepoint materials. But other area sewing and knitting shops also have materials.

• Village Stitches, 901 S. Eldorado Road, Bloomington

• The Yarn Garden, 102 S. East St., Bloomington

Online

• Needlepoint.org, the site of the American Needlepoint Guild, offers education and resources for crafters, including a stitch of the month. Start at the beginning, in February 1998, to see the most basic stitches.

• Stitching.com has a great free online needlepoint guide, which shows how to work stitches on different kinds of canvas, how to work a project and some of the basic stitches.

• Needlepoint Now is a magazine for needlepoint crafters. The online classroom and free projects sections are great places to look for ideas and inspiration.

SOURCES: www.needlepoint.org; www.craftslovetoknow.com