Another Canvas of the Day for Fall

Today's Canvas of the Day is from Melissa Shirley.  It's on 13 count canvas, something I don't stitch on much, so you will have to figure out the number of strands or plies to use on your own.  I'm not certain about this part myself.  The canvas is 11 inches high by 14 wide, and is in a primitive style.

http://www.needlenookoflajolla.com/storedir/proddetail.php?prod=ms811&cat=41

Make a black and white copy of the canvas and also a colored copy of the canvas.  Put these aside for now and stitch the background and the vase.  Use non-shiny threads (DMC floss or Mandarin floss or crewel wool or Impressions) for the blue background and do  a broad horizontal stripe in straight stitches across the top of the design.  Make the width of the stripe the same width as three of the stripes on the red and white bowl.  If the red stripe is two threads high and the white stripe is 4 threads high, then make your broad blue stripe 2+4+2 or 8 threads high to match the height of three stripes on the bowl.  Skip 8 threads of background and do another broad blue stripe over 8 threads, continuing down to the bottom of the canvas with a broad blue stripe, nothing, another broad blue stripe, nothing again, etc.  If the empty canvas stripes bother you, tent stitch that area using the same thread as the broad blue stripe.  

Stitch the stripes on the bowl, using satin stitch done vertically.  They would look good in perle cotton which will be shinier than the threads you've used so far.  Try #8 perle since this is 13 count canvas.  If that's not covering, go up a diameter to #5 perle cotton.

Now stitch the bird legs, the flower stems and the tiny leaves, all in tent stitches using a thread that is not really shiny.  If you hate tent stitches, you may do the stems in a slanting satin stitch across their width.

Now do the large leaves in split stitch using a pretty wool/silk blend like Vineyards Silk.  Cover the entire leaf in medium green, then switch to a sharp needle and do the dark green veins right on top of the lighter green.  If you are feeling fancy, use silk or cotton floss for the darker green leaf area.  If not, use the same brand of thread as you used for the light green under part of the leaves unless it is unusually heavy and thick.  Then you'll want to switch to a lighter weight thread for the dark green veins.

The flower petals are next.  Just stitch the yellow petals using straight stitches across their width and shortening the length as you work from the base of the flower to the arched top.  If they look a bit ragged to you when you are done, backstitch or couch a thread around the outside edge of each petal.  I would use a non-shiny thread here although a shiny silk would be pretty.


Now stop stitching for a bit.

Using the black and white copy, cut out the black bird in the foreground, the centers of each of the three flowers (pencil in right, center and left of the back of each flower center when you cut it out so you know which is which), and the tail and then the head and body of the back bird.  Use the paper patterns to cut out felt or Ultrasuede birds in black, then the three flower centers.  Keep each flower center pattern pinned to the matching fabric so you know which flower center goes on the right, etc.

Using a sharp needle again, applique the flower centers to their correct place on the canvas.  To do this, pin each in place, then button hole around the perimeter of the felt or Ultrasuede.  (Felt is cheaper than Ultrasuede but neither fabric will unravel so choose what you can easily find.)  This will take a while.  Use a ply or two of DMC cotton floss, matching the color of your flower center fabric or going a shade darker for contrast.  Once the flower fabric centers are all in, take a beading needle and attach clusters of green beads in the right place on the fabric, then do individual red beads. Check your color copy for placement of the beads. Beading needles are sharp so you will be able to slowly push them through the fabric.  Attach the beads using the same thread you used to buttonhole the flower centers onto the canvas.  If you don't like beads, find flat buttons that are the right size and attach them on top of the flower center fabric.  Use three of a kind or mix it up, depending on your own taste.  Just look for buttons that are the correct size (take your color copy with you to the fabric store to shop), a color you like and which have holes so you can stitch them on.  Use the same thread as you used for the buttonholed edge to attach the buttons if you are going that route.  

Now it is time to applique the black bird pieces to the canvas.  Just used little stitches all around the outside of the bird fabric shapes about  2 mm in from the edge to hold these in place.  You can buttonhole instead but the shapes are more complex and I'd be tempted to simply use little straight stitches to attach everything.  If you are feeling fancy, stitch the curved outline of a wing onto the bird in the foreground.  It will be barely visible on the black but it will help hold the bird fabric onto the canvas without puckering.  Once the fabric birds are securely on, use black thread to attach white beads for the eyes. 

I'd make this into a picture for a dining room or country kitchen but a pillow for your favorite kitchen rocking chair would also be fabulous.

Remember, these are just ideas for a painted canvas to tempt you to try it.  There are no guarantees that the ideas will work unless I've actually stitched a canvas since photographs can miss details and sometime things just don't work the way you think they will.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
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