Needlepoint Shading: More "Flowers on Crosses"

It's unbelievablel what I'm finding when going through boxes long stored in the garage - things I thought I had lost or trashed.

This first picture is a cross on 18 mesh canvas that was painted probably 14 years ago, when I decided to do floral crosses for Spring - but they were a favorite all year, to my surprise. I have loved the calla lilies in colors, in addition to the plain white ones.

If you enlarge this, you will see how the shading is painted in very distinct areas - it "reads" as shading, but the separations in shades are distinct enough to make the stitchng easy in basketweave, as textured stitches have no place on this design..

The next one features blue irises (Dutch, I believe) and others that were blooming in my neighborhood that spring. I chose this one to stitch for myself, as these are my favorites!

On the painted canvas I sold to shops, I left the background and border without paint, so that people could choose their own color. The separating outline is metallic gold.

I chose the purplish light blue for background, as it enhanced the flowers, and brought them visually forward in the composition. The navy outline contained the whole pattern.

Again, this is too busy to accomodate textured stitches - and was delightful to work in just basketweave with silk threads. I didn't finish it, and have no idea where it is at the present time. Maybe it will surface.

When you are shopping for painted canvases, this "canvas preparation" is a very important thing to understand - as it must be easy to know exactly where to put your needle for the next stitch. A well painted canvas leaves no doubt!!

It isn't showing in my cropped photos, but I always make a little square of paint on the side in a vertical row, every time I change colors in my paint brush - this makes it easy for a shop owner to pull threads without missing anything.

The next flowered cross is just a very busy one - As I remember, my inspiration for these was the "flowering of the cross" the little ones do at Easter- When I was a child, we went up the aisle to the front of the church, and put a little bouquet of our own flowers onto a beautiful white cross. It was a very significant ceremony at Easter for children, and I enjoyed watching my own little ones in later years doing this.

The last picture is, again, a very busy pattern. This one, however, will accomodate, and actually needs, a bit of enhancement.

The arrows at the top point to little "fill-in" things, which I would stitch first in basketweave in the light greet dots - and then put the darker green French Knots on top of that for emphasis. In this case, just doing the French knots on bare canvas would look messy.

The lower right arrows point to little five pointed leaves - and, again, I would do these ON TOP of the background basketweave in long, smooth stitches in cotton or silk - not adding a lot of different kinds of fibers, which would be too distracting.

Tiny little 2 ply, one wrap French knots would also be great, I think, on the iris "beards" and where the brown dots around the centers of the red flowers show. Again, I would stitch the background first - then add the French knots on top, as they seem to lie flatter that way, and also add some extra dimension.

A carefully drawn and painted canvas is easy and relaxing to stitch! However, some might look at this and be frightened of it, as it looks daunting to anyone expecting to have to put a zillion fancy stitches on it with 25 different threads. YUK. I believe it might be why some are so afraid of stitching on a painted canvas - a whole new concept to me! It's being told to have to turn it to "goop" or an eye shattering mess that is the fearsome thing.

Wildflowers in Needlepoint: A Cross

Another "relic" in the files. I didn't bother to toss this one, as I had already done that a number of years ago, to no avail. It was one of those things I painted simply to show that I could render Texas wildflowers to look like they actually do - with correct colors and foliage, and shading painted for easy stitching. Of course, as things do that I don't like to paint, it sold very well, so to stop that, I simply threw away the pattern.

One delightful and lovely shop owner, Nancy Laux of Needle House in Houston, called one day to order more of them, and I told her, regretfully, that it was discontinued, and that I no longer even had the original drawing. About two days later, I received in the mail this full size color scan of the first wildflower cross I had sent her.

What does one do? I traced the design, filled her order, and painted four more. However, I then permanently retired this piece, although I couldn't bear to throw away the scan - it will always remind me of Nancy's determination and very firm but sweet way of doing business. I still laugh when I run across it in the "obsolete" files.

This canvas is an example of one that would be ruined by using textured stitches and/or different kinds of fibers, as it is quite bright and busy enough as it is, and doesn't need any more distraction. The flowers are placed so that a balance of design is achieved, and the eye is led where it needs to go by the placement of the colors. It could easily become an "eye shattering mess" if gooped up with more texture. Basketweave with simple thread - cotton floss or silk - will do well enough.

This dates back to my wildflower days when I was taking hundreds of photographs at the National Wildflower Research Center - and painting needlepoint and other accessories from the real thing.

Wildflowers? ANG San Antonio 2011

I feel I've come full circle now, as a few weeks ago, after my article in NN appeared with the Talavera crosses, the manager of the Yarn Barn of San Antonio called me and asked if they might buy one of the crosses for a customer who asked for it. I told her of course, and then she asked if I could do the entire line of them in time for the Fiesta celebration (honoring San Jacinto and the defeat of Santa Anna).

The Yarn Barn has been under new ownership for the last two years, after a wonderful 35+ years with my friend Bobbi Ravicz running the show. I was amused, and told this lady that Bobbi and I started out this way.

When my newspaper article on the Imari needlepoint adaptation appeared for the first time in the San Antonio Express, a lady went to Bobbi, who was selling Persian yarn to weavers out of her garage - and asked if she could get one of the canvases for her - and to make a long story short, The Yarn Barn of San Antonio came to be.

Next, the present owner, right before they left for the Dallas market, contacted me and asked if I would do an exclusive for them for the ANG seminar next year, as The Yarn Barn will host it. I'm not too fond of this idea, as I no longer like to paint a lot, and I wasn't crazy about her idea for a design. However, I remembered this angel from the collection I did for the Governor's Mansion tree about 9 years ago, and thought it might be a good one for the visitors to San Antonio.

I would, of course, re-do it for a small ornament, and leave the wildflowers where they are. My favorites are showing here - the bluebonnets (which are gorgeous this year due to plenty of rain and no high heat yet), the Gaillardia, Coreopsis, Evening Primrose, and Huisache Daisy. Another consideration is that a model would have to be stitched, and it's really not what I enjoy most - this kind of design. (I have a very talented friend, designer, and co-conspirator who has now offered to do it).

This brings up another subject - stitch guides. I am seeing so many people now doing it as a business, but I do wish people would use their own taste and imagination and have enough confidence in their own originality to stitch to suit themselves and stop being so reliant on the mass produced/carbon copy commercial product. Some who produce the stitch guides actually know very little about stitching and are rather prone to overdo it.

Too many times the guides are not really up to standard, with entirely too many threads used, and too many complicated textured stitches within a very small space. This makes an eye shattering mess instead of a pleasing finished product - and the expense of such a great number of threads is not good. Simplilcity works!!

There is also the thing that some who are fairly new to needlepoint will be totally put off by the difficulty and miss out on a wonderful and relaxing hobby.