V I V A Z I V A ! n e w s l e t t e r

▪volume number: 1314 ▪ FREE 'SCOTS' SCOTCH' HAT BAND DESIGN ▪

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We’ll be issuing a newsletter regularly, with a new free design each time... exclusively created for this newsletter.

NEW DESIGNS JUST RELEASED!

We’ve just finished creating 'MY FRENCH COUNTRY' DINING CHAIR SEAT COVERS DESIGNS with a contemporary slant on traditional French tapestries!

PLUS 8 NEW CUSHION DESIGNS TO ADD TO THE ZIVA CUSHION COLLECTION!

Learn the Scotch Stitch, and stitch this vivid Early-Modernist hat band design (above), “SCOTS’ SCOTCH” inspired by the avant-garde artists and architects, the Glasgow Four!

WHAT’S IN EACH VIVA ZIVA! NEWSLETTER?

• New Designs & Updates
• Your Stitch to Try
• FREE Design
• Ask the ZIVA DIVA!
• Next Issue

NEW DESIGNS & UPDATES

‘MY FRENCH COUNTRY’
DINING CHAIR SEAT COVERS DESIGNS

My love of the French countryside, with its vineyards, orchards and gardens inspired me to create SIX NEW STYLIZED CHAIR SEAT COVERS DESIGNS in a ‘floating’ style with classic French flair.

I’ll be adding more French Country theme designs for dining chairs, many in an Art Nouveau style, in the coming months!

Add an elegant and unique French Country touch to your dining room chairs!

NEW CUSHION DESIGNS

EIGHT NEW CUSHION DESIGNS HAVE BEEN ADDED!

From Modernist Designs (above left), to Arts and Crafts (above centre) and finally Prairie Style (above right).

Go to our Cushions Designs page and have a look!

I hope you like them!

ZIVA’S DESIGN UPDATES

TESTIMONIALS

Many thanks to Sharon for sending her kind words and photos of her finished “Ginkgo Leaves’ seat bench.

It’s beautifully made up and sitting in the foyer of her son’s Prairie Style home.

Thanks again for sharing them with us, Sharon!

Keep sending photos of your finished Ziva needlework: I’d love to share them with our subscribers.

HAVE YOUR SAY!

A NEW FEATURE AT ZIVA!

SHARE YOUR NEEDLEPOINT TIPS, TECHNIQUES AND EXPERIENCES AND WE’LL ALL LEARN TOGETHER!

Join in and HAVE YOUR SAY !

Add an idea, send a photo!!

You have many topics to choose from, such as…

your favourite yarns or decorative stitches, your blocking experiences, using a frame or not, your making-up and sewing tips and more!

Let’s learn from one another and also help give our fellow stitchers a more pleasurable stitching experience.

CAN YOU HELP US NOW WITH THIS BLOCKING QUESTION?

I recently received this question:

‘When blocking a rug, what stiffener or sizing do you recommend? Do you have a source to order from? Thanks’

I replied that I had never tried sizing my tapestries, but I had read a recommendation from one source that a stiffening agent can be applied to the back of the canvas as it dries after blocking to help keep it in shape. It's composed largely of starch.

However, since I haven’t tried it, I can’t recommend it.

If you’ve got any experience or tips about adding sizing to a needlepoint tapestry when blocking it, please add your comments on our BLOCKING PAGE.

Thanks so much for your help!

YOUR STITCH TO TRY

THE SCOTCH STITCH

WHY THE SCOTCH STITCH?

I needed a stitch to provide large blocks of colour to do justice to the rhythmic squares of MacDonald-Mackintosh’s design.

With the bold squares of the Scotch Stitch, I had the means to create the perfect interpretation of the original design.

An ideal combination!

The Scotch Stitch is worked similarly to continental stitch, working right to left, but is worked as a block of stitches featuring differing lengths.

It can also be worked in differing directions, and is then called the Reversed Scotch Stitch.

METHOD:

Study the chart to the right. Take a piece of scrap canvas and yarn and practice the stitch, following the steps below:

1. Bring the needle up at 1 to the right side of the canvas, count over one thread up and stitch down at 2 as you would normally with the tent stitch.
2. Then bring the needle up at 3 , across 2 threads of the canvas, and down at hole 4.
3. The next stitch is made over 3 threads in the canvas (5 and 6)
4. Continue with the next stitch over 4 threads in the canvas (7 and 8),
5. Then work in reverse, over 3, 2 and finally one stitch.

PRACTICE FIRST!

Keep practicing until you feel confident that you’ve got it! Then you are ready to stitch the free design.

FREE DESIGN

‘SCOTS' SCOTCH’ HAT BAND DESIGN

EARLY 20TH CENTURY DESIGN….

Early 20th century artist and textile designer Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh used a series of abstract patterns based on geometric shapes in her textile creations … triangles, grids, squares, and diamonds in vivid colours often set against a grey or black background.

INTERPRETED FOR TODAY

Her avant-garde designs were a great starting point for creating this contemporary hat band pattern!

With the ‘Scots’ Scotch’ design, I incorporated today’s popular hat colours, (white, black and straw colours), into the hat band motif and accented it with alternating horizontal bands of deep red and blue-turquoise…allowing a coordinated fashion effect to suit many hat styles and colours.

Other accents colours could be used to match your wardrobe.

Several ways to use this design!

You could stitch the hat band as shown above…
OR stitch it without the side medallion and have a simple horizontal hat band…
OR you could just stitch the medallion and place it on the side of your hat attaching it to the existing hat band.

Your choice!

Go to the Scotch stitch free designs page for more background on MacDonald’s creations and to see these other making-up ideas.

Or why not make up a camera or guitar strap! Or a belt!

READING THE CHARTS:

TWO CHARTS FOR THE HORIZONTAL BAND

NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

• Charts # 1 and # 2 below show one module of each colour way
• Each module is stitched 3 times, and the two colour ways alternate around the hat.
• The two blank canvas squares in Chart #1 represent white yarn stitched in the Scotch Stitch.

CHART #1 BLUE-TURQUOISE BAND MODULE

CHART #2 RED BAND MODULE

CHART # 3 MEDALLION CHART

NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

• The one blank canvas central square represents white yarn stitched in the Scotch Stitch.
• This medallion design comprises three different stitches as shown below

YARN COLOURS

All colours for the hat band are chosen from DMC Soft Mat yarns.

They are readily available at your local needlepoint shop or online.

6 DMC SOFT MAT yarn colours :

• #2133 turquoise blue - 3 skeins
• White - 1 skein
• #2326 dark red – 3 skeins
• #2310 black – 4 skeins
• #2739 wheat – 2 skeins
• #2170 light grey – 2 skeins

The skein quantities above are based on a medium adult hat size (22” or 56 cm) and stitched as shown in the photo above with the side medallion.

OTHER MATERIALS

You will also need :

• mono interlock or evenweave canvas at 14 mesh dimensions;
  28” (71 cm) x 6” (15 cm) for a medium adult hat size. To calculate the canvas requirement for other sizes, take your hat size dimension (e.g. 22” (56 cm) and add 6” – 8” (15 – 20 cm) more to the canvas length to allow for the final hat band thickness and standard 2” canvas borders.
• Needlepoint Needle: For 14-mesh canvas, use size 20 needle
• Masking Tape
• fabric glue
• For making up: black lining

Go to the ZIVA site for more detail info on the MATERIALS required.

STITCHING IN PROGRESS

• As usual, start by putting masking tape on the canvas edges to protect the yarns from getting frayed.
• POSITIONING ON THE CANVAS:
• Start stitching the medallion 2” (5 cm) from the right end of the canvas.
• Make sure the stitching is centred on the canvas top and bottom.
• Allow for as much canvas at the left end of the canvas as possible (approximately 4” – 6” or 10 – 15 cm) so you can adjust the hat band length to suit the hat dimensions if necessary.

STARTING UP :

• Start at the right of your canvas and stitch the medallion first.
• In the photo above left, I stitched the tent stitch in black first to outline the Scotch Stitch squares and then simply filled them as per the chart.
• I also used the tent stitch for the squares where the Gobelin Stitch is also used.

IN PROGRESS:

• In the photo above right top, I completed the medallion and am in the process of stitching the band.
• The photo above right bottom shows how the colour modules alternate as I continue stitching.
• VERY IMPORTANT!
  As you’re stitching the modules, be sure to keep checking the length of the band to the dimensions of the hat.
  You have to factor in the thickness of the tapestry as it bends around the hat, so keep trying it physically around the hat as you progress.
  Cut a thin piece of cardboard to your hat band dimensions as a pattern, if that helps, but you still have to allow for the thickness of the tapestry.


• You want to be sure that the last module stitched has the red horizontal bands to match up with the right end of the medallion.
• To fit the dimensions perfectly of my hat, I had to compensate by adding 2 more rows of the Scotch Stitch in the red bands. (see photos below)

MAKING UP SUGGESTIONS

• Once you’re sure you’ve got the dimensions right, block your hat band. THEN CHECK THE DIMENSIONS AGAIN! You may have to add compensation stitches again after blocking if the canvas shrinks slightly.
• Measure the lining using the tapestry as your pattern, and be sure to allow for ½” (1 cm) seam allowances on all sides.
• Tips: To make sewing on the lining easier,
  • Line the medallion separately from the horizontal band
  • Cut the lining for the horizontal part of the band in two equal horizontal strips, and sew them individually to the edges. Trim the seams after sewing, turn to the back, and overlap the linings and glue or slip stitch in place.

• Bring the two canvas ends of the band together, glue and clamp together. (Photo above left) Leave for a day or so.
• Overlap the lining ends and glue in place.

IT’S READY TO PLACE ON THE HAT!

FINAL TIP!

I decided to leave the hat band loose and not to attach it permanently to the hat.
I want to wear it with a white hat in summer, and a black hat in winter!
So I used a small strip of 2-way tape on the sides to hold it in place, and I can then easily change hats!

ASK THE ZIVA DIVA !

Que moi !

Why does my needlepoint always look like corduroy?
Please help! Kelly, Canada

Dear Kelly,

If you stitch two rows in the same direction next to each other, you will get ridges in your needlepoint.

If you use evenweave canvas, you will get better results generally. When you look at the canvas closely, you will see the threads weave over and under each other. With the Basketweave Stitch, you are working your stitching in the same way, and not going against the weave. Not only will you get more even results, there is less distortion as well.

Go to our Basic Stitches . page where we show you, complete with charts, ‘how to read’ the canvas to get an even finish.

Also, keep an eye on our Needlepoint Tips page, where our visitors have their say. I’ve asked visitors to share their experiences in creating an even finish, and other tips!

I hope this helps your stitching results.

Regards,

Sylvia

WHAT NEXT?

The next VIVA ZIVA! Newsletter #1415 will be issued in the spring of 2014.

I’ll be including:

• New Designs & Updates
• A new Stitch to Try with a
• Free needlepoint design: to be announced in March 2014
• And lots of other features!

Please contact me if there is a particular stitch you’d like me to use for a free design in a future newsletter!

Share this newsletter with friends and relatives.
They can also go to my subscription page on the site to get on the mailing list for the next VIVA ZIVA! Newsletter

Looking forward to sending you the next newsletter!

Sylvia McLeod