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Hi Stitchers;
The following article is from Jane in Chilly Hollow.  She has given us permission to reprint and use for our Chapter.  Many thanks to her.
Margaret

*PART ONE*
It bothers me that there are so many people afraid to stitch a painted
canvas. I want to help those with a painted canvas phobia, so here's my best
shot at explaining how I approach embellishing. Remember, I am not a
professional; this is just how I approach things. You get what you pay for;
you'll learn a lot more taking a class from a nationally known teacher than
listening to me! However, I know not everyone has an opportunity to take
classes with the truly gifted stitchers among us. So here goes....

I eased into painted canvases by starting with small pieces and getting
stitch guides for canvases so I could learn from what the very talented in
this area do. More and more canvases have printed instructions you can buy
as an option that will tell you what threads and stitches were used for a
stitched model. You can also hire people to write stitch guides for your
particular canvas but this isn't cheap. There are famous teachers who do
"How to Write A Stitch Guide" classes as well. Take advantage of them if one
is coming to a shop or guild near you. There are cyber classes on stitched
painted canvases. Take advantage of them if you can. And read your
needlepoint magazines carefully. They are full of projects that you might
not want to stitch but you can always use the ideas on your own canvas some
day. Tony Minieri and Amy Bunger might not be teaching in your area but you
can read their columns on how to stitch clothing, water, flowers, etc. and
have the benefit of their talent for your canvas. Also, ask for help at your
local shop and from your stitching friends. Stitchers are very generous
people and will be delighted to help.

There are some books to help you. The new Needlepoint 101 by Ruth Dilts
explains how to choose a painted canvas and then pick the threads and
stitches for it. This is a small book with a lot of projects and pictures.
Ruth explains why she picked the stitches she did for each example and lists
the exact brands and colors of threads she used. You'll see before and after
pictures of each painted canvas and a small glossary of diagrammed stitches.
This is a very good book for beginners. However, you are not going to learn
about texture, color, or how to use a variety of stitches on a large and
realistic canvas in this book. That's for NP 202!

Other books especially written for those embellishing canvases are the
Stitches for Effect series. There are three of them (Stitches for Effect,
More Stitches for Effect and Even More Stitches for Effect) plus a small
summary book with just the stitch diagrams for travel. The three big books
offer a lot of useful thread information in the front followed by a
dictionary of diagrammed stitches that make nice snowflakes, sweaters,
roads, hair, leaves, flowers, etc. You could literally look up any item you
want stitches for in the back index and stitch using their recommendations.
Often they will recommend a thread that works well for this stitch, too.
Very useful series!

Besides these books, and classes and magazine articles, there isn't much
help for people who want to stitch painted canvases. You see, there aren't
any hard and fast rules for stitching a painted canvas. (Otherwise, we
wouldn't be having this discussion!) I have picked up a few things here and
there that I'll share with you. Stitchers who are really great at this say
to pick a canvas without a lot of detail to start with. A realistic canvas
with lots of shading can be embellished but it is going to be a lot harder
than one that looks cartoon-like with a lot of large plain areas to fill in.
In other words, pick something small like this--

http://secure.theneedleworks.com/store/addProduct2.jsp?ProductId=109378

Not a large and complicated designs like these. They are gorgeous but they
are going to be harder to stitch with fancy stitches--

http://www.mindysneedlepoint.com/backup_files/canvas/canvasjapanese.html

This message is getting a little long so I'll end now and continue in a
second message.

Jane, shouting encouragement to the painted canvas phobic from Chilly Hollow

*PART TWO*
I think it'll be easier to talk about how to embellish a painted canvas if
we have an example. This is what I've chosen--a cowgirl's outfit. <No
laughing from the peanut gallery. I wanted to be Dale Evans for years.
Children who don't know who Dale Evans is, google and find out.>

http://secure.theneedleworks.com/store/addProduct2.jsp?ProductId=109378

First, pick your focal point, the thing you want to emphasize. Lots of
articles tell you to do this, but they don't say how. The way I pick my
focal point is to put my canvas away where I can't see it and then draw what
I remember on paper. I am not very good at drawing but you don't have to be
at this step. All you need to do is roughly sketch out what you remember. My
virtual drawing of this cowgirl outfit from Shelly Tribbey is just a long
sleeved shirt, some vertical lines to indicate a vest, and a skirt shape
with a cactus on it. I didn't draw the gingham pattern of the shirt, or the
belt, or the star. I didn't remember them. So they will be less prominent
when I stitch the design. My focal point will be the parts I remember. This
personalizes your canvas to some extent. None of us will remember a canvas
exactly the same way.

Once you have your focal points, you can get down to business. First make
copies of your canvas on the copy machine. You'll need one in color and
maybe three in black and white. Enlarge some of the copies if you think you
will need better pictures than the original size. You will mark up the black
and white ones with notes and will refer to the color one to see what goes
where after something is stitched over and you can't see the original to
stitch on top of that already covered area. One of the black and white
copies should be the same size as the canvas. You'll find out why you need
this later.
 Finish before beginning. By that I mean think about how you plan to finish
an item when you are choosing thread and stitches. If this was going to be a
rug, I would choose wool and tent stitches. If this was going to be a
Christmas ornament that needed to compete with other ornaments for attention
on a lighted Christmas tree, I'd probably choose a lot of metallics as well
as traditional red and green colors (or maybe you'd coordinate your colors
to the colors of the ornaments you use each year). But this ornament would
probably be hung on a bulletin board in my office to stoke my inner cowgirl,
so I don't need to be careful to not use stitches that snag or delicate
threads that won't hold up under wear. I can use just about anything I want
for my cowgirl clothes.
  Now, take a careful look at the canvas, starting with the focal points. I
sketched the long sleeved shirt, the vest and the skirt with the cactus
plant design. So those are the things I want to emphasize. The shirt has a
red and white checked gingham pattern. Checkerboard patterns immediately
bring Scotch stitch and Mosaic stitch to mind. Look carefully at the canvas'
red and white squares. Looks like they are three threads wide and three
threads high which most closely resembles Mosaic stitch. We have our first
stitch! Now for the thread. Light and shiny areas are more prominent on a
canvas than dark and/or matte items. Remember this when picking threads. We
want to match the colors of the painted canvas in this example, but you
still will use this rule. My other focal points are the vest and the skirt
and the cactus so I am going to have to pick threads for the shirt that
won't fight for attention with the vest. How about cotton? Everyone is
likely to have a little red and white cotton thread in their stash. Since I
am going to use Mosaic stitch and that's a diagonal stitch, I probably don't
want to use cotton perle. It may not cover the canvas well. How about cotton
floss? We can experiment with the number of plies we use in the margin
around the design and see whether 4 plies will work or if we need 6. I can
also get fancy with my stitches by making the Mosaic stitch / all slant one
way with the red stitches and all slant the other way \ with the white.
That'll be a subtle way of putting motion and light play on the canvas
without drawing too much attention away from the vest. Write down Mosaic and
red and white cotton floss on one of your black and white copies of the
canvas and draw an arrow to the shirt. This copy is your shopping list. You
can easily take it to your LNS if you need something (and the color copy
folded in your purse or pocket will help match colors) or to your stash when
you pull threads. As for the yellow cuffs, the blue trim on the collar and
the cuffs, the blue edge of the shirt where it overlaps, and the buttons,
they can be in cotton floss, too. They will probably be all tent stitched
except maybe for the buttons. We'll reserve judgement on the buttons (are
beads too big, how about French knots or maybe just a cross stitch in a
perle thread to make it stand out?), but add yellow and navy to the shopping
list of cotton floss colors.

Moving on to the vest, it is black with a medium green collar and gold trim.
My little brother had a cowboy vest when he was little and I remember it was
some sort of suede. Rainbow Gallery's Very Velvet has lots of greens and
black available and it will look like fake suede when stitched. Petite Very
Velvet's a good choice for an 18 count canvas, too.
  http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=686
 But what about a stitch? I like to use stitches that echo the shape of the
area I'm stitching. Thinking back to my focal point sketch, the vest was
basically an H shape. Partly that's because my drawing skills greatly
resemble my 5 year old niece's, but also that is pretty much the shape of
the vest with a fancy collar and trim on top. What stitch is going to be
basically horizontal and easy to compensate? We've got that fancy collar
with the curves, remember. That screams Compensation. How about brick
stitch? Brick stitch over two threads will easily cover the black and green
vest areas and where the two colors meet we can couch down a long length of
yellow or gold Petite Very Velvet with a matching ply of cotton floss to
hide the seam and also do the trim on the vest collar. Write down the
stitches and Petite Very Velvet color numbers that may work on your road
map. Make a note you'll need a cotton floss in the same yellow as the Petite
Very Velvet for the cording on the vest so you can couch it. You can always
change your choices when you actually see the thread or even substitute
something else if the colors on your monitor aren't at all what the thread
looks like in person. We are in the planning stage and a choice we make now
may change when we make another choice later.
 I think that's enough for this message. Stay tuned for Part 3

*PART THREE*
Ok, we have a plan for the shirt and vest of the cowgirl outfit painted
canvas. We need to think about the skirt and the cactus plant next, then we
will have covered the focal points of this canvas.

http://secure.theneedleworks.com/store/addProduct2.jsp?ProductId=109378

Even though we aren't dealing with the star on the skirt right now, when
planning stitches for the skirt area, you need to take it into account.
There's going to be compensation around the star and the cactus, so we are
going to need a stitch that can be compensated without pulling out all our
hair. In Ruth Dilts' book, she says she always uses tent stitch somewhere on
a canvas. I've heard other people say they like to include tent stitches as
a rest for the eyes. I'm sure you have seen embellished canvases that are a
mish-mash of stitches. The stitcher overwhelmed the canvas using everything
but the kitchen sink. Looking at the skirt and thinking about resting our
eyes somewhere, how about using tent stitches on the skirt? I hear groans
from the back row from all those who hate boring plain old tent stitch but
wait!
There are ways to make tent stitch exciting while using it as a rest stop on
an embellished canvas. Look at the skirt carefully. There is a blue line
dividing it into three parts: an inverted triangle on top and a right and
left side to the skirt. How about using tent stitch on the right side of the
skirt, the side with the cactus, so the tent stitches go //// and then using
reversed tent on the left side where the star is so the stitches go \\\\\?
You can stitch the right side the normal way, then turn the canvas on its
side so that the star is at the top and tent stitch the left side of the
skirt, the one with the star. When you turn the canvas right side up again,
the star side will magically all be slanting \\\\\\. The two tent stitched
areas will meet at the blue line. What about the top triangle of the skirt?
Well, we could use tent stitches there, too, but it probably would be better
to use another stitch so that the / or \ of the tent stitches below is
balanced with a horizontal stitch. How about the brick stitch we used on the
vest? We can vary it to make it over one thread instead of over two threads
which is what we plan to use for the vest. Easy to compensate, too, always a
good thing. Now we are left with the blue line. I think a cross stitch will
work here. It won't slant to the right or to the left but it will work
nicely with the small space.

Now we need to think about threads. The skirt is medium brown. We already
have cotton floss for the shirt and Petite Very Velvet for the vest. It
always helps me pick threads if I think about what a real version of
something looks like. Narrows down the choices. Thinking about a real
cowgirl outfit, I suspect the skirt might be a rather matte material.
Certainly not shiny and probably duller than the gingham checked shirt. Less
leather-looking than the vest as well. How about a wool thread? On 18 count
canvas one ply of Paternayan or a strand of Appleton crewel would work but I
could go a bit fancy and try a strand of a silk/wool if my cowgirl is
married to a sugar daddy. Or Medici would look very nice. Actually, any
brown wool thread that matches the color on your color copy will be just
fine. Wool threads are the workhorses of needlepoint. They are versatile,
come in a huge range of colors, and don't stand out in a crowd. Just the
thing for a cowgirl's skirt. A bonus benefit is that they do tent and brick
stitches nicely. Not every thread does a great job on every stitch.

Lastly, we have the blue seam dividing the skirt sections. We already have
chosen to use blue cotton floss in the shirt trim above. It'll work nicely,
here, too, especially if we use 6-8 plies in the cross stitch to make it
stand up a bit and contrast with the wool. Or if you like, you could find a
wool that matches the color of the blue cotton floss. Either way, write down
the choices on the road map and we're ready to tackle the cactus and then
the last remaining bits of the canvas, the star and belt.

This message is getting long so let's break again.

Jane/Chilly Hollow

*PART FOUR*
I'm explaining in great detail how I figure out a plan to embellish a
painted canvas, using this cowgirl outfit as an example:

http://secure.theneedleworks.com/store/addProduct2.jsp?ProductId=109378

It's time to talk about the cactus. It is a similar green to the cowgirl's
vest with blue stripes that seem to be the same color as the blue trim on
the shirt and the blue in the star. Designers unify their canvases by
repeating colors just like we are unifying our stitch choices by doing
variations on tent and brick stitches. If you think about getting dressed
for an important occasion, you probably are going to have matching shoes and
a purse, or maybe your tie and your pocket square will be in the same
pattern and/or color. It's the same principle. Instinctively we know that
similar things make us look pulled together. Painted canvases are no
different.

But does using a similar color mean I have to use a similar thread? The
cactus is one of my focal points. That means I want it to stand out. Will it
stand out if I use green Petite Very Velvet and blue cotton floss? Are those
colors and threads good choices for the stitches I want to use? To solve
this problem, let's tackle choosing stitches for the cactus first. Looking
at the way the canvas is painted, the cactus has a fat green vertical stripe
next to a thin blue stripe. We could just do long stitches from the top to
the bottom of the cactus, starting from the left with two long Petite Very
Velvets, then one strand (not separated into plies) of the blue cotton
floss, then two Petites and a blue floss, etc. That would work, but would it
stand out? I'd guess the Petite Very Velvet would be higher than the cotton
floss since it is fatter in diameter. We can fix this by switching to the
same blue in Petite Very Velvet, if there is such a thing.

http://www.rainbowgallery.com/detail.cfm?ID=686

Fortunately, there is a navy blue Petite Very Velvet. If it doesn't match
the blue cotton floss, at least there are a lot of color choices among the
various brands of cotton floss and we can pick our Petite Very Velvet first,
then match the floss to it. Make a note on the shopping list copy of the
canvas of the threads you want and that the cotton floss needs to match the
Petite Very Velvet when it comes to the blue.

Ok, now we are thinking about doing long stripes of the cactus in two
colors. But is this going to be a focal point? Will it stand out from the
brown wool skirt? How about padding the cactus? This will make for a 3-d
cactus that is a bit more eye-catching. Remember that black and white copy
of the canvas we made? The one that is the same size as the actual canvas,
not the enlarged one? Grab that and a pair of paper scissors. (Not your good
embroidery scissors! Paper dulls them.) Now cut out the cactus shape from
the xerox copy. Next, trim the paper cactus to make it smaller than the
painted canvas one. Just trim away the outside margin a little, laying it
down on the real thing to check as you work. It doesn't have to be perfect,
just a slightly smaller version maybe shrunken on all sizes by a stitch.
Once you are satisfied, grab a cotton makeup remover pad from the bathroom.
I use the plain ones, not the quilted, but it really doesn't matter. Put
your paper pattern on it, trace around it with a pencil and cut out a mini
cactus from the cotton. Lay the padding on the cactus and stitch it in place
with one stitch in the middle using a ply of cotton floss. Now when you
stitch your long stitches on top of the padding, they will be slightly
raised. You will use the color copy you made to tell you which color to use
where. I'd recommend starting in the middle and stitching to one side of the
cactus and then going back to the middle and stitching out to the other
side. This will help keep the padding from shifting under you.

If you are scissors challenged or find this just too finicky, don't worry.
You can take a ply of your wool for the skirt and do short horizontal (I
repeat, HORIZONTAL) stitches inside the cactus shape. The rule for padding
with threads is that you lay the threads in the opposite direction than the
way the final top row will go. Just like the cut-out version, you stitch
your padding stitches well inside the painted cactus margins. Then do the
long vertical stitches on top like we planned with the Petite Very Velvet.
Either way you go, you will have padding under the long stitches. But what
about the edges where the cactus stitches meet the tent stitching of the
skirt? You may have a sort of ragged edge. The way to handle this is to
stitch the cactus first, then that section of the skirt, so you know where
you need to put a tent stitch here and then to make the cactus look smooth.
Pull out another of your canvas xeroxes and note that you need to stitch the
canvas before the cactus. This canvas will be your road map of stitching.
The same thing will be true of the star; you'll also stitch it before you do
the reverse tent in its background. Sometimes it is nice to label each
section 1, 2, 3, etc. on your road map copy with the stitches you plan to
use on one copy and use another copy as your shopping list with all the
thread types, colors, brands, etc. on it. I often scratch right through my
shopping list as I put stuff in my shopping basket or I might check off the
threads I found in my stash. All this marking up makes it hard to read the
stitches I plan for each area. If you are neat, you may combine both types
of things on your road map. Or you may want to have separate road maps for
each sort of thing. I prefer two because it is less confusing to me.

When it comes to stitch order, I generally stitch the things in the
background first, then the things that are on top. But when you need to know
where the two things meet, like the skirt and its cactus and star, do the
top items first. On the road map of stitches and order of stitching, I'd do
the shirt, then the vest; the cactus and star, then the skirt. Somethings
are obvious--you will have to do the gingham squares, then the blue trim and
the yellow cuffs, etc, then whatever stitch you choose for the buttons on
top. For the vest, you'll have to stitch the vest proper, then the collar,
then couch down the cording trim on top. Common sense is your guide here.

Back to the cactus. Once you have the cactus padded and then stitched, you
might want to fancy it up. I know the canvas isn't painted this way but my
cactus plant at home has spikes sticking out here and there. You could take
one ply of your blue cotton floss and, coming up from the back side out away
from the plant and going down into the body of the cactus with a sharp
needle instead of the usual blunt tapestry needle, do some straight lines to
make those hairy spikes. Use a pencil on one of your copies, making lines
and erasing them until you have 10-12 sticking out from the cactus that look
good to you. Then do the same thing on the real canvas. Of course you are
going to have to have both the cactus and its background stitched first.
This is the last thing you do in this area.

A more fancy cactus might be stitched using a hairy thread like Charleston
if you can find a green and a blue you like in that thread. Or instead of
doing long stitches over padding, do a long stitch in your blue thread
doubled in the needle and then do large cross stitches two threads high and
wide with your green Petite Very Velvet. This way you don't have to bother
with padding yet the cactus will still stand out as a focal point against
the plain tent stitched background.

Is your head spinning yet? Let's take a break before tackling the star and
then the belt.
Jane/Chily Hollow

*PART FIVE*
I am explaining in great detail how I figure out a plan of attack for
embellishing a painted canvas, using this cowgirl outfit as my example, to
try and help those who are paralyzed with fear when they consider stitching
a painted canvas.

http://secure.theneedleworks.com/store/addProduct2.jsp?ProductId=109378

We have finished all the areas I identified as focal points and their
backgrounds; now it is time to do the last little bits. The star on the
skirt looks like the same blue as the shirt trim and the cactus' blue
stripe. It also looks like the yellow shirt cuff, the yellow cording trim on
the vest, and the belt buckle. Now we have to decide if we want to stay with
the blue and yellow cotton floss we picked for earlier items. In my own
mind, I would expect a sheriff's star and a belt buckle to be gold, not
yellow. However, the star and the buckle aren't focal points for me, so
forget about using gold Fyreworks or other extremely bright and shiny golds.
You are going to have to find a rather dull gold, maybe Kreinik's Vatican
gold or Golden Sand. I like #8 or #4 braid on 18 count canvas but let's wait
and pick stitches before we decide whether to go with the larger or smaller
diameter thread.

http://www.kreinik.com/articles/color_cht

You could also use a navy Kreinik for the inside of the star, but I think I
want to use the same blue cotton floss I've been using all over this canvas
so as not to emphasize this too much. I want to use all 6 plies and stitch a
long stitch that comes up at one point and goes down in the middle of the
star. First I'll come up at each point and go down in the middle, then I'll
work my way around the star, filing in each section. It'll end up almost
like an eyelet stitch, with each stitch sharing that central hole. Using a
laying tool of some kind to keep the plies all straight is going to be very
important here. Notice that I am ignoring the gold paint around the outside
border of the star. Once I stitch the blue and then do the background of the
skirt, I will go back and stitch long, straight stitches with my Kreinik
gold color, probably in the smaller #4 size. Once again, I'll come up at the
point and go down in the valley area where each /\ meets. Using a sharp
needle may help here since you'll be stitching into those reverse tent
stitches. This should give some interest to the star but not make it so
flashy that it is all you see on this canvas.

As for the belt, I like to do belts in simple horizontal stitches. From the
picture, it looks like the belt is 6 threads high and the buckle is the same
width. How about just vertical stitches in brown for the leather belt? Once
again, we can use Petite Very Velvet in brown to do a leathery look. I would
stitch the brown leather belt first, then do the gold buckle in the very
same simple stitch. This will give us a belt and buckle that looks fairly
realistic but that doesn't detract from the vest or the shirt or the skirt
that surround it. I guess I would stitch it after the shirt but before the
vest. Since we are using the same stitches for both areas of the belt, it
probably is going to be best to use the Kreinik #8 braid since that is
closer to the diameter of the Petite Very Velvet brown leather area. I think
the #4 we used on the star will be too thin. Using the same shade of gold on
both the star and the buckle will unify our design but a different size of
the thread is going to work better in this area. Make notes on your shopping
list.

We still need to make up our minds about what to do about the buttons on the
shirt. That has to wait until the end once everything else is stitched and
you can see whether beads look ok with all the stitching or whether they are
just too big or the wrong color. In my experience, beads don't come in
nearly as many colors as threads does, and besides, I am not sure our
cowgirl would have fancy buttons on her shirt anyway. You might want to
write down "beads for buttons?" on your shopping list and take a look at
what is available. A stitch guide you work out ahead of time is always
subject to change depending on what threads and colors are available to you.


Since I am going to finish this as an ornament, I took a final look at the
piece and imagined again I was Dale Evans wearing this to help me see if
there was anything else I needed to add. There's no rule against stitching
something extra that wasn't painted on the canvas, you know! And if I were
Dale, I'd be wearing fringe. No self respecting cowgirl is without fringe!
There are two logical places to put fringe, at the bottom of the skirt and
at the bottom of the vest. I'm going to have a lot of leftover Petite Very
Velvet in several colors that will make great fringe. I am not sure that
this thread will look ok next to the wool at the edge of the skirt so I
think I'll put my fringe along the bottom of the vest. To do that, I am
going to not stitch the very last row of the bottom of the vest. I will
stitch all the way down to the next-to-the-last row then leave the last row
blank. Once the rest of the canvas is all stitched, I will come back and
thread up my needle with a length of Petite Very Velvet a little longer than
twice the length I want my fringe to be. Go down in a hole at one end of the
vest and then come up in the next hole. Pull the thread half way through so
that you have two long ends about the same length. Remove the needle and tie
a square knot on top of the canvas. You have your first two pieces of
fringe! Once you get all the holes filled, you can go back and give the
fringe a haircut to make all the ends even. Since the vest is at an angle,
you probably will cut the fringe at a slant. Just comb all the ends flat
with your needle, and trim cautiously, a little at a time. Here's a place
you can play with color. You can do the fringe in all blue (you have blue
from the cactus), in brown to match the belt, in green to look like the
collar of the vest, in yellow like your cording, or in black to match the
body of the vest. I personally would probably use black only but if your
cowgirl feels fancy, alternate two colors every 3-4 fringes, or use them
all. Whatever suits your taste. But remember to write down you are going to
not stitch the last row of the vest's bottom on your road map or it is
absolutely certain you are going to be zipping along stitching and you'll
forget to stop. There may not be many rules about how to embellish a canvas,
but one rule is certain--write down stopping points or you will get to rip
out later!

However, ripping out is your friend. You never will be 100% certain how
something will look until you actually stitch it. So use the fat margins of
your canvas to do a test drive of your stitch to see how it looks before you
commit yourself on the canvas. If you are unsure about a section, don't rip
it out right away. Put it where you can see it during your daily actitivies
and think about it a little. You can also hold the canvas up to a mirror and
look at the image. Often the reflected image helps you make up your mind
about a problematic area. Looking at it from the same distance as it will be
seen once done also helps. Remember that you see your stitching up close,
often from less than 24 inches, and once it is done, very few eyeballs will
be that close to it.

Let's stop here. I'll summarize things in my last message.

Jane/Chilly Hollow