Slowly but surely

After my last post, I was asked, "How do you work around the randomly placed stars when you're stitching the black border in basketweave?" Answer: I don't work around them at all. I treat them as I would a name on the cuff of a Christmas stocking or wording on a whimsical door hanger. In this case, when I'm following the up-the-stairs, down-the-pole pattern of basketweave and come to a gold painted intersection, I skip it and move on to the next black intersection. It keeps the stitching smoother that way, and doesn't create any problems when I go back and fill in the stars and dots with my metallic thread.

I finished my first card of black Petite Very Velvet and decided to treat myself by stitching the first square in the top right corner. Pretty straightforward, actually--mostly tent stitches with a green gobelin-over-two section. I added a new thread--Sheep's Silk "Ivory" for the off-white boxes--to the threads I've already used. Then I got to the center large green square--decision time! The centers of all of these squares will eventually be covered with a rather large ceramic button. I decided, just for fun and because it carried the "square" design element of the canvas further, to stitch this area in a framed Scotch stitch. It will give me something textured to look at as I stitch the rest of the canvas!

For square #2, I stitched the corners in Scotch stitches--again carrying out the "square" shape dominant elsewhere. The rest of this square was stitched in basketweave--it, too, will be covered later by a button.

I got a little carried away stitching the second square before doing more border, I confess, but I had another reason: I was trying to let the canvas "speak" to me as I stitched, so I would be absolutely certain of my stitch choice for the tan background when I came to it. There's a fair amount of this background to do, so I need to make my decision soon. I do hate leaving a lot of background for last!