a custom job

One of the things that made this freshly-finished custom piece a success is that I remembered to go w/ 3 strands on the floss for the lettering.

Red is DMC 321 and the canvas is Charles Craft Gold Standard 14 black aida.

*

In other news, right after posting my big political rant on Friday night, I got the bad news that my grandpa is being placed in Hospice care to live out the final days of his life. He’s been sick for a couple of years, but took a dramatic turn for the worse a couple of weeks ago. What looked like an episode regarding his congestive heart failure has turned out to really be metastasized cancer into the liver (was originally prostate), and his liver has shut down. I have still been stitching while I await more news, and Rev. Dr. MLK Jr. is slowly but surely coming along. Please send good thoughts for a peaceful passing to my beloved grandpa– he is 97.5 years old and has lived a wonderful life full of love and joy, and before he got too sick to know what’s going on, he told us that he’s ready to go. Thanks.

 

thoughts on stitching on black canvas

The last time I tried to do a simple yet abstract portrait on black canvas, it was of Audrey Hepburn. I did it on black 14 aida, with 4 or 5 shades of pink for the stitches.

Despite what my darling partner KC said (it’s good!), I disagreed; Audrey looked like a disease.

The key that I have learned, forgotten, and learned again, is that when stitching on dark canvas of any gauge, one should use 3 strands of floss rather than two. Part of the reason that this is a good choice is that the stitches hide the tiny spots of canvas that peek through between stitches– the overall look is cleaner, more polished, and it pops more from the canvas.

But because lately I have been stitching portraits on 22 hardanger, i have been using 2 strands. And when I started Dolly Parton, I stitched w/ 2 strands. The overall look isn’t as good as Johnny Cash was.

This isn’t the best picture of Johnny– he’s framed up and hanging in the Northside Chop Shop, Cincinnati’s finest place for great hair (mad props to Scott Ponder!).