stitch

painted stitches tree needlepoint, stitched by needlepoint expert janet m perry, vintage canvas by kris

I was so excited when I found the vintage canvas on eBay awhile ago. I like it because the stitches are already painted on, much as the wonderful designs of Barbara Bergsten are.

This type of needlepoint has the pattern of the stitch already there on the canvas, you pick your threads and follow along.

In the bottom left corner, you can see a patch I’ve already stitched, in Jacquard. The green line was painted on the canvas, I stitched that first and then filled in the cream.

The patch above will be Framed Scotch, I’m stitching the Scotch Stitches now and the white lines that frame the squares will be in Continental.

For some of the patches here, the stitch to use is quite clear, for others I’ll need to make some choices.

But if you are a beginner, or just want to expand your repertoire of stitches, look at Barbara’s great designs. She’s endlessly inventive and her painted stitches are just perfect and a joy to stitch.

With Painted Stitch canvases and a good stitch dictionary, you’ll learn tons of new stitches quickly.

P.S. In future posts, you’ll see this piece again because I’m using it to test three new threads.

Excerpt from:
Exploring the Painted Stitch Canvas

Stitch your Stash Winners

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

The winners of the recent Stitch your Stash Challenge are:

1st place — Judy Furie

2nd place — Debbie Thomas

3rd place — Jenni

4th place — K Blodgett

5th place — Lee Seroka

Congratulations to the winners and everyone else who participated. Everyone who refgistered for the challenge is getting a prize.

Follow this link:
Stitch your Stash Winners

What Color Should that Stitch Be?

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2007-08-08 06:22:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

You know that sinking feeling, the intersection on the hand-painted canvas is more than one color. You don’t know how to decide what color to stitch.

I call deciding this making an “executive decision” in needlepoint. I thought about what the process was for deciding and came up with some guidelines. Although beginners struggle with this issue, it can come up in just about any canvas which is not completely stitch-painted.

If one color covers more of the intersection than the other, stitch it in that color.

If it’s pretty much half and half, then you could do either. To help you choose, you can see if any of these apply:

1. Is it colored in both foreground and background colors? Choose the foreground color.

2. Is it the only intersection which has that color (no intersections with that color around it)? Choose the isolated color because it’s supposed to be a dot of that color.

3. Is it colored a light color and a dark color? Darker colors recede, so picking the darker color will probably make the two areas look more balanced.

4. I one color part of a line? Follow the line on the canvas to see how it will look if this intersection is stitched in that color. I’ve had it happen sometimes when stitching the color of the line instead of the other color made the line look bad.

Sometimes you choose wrong, everyone does. If this happens, don’t be afraid to pull the stitch out and use the other color.

Continue reading here:
What Color Should that Stitch Be?

Make a Whimsy & grace Style Star – Free Project

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

If you get Needlepoint Now you saw the delightful article and stitch guide for the lovely stars from Whimsy & grace. I just love the way you can make them in two sizes, in gold or silver, and in so many different patterns.

You can take her approach of metallic plus white to make your own lovely star.

Materials List

9″ square 18 mesh mono canvas
white stranded or ribbon-style thread, 1 package
metallic threads in your choice of colors in two sizes:

ribbon
#12

Step-by-step instructions

Using your permanent marker trace this star outline onto your canvas.
Starting in about the center of the star, begin to make Magyar Cross. This is a compound stitch of metallic and white diamonds, so it is made in steps.
Make the large Upright Crosses, below, using the #12 metallic.
Now make the Straight Stitches that tie the Cross down using the metallic ribbon, below.
The metallic part of the star is now complete. Fill in the open areas with Pavilion stitched using your white thread. A diagram of the completed stitch is below.
The finished size of the star outline is 6.5″ so this would be a great topper for a small tree. Make the outline smaller, about 4-5″ for a great ornament, or bigger for a larger tree topper. If you make it larger, I’d use a bigger mesh canvas.

I’m thinking of making it as a 10″ star to be our new tree topper, though not for this year.

See original here:
Make a Whimsy & grace Style Star – Free Project

Designing Needlepoint

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Design,Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2009-04-03 17:04:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Barbara Bergsten is a delightful needlepoint designer. Her canvases are fresh, bright, and really fun to stitch.

But don’t you always wonder how a hand painted needlepoint canvas design is created? Not the mechanical process of applying paint to canvas, but how a design is developed. I know I do.

Wonder no more! Barbara has created a lovely blog post about the process.

See the original post here:
Designing Needlepoint

Making a Stitch Notebook

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2003-04-21 07:11:47. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

One great way to explore stitches is to make a stitch notebook. It’s also a wonderful way to use scraps of canvas and to keep notes about your stitches. Many people make stitch notebooks, they are samplers for our day.

All you need beyond the canvas and thread is some index cards and divided page protectors (like would be used for photos).

Stitch a sample of the stitch in some of your spare thread (leftover bits of thread from other projects are perfect for this). You should try to work at least three or four repeats of the stitch.

It’s even better if you can work a square inch or so. You can use
any kinds of canvas and threads for these samples, even mono canvas
won’t come unraveled because the samples aren’t handled that much.

On your index card, you will need to note some information
about the stitch. You should always include the name of the stitch, the size and type of canvas and the thread you used in the sample. You should also include information about the stitch. This could be the book and page number where you found it, a copy of the stitch diagram or a diagram you have drawn yourself. Some stitch notebook classes are made so that you can add the stitched sample and your notes right on the page.

Finally add your own comments about the stitch. This might include times when the stitch would work well, noted about this thread/stitch combination, or comments about how you liked working the stitch.

One of my favorite stitch notebooks had the notes on index
cards. I used little gold safety pins to attach the stitched samples to the cards. In each section of the page protectors, the sample was on one side and the card on the other.

Spiffing Up One-Thread Lines

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

ideas for creating one stitch lines from needlepoint expert janet m. perry

one stitch line samples

I’ve noticed recently that an awful lot of canvases have one-thread wide lines in them. Not that this is a recent development, but just that I finally noticed it.

Yes, you can do Tent Stitch and, very often, that’s the right thing to do. But sometimes you want to “kick it up a notch,” as the saying goes.

I’ve developed several stitches that I often use to make those single-thread lines stand out. The picture above shows some and in this post, I describe them and a couple of others.

Oblique Continental & Reverse Oblique Continental

oblique continental

These stitches take the basic Tent Stitch and elongate it, so instead of “over 1 and up 1″ it becomes “over 2 and up 1.” I like it because it becomes an almost ropey look. I also like that it seems to stand up a bit more than Tent. This stitch, in either slant, it the one I use most often when I want a different type of line.

Dashes & Dots

dashes & dots

Another way to change a one-stitch line is to add Cross Stitches over a single thread. This could be as simple as alternating between the two stitches. Or you could make a more decorative pattern as I did here, with longer lines of Tent (dashes) separated by one Cross (dots)

Four-way Continental

single line four-way continental

Four-way Continental when done in a single line creates a slight wavy look. I think it’a great for a line that is going to stick out from the surrounding design, like a snowman’s pipe stem or a perch on a birdhouse.

Single-line Wavy Gobelin

wavy gobelin stitch

You might think of this as a form of elongated Four-way Continental. Oblique stitches alternate in slants. I think the finished look is far more wavy than Four-way Continental and that it is quite an unusual look.

Whipped Backstitch

whipped backstitch

I love this stitch because it creates a thin, seamless line. It also is a great solution if you need to outline something, or make a single curved line. This stitch will stand up from the canvas slightly. Also be aware that this stitch is thinner than the other stitches here, so be sure to stitch underneath the line where you will put this stitch.

Whipped Chain Stitch

whipped chain stitch

If you want a bolder but still seamless line, you can’t do better than Whipped Chain Stitch. Like Whipped Backstitch, it is seamless and works around curves. But it is thicker (it will cover a line well) and it stands out even more. Whipped Chain Stitch is a great solution for lines that you really want to have stand out.

Read this article:
Spiffing Up One-Thread Lines

Two-color Stitch Diagrams Now Online

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2009-04-06 18:05:20. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Barbara Bergsten has given us stitchers such a wonderful gift. She has created an on-line index of all her stitch diagrams.

Barbara’s diagrams are wonderful, about as clear as you can get. They are numbered, use two colors and are large.

Right now there are almost 30 on the site, but the number will grow.

The page is easy to navigate with eight stitches in thumbnails in each row. The names are below. Click on a diagram and get a page which has the diagram quite large, some of them are more than 3″ square.

What a fantastic resource, thanks Barbara!

Continue reading here:
Two-color Stitch Diagrams Now Online

Texture in Small Spaces

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

Originally posted 2006-01-02 07:05:12. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Right now I’m working on a Lee’s Needle Arts fan which is ornament sized. While I am amazed at the level of detail present in the painted canvas, in the past I have not been adventurous in how I stitched them. The most I ventured was to use an overdye.

Why?

Because like many stitchers, I thought the areas, and the ornament overall, was too small to add detail.

This isn’t true. But it does take some thought to add texture to small designs without overwhelming the piece.

All designs have three plains, background, foreground, and middle ground. And needlepoint techniques can have dimension. If you figure Tent Stitch as the basic dimension,
some things are higher (French Knots, beads), some things are lower (pattern darning) and lots are about the same height.

Are there places on your canvas which can have something higher? On my fan pansies are the main part of the design, they have bright yellow-orange center which really pop out. I’m going to enhance that by stitching them in French Knots using Neon
Rays.

Are there curved lines which might look too blocky in Tent Stitch? What about padding them and stitching over the padding? Padding doesn’t have to stand up much from the design. The stems on my fan, which are in the middle ground, are going to be very lightly padded (with crewel wool). This will make them higher than the leaves, but won’t make them look as high as the flowers; just perfect for the middle ground.

Are there areas which could be enhanced by a stitch which is the same size as Tent Stitch? There are several stitches which are the exact same size as a single Tent Stitch but add texture to the design. Three of these are Reverse Tent, Dotted Swiss, and Four-Way Continental. Using any of these will add texture ranging from an almost unnoticeable amount (Dotted Swiss) to a stronger texture (Four-Way Continental). In my pansies, there
are four colors of violet. Two are Tent, one is Dotted Swiss and one is Four-Way Continental. All of these can be put into a space which looks as if it will “only” work with Tent Stitch.

But what about backgrounds in small spaces? Often when I need a background I turn to pattern darning which looks flatter than Tent, but in this case there isn’t enough space.

That’s when you need to look at thread weight. The lighter the weight of the thread, the less it covers. We all know that from picking the wrong thread and coverage being poor, but you can also “turn the bug into a feature.” Deliberately stitching with a thinner thread gives you an open stitch. Enhance this quality by picking a stitch which is open, such as Woven, T Stitch, or Four-Way Continental. Because more canvas is exposed, the stitch will look flatter than the surrounding solidly stitched areas.

Every canvas is different and not all of these techniques will work on every canvas, but even if all you do is reverse the slant in some part of the design, you will find that your stitching has more life and looks better.

Original post:
Texture in Small Spaces

What Does Custom Really Mean?

by NutsAboutNeedlepoint

in Nuts About Needlepoint

In the UK they have a wonderful term they use for items made specifically for you — bespoke. YWhen you get a bespoken suit, it will be made just for you, to your measurements, to fit your body, in your choice of style, and in your choice of fabric.

There is nothing like bespoke, you know from the moment you get that suit that it will be perfect. Not that I can afford bespoke suits, but my grandmother was a superb seamstress so I grew up wearing bespoke clothing. She could make anything.

When you commission a stitch guide from me, that’s what you get a bespoke guide, custom fitted exactly to you. This means I take into account not just the canvas, but you, your stash, and even the threads at the shops you use.

I don’t put things into the guide you don’t want (if you hate floss, I’ll have you use other things). I don’t make you buy full skeins for small amounts of thread but help you use your stash. If you like bling, I give you bling, if you want to finish a canvas partially started, I’ll help you with that.

Creating stitch guides for individual clients is my joy. Knowing that the guide will make stitching the canvas fin for you is my goal.

But bespoke doesn’t have to be outrageously expensive. When you request a guide, I give you a quote, based on the complexity of the canvas. It’s not an open-ended by the hour fee, but a flat fee for the complete guide, delivered as a PDF.

Right now I have openings for new stitch guide clients. If you want one, fill out the stitch guide request form (at the bottom of the linked page).

Read more here:
What Does Custom Really Mean?

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