What Makes a Background Work?

Updated September 3, 2023.
I stitched two needlepoint ornaments of this crab. The canvas is from Kristine Kingston, and I will finish it as an oval, like those car decals.

But, as is often the case with needlepoint, I have the focal point on a sea of white canvas.

All too often, we take the easy way out, by picking white and a familiar stitch for the background. Even more often, our stitching can be enhanced by being more creative with our background choices.

Let’s go through step-by-step what to do.

1. Pick your finished shape. Find something the size you want and trace or draw the rectangle on canvas with a Pigma Micron. You may have to print out several shapes to find the right size.

   If you take note of the sizes in pixels of the shapes you print out, it is easier to find a good size.

   With each likely candidate, print it out and center the design area over it. If it fits nicely, trace the outline of your shape. If it doesn’t fit, look for a shape that does and test again.

   Repeat until you find the shape and size you want.

2. Pick your background color.Because my focal point has white, I can’t go for the easy choice. But you shouldn’t either, no matter what colors are in your design.

   Think outside the box. Would a bright color make the design area stand out, or would it detract from the design? Should it reflect something in nature? Should it make the background fade out?

   Pick a few choices because you may change your mind before you are done.

3. Pick possible threads.This can be a tricky one because you want your background to stay in the background. It should never be a thread that will gather more notice than your focal point.

   The worst stitching disaster I ever did was picking an all-metallic background for an all-tent stitch iris. With nothing special about the stitching on the flower and an attention-grabbing background, the whole thing was a horrible mess.

4. Pick a background stitch or two.It should be in scale with the design, so avoid fussy small background stitches with bold contemporary designs.

   It should be less attention-grabbing than the design area, although this doesn’t always mean Tent Stitch.

   If your background thread is significantly different than the canvas color, avoid open stitches.

My current plan is to stitch the crab in Silk Lame from Rainbow Gallery and to stitch the background with a medium-dark cobalt blue. Because the canvas is white, I will need to use a stitch that will cover well.

Your choices can change as you work, and this is fine. Just make sure your background stays in the background.