Stitched by You: Allison Mancini
Allison Mancini is the star of our "Stitched by You" series today. She recently completed my Goldfish canvas, and has kindly shared her notes on her threads and stitch patterns with me below!
You can follow Allison's fun stitching adventures on Instagram at @allison.crafts and shop Jessica Tongel trunkshow until the end of the month!
From Allison:
Fiber Choices: I used DMC fibers, in large part because my three-year-old did the fiber/color selection. Every time we go into an LNS she wants a skein of her own (she displays them in her room- and no, I am not allowed to use them), so I have always steered her towards the DMC wall. When I told her I needed fibers for this canvas, she made her way right to the DMC section and got to work choosing (with a little help from mommy, when she needed a boost to reach the top row of fibers). She has a great eye for color, and will routinely tell me when she thinks my choice is off and will select a new option for me (and she is usually right).
Stitches: I started this canvas after finding a fun stitch on Instagram. In order to remember it, I started stitching the white area with it (I wish I knew who used it or what it was called!). I love finding new stitches to try - Pinterest and Instagram are my favorite places for stitchy inspiration. The lettering is all basketweave, so as not to compete with the background. For the fish, I wanted something a little more than basketweave, but didn’t have a lot of area to work with on the smaller fish. Alternating tent stitch was the solution and provided some texture too. For the orange area, I wanted another decorative stitch but I also wanted something that would provide some contrast to the diagonal white stitch. I searched Pinterest and found an oblique variation that provided the canvas coverage I like in a diagonal stitch, but when viewed looked more like a vertical stitch. I finished up the canvas with horizontal interlocking goblin in the yellow swirls.
Finishing: My go-to for finishing is always ornaments. My family and I love Christmas (our trees go up right after Halloween) and I firmly believe you can never have too many ornaments. This canvas is a bit larger though and I have considered doing something different this time, but I am not sure what. Someone suggested a standup and I love the idea, but fear it would end up in my girls playroom as part of their toy kitchen food (and I don’t think I can handle seeing my hard work tossed around the playroom). So, finishing is still TBD but I am open to suggestions!
Leave a comment