Making the Gradient – Mindy Free Stitch Guide

(clearer picture to be uploaded later today)

This month’s Mindy free stitch guide shows you a couple of ways you can shade without doing needleblending. The center medallion has single-strand shading, while the background shows a basic gradient.

Materials

Mindy canvas 1K
Neon Rays N102 (white)
Kreinik Tapestry (#12) in 4010HL (blue), 014HL (light turquoise), 684 (blue-green)
Dinky Dyes silk floss in 14 (light yellow) 49 (yellow-orange), 117 (orange), 74 (rust)
Baroque Silk 1495 Cauldron
Sundance Size 11 seed beads color 402 (white)

Medallion

The entire medallion is stitched in Tent, except the outline. Wher the outline slants up and to the left, switch the stitches to Reverse Tent.

Stitch the center and outline using Neon Rays.

The three metallics are used to stitch the background. The canvas shpws you appproximately where to change colors. To achieve optical blending, the borders of each color need to be uneven. In this small space that means skipping a stitch or two. Use blue-green at the top, light turquoise in the middle, and blue at the bottom.

Background

Stitch the bricks first in Tent and Reverse Tent using three strands of the different Dinky Dyes silks. If the brick slants up and to the right, use Tent. If it slants up and to the left, use Reverse Tent. Do not stitch over the black lines.

Stitch the top row using light yellow Dinky Dyes.
Stitch the next two rows using yellow-orange Dinky Dyes.
Stitch the next two rows using orange Dinky Dyes.
Stitch the bottom two rows using rust Dinky Dyes.

Each black line is a single long Stitch made in the manner of Woven Plait. Begin at the top with the short stitches. Make this row. Then continue down the background, row by row. If you want added security for these stitches, make the intersecting stitches go over the previous stitch.

Border

Stitch the inner edge of the border in Tent Stitch using one strand of Baroque Silk.

Do not stitch the black intersections between the white intersections.

Stitch the area outside the intersection in Diagonal Gobelin using one strand of Baroque Silk.

Add the beads on the white intersections.