The (Albeit Slightly Crazy) Plan
One of my favorite things to do with each canvas I get is to incorporate as many new and varying stitches that I can in the piece (without it looking absolutely crazy that is haha).
My plan is to work my way through all our favorite book, Stitches To Go by the lovely Suzanne Howren and Beth Robertson. This book can be found at almost every local needlepoint shop. So far, I just been jumping around the book with whatever stitches fit best for each canvas. When it comes down to the last couple dozen stitches, I'll probably have to buy some canvases to fit more of the specific shape stitches, like the Rhodes Heart or Star Octagon. But until then, I'm just having fun with it.
(taken from Amazon)
Week 1 - Milanese
I've already started on this journey of stitching my way through this book, but I decided that a good way to track my progress would be through this blog. I also miss teaching stitching class, so I figured this might be a good substitute for the time being.
We're starting off easy this week with the Milanese stitch. This stitch is worked diagonally, creating interlocking triangle shapes as it goes. It's great for covering large background areas. Depending on the thread used, the stitch can either be made the focal point of the piece or help to emphasize the canvas design itself.
(taken from the Stitches To Go book)
Alternating colors between each of the diagonal rows is another way to make this stitch come alive. However, for my piece I chose to use one color for the entirety of the background stitch.
(my canvas, "Jungle Juice" by Morgan Julia Designs)
Milanese can also pair well with southwest motifs: I had a student in one of my background stitch classes work it as the background for the Blaze a Trail canvas from Hello Tess (pictured below).
(taken from the Hello Tess website)
The stitched rows are flushed with each other, so making a counting error is very easy to catch and fix quickly. Having the Milanese rows flush also helps when it comes to compensating for the design. In the picture below, you can see how having to compensate didn't mess up the flow of the patterned background whatsoever.
(my own canvas)
With this stitch, I definitely recommend stitching on a frame rather than in-hand because of how the stitches pull the canvas. I made the mistake of stitching this in hand -- in my defense, it was one of the first decorative stitches I had ever done -- and it was still pretty, but it made blocking an absolute nightmare. So save yourself the trouble in the end and pick up some stretcher bars before starting this beautiful stitch!
(my own, very skewed canvas)
There's 292 stitches in this book (believe me, I did the math), so this will be no quick or easy feat, but I'm already having fun with it, and I hope you all will too! Hopefully, I'll see some of you next week for the second ever Stitch of the Week brought to you from the new Lupine Designs. Happy Stitching!
-Evans :)