Be Merry, 2

In the above photograph, you can see the canvas mounted "in the gutter".  I'm showing this because I had a customer last week apologize to me for mounting her canvas that way.  She was reluctant to say that she did it that way.  I have very few hard-and-fast rules about needlepoint.  When it comes to mounting the canvas, I feel that you should do it in a way that is comfortable for you.  People also ask me where they should start stitching on a canvas.  I say, wherever you want.  It doesn't matter whether it is white first or dark colors first.  I personally don't like coming up in a "dirty" hole, so I always start in the upper right-hand corner and do things as they come.  I don't like stitching background, so I try to make myself stitch ahead of the design it surrounds.  You'll notice in the border below, I am stitching from the right to the left.  No cheating and jumping around, though it is tempting to end a strand of a color in the next stripe that it occurs--No, No.  Of course, I must admit that perhaps this insistence on order dates back to my years as a library cataloger!

All of the stitching on this canvas, with the exception of the background silk 'n ivory, is stitched in silk lame braid 18.  Having told you that I can eliminate that repetition from the stitch descriptions.

The first stitch on the right is the Victorian Step Stitch using a double strand of silk lame braid 18 (that is the only size Needle Nicely stocks).  When doing a straight stitch, you need more strands than for a diagonal stitch.

Next, I did an orange row of continental stitch.  There are other stitches that can be done over a single row.  Associated Talents has a stitch guide for this canvas (and other of their designs) on their web site http://www.atneedlepoint.com that shows their suggested stitches.

The hot pink row is done in Satin stitch, again using a double strand.  Next comes the red fern stitch, then another row of continental in medium aqua.

Lastly, is the stripe with the Scotch stitch done in alternating directions in two shades of green.