Use your Stash & Shop at your LNS

A comment on yesterday’s post talked about supporting our local shops as important. It is and you can (and should) support your favorite LNS. You can do it while still being smart about your stash.

One great way to do this is to create a project that uses scrap threads for accents and a single thread for the background. Buy that background thread at your LNS. Maybe make it a thread you’ve been wanting to try or a thread you like that you’ve never used for a background.

Throughout the article I’ve included pictures of projects from Scrap Bag Needlepoint that, with a background or common thread, make great stash projects. The book is available to order, email me if you want to get it.

The one time I had done an all-metallic background before this Scrap Bag Needlepoint project, I hated the results. But using T Stitch and a slightly paler yellow than the canvas,Milanese Pinwheel looks great. Since then I’ve done many projects with similar backgrounds.

Another possibility is to pick a dark color background, used in Tuesday’s Amish Roman Stripe post.

One of my favorite stash-busting techniques is to use on of brown paper packages pale, almost white, colors as a background. The results can be stunning, as seen at the top of the article and above. Pick threads from your stash in a color to echo or complement the background color. Scrap Bag Stars uses a single color for every other star, while Courthouse Steps uses a single background thread. Buy the thread at your LNS.

But maybe you want a dense, colorful pattern. These types of designs, seen above, tend to look best when the motifs are separated from each other. In the design above Algerian Eyes in black metallic from Rainbow Gallery set of the colorful and unusual threads in the Mosaic Stitch tiles.

Whatever you choose to stitch, having something to unify the design makes it better and your LNS can help you find that perfect thread.