I know what you are thinking: my Nerdlepoint canvas is very high tech and geeky and all, but when it comes down to it, it's just a plain tent stitch piece in black and white. B O R I N G.
Not to worry, John and I've come up with A Plan to take Nerdlepoint into the realm of Fabulousness. I'm going to stitch it in color. John says as long as there is a lot of contrast between the two areas, QR Code scanner aps should still work and send any smart phone that looks at my canvas straight to this blog.
My Nerdlepoint happens to be on 13 count because that's what John had laying around, but he'll put yours on any count you want. So I rummaged in my stash, looking for heavy threads in two colors that were very different in shade. I pulled ten threads altogether, all in raspberry and cream colors. I'll tent stitch the white areas in a doubled strand of white Felicity's Garden (a silk/wool blend that looks like wool with a nice glow) and stitch the black areas in raspberry Very Velvet! [Note: I used regular Very Velvet, not Petite Very Velvet which is made for 18 count canvases.]
The photo above shows my progress. Look carefully at the big raspberry square in the lower left corner. It's padded with two layers of slanted Scotch Stitches. I discovered that my Very Velvet didn't cover the canvas as well in Scotch Stitches that it did in regular tent stitches (most of the black area) or in Mosaic Stitches which is what I used for the small black boxes, some of which are stitched above and some of which aren't. Here are these two stitches diagrammed. I'm hoping that these stitches add a bit of visual interest but are still smooth enough for the smart phones to read.
Scotch Stitch Diagram
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/98-06.php
Mosaic Stitch Diagram
http://www.needlepoint.org/StitchOfTheMonth/1999/99-01.php
It is crucial when you are stitching a geometric piece that doesn't have a natural top/bottom side that you decide what is the top before you start stitching. It is all too easy to put in your tent stitches all slanting /// as they should for part of the canvas, then suddenly find yourself doing a row in this fashion--\\\. Unless you enjoy ripping out, figure out what side is the top/left/right/whatever and mark it. I referred to the paper pattern John sent with the canvas to see which side was up, realized that the bound edge of the Zweigart canvas made a natural left hand side, and used that to orient myself.
If you look at my last painted canvas in the header of Blog, it's easy to tell which side is up by looking at the bird. If he's flying upside down, the canvas is upside down. On something like Nerdlepoint, make sure you mark the canvas top in some way as we aren't smart phones. Which side should be up isn't obvious to the human eye.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
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