Melitastitches4fun's Blog

In April 2021, I blogged about Leftover Threads and The Arte Johnson Stitch using some of my leftover threads from my EGA Master Craftsman bargello project.

Shortly after my initial post (https://melitastitches4fun.com/2021/04/16/leftover-threads-and-the-arte-johnson-stitch/), I added one more thread, an overdyed green thread, Watercolours 206 Guacamole. I’d been stitching with random selections of 9 different threads using different numbers of 18″ lengths of thread before switching colors.

It turns out that I set this piece aside for 5 years! It was tucked away out of sight and out of mind until cleaning up for some house painting.

I am hoping to obtain an Impressionistic, watercolor effect. The original way Arte Johnson did this was to use 2 different threads in the same needle. So, this is producing a different effect due to the larger areas of color. While it is not wowing me, I’m also not disliking it. It’s easy stitching and surfaced just in time for me to work on during a Zoom call and when I need something mindless.

I’ll see how far I can go with my threads in these colors to form a rectangle and then decide what to do with it. Clutch bag perhaps?

My bargello design for Step 4 of EGA’s Master Craftsman program is on it’s way for evaluation and I had so much thread left over that I decided to try The Arte Johnson stitch. Yes, Arte from Laugh-In. I didn’t know that he was a stitcher. But, he came up with this way to use up his scraps of threads. I wasn’t sure if I had enough threads from the Star of Stitches project to use them. So, I selected an overdyed thread from my stash and not even a third of the threads from my EGA project.

I read about this scrap busting technique in Janet Perry’s blog, Nuts About Needlepoint (https://nuts-about-needlepoint.com/youll-be-laughing-at-the-way-this-stitch-uses-stash/); Susan Sturgeon Roberts’ blog Needlepoint Teacher (https://www.needlepointteacher.com/stitches/numbered-a-b/arte-s/); and Jan’s blog Needle arts and Beyond (https://needleartsandbeyond.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/artes-stitch-needlepoint/). Then, I remembered that I tried it in small samples when I tested several techniques recommended in “A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That” by Linda Damiani (Dec 2017 original post). I wasn’t thrilled with how it turned out perhaps because I didn’t like combining different thread types in a needle.

The stitch is either a Cashmere (2×3) or an Elongated Cashmere (3×5). Either way, they are worked in diagonal rows. This time I’ll try it with the Vineyard Merino which can’t be doubled in the needle anyway. Up close I won’t get the tweed effect but perhaps from a distance I’ll obtain an Impressionistic, watercolor effect.

I cut 18″ lengths and put two of each color in a bag. As my husband pulled them randomly from the bag to determine the stitching order, I placed them on a thread holder.

The 18″ length only got me 6 Cashmere units of the 3 x 5 variety. So, I stitched one complete row to get started. For the second row, I started back up the third row. Then, I started varying the number of stands before switching colors.

Maybe I’ll try a smaller piece and see how it works with the 2 x 3 Cashmere and the Star of Stitches leftover threads.

Before starting my next Gay Ann Rogers piece, I am happy to have some mostly mindless stitching for a while. All I have to decide is how many lengths of thread to use before switching colors.