Originally posted 2009-08-09 07:20:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Recently I got an email from Karen, who asked about the Madiera canvas listed for the projects in Beautiful Bargello. The book was written in England and many of the materials are challenging to find in the US.
For us, Madiera is a thread company, not a canvas company, so what is this stuff?
My suspicion is that “Madeira” in this context is a brand name, used the way we’d use “Zweigart.”
If you look at the instructions it will say”18 holes” or “13 holes” — that’s the mesh size.
Now to the color. She is calling for “antique” canvas, which we would call “ercu.” This tan canvas works better for Bargello because the darker color melds in better with the thread colors, so that needlepoint dandruff (flecks of white canvas showing) is not as apparent. What you want to do is pick your canvas color in this order of preference:
- 1. color similar to the main color of the canvas, so pink for a mainly pink or red canvas, sage green for green and so on
- 2. non-white neutral color, either ecru, tan or ivory
- 3. white
If you can only find white, don’t despair. You can lightly color the canvas so that the dandruff is less apparent or you can stitch it in such a way that dandruff is minimized
Related posts:
NEEDLEPOINT DANDRUFF!!! excellent, and all this time I have been calling it *show through*
Much Better term
Once again, you rescue me from dire ignorance
M
for my bargello projects I’m a big fan of tea-dying my canvases. They give the canvas the antique look that I like. I use regular tea which gives it the ecru look but I also like to use raspberry tea which gives it a softer pink look. I’ve also used POM juice which is a great color (and it smells good too!). Someone once told me that dying canvases will remove the starch which is important but I’ve never had a problem with this. I always tack my pieces to a frame and I like a softer canvas.
I love this idea! I’m going to have to try it myself. I’ve tea dyed threads and fabrics, but never canvas.
Keep stitching,
Janet