"Jane, I have a question. I have tried to search your blog and got several good ideas on this topic but I am wondering about the philosophy you have adopted of stitching the background first before the rest of the piece. Is it overall because you do not want to inadvertently disturb the decorative stitching you have done while working a background last? Is it because you want to have an outline done to follow as you stitch and so that decorative stitches that edge up to the background will not be “taken down” by having to stitch a background stitch in the same hole after they are done? I was always taught to do it last, especially if it was a light thread but I am now hearing different schools of thoughts and I want to venture to try this on a major piece I am about to work on and want to try to wrap my head around the reasoning before I start, otherwise, if I am not committed, I will not follow thru with it that way. Can you help me by sharing this thought process? Thank you so much."
Monica, I like to stitch the background first because I like to stitch from the background to the foreground. But that is sort of like saying that I like to eat my vegetables entirely off my plate before eating my meat. It is my personal preference. I feel that it helps me keep the background in its proper place (which is less dominant) by doing so. I also like not having tons of background to stitch at the end. If I do as much background as I can stand early, the canvas seems not to drag on and on after the more interesting foreground is stitched. I do occasionally abandon a project, but not often these days as I am not bored to tears by miles of background before I can finish a piece.
Sometimes there are good reasons for stitching the background first (or last). I deliberately stitched my tap pants canvas before I did the background because I hadn't found a good frame yet and didn't know how much background to cover. But I'm reverting to my more normal practice of Background First with the bra canvas in the set because I have my frames now and know exactly how much background I need.
All the reasons Monica stated are good ones for doing the background first. There are also often reasons for doing the foreground first. I remember when I taught myself to needlepoint in 1988 that almost everyone did the foreground elements of the design first and then tackled the background, but it seemed to me at the time to just be habit. After I while I started doing background first unless there was a good reason not to, as that just suited my personal preference.
My own opinion is that unless there is a good reason to alter one's usual way of working, you should stick to it. Obviously whatever order you normally stitch in --background first or foreground first-- works for you and you are comfortable with it. You may find it makes sense to alter the way you approach a specific canvas, but I believe that in general stitchers can work either way. I just like to start with the background because it seems logical to me.
It might not seem logical to you, or you may have a canvas where this doesn't work. It all depends....
I'd like to know what everyone else thinks about this topic. It might change my mind and it certainly will help Monica clarify her thinking about how she approaches a painted canvas.
Monica, thank you for the thought-provoking question. I hope you don't mind that I quoted you here for everyone to read but I couldn't reach you to ask permission first.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
3 comments:
no i do not mind at all and i am beyond flattered that you took this amount of time from a schedule like yours to answer this way. my piece is about 36" wide called Breakfast club (all fat cats with their "breakfast" - a mouse, a fish, etc) and Tony M designed a stitch guide for it but no background. We discussed doing the little fishes darning stitch with a very light thread (that will pick up dark fuzzies) - the piece is so huge from side to side that this is going to be a bear and that is why I am considering approaching it differently. the hundreds (thousands?) of dollars in threads/canvas and hours of time may all be for naught if i give up on the background because a) i am bored as you said or b) it interferes with the fabulous stitching i would have already done from his chart. so, i am considering doing at least part (maybe the top half of the canvas above the design since it will be harder to work after i stitch the cat bodies)and then do the bottom at the end - sort of a take off on your theory from your geisha bunny - start on the edges and work my way towards the center. i so appreciate your time and i so appreciate your answer. thank you and i look forward to hearing from the others about their approach. as an aside, i thougth my email showed up to the blog owner on my profile. i am sorry about that if it did not.
Monica, your approach to your huge Breakfast Club canvas sounds very logical. I've had friends who laid large men's cotton handkerchiefs on their canvases to keep the dark fuzzies from getting into other areas of their stitching. I don't know how well it worked but tissue paper should do the same thing, depending on what you have easily available. I do the tissue paper thing when I am cutting turkeywork and it works great.
Not to worry about your email address not showing up in your profile. I get Profile Not Available but it doesn't matter since we were able to talk publicly. It's a good question about stitching order and I hope other folks add comments about how they work and why.
Let us know how the Breakfast Club turns out. Tony M. is a genius so I bet it'll be great fun and wonderful at the end.
I like to stitch from the top down on most pieces--how is that for a quirk. It solves the problem of keeping my hands off the part that is stitched. I have however stitched every which way by using the clean hanky. The piece I am doing now, I am working in the center to start as all of the background thread has not arrived yet. I will work some background, then the design, then background, more or less from the top down!
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