a magic - Access Commodities

A MAGIC Carpet
have always longed for a needlepoint rug.
This desire which some people would consider irrational has been something I could neither
shake off, nor forget for the past 30 years. As time past, every needlework shop I visited I
secretly hoped to find “the rug”, and at the same time I was terrified I would find it and not have
the money to buy it.
Why was a needlepoint rug an obsession to me? Having grown up in a house that had acres
of beige wall to wall carpet, even in the bathrooms, (a particular kind of luxury or form of vexing
visual symmetry, depending on your point of view) I wanted the irregularity of plain floors and
handmade colored carpets in my home. Collecting books on decorative arts and historical
interiors, I always admired 16th century Dutch paintings where richly vibrant rugs were draped
over tables in luxurious folds because they were precious objects. I even own all the charted
rug books that have been published in the past in my library that I would periodically take off the
shelf and leaf through. From Maggie Lane, Beth Russell, Hope Hanley, Elizabeth Bradley to Sibyl
Matthew’s Needle Made Rugs published in 1967, and a personal favorite---all of these beckoned
and further fueled my obsession.
As the years passed, I realized that I would probably never make a charted rug. I like the
designs, but lack the temperament at this time in my life to tackle that kind of a project. I knew
I wanted a proper rug that would be a complete design thought with borders that framed the
pattern motifs in the center like an oriental carpet.
Consequently, at a TNNA ( The National Needlework Association) trade show a few years
ago, I was walking down an aisle and saw some needlepoint rug canvas designs hanging in
the CanvasWorks booth of Dorothy Combs. I have always liked and admired Dorothy’s work.
She “stitch-paints” canvas. This means that the design that you see on the canvas is more
representative of what it will look like when it is stitched. Other needlepoint canvas artists treat
the canvas like it is a painting with intricate shading and detail. I have both kinds of painted
canvas in my stash.
I stepped into the booth, and tentatively asked Dorothy if she did custom work? Would she
object to using linen canvas? ( I had been hoarding a roll of 13 mesh linen canvas that has
not been made for over 15 years waiting for a special project ). Dorothy was enthusiastic and
interested.
After work the day it arrived, I eagerly unrolled the canvas on the cutting table at the
warehouse. With my list of colors I had given Dorothy, I gathered up the
Appletons hanks. Anxiously I placed them on the canvas and finally stood back
feeling pleased with the effect of the interplay of the reds, blue, gold and green.
I asked my husband what he thought of the thread palette I was going to use and he
looked at it and said: “You’re not going to stitch that beautiful canvas in wool, are you?”
“What do you mean? It’s a carpet! I had Dorothy paint to match these colors.” I said
heatedly gesturing at the hanks of wool.
He shook his head. “I think it would look better in silk.”
“Do you know what you’re saying?”
“How many rugs are you going to make in your lifetime?”
“I don’t know,” I responded defensively. “Maybe this is what I will always ever after want to do.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “You can do what you want. I’m just telling you it would look
better in silk.”
Upper right corner of rug with some of the silk pallete.
And so, this rug I had dreamed about took a different path. Instead of using wool, I now am stitching it
with Au Ver A Soie®, Soie d’Alger. Switching to silk the colors became infinitely more intense and lustrous.
Devising a working method that would not slow me down but at the same time would provide an aesthetic
appearance I could be happy with, here is a list of my criteria:
1) This needed to be a “portable” project. I have stitched on it riding in a plane, in hospital waiting
rooms, and in dimly lit hotel rooms. The problem, as those of you who have done large scale
projects will know---how do you keep a canvas that is nearly 4 feet by 6 feet, not on a frame from
being distorted? Just doing basketweave stitches resolves some of this problem but not entirely.
2) I already knew that Soie d’Alger covers 13 mesh tent stitch because Sherlee Lantz used it for her
canvas work sampler that is photographed in her book “Pageant of Pattern”. (See pages 77 and
fold out Plate 1.) Back in the early 1970’s, 13 & 14 mesh canvas were the standard. (At the recent
TNNA show there were “new” threads being promoted to fit 13 mesh canvas, but if you already have
Soie d’Alger there are more colors, but I digress.)
3) Having used silk for years and been schooled about laying every ply with a laying tool, I knew this
rug would never be completed if I plied (pulled apart the strand and put the plies back together)
every needle-full of thread.
4) The stitches themselves should provide a firm finish. Linen canvas by its nature does not have, nor
does it require the same amount of sizing a cotton canvas.
Pictured above is a section of the rug I have stitched.
Yes, this is work in progress. For example, you can
see my waste knots.
My working method is a follows:
Preparation to Stitch: I flatten the Soie d’Alger in the needle as illustrated. All seven plies
look like a ribbon, before I begin to stitch. You cannot do this with any other silk thread, without it pilling or
shredding.
Au Ver A Soie®, Soie d’ Alger
Au Ver A Soie®, Soie d’Alger, 7 ply silk strand as it
comes from France with a slack twist.
Side view of silk as it is moving
through the eye of the needle.
R
Bending the thread over the eye of the needle as
you draw it through makes it like a ribbon.
Notice the thread is bending
as it goes through the eye of
the needle.
R
Soie d’Alger’s 7 plies flattened in the eye of the
needle as the entire strand is drawn through from
top to bottom.
Notice how the plies
are “lining” up.
The Stitch: One of the more interesting aspects of needlework is selecting a stitch that is suitable to the
finished object. ( I say this a lot to other embroiderers, because I’ve seen too many finished pieces using
the wrong kind of thread.) And, until I encountered Sibyl Matthews’ book, and read her suggestions for
stitches I was unaware there were so many to choose from. One of her chapters is on the many varieties
of cross stitch, while another is entitled: Smooth Faced-Rugs---Some Unusual Stitches.
Nevertheless, I selected a diagonal cross stitch, beginning with an away waste knot. I cross each stitch as
I make it, working on a diagonal just like the basketweave stitch. I chose this working method because it
gives a firm close finish to my work, and it greatly minimizes distortion of the canvas. Years ago in a class
with Chottie Alderson, she pointed out that a cross stitch that is crossed individually is more “purposeful”,
than if several stitches of slanted stitches are worked and then one returns to cross them later.
Yes, as with this amount of shading I am constantly changing colors, but that is what is interesting. And
while it should go without saying, I also make sure to cross the stitch in the same direction. (See diagram.)
If it appears the silk is slightly retwisting as I stitch, I let the needle drop while still threaded and allow it to
uncoil. I re-flatten it in the eye of the needle and continue stitching.
The Needle: I use a #22 Chenille. I prefer the tapering point of a Chenille needle, because it does not disturb
the other stitches, particularly when I am working back into area already partially done.
It also makes it easier to end a thread under your work. Sometimes I just leave the tail of the thread and work
up to it.
Other comments: As I refold the canvas each time to fit in my stitching
bag, I make sure to fold it differently to keep creases from setting permanently.
I think the pictures tell the rest of the story.
Sibyl Matthews says: “With most workers a rug made in tent stitch is particularly liable to
get out of shape and it is safest to have it mounted on a frame for working….Of course,
where a frame is used this type of rug is not so comfortable to make as other flat stitched
varieties---sitting at a frame does not mean such relaxation as does the arm-chair after a
day’s work. Tent stitch is, however a popular one and many rugs have been worked in it
entirely without the use of a frame and successfully stretched back into shape, as necessary after completion.
It is of special interest to note that the late Queen Mary used this stitch for all her rugs and
for her famous carpet.”
This is what the back looks like...Notice the dense, firm coverage.
Here are a few of Dorothy’s other hand painted rug designs.
Recommended charted rug books:
Chinese Rugs Designed for Needlepoint, 1975
by Maggie Lane
Needle-Made Rugs, 1967
by Sibyl I. Matthews
Needlepoint Rugs, 1971
by Hope Hanley
Needlepoint Designs from Oriental Rugs, 1981
by Grethe Sorenson
Copyright L. Haidar, Access Commodities 2009