Nuts about Needlepoint » backgrounds

Picking a Perfect Background

Janet Perry — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:59:03 +0000

OK, I admit it, I’m frustrated. YOu know that little vintage Petei design I’m making for a Christmas present? The one where I changed the colors.

I am having a devil of a time with backgrounds. I’m no on my fourth and, I hope, final choice. I have cut out tons of stitching, but it’s instructive, so I thought today I would go through what I tried, why it didn’t work, and what I learned.

Vertical Triple Parisian – I saw this in the current Needlepoint Now and since Triple Parisian is one of my favorites, I thought turning it to vertical would look good here.

Wrong!

With the lettering the scale of this stitch was just too big, even though it is a pretty small stitch. There isn’t enough uncluttered background here to get three repeats anywhere.

The solution was to go with a smaller, more horizontal stitch, where I could get three repeats. So I went with:

Giant Horizontal Cashmere – Plenty of repeats, so the scale was fine. But when I go to stitching around the lettering, no matter what I tried, the letters got so obscured that they couldn’t be read.

The solution is to treat the lettering like a sign and not bring the background into it. So I went with:

Woven Plait – I was getting closer but the combination of the small, highly textured stitch with the overdyed silk I’m using just didn’t look good. It didn’t even last a row.

Pattern Darning – Simple overall running stitch pattern still using the sign idea will showcase this lovely thread and let the lettering shine. It will also go fast so I’ll get it done in time.

Usually I’m better than this with backgrounds. A good background should:

not overwhelm or obscure the focal point
be in scale with the piece
be in a thread/stitch combination that highlights the focal point
be suitable for the deadlines you have

But painful as it is to rip out, taking time to find the perfect background is always worth it.

Sponge Painting for a Needlepoint Design Background

Janet Perry — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:01:06 +0000

Originally posted 2008-10-28 07:19:15. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The finished rose needlepoint design with a sponge painted background.

In modern needlepoint, often we want to leave our background partially unstitched. This is great, except often the color of the canvas limits us. That’s where I was last week.

It can happen with any canvas and this technique will work on any design a commercial hand painted canvas needlepoint or your original design to make a lovely background which can then be stitched lightly.

After I finished tracing my Arts & Crafts Rose, I was thinking about how I wanted to stitch it and where it will go. Since roses come in all sorts of colors, I’ll be able to pick whatever shade I want for the focal point. We are planning a more integrated color scheme, based on watery blues, kind of a beachy color. This pillow will go in a very Arts & Crafts room, s the design is perfect, but I want an open background, and white just won’t cut it.

Sponge Painting to the rescue, as you can see from the picture of the finished canvas, the color is great, mottled and with real depth. Once I have pattern darning over it, the changes will soften, but the design will retain it’s charm.

Materials

You will need: anatural sponge, either one big one or several smaller ones, 4 shades of acrylic paint, plastic plate for mixing paints, paper towels, newspaper, file cards cut to mask portions of your design (optional)

Prepare the Work Area

1. Spread out the newspaper and put the canvas, paper towel and needlepoint on it.

2. If you want to, tear the bigger sponge into smaller irregular pieces.

3. Cut out the file cards to mask over areas you don’t want to have painted. This is particularly important when you are using hand painted canvas needlepoint you have bought or where another part of your design will have lighter stitching in another color.

The Paints

You will want three shades of one color, although one of these could be brighter or darker, and an accent color.

You can either buy these shades, which can be hard to do, or make them yourself. I made them because the aqua I bought was just too dark.

For my main shade, I added light gray, dulling the color and lightening it slightly. A darker gray would have dulled it and darkened it.

For my second shade I added white, lightening the color without dulling it.

The third shade had just two drops of black, darkening it. From bitter experience, add black VERY slowly, you need hardly any to get a dark color. Add too much black and you get black, no matter how much color you add to it.

The accent color is a soft, medium light green, similar to the color I’ll be using for the leaves.

If you mix colors, swirl the colors together until they are thoroughly blended (you see no streaks of either color). Bamboo skewers work well for this as do swizzle sticks or plastic knives.

Try to make the colors fairly wide apart in shade, the sponge painting process tends to minimize differences.

Painting the Canvas

1. Put the masks onto the canvas. This is important because you want to stamp up to the edges of the design, but not onto it. If you try to “eye” this process, you might end up with a “halo” of white canvas around the design.

2. Dip your sponge lightly into the main color. You will have too much paint on the sponge, it needs to be practically dry. Press the sponge lightly on the paper towel to remove the paint. You will know you have removed enough paint when you start to see the holes of the sponge when you stamp.

First color sponged onto a drawn needlepoint canvas

3. Stamp the sponge all over the canvas, twisting it one way or another, so that the pattern is irregular. Repeat this process until the background is mostly painted.

Adding a second color to the needlepoint background adds depth

4. Repeat this process with the second color, lighter in my case. This color should be scattered more widely across the canvas.

4. Repeat this process with the second color, darker in my case. This color should be scattered more widely across the canvas.

5. Finally scatter a few prints of the accent color across the canvas.

You can see the end result at the top of the article.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about using Copic dye pens (used for Manga) to color the canvas easily.

Trimming the Tree – Background Choice

Janet Perry — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 15:33:20 +0000

Originally posted 2010-12-09 07:13:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

As you can see by the picture, I’ve gotten the tree and the background done, so I’m ready to start trimming.

Background choice can make a big difference in the finished look of a design. Pick a stitch that fights with the focal point and you can distract your eyes from it or make the needlepoint look confused overall.

Pick the right stitch and it will emphasize the focal point, the way a good setting can make a jewel look better, or the way the perfect accessory can set off an outfit.

One of the things that struck me about the tree once it was stitched is how tall it is. I decided, based on that, that I needed a background stitch with a vertical direction.

Pattern direction is not the only factor in considering stitches, you must also think about the scale of the stitch. This has two aspects.

First you need to think about the overall size of the area you are stitching. There should always be at least three repeats of the stitch in your area. That’s enough for your eye to establish a pattern. Having a pattern is important for a background — it serves to bring the design together as a whole. If my finished size had been bigger, I could have picked a larger stitch. As it is there are few parts of this design that have fewer than three repeats.

The other aspect of scale has to do with compensation. Does your design have smooth edges, or does it move in and out alot, as my tree does? The rougher the edges are, the easier it will be to compensate if the stitch or stitch pattern is small.

Taking all these factors into account. I picked Diagonal Cashmere, giving me a vertical direction. This stitch can be made in many sizes. I made it as small as possible. The longest stitches go over two threads and there are three of them.

The result?

A background that enhances the height of the tree (which will help after it’s trimmed) but which was easy to compensate.

Now on to garlands and brads.

Picking the Right Background Color

Janet Perry — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:12:53 +0000

Can you think of a better background color for this cat? But green was not my first choice.

Recently I completed stitching this Cheshire Cat from Petei. I just adore the design, but finding the right color for the background was a real challenge. In finding it, I worked through some questions that can help you find the perfect background color for your designs.

With more and more needlepoint being painted with no background at all, deciding on a background color becomes more difficult.

Remember that the background is supposed to set off and highlight the focal point, directing your attention to it. You want something that sits apart from the focal point, otherwise you lose bits of the design into the background. If the background does not do this, it isn’t the right one.

First, ask what are the value ranges in the focal point. If they are a narrow range of values, you can pick something lighter or darker than the focal point. With this black and white design, I had too broad a spread to use that solution.

Second, ask if an overdyed thread will work. Sometimes, the design can be set off beautifully by a lovely thread of this kind. Here, unhappily, that won’t work. Once again it’s the wide value range that killed this solution as well, but I did think about it.

Third, look at where the item would in nature, often background colors based on this work well. An animal can often look great on a background of some kind of green. This was my initial motivation in picking green, but it ended up fitting another consideration as well.

Fourth, look at accent colors in the design. Background colors will also work that pick up one of these colors. Here, in choosing primary green for the background, I also picked up the sparkly green of the eyes.

By asking yourself these questions you will be able to find several possibilities for background colors. Hold each up to the needlepoint to see which “sings.”

Then stitch away. If it doesn’t work, you know how to find other possibilities.

Bargello Filler Stitches

Janet Perry — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 14:23:11 +0000

Originally posted 2010-01-06 07:37:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Althea had a great post recently about filler stitches to go around Needlepoint Bargello. If you have a Bargello medallion or with open spaces, you will want to add some stitching around them. While any stitch will do, straight stitches are easiest to use and compensate around the pattern.

Because it’s supposed to be a background, you will want a less busy pattern in a single color. In an older post, I have some ideas on stitching backgrounds that can be applied here.

Here are some other small straight stitches that would work for Needlepoint Bargello backgrounds.

The straight stitches and flat, light look of pattern darning are perfect to set off Bargello. While there are many variations, this simple 3-1 darn I use over and over.

Double Linen is one of my favorite background stitches. It’s small, and has a great texture. It also looks much more complex than it is to stitch.

Triple Hungarian is a variation that replaces the single stitches of Hungarian with three stitches. Many stitches can be varied this way to make lovely patterns.

Ming is another favorite stitch, Because the shape is rounded, it will be particularly nice as a background for Bargello with lots of curves or rounded shapes.

Venetian is a new stitch to me, it’s a smaller version of Victorian Step and will make an excellent background.

Blackwork as Backgrounds

Janet Perry — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:34:09 +0000

Canvas by Tink Boord-Dill

Blackwork is an wonderfully effective technique to use as a background for needlepoint.

By its nature Blackwork has several characteristics that make it great for backgrounds. First, it’s open, so it will almost always look lighter than the focal point, even if the focal point is stitched in Tent Stitch, as is the case with the peach’s background.

Canvas by Kelly Clark

Second, because the stitches are usually done in thinner threads, it is lower and looks more distant than the focal point. You can see this in the chicken wire background for the rooster.

Canvas by Juell

Third, if you do the Blackwork in a color similar to the background color, you can use busy patterns that may not work if done in other colors. The pattern behind the cats is elaborate and large. If it had been done in textured stitches, it would overwhelm the cats.

Here are some wonderful Blackwork patterns (called fills) that make great needlepoint backgrounds.

This pattern, Chinois, was designed by me based on a Chinese Lattice pattern. Although it is a dense pattern, it’s just fantastic as a background because of the repetition of the squares.

Clamshell Blackwork, seen above, is a large open pattern. I recently used it for a sky, where the pattern reminds me of a mackerel sky.

Lawn is a small pattern that would be a wonderful background in a color to match the canvas color. You could also vary it by leaving out motifs, either randomly or in a specific pattern.

Stark is a large pattern that was designed by me inspired by an elaborate carpet.

Based on a Japanese quilting pattern, Floating Diamond, is a wonderful motif pattern that could easily be made more dense if needed.

I hope you’ll try Blackwork for your needlepoint backgrounds soon.

Stitch Guide Classic – Raymond Crawford’s Chinese Letters

Janet Perry — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:18:45 +0000

Originally posted 2008-02-12 06:30:37. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I’ve stitched an awful lot of canvases in my time, but the Chinese Letter canvases from Raymond Crawford remain among my favorites.

Why?

They come in two sizes of canvas (14 and 18), they have a huge variety of background colors, and there are lots of different characters form which to choose.

So, literally, there is something for everyone here. I’ve made nine of them and eight of those are collected into two classic stitch guides, both available to shops from either Raymond or me.

I also love these because stitching them is such a wonderful way to learn more stitches and learn about needlepoint. And I’ve put that into the guides.Chinese Letters I covers stitches in four families, box (pictured), cross, diagonal, and straight. These families are the basis for the majority of needlepoint stitches. Each of the four samplers has four stitches, one for each quadrant, so a beginner has plenty of time to master the stitch.

Chinese Letters II uses a single stitch for each of the samplers and has four variations of the stitch. The book begins with discussion of how a stitch can be varied and explains how each variation came about. Although this book is slightly more advanced, beginners can still use it. Experienced stitchers will love all the ideas it sparks. I was rereading it earlier this week and got so many good ideas for my current projects.But wait, as the commercials say, there’s more!

I’ve also packed the books with lots of extra reference material about needlepoint.

In Chinese Letters there are short articles about scale in needlepoint (and how to scale a pattern or stitch), compensation, using a stitch dictionary, and using thread with directional light.

In Chinese Letters II besides the introductory essay on stitch variations, there are essays about stripes in needlepoint (with lots of stitch diagrams). a long discussion of borders, and a in-depth discussion of how to “read” a needlepoint canvas and pick appropriate stitches.

These two are among my favorites and I wanted to share them with you.

Needlepoint Damask – a Great Background Technique

Janet Perry — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:54:45 +0000

Originally posted 2009-01-22 10:16:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Needlepoint damask, a technique which uses Tent Stitch and contrasting textures of thread, is a marvelous way to make needlepoint backgrounds. You get a subtle pattern, but nothing which overwhelms.

The picture above is a damask pattern based on a Chinese lattice which I used on a lovely purse from Whimsy & grace.

Yesterday I added a page, with samples and patterns, about the technique to All about Needlepoint. But I can’t stop thinking about these delightful patterns. So I’ve come up with some others and I want to share them with you today.

This is another Chinese pattern, but one based on an overall design you will see in fabric and in paintings. I call it Chinese Key. Because it is a small overall pattern, it works particularly well on smaller pieces. I’ve used it as backgrounds for pincushions and boxtops.

Curvy Zig-zag, pictured above, is a stripe pattern, but one which has curves. It works well when you want a vertical background, but not one with a strong pattern. The smaller the contrast in textures between the two threads, the more subtle this pattern will be.

This check is about a simple as you can get. It’s just blocks of nine stitches in two different threads. But it’s very effective. Kelly Clark used it as a background on Mr. Snowman, shown in the bottom picture on this page.

A more complex pattern, this damask will use three textures. Enhance the crosses in the center of half the diamonds by making them as tiny Cross Stitches in a thread like metallic. The result will be elegant

I’m going to challenge you to make your own needlepoint damask patterns. Email me with your chart as a JPG to napaneedlepoint @ gmail.com (remove the spaces please). with it as an attachment and I’ll do another post with your patterns.

Great Background – Alternating Cashmere Pairs

Janet Perry — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:05:26 +0000

Originally posted 2009-11-12 17:56:20. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

I love that Jane in Chilly Hollow has been talking about scale in backgrounds on her blog. And I just adore the Noh mask she’s blog stitching.

She picked a great background, from Needlepoint Now. When I was reading about it, I was hoping she’d show us how to do it, because I LOVE it!

And she did, in an outstanding post. Learn how to do Alternating Cashmere Pairs with wonderful close-up pictures of every step of the process, done with thin threads on black plastic canvas so the stitches are so easy to see.

I’m sitting here thinking of a piece where I can use it.

Great Stitch & Background Tips

Janet Perry — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:30:51 +0000

Originally posted 2008-11-24 06:40:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

My friend Jane Wood has written a couple of fantastic posts in here blog, The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure, about the background she is doing currently for a piece from Squigee Designs which is Japanese in style.

The first talks about the problems she had with finding the background and the charming stitch she used, which she calls Skinny Willow. Every stitcher, no matter how experienced, goes through trial and error in picking stitches and Jane’s analysis of the problems she had and why her solution works are great.

Then today she has a second post where she talks about the background covering some areas which will be stitched later and when the background encroaches slightly into other areas.

This concept of encroaching backgrounds (thanks Jane for the term) is an important one in needlepoint. No matter whether you are using a fine thread and thin coverage (as Jane is) or a thicker thread and full coverage, the background still needs to look complete and as if it continues behind the other elements of the design.

The two main things Jane did will accomplish this. For the hair ornaments, by continuing the background over them, she actually has the background behind the ornament. For the hair, by encroaching and making the stitches over two threads instead of one, she will have a background which looks like the proper stitch. Shortening these stitches would have pulled the canvas and distorted the background or caused these stitches to disappear.

I can’t wait to see what she does next!