Strategies for the Large Canvas

I got a question late last week from Danielle. She writes:

I ask because I love the bigger counted canvas pieces, but for me a large canvas becomes unwieldy to handle. I don’t have or want to use a stand. I had read somewhere where someone used a smaller set of stretcher bars and just pinned what they could in the spot they were working on and then rolled up the excess canvas on any/all sides and used clips to hold it “out of the way.” I would love to see pictures of this! And then another person who rolled the canvas up like a scroll and held the excess canvas out of the way with paper clips.

Our normal inclination when stitching needlepoint is to put it on stretcher bars, But for large projects you have the problem Danielle noticed — you need a stand to keep things steady. But that might create other problems: some stands aren’t strong enough to hold larger canvases.

Of course if the canvas is really large, you may not be able to reach the center comfortably.

Before beginning a large project you need to decide if you’ll work it on a frame of some kind or in hand. Your stitching tension differs between the two so changing partway through makes your needlepoint look bad.

Working on a Frame

When working on a frame you want to expose only a section of the canvas. If you are using stretcher bars, you can stretch only a portion of the design on the frame.But be careful, tack carefully in places where it won’t affect the finished piece. You do not want to tack in areas that will have open stitches and you need to be careful that you do not pierce threads with the tacks.

While you can move canvas threads back into place on mono, you cannot do so with interlock canvas or Congress Cloth. Do not use stretcher bars to stretch only a portion of the piece with these canvases.

Scroll bars, while they do not make the canvas as tight, do allow you to work on a small area without affecting the canvas. If the area is thin enough, you can use a belt frame, pictured above.

If you use scroll bars for needlepoint, be sure that you have knobs or a tool to tighten the canvas regularly. It makes a big difference.

Working in Hand

When I do large canvases I generally hold the project in my hands. This is good for Tent Stitch but can cause problems with textured stitches. It should be avoided for open stitches because the canvas does wrinkle and this will show.

The time-honored method for working in hand is to scrunch up the canvas in your hands. I don’t know about you, but this makes my hands hurt, so I need other methods to keep me from gripping so hard.

Happily there are products that will help you do this.

Wire Clothes Pins are inexpensive and can be found in kitchen shops. They don’t hold as firmly as the other products listed, but they are easy to find. I started using these 20+ years ago, clipping sections of the work together or using them to hold rolled up canvas.

Canvas Clips come from Dream House Ventures and are sold in packs of four, two large and two small. You roll up the canvas and slip one onto each side of the roll. The wavy side of the clips holds the canvas, just as a bobby pin holds your hair. You can read my review of them here.

Wonder Clips are from Clover and come in two sizes, small and jumbo. They are made from plastic and have jaws that open wide. One side is colored and one is clear. The small clips are about 1″ long. The jumbo clips are 2″ long. They are available in packages of different sizes. Use the jumbo clips like the clothes pins and canvas clips to take up rolls of canvas. Use the smaller clips to gather up small areas.

I’ve used all three of the clips when I work in hand. I won’t stitch unstretched pieces without them now.

What strategies do you have for stitching large projects?