Pixel Shading Stitch-along

Most needlepointers figure that to shade you need stranded threads. Then you shade by needleblending, putting more than one color/shade of thread in the needle.

Did you know that you can shade successfully with single-strand threads? This is called pixel shading. It’s the subject of our first stitch-along.

Because the hardest part of this kind of shading is figuring out where the colors go to get blending we’ll be stitching a canvas that has those decisions made for you. This lovely pansy is from Lynda Cook Designs and is available on Etsy directly from the designer (click on the link to order).

As you can see everything but the background is shaded. You’ll also notice that the canvas is stitch-painted so that each intersection is one color.

To stitch the design, you will need:

• black
• 3 shades of green
• 3 or 6 shades of yellow – use 6 if petal & center will be stitched in different threads
• 4 shades of blue-violet

I’ve picked my threads tentatively. I’ll be using

• Watercolours in coal for the background
• Needlepoint Inc silk for the leaves in 422, 427, & 426
• Gloriana Lorikeet for the flower petals in periwinkle dark, periwinkle, periwinkle light, periwinkle pastel, narcissus dark, valencia light, and narcissus light
• Straw Silk for the center in amber waves, saffron, and canary

I realize several of these threads are stranded, but i will be treating them as single-strand threads.

Next week, we’ll start the stitching process.