Autumn Leaves: The Tent Stitch Family (Half-Cross)

HALF-CROSS STITCH is stitched this way (see Threadneedle Street’s diagrams in the link below also).

http://www.threadneedlestreet.com/ContinentalHalfCross.html

Half-cross stitch uses the least amount of thread of all three tent stitches, so when you are running out of thread, switch to half-cross. However, there is very little padding on the back with half-cross. If you look on the back side diagram at Threadneedle Street’s link above, you see straight lines. It doesn’t distort as much as continental but it does pull things out of true some. Like continental, it may be worked in either horizontal or vertical rows. It also does very well in small areas or for outlining. But it is terrific when you only have a little bit of thread left and you aren’t worried about distortion or wear. It is worked from right to left (or left to right, doesn’t matter) just like continental in the first row. But in the second row you come up and go down the same way as in the first row instead of coming up in dirty holes like continental does.

http://www.stitchopedia.com/HalfCrossStitch.html

I will use all three stitches while stitching Autumn Leaves so you can see how they work up and what situations they are best suited for.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Autumn Leaves: The Tent Stitch Family (Continental)

CONTINENTAL is stitched this way. (See Threadneedle Street’s diagrams in the link below).

http://www.threadneedlestreet.com/ContinentalHalfCross.html

This stitch (and half-cross) may be stitched in either horizontal or vertical rows. If you stitch it across a horizontal row, you work from right to left, then for the next row, you work from the left toward the starting point on the right, making sure that you come up in a “dirty” hole and go down in an empty one. (A “dirty” hole just means a hole in your needlepoint canvas that already has a stitched thread in it.) To stitch vertically, the first row goes down and then you work you way back up to the right of the first row, making sure the new row’s stitch comes up in a dirty hole from the row you just stitched.

Want to turn your square piece into a parallelogram? Continental is the stitch for you! Look at the back side. You’ll see long slants on the back and the regular tent stitch look on the front. This constant pull in one direction distorts the canvas a lot. There is a lot of thread on both sides of the canvas so continental wears ok, just not as well as basketweave.

But on the other hand, this is the perfect stitch for small areas like the tiny leaves we have in Autumn Leaves. I would not use it for a large area unless my canvas was on a frame, and even then I find my stitch tension is easier to control if I use basketweave. But it works very well in certain situations.


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Autumn Leaves: The Tent Stitch Family (Basketweave)

There are three types of tent stitch--basketweave, continental and half-cross. They look identical from the front but from the back of the canvas, they look very different. Each stitch has advantages and disadvantages which I’ll go over. Let’s start with basketweave. Here’s how you stitch it--

http://www.threadneedlestreet.com/Basketweave.html

Notice how the threads on the back look like a woven basket? That gives BASKETWEAVE its name. The fact that the threads run both horizontally and vertically means basketweave doesn’t distort the canvas nearly as much as its tent stitch cousins since it pulls the canvas both ways. All that thread on the back also means that this is a very durable stitch for rugs and upholstery. If you are going to sit or walk on your needlepoint, consider basketweave. However, it uses more thread than the other types of tent stitch. If you are worried about running out of thread, don’t do basketweave in more than a small area.

if you are left-handed, here’s how lefties do basketweave.

http://www.stitching.com/npg/bsktwve.htm

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

Autumn Leaves Plan of Attack

When planning how to stitch a piece entirely in tent stitches, usually you are told to start in either one corner or the middle. Personally, I think where you start depends on the actual design and the size of the piece and whether you are using scroll frames. Some patterns have big areas in the center; in that case I might stitch those first. Other designs, especially if you are doing the piece all in basketweave, work up well if you start in a corner and work diagonally to the opposite corner. If you use a scroll frame, you will probably also work this way since you need to stitch down a ways from the top, stop and roll the stitched area around the scroll frame at the top and unroll the unstitched canvas at the bottom to expose more area to work.

For Autumn Leaves we are going to try both ways of stitching. I’ll do the small brown leaf in the center and also start in one corner. We’ll compare the two plans of attack this way. But before we start, we need to talk about the tent stitches we can choose from.

Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow