A New Shadow Stitching Class

I know the busy holiday season is rapidly approaching even as I write this, but I'm going to go ahead and offer a new cyber class that will start AFTER the new year -- on January 10, 2012. It's another shadow stitching class I'm calling "LITTLE PANSIES" and here's what it looks like:

The class will run for just four weeks and it will feature a few more shadow stitching patterns, a few fun borders, and some simple embellishment stitches. I'll be printing the 8" x 10" canvases myself, so you'll be stitching on a photographic image printed on 18 ct. mono canvas. The design size is approx. 6.5" x 6.5" and because it's a small canvas, it stitches up very fast and is darn fun to work on!

Soooo, if you're interested in signing up for a short cyber class to celebrate surviving the holidays and reaching the New Year, plus stitch up some cheerful flowers in the midst of winter, visit my website and click on the CYBER CLASS page for all the detailed information.

FYI: Just to Clarify

A blog reader recently asked me an interesting question about my new shadow stitching cyber class, PETUNIAS, and I thought I'd share it with you as well...
Marcy asked if my shadow stitching involves blending 2 or more thread colors in one needle, and then changing thread colors at every color change on the canvas.

My answer is: No, no, no! (That sounds like a fascinating technique, however, but way too much work for these little canvases...)

For my PETUNIAS I use 1 ply of a stranded silk and work one color over the whole flower (in this case, the center petunia). I use a slightly different color on the corner petunias (which you can see are a bit darker). The background is also worked with 1 ply of one green color. Whatever happens after that...just happens.

To me, the fun of using shadow stitching technique on these flower images is to see what happens as the thread color blends with the canvas colors underneath. Similar colors merge together; different colors start to compete with each other and create unexpected color "vibrations". For example: on the center petunia above, look at the glowing bright pink center of the upper petal near the bullions... That brightness comes from the canvas underneath, and shows through the pink thread on top.

Granted, using just one color over a detailed canvas mutes a lot of the crisp details and blurs the image overall. But it also takes on a watercolor wash over the whole piece, which is an effect I really like. Then, it's up to the stitcher to embellish whichever details you want to highlight - like the bullions in the petunia centers and the vein lines in the petals. Overall I think it looks kind of magical, don't you? (I should also mention that my challenge as a designer is to find the right images that will support this simple shadow technique. So currently, I'm looking thru my flower photos and selecting images that have lots of large areas that will work best for my one color technique.)

So...in a nutshell Marcy -- I have to say that my shadow stitching is pretty darn simple - one color per area, basically. Because, frankly, I like my stitching projects to be as fun as possible. When I started experimenting with these small flower images, I wanted to try something different, but I also wanted it to be a fast project as well. I consider these shadow stitching canvases to be fun "breather" projects that can be done quickly in-between other complex, long-term projects (and we all have plenty of those waiting to be done, don't we?).

Anyway, I hope this bit of clarification gives you more information about my PETUNIAS, and I hope it tempts you to give it a try!

Back to Basics

I've been so wrapped up in getting ready for the Asilomar experience, then spending a week teaching at Asilomar, and now finally unpacking from Asilomar, I haven't had time to do any real stitching. (Sheesh, how frustrating is that?!?) So, anyway...now I'm home and I'm ready and eager to spend some time stitching. Finally!

And here's the little flower canvas I'm choosing to work/play on -- my little time-out project that I carried with me to Asilomar, but didn't actually get much stitching done. It's small: only 5.5" x 6.5" on 18 ct. canvas.


I've wanted to try some shadow stitching, and I thought these viola petals would be the perfect place to try it! I'm inching my way along, feeling my way as to the colors and stitch patterns. I'm also using just one strand of DMC floche for all the stitching inside the padded borders (which are done in #5 pearl cotton.)

So far I'm very pleased with the look of the shadow stitching. I've used just one yellow color for the top petals, one blue for all the blue petals, and a gold color for the underneath viola petals - but see how the colored canvas shows thru? Looks like I shaded the stitches, but I DIDN'T. How cool (and easy) is THAT?!? I can't wait to get all the petals done, and then move out to finish the background areas with an airy lace-type stitch.

I decided to try a little checkerboard border inside the padded border, because violas are such cheerful flowers, I thought they could stand up to a snappy little checkered border! The finishing touch will be adding the dark straight lines on top of the viola petals, as well as filling the bright white spots in the flower centers (I'm thinking tiny french knots).

I'm on the homestretch now...it shouldn't take me long to complete this... and I can't wait to see how it looks finished!

A New Flower Canvas

I've decided to start another flower canvas, this time using a photo of pansy faces that I took in my garden.


I've been wanting to try this technique (I'm going to call it a "shadow" technique, because I don't how else to describe it) on a canvas for some time. And now that I have a small canvas to experiment on, I'm eager to give it a try.

You need to have a fairly big area to fill - and the pansy petals should work just fine - and then you pick out a smallish pattern that fits the area you're stitching. I chose a oval repeat pattern, sort of a diaper pattern really, to echo the organic petal shapes. I think using an upright, straight stitch works best, because you WANT the canvas to show thru. If you use a diagonal stitch, the thread will cover the canvas more completely and not much of the canvas will show. And in this case, you want the colors on the canvas to show thru.


I'm using just one strand of DMC Floche (my current favorite thread) for all the stitching thus far (you can also use 1-2 ply of floss or silk).... You can see that even though I'm using just one yellow color, it LOOKS like I've shaded the colors on the canvas. I'll continue stitching over the black stripes too. (I plan to tent stitch the white and orange center areas, then put straight stitches - or narrow bullions - on top for the stripes. That's my plan, anyway.)

And I've done the same treatment on the blue petal. It's harder to see because of the darker color, but I'm using a royal blue thread (in a slightly smaller version of the stitch pattern) to cover the whole blue petal, yet the shaded canvas is showing thru, so it seems like you've changed thread colors.

In the background, I've started stitching rows of basketweave stitches, but leaving two canvas rows blank in-between. I'm hoping it will look lacy but fuzzy, if you know what I mean. And I think I'll do any distinct leaf areas in a full basketweave, to stand out from the sketchier background stitching...

As for the borders, I might do the same padded borders as I did on the Gerber Daisy, but I'm not sure what I'll put in the middle row. Checkers? Stripes? or just a shaded band? I'll just have to see what looks best when I get to it!