More from the Classroom

Lion in tent and longstitch needlepoint on canvas

I love hearing from my readers! Recently a lady who had learned about this blog from a friend wrote me, saying: “I wish you didn’t live so far away. I would love to take some of your classes. Please tell me you are going to write more about what you do in your classes. I studied the first two posts (1/16/2018 and 2/5/2018). The directions are clear and the pictures are great. I have made the butterfly and the water lily and I really like the way they turned out. I can’t help but think that learning more about the lessons online is the next best thing to being there.” I wish she could be here, too! I appreciate her enthusiasm! For her and for everyone else who is interested, I am going to do some more posts about what we’ve done in the classroom, although they will be spread out among other topics that I have promised. Today we are continuing with the studies of canvas work, focusing on French longstitch.

Finished butterfly in Gobelin stitch

Pattern for bighorn in French longstitch

I wanted to show my students how useful French longstitch is for doing pictures of animals, but I knew that none of them were ready yet to do anything as complex as the bighorn sheep and the pronghorn antelope you saw on the previous post (although one person did ask for a printout of the bighorn pattern to work on in the future, and J. D. printed it.) Nor were they ready for a project like the lion’s head in a combination of French longstitch and conventional tent stitch that you see at the top of this article. Both of these projects are done on needlepoint canvas with tapestry yarn.

Puppets in the classroom

They needed to start with something smaller and simpler. I got my inspiration from a group of puppets hanging in a corner of the classroom. Before I start a new puppet pattern, I do a color rendering of the head in the same size as the pattern for the head. I got out several samples of the animal heads and traced their outlines. When the students arrived, I had laid out the colored renderings, the tracings, and a piece of 5 ½ in. X ¾ in. (14.5 cm. X 17.5 cm.) #10 plastic canvas for each person. That is ¼ of a sheet of the canvas. An assortment of permanent markers and a box of tissues completed our equipment, and the egg cartons of yarn balls were open along one wall within easy reach. I had chosen a small dog for my example and included two rabbits (one lop-eared), a baby chick, a duckling and a lamb among the animals in case someone wanted to do an Easter picture as a present for a child.

Simple drawing for bulldog's head

To start a longstitch project, you need a fairly simple picture that has some large areas that need to be filled. Longstitch is several times longer than the upright Gobelin stitches that were used previously, but there is a limit. If the stitches are too long, they tend to sag away from the canvas or snag on objects, so I don’t recommend either vertical or horizontal stitches more than about 2 inches (5.5 cm.) long. With that in mind, I put in lines on the tracings that broke up spaces that were too long into shorter sections.. The students each chose a color picture and a matching outline and traced the outline onto the plastic canvas. Then they scrubbed both sides of the canvas with tissues to remove any extra ink that might come off on their yarn. They chose any yarns that they needed from the cartons and sat down to work.

Canvas with edges taped to prevent raveling

If you are doing this technique on plastic canvas, as my students were, be sure all of the edges are as smooth as possible. If you are using jute or fabric canvas, tape the raw edges with masking tape turned under to cover both sides of the canvas. This keeps the edges of the canvas from fraying and keeps your yarn or floss from being roughened by contact with the edges of the canvas.

Bulldog's head outlined on plastic canvas

The students had been working on #7 plastic canvas for their projects. Since #10 is a much smaller mesh (100 squares to the square inch, rather than 49 squares), they now had some adjustments to make. Each one was provided with a shorter tapestry needle which had a smaller ‘eye’ than the one they had been using. I demonstrated how to use two different kinds of needle threaders and put some on the tables. Then I demonstrated how to separate and combine strands of 3-ply and 4-ply yarns to get the proper thickness that would cover the canvas. I also demonstrated how to combine strands of different colors of yarn to get the effect of shading (also detailed in the April 8, 2018 post.)

One half of bulldog stitched

I had already worked one side of the dog’s head and now demonstrated the stitching on the other side. Once everyone was satisfied that they knew how to proceed, the class began stitching. While they worked, I went over with them the “11 Secrets for Needlework Success” (see the post for June 1, 2014), which I had printed as a hand-out for each of them. We discussed the suggestions and I answered their questions. As any problems arose with the stitching, we discussed and solved them. When the first person wanted to do some interior back-stitching, we stopped for a few minutes to discus back-stitching in a single color or in several colors, when to use longer stitches instead of very short ones, and when slanted stitches worked better than straight ones. They asked if it was all right to use some tent stitching with the longstitch and I assured them that it was.

When about 20 minutes was left of our 90-minute session, I demonstrated a stitch pattern on a pegboard display stand which shows individual stitches in a large size, and had them copy the stitches on a small piece of plastic canvas, label it, and store it in a notebook. The stitch is one of several long-and-short stitches belonging to the family of very old tapestry stitches known collectively as “Hungarian point”. These stitches are usually called “grounds” or “groundings,” and are used in a single color or two closely related colors as backgrounds for other kinds of needlework. I have used two colors in this sample for clarity.

Parisian stitch sample

This pattern is called Parisian stitch. The first stitch is an upright one over 4 threads of canvas or bars on plastic canvas. For the second stitch, drop down 1 thread or bar and make a stitch over 2 threads or bars. Alternate these two stitches across your canvas. In the second row, the short (over 2) stitches are done at the bottoms of the long (over 4) stitches, and the long stitches (over 4) are done at the bottom of the short (over 2) stitches. These second row stitches begin in the same squares of mesh where the stitches above them ended, so no threads or bars are left uncovered. The third row and all other odd-numbered rows are like row 1; the fourth and all other even-numbered ones, like row 2. To complete an area, fill in with short stitches so that the top and bottom of the piece is even.

More Parisian stitch samples

There is no reason, however, that these stitches cannot be used to form colorful all-over patterns on their own. In contrasting colors, as on the top sample here, the stitches make a boldly striped pattern. But if you choose closely related colors like the reds and oranges of the middle sample, you can achieve a more subtle ombre-shaded effect. This is how the stitches were used in the old tapestries. The more closely related the colors are, the subtler the effect. A variegated yarn (bottom sample) will give you a more abstract effect. This can be be useful. Imagine, for example, using a variegated green in the background of a picture to suggest trees or shrubs, or a variegated brown or gray to suggest a fabric.

As the end of class neared, I asked the students to practice the Parisian stitch, but not to use it on the backgrounds of their pictures, explaining that in the next session they would learn a number of such background stitches and could choose their favorite. I also asked them to put color directions on their traced outlines and return the color renderings for my puppet files. They were to have their outlines filled in, plus interior back-stitching; by the next session to be ready for background stitching. The two ladies working on Easter animals asked if they could have copies of the color pictures and outlines for the other Easter animals. They planned to work together, so J.D. did copies of two extra animals for each of them and together they had the full set. For those of you working at home, you might want to work from a photo of the face of a favorite pet. We adjourned.

Bulldog's head finished, ready for background

I realize that some students will not do canvas work again after they finish their class projects. Nevertheless, the skills they have learned will carry over to other kinds of embroidery on fabrics like monks’ cloth, Aida, decorator burlap, etc. And they will have learned the advantages to be gained from having a firm surface to work on and will be more likely to use hoops and/or frames. That will reduce the necessity for extensive blocking and produce a neater project.

As always, enjoy your work!

More simple puppet head designs

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.