The last time I showed my progress on Autumn Leaves I said, “Next time we’ll talk about the brown and peach veins in the big red leaf you see here. I will also talk about the nylon thread Panache which I am using in the red/orange leaves. And I’ll finally get around to talking about the various ways of starting threads on this piece.”
Well, I’m going to not talk about starting threads yet. There is too much else to say about the big red leaf first. Sorry.
Let’s start today by looking at Panache, the nylon thread I am using for the red/orange leaves. Panache is a very tightly twisted thread, smaller in diameter than Patina, which was the first nylon perle-type thread that Rainbow Gallery put out. I am not a fan of nylon threads. They feel like you are stitching with gummie worms to me, and some of them are very difficult to keep in the needle’s eye.
If you aren’t familiar with Gummi worms, here they are in all their glory. It’s like eating rubber, only worse.
http://www.ilovesweettreats.com/Gummi_GummiWorms_Nutrition.htmAnd here you can see Panache at the Rainbow Gallery website. See the resemblance? Ok, of course you don't. Panache does feel "artificial" to me, however. I think I might be unusually sensitive to how threads feel in my hands and I react to Panache because of that. I must say, for nylon threads, Panache is unusually well behaved.
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=1124I’m using three colors of Panache--the orange-red PH31 “Burnt Orange,” the orange PN30 “Halloween Orange,” and the peach PN07 “Salmon.” The peach is for the veins you see in the middle of the big red leaf above. The other oranges are for the outside shading of the leaf. I’m doing the deep red in the center in Vineyards Silk Classics C-006 Tomato. Which brings up another point. All of the threads for the red leaf are shiny to some extent. Panache like all nylon threads, is very shiny. Vineyards Silks is 100% silk so it has a lot of sheen. When you stitch a motif like the leaf, you want to make sure that all of the leaf is sort of the same. The brown leaves are in Impressions and Mandarin floss, which are not particularly shiny. The purple background is also Impressions, and though it is a thread that is half silk, it doesn’t have the sheen of Vineyards Silks. My red leaves will have the silk sheen in the deepest red centers, then the higher shine on the outside edges in Panache. Occasionally there will be a light vein in Panache also. I’m trying to highlight the important leaves on this design by choosing thread shine appropriately. When you are picking threads, remember that shiny threads will seen to pop out of the canvas, or at least come forward a bit as you look at them. It wouldn’t have been right for me to use Panache in the purple background or in the brown leaves because they are less prominent than the red leaves are in this piece. It always pays to Know Thy Thread which doesn’t just mean how the thread stitches, but how it looks on the canvas.
A good way to learn about threads you haven’t used before, particularly if you have to mail order and don’t have threadaholic friends who can cut you a sample from their stash, is to check the manufacturer’s website. Rainbow Gallery is particularly good about giving tips on using their threads. Unfortunately, they haven’t added anything about Panache but their information about Patina will be useful. A nylon perle thread is a nylon perle thread, after all.
http://www.rainbowgallery.com/jaystips.htmNylon threads are twisted into a perle-type strand and they untwist themselves at the end closest to your canvas. You can counteract this by turning your needle slightly every 3-4 stitches to re-twist it again. Experiment turning the needle clockwise and counter-clockwise. You’ll discover that a counter-clockwise turn tightens up the strand and the clockwise direction, which you are unconsciously doing as you stitch, unravels the strand. Don’t over do it--you want your stitches to all be even, not some untwisted and some really smaller because you twisted too much.
When you cut a length of Panache, you will see regular bends in it made by being wound around the card. I didn’t see that the bends made any difference in the look of my little tent stitches on the front of the canvas. You can dampen the thread and the bends will come out, but this relaxes the thread enough that the cut end in your needle’s eye will seem to relax also. You will see the end spread out much more into the component fibers. None of this makes any difference in your stitching as far as I can see. I’ve stitched with both dampened and dried, undampened, and sopping wet Panache. The tent stitches all look the same to me. So I just cut a length of my color in an 18 inch length or less, and stitch away. I’m stitching using only 18 inches because the thread wiggles out of the needle eye a lot. The bends seem to help keep it in the eye so I make sure I cut a length that has a bend fairly close to one end of the length. Shorter lengths like 18 inches seem to help keep it in the needle better. Don’t have a ruler handy? Not to worry. The length from your elbow to the tip of your fingers is usually around 18 inches in most folks. Cut a length about that distance and you are in business!
Let’s look again at the photo. The brown center leaf I started on is on the left side of the photo. Look up diagonally from that leaf to the brown leaf in the center top. I’ve partly stitched that leaf in this photo. Follow the edge of the top brown leaf down into the red leaf. See the parallel brown lines that run from the brown leaf down into and across the red leaf’s edge? This is a painting mistake. Not to worry. We are going to stitch right over the brown lines where they are on top of the red leaf with the orange Panache threads. Remember that hand painted canvases are painted by human hands and people make mistakes. Even the most careful designer will occasionally miss errors in their canvases. So just keep an eye out for problems. They are usually very easy to correct as in this instance.
The last thing I want to talk about in the photo are the veins in the red leaf. You will notice that I am stitching the leaf from the top down. In areas where I have stitched something already, I start with the red leaf’s brown edge in half cross stitch, then switch to basketweave for the orange and orange-red shading. Then when I get to the vein, I do the brown outline stitch first, followed by the peach Patina that is the center of the vein. I’ll finish up when the peach is done by the other brown outline stitch. Notice that I am not always doing a solid brown line. Sometimes it makes more sense, particularly on a curve, to not have a thick brown line. Your eye will compensate and think the brown line is solid. If you stitch all around the peach vein in brown, the brown line will look too thick in places. As with all tent stitch pieces, keep a careful eye on what you are doing. If something looks wrong, just take out those few stitches and restitch.
But be a bit careful about reusing a thread you ripped out when that thread is Panache. Going through the rough holes of NP canvas may remove some of the shine. You don’t want a patch of your red leaf to be dull-looking.
Maybe next time I’ll get around to talking about starting threads. There is more to talk about while tent stitching Autumn Leaves than normal since I am talking about technique so much.
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