The Crazy Canvaswork Cushion – Part 3
Jacquard Stitch
The third section is in Jacquard Stitch. I’ve always liked this stitch. It creates an effect rather reminiscent of a twill weave, which is one of my favourite fabric structures – you may recall that the Persian Fantasy screen was embroidered on a cotton twill, and that I used a cotton twill fabric for the superstructure and bridge of the Camberwell. It’s a little tricky to start, and doing the compensation along all the wiggly edges had me counting and recounting to try to make sure I didn’t create any steps that were longer than others. It is very much easier to do when the edges are straight!
Third Section
This view shows that whole shape of the third section.
As you can see, I am trying to change around between diagonal stitches and straight stitches, stripes and squares. Although Jacquard Stitch and Florentine stitch are both striped, one uses diagonal stitches and the other straight stitches. And strangely, again, the section used approximately the same amount of wool as the previous sections. By now I was beginning to be confident enough to pull out that number of strands from the hank and see what happened..
Section Four
For my next section, I looked for a square stitch which involved crossing threads. Since I chose to alternate the colours, the amount of each colour would be approximately the same. This is a rather acidic green, and swore violently at some of the other colours in my stash – although it does look better in real life than it does here!
Rice Stitch
I chose Rice Stitch. This is probably the simplest way of using two colours for Rice Stitch, although later I may use the variant which has the corner crosses in a different colour to the underlying diagonal cross stitch.
Next time I may also choose to use three strands in the needle. Two are usually sufficient with a crossed stitch, but although this looks hardwearing , in real life it looks a little “thin”.
This is just what I wanted – something bright and cheerful with an odd kick in its gallop. Well done!
Very exciting, Rachel. Love the variation in the stitches and can’t wait to see the overall view.
Yes, I can imagine the jacquard stitch would be difficult to count on the wiggly edges. Could easily end up with a wider gap between the rows than you intended. Very pleased to see your mum is happy with progress so far, since she will be the beneficiary of all this work. It’s looking good, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it looks when it’s all done.
Really enjoying the variety of stitches – and I love the green, it gives a real ‘pop’!
It looks like a wonderful patchwork piece – only done in stitches.
Gosh, Rachel, this really looks sumptuous – and (though I would not expect anything else from you) soooo even and neat. Looking forward to seeing a picture of it all together when it’s done. It must be so satisfying for you to see it coming together like this. xCathy
So many different stitches really add to the texture along with all the colours. I like that green.
What wonderful stitches and colours.
wow you’re so clever. The edges, the joins are perfect. I got a headache just reading about your process!
Your stitching, as always, is beautiful. I don’t think that I could cope with all the working out of stitches where they meet – it is so much easier with fabric!
it’s looking wonderful. My mum used to do needlepoint, but always tent stitch, I had no idea so many different stitches existed
Such beautiful textures that you create here in stitch. Rice stitch is new to me, I’m tempted to have a go, I love that effect.