Deciding what part of your canvas to do next depends on a lot of things: if one area has to be finished before you can do the next part, your own personal preferences, if you have a lot of white you need to do before stitching a darker area next door so you don't get fuzz from the dark area stitched into the white one, etc. Sometimes folks like to start in the center of a design, sometimes if a piece is all in basketweave, it makes sense to start in a corner. This is why folks find painted or printed canvases confusing--there is not a rule that works for each design in every situation. You just have to think about what makes sense for the current piece you are stitching. I personally like to stitch my background first, then I like to do faces, but for this canvas, I wanted to do something easy before I started on the cat's face so I decided to stitch the sign next.
It is done in tent stitches using Gold Rush 14, which is really too fat for an 18 count canvas, but I used short lengths to make it work without unraveling too much because this sparkly pumpkin color is just perfect for the background of the sign. Gold Rush 14 was the only size I had since I don't think Orange comes in Gold Rush 18. I like Gold Rush a lot. It comes in lovely colors and the chainette type thread is easy to stitch with. The cut ends ravel in the needle's eye eventually, but you just cut that off if you don't want to dab the cut end in your needle with Fray Check. Gold Rush comes in a huge range of sizes for various canvas mesh holes, even Gold Rush XS for congress cloth. Here are some of the lush colors.
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=64
The edge of the sign is a darker red-orange and the lettering is navy but I am going to change those areas a bit. You'll have to stay tuned to see what I come up with there. I ran out of time!
By the way, I'm starting to see pirate themes show up everywhere online as Halloween approaches. Gail Hendrix has a great pirate hat and sweater ornament set just added to her Squiggee line for the St. Charles show. By coincidence she has a great feather for her pirate hat but I'm not using one for my Patt and Lee canvas (which has been christened Cat Tin Hook, by the way).
http://squiggeedesigns.blogspot.com/2010/09/st-charles.html
WaterWeave has a great pirate cat canvas of their own (top row middle and right end for a finished version).
http://www.waterweave.com/WaterWeave/canvasHats.html
Whether you "get" Halloween or cats, or would ever stitch such whimsical canvases, they are fun to look at.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
