If you've been peeking over my shoulder as I stitch painted canvases for a while here at Blog, you know that I usually stitch the background of pieces first. I often am asked why. Is this the right way to stitch a painted canvas? Well, no, I don't think there is a right or wrong place to start on a canvas, but personally, I like doing the background first. It's my personal preference. I just like getting a good start on the background before I stitch the main parts of a canvas. After all, backgrounds are HUGE and stitching them seems to take forever.
Sometimes it makes sense to do the background first. Perhaps there is going to be a ton of compensation in the background. It is often easier to count across bare, unstitched canvas to get the stitches compensated correctly if you work the background first.
Other times you'll want to stitch the background later, and I think Cha-Cha is going to be one of these times. Remember the six areas on this canvas? The leaves, flowers, fruit, bird, branch and background? If I am going to use fancy stitches in at least some of these areas, they all have to harmonize. I am not sure I will know if the background stitch I've chosen (Brenda Hart's wide diamonds stitch from page 114 of her Stitches for the Millennium book) is right until I stitch a little of all the other five areas. Here is what wide diamonds looks like.
To stitch it, I've found the easiest way is to do the blue stitches on the left first (working left to right), then working right to left do the yellow stitches, then switching to work left to right again, do the red stitches in the example above. In other words, stitch the blue backbone of the stitch, then add the bottom area and finally stitch the top. These three steps make up one wide diamond. The diagram shows how the next diamond and other rows interlock.
It's a lovely stitch. I saw it on one of Brenda Hart's student's canvases and think it is beautiful. I also think it is perfect for Cha but I won't know for sure until I stitch some of all the other areas to see that the stitches I've chosen play nice together.
Here are the few rows of Wide Diamonds I've worked using one ply from the gorgeous JL Walsh overdyed silk wool in shades of pink. I turned the canvas on its side to work vertical rows instead of trying to master the horizontal stitch. If a stitch diagram doesn't make sense to you, turn the diagram and see if stitching it on its side seems more logical to you. I do this all the time. Of course I have to turn the canvas on its side, too!
Stay tuned to see if Wide Diamonds works or if I have to rip out the test rows I've done.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
11 comments:
Are you happy with the Walsh color? It looks like a good match to me, but looking at a picture on the computer doesn't always match reality.
SL, the pink of the JL Walsh overdye is perfect. It is slightly lighter and brighter than the pink blush canvas, which means the empty background you see around and inside each wide diamond stitch adds to the dimension. I'm wondering whether to add a touch of pink Accentuate to the center of each diamond but that will have to wait until the entire canvas is stitched. I won't know whether that is needed or Too Much until then.
Decisions, decisions! I'm very happy with the JL Walsh you sent me. I haven't used much of it yet but I will once I get to the parrot and his magnificent feathers.
Jane - I love the diamond stitch but have a question. It starts beautifully on the left side of the canvas. How do you know it will end that way on the right side of the canvas? Does it matter? (I think it might for symmetry.) Did you count it out?
Pamela
Tucson
I love Walsh silk but don't have a local resource for it. I think the one you chose is perfect as far as color goes. But I agree to wait on the background as there is so much going on with the canvas it may not even be needed!
I love this so far and I think it is going to be a soothing background for the gorgeous bird!
This is a beautiful canvas, Jane. Tell me how/where you are anchoring your Walsh thread so that it doesn't show under the blank areas of the background. Thanks!
Thanks, Melinda. I'll do a post tomorrow talking about anchoring and finishing off light coverage stitches. It is always a conundrum but I can explain how I do it on Blog. It's too long a subject for a comment but expect all the details tomorrow morning!
Thank you, Pat. I do hope the background ends up being soothing. It is a lovely stitch but the real question is whether it is the right stitch. As you'll see, it is totally different from the other stitches I'm choosing....
Whether that makes sense or not, we'll have to wait and see.
Carol, Sara Leigh has a good stock of the JL Walsh silk and wool in her online shop. But I understand this thread is being discontinued as JL Walsh can't get the base thread any more for dyeing. Which is too bad.
You can order from SL here--
http://stores.intuitwebsites.com/ScarletThread/-strse-Fibers/Categories.bok
That's my only local source for it. The other shops here don't carry it. Anyone else have a source for the JL Walsh silk/wool if Carol or anyone else needs some?
Pamela, yes, I did carefully count (and recount and counted again) the wide diamonds stitch in the background. I did several rows all the way across so I could use them as the base point for making sure all the rows line up all the way across the canvas from top to bottom and left to right.
It's not my favorite thing to do but I think it will bother the viewer if the rows don't line all the way up. In many canvases it doesn't matter and you'll see I'm deliberately not lining up the stitches I used on the flower petals, but for the background, it is important that things match up.
I hope to do enough of the various elements of the design to know if the background is working, then will stop and stitch it all before finishing the rest of the canvas. I find it easier to count out a background like this across an unstitched canvas rather than a stitched one.
Oh, Pamela, has your copy of NP Now arrived yet? Have fun when it does!
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