DONE!

Well, I've finally finished this little Violas canvas.

There are some things I like about it, and some things I don't -- but at least it's finished. (Which means of course, that I can start another one...Oh, goody!)

But let's look at this one first: I like the checkered and padded border. This is a good, simple, and easy way to frame a contemporary canvas. Checkers always seem to liven up a canvas, don't they? Give them a try if you need a jazzy border. I also like the gradated color squares in the corners that go from light to dark orange. That's another good way to lead your eye into the canvas...

I sure like the way the shadow stitching looks. Just as I'd hoped it would. And the simple background stitch is just rows of basketweave stitch, skipping one row in-between each stitched row. It creates a decidedly diagonal effect, but in this small canvas it works just fine.

And when in doubt, Tent Stitch. Which is what I did with the leaves in the background. I'm not crazy about the plain leaves, but I'm not ripping them out either. I'll just figure out something different next time!

And the black lines on the petals are very fine bullion knots, done with one strand of black DMC Floche. Tedious, but they do create a slight texture on the petals. As do the satin stitched orange centers. And then, finally, the white centers are tiny french knots done with 1 strand of white DMC Floche as well.

Well, that's another small canvas finished. I'm sure enjoying stitching on these small canvases. What a fun (and inexpensive) way to play around with colors, threads, and stitches!

Technique P.S.: For those of you who have asked, I've printed these 18 ct canvases on my little ole Epson inkjet printer! Yup. (And 24 ct. Congress Cloth works really well too.) I just cut the canvas carefully to match a piece of paper, iron them so they are as flat as can be, then carefully guide them thru the printer, one at a time. Some people like to iron freezer paper to the back, to catch the extra ink, although I haven't tried that. In any event, they come out surprisingly even and clean....You might like to give it a try yourself!

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!