This project was undertaken when I started a course in Creative Canvaswork, run by Pat Deacon at Horsell, Woking in England. Pat is a great believer in colouring the canvas, and using speciality stitches to produce something interesting and different.
I did not have much time to colour the canvas because I borrowed the materials from Pat - water colour crayons - and really just tried to produce some pleasing shapes on the canvas. After that the canvas was ironed to set the colours and stitching could begin.
The basis of stitching was to choose a colour and then stitch an area next to it. Some areas are stitched with the same colour but different stitches, and others with the same stitch and different colours. I found that both worked reasonably well but that to mix both colours and stitches too much tended to spoil the effect. Most of the fibres used are wools of various thicknesses, often mixing shades of crewel wool. There is a small area of Caron Watercolour and some stranded cotton for the tie down stitches of rice stitch. There is an area of multi coloured french knots in stranded cotton, to prove that I can produce nice even french knots! The ground is fourteen gauge canvas.
After stitching the piece was very uneven, but it seemed to block out nicely. It is now made up into a cushion with a blue back.
Unfortunately, although Gary Peach's scanning was magnificent and the stitches show beautifully, it took up about half a megabyte. I have tried to make it small enough to load here, but it still takes about 92K, so you can click on the thumbnail to download the whole picture. The stitches don't show up particularly well at this density.
Melinda Coss has rudely descibed this piece as 'exploding pasta' but Julie, whose eye is much better, says it is the prettiest piece I have produced. The funny thing is that people can't resist running their fingers over the turkey rug stitch!
To discuss the contents of this article, or for advice or information about needlepoint, write to me by clicking here.
Copyright © 1996 Robert Tusler
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