I used one ply of black DMC cotton floss to attach black round beads but the clear beading thread used on the martini glass bubbles works as well. I used size 15/0 (sometimes written 15°) beads for my letters. That’s actually a little small for size 13 canvas where usually size 11/0 beads are chosen. I’ll explain why I picked what I did in a minute. When you choose your beads, you may go with either size, just make sure all the colors of beads you use are the same size.
I like to use reverse tent stitch to bead small letters. Work a letter at a time, going back through the beads with one long stitch after you finish a letter to help pull them into a straight row. Look at the chart below.
The gray ovals stand for beads. The yellow boxes stand for the painted lettering on the bare canvas. The top right side of the chart shows various ways of attaching beads—with a reverse tent stitch, a cross stitch, or with a long stitch through a line of beads. What I do with skinny letters like the T is use reverse tent stitches for horizontal or vertical rows. Once I finish the reverse tent stitches for the top of the letter T, I run a long stitch through the holes of all the beads I’ve attached. This helps pull them into a straight line. (That’s why I am using only one ply of my DMC cotton, so I can go through the beads 2-3 times.) Beads are wiggly things and you may have one that keeps jumping out of the straight line until you add the long straight stitch.
The letter T is done in four steps: reverse tent stitch for the top horizontal bar, then a long stitch through all the top bar's beads, reverse tent stitch for the vertical base of the T, then another long stitch through the vertical row of beads. It takes a while but your beads will be straight and true. So what do you do for letters like S that have both rows and individual beads? You do reverse tent for all the beads, then go through the rows with the long stitch and finish up with a regular tent stitch / for single beads. That means a single bead is attached with a cross stitch. A row of cross stitches is suitable for attaching single beads like the dots after the word Day where you don’t want to go through the row with a long stitch because it might show behind the beads.
I didn’t use all black beads for the lettering. For the words “flying monkeys” I added a few red beads to highlight the words slightly, mixing in a sprinkling of red among the black beads. This is optional. If you decide to use red beads as well, try to find beads approximately the same size as the black ones you are using. When you have all the letters done, check the placement of each letter one more time to be certain they are all as even as you can make them.
I didn’t use all black beads for the lettering. For the words “flying monkeys” I added a few red beads to highlight the words slightly, mixing in a sprinkling of red among the black beads. This is optional. If you decide to use red beads as well, try to find beads approximately the same size as the black ones you are using. When you have all the letters done, check the placement of each letter one more time to be certain they are all as even as you can make them.
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| No Flying Monkeys is Done! |
No Flying Monkeys is finished!
I have written up everything I did in more detail for Point of It All Designs to use as a stitch guide. I think the guide will come with the canvases ordered after this point, but if you have this canvas already and would like a copy of the guide, I can email you a PDF version to print out if you will email me at chilly hollow at hot mail dot com and explain you need the guide for your canvas.
Many thanks to Hyla Hurley of Point of It All Designs for allowing me to blog-stitch this fun canvas for you. Once the canvas is made up, Hyla has promised photographs.
Now I need to turn my attention to my next canvas.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright May 29, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.
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