10″ x 10″ Standard Acrylic Tray
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Initial K Neutral Herrigbone

Written by: JoAnn Gardella

Published: Feb. 10, 2023

Finish Style:

Finish Style: Island House Needlepoint Flat Finish For 10″ x 10″ Standard Acrylic Tray

Finisher: Island House Needlepoint

Canvas:

Designer: Initial K

Canvas Name / ID: Herringbone Pillow – Neutral / IKS-1065C

Mesh Size: 13 Mesh Mono canvas

Artwork: Stitch-painted onto canvas

Fibers Used:

Cream Solid – Planet Earth Fiber – Silk – Color Oxygen #098 (2 skeins+ 1 for border and cord)

Cream Sparkle – Rainbow Gallery – Silk Lame Braid For – Color Number SL33 (2 cards + 2 for cord)

Light Gold Sparkle – Rainbow Gallery – Silk Lame Braid For – Color Number SL60 (2 cards)

Gold Sparkle – Rainbow Gallery – Silk Lame Braid For – Color Number SL61 (2 cards)

Notes:

I stitched two of the Initial K Herringbone canvases and love how stunning both were when finished!  This beautiful acrylic tray looks amazing on my  living room coffee table!  More importantly looking at it floods me with memories of three days I spent with my husband watching the leaves change color, while soaking up the music and vibes from countless fabulous artists at the Black Bear Music Festival.  We enjoyed three very chilly days camping in our teardrop in October of 2022, we were warmed by friendships and great music.

The design is  meditative to stitch and can be easily counted through to ensure the geometry lays in properly. Although there were some inconsistencies in the painting of the canvas, both canvases which were obvious and easy to correct.  I strongly recommend getting the prominent color stitched in first as I describe below to ensure the geometry is correct.

The canvas was stitched entirely in basketweave with the canvas fixed on a stretcher frame.

 

Starting in one corner, the solid cream  color was stitched following a stair-step pattern.  Each stripe is three stitches wide which allowed for the basket weave pattern to run diagonally up, down, and back up leaving the needle in position to begin the next strip while working from the top of the stripe to the bottom.  Unfortunately, I did not take a photo which would have made explaining this much simpler.

The sparkle fibers were stitched stripe by stripe in vertical columns.  I stitched down one side of the stripe then flipped the canvas over (180 degrees) and stitched from the top down for the second side of the stripe.

Once the herringbone pattern was stitched two rows were added around the square in the cream solid color to bring the canvas to the 10″ x 10″ square stitched size required for the standard tray.

I used the solid cream color and the cream sparkle (same dye-lot as was used in the stitching) fibers in the cording which helped bring the solid border balance and not adding any additional dimension to the piece allowing the simple beauty to come through.