4' x 4'
1998 Best of Show, Common Thread, Oakville Arts Council
March 2001, Cover and feature article, Embroidery Canada Magazine

The story of "Trois Oiseaux"

Often a needlepoint shop will feature a huge, exotic, unusual canvas in the window. You may look at the piece and wonder, "Who would stitch that piece?" or exclaim, "That would take forever!" Then you will sensibly go into the shop to look for a nice piece to busy yourself with and you will most likely forget about the piece in the window.

I'm the type of person who stitches that piece from the window; tells myself that it won't take all that long anyway; that I will just "know" how to stitch it; and of course I will have somewhere to hang it! My concerns are..how fast will the parcel get it to my house while hoping that it won't get lost, and how can I avoid paying custom duties (I've only found these unusual pieces in my travels outside of Canada).

When I entered that shop in Paris, I had already decided to buy the canvas and I didn't even know the price. None of the clerks in the shop spoke English and they couldn't understand my Canadian French! That didn't matter. Stitchers who buy those canvases just plunge in. Nike must have coined their "just do it" slogan from us.

I could have titled this piece "what I didn't know about needlepoint before I stitched Trois Oiseaux". Let me explain....

My canvas arrived safely by mail and I was very excited to begin stitching. I sat in my favorite chair, canvas in hand, and started. I didn't know that large canvases are best worked on a frame. A frame protects the shape of the canvas and makes it easier to work.
I didn't know that there is a "right" way to cut and carefully remove strands of wool from the huge hanks of Medici yarn. I quickly created tangles of wool that looked like bird's nests.
My stitching required varying numbers of strands of wool to cover the canvas and this had me confused. It was at this point that I started to ponder the canvas that I had in hand. It wasn't a normal needlepoint canvas but appeared as loosely woven burlap. Then I thought further about why the design on the canvas was painted roughly, with broad casual strokes, the work of a display artist, not that of a needlepoint artist.
My conclusion is that this piece was painted as a window decoration, possible never having been intended to actually be stitched!! This could explain the confusion in the shop when I stated my intention to purchase while pointing toward the window. When I think back of that day (in 1973), it seemed that the clerks were having a problem determining a price for this piece so all the clues were there. Ignorance was bliss or I wouldn't have bought this piece.

Today when I begin a canvas, I look for a starting place which will create the smoothest working pattern and the best result. Not knowing this, I chose to start at the most fascinating part of the canvas, the largest most decorative bird. Then I began to fumble with the Medici strands, the canvas was pulling and looked bumpy and I was concerned about my work. I decided to move on to some easier parts, being groups of flowers and I completed some of these bouquets. Feeling content in thinking that I had now mastered the canvas and the wool, I returned to stitch the bird and decided that I should remove the previous stitching and begin again. Are you still breathing? You must know what's coming. I Cut The Canvas!

Totally stressed out with this whole experience, I packed up the canvas and wool putting them out of sight in a drawer. Over the years I would look at Trois Oiseaux, mostly to be sure that it was protected from moths or maybe even hoping that it wasn't! Sometimes I couldn't even find the package because I think that I really wanted to erase it from my life.

Twenty-five years later, I was in a house cleaning mode when I once again came across Trois Oiseaux. I decided to take it to my Thursday stitching table and ask my friends whether anyone knew someone who would like to buy this canvas. The answer was quick and definite. John stated, "Just finish it Roz!" I said "but.." and no one listened. All agreed with John. Easy for them to say! But..the seed was planted and I knew that my time had arrived to finish this piece.

I awoke the next morning with a solution. I imagined that if I could stitch the background in "four way continental", an open stitch, the piece would be workable. I could visualize that a basket weave background would be too solid and would make the piece appear stiff and heavy, even boring. An open stitch background would allow the work to be soft visually, the birds would fly, and the flowers could blow in the breeze. I tested the stitch, enjoyed stitching it and loved the way that it looked on the canvas.

Twenty five years of stitching practice and workshops now allowed me to re-enter the world of Trois Oiseaux from a place of confidence and experimentation. I completed the various floral bouquets with surface stitchery and artistic shading of colours. After consulting with friends and needlepoint shops, I searched for a piece of canvas with the same gauge as my canvas. Then I washed that piece softening it to match the French canvas in texture. I repaired the damaged canvas by attaching the patch of canvas under the hole and then stitching through both layers of canvas simultaneously.

As I worked with new zeal, I grew to love this canvas once again. I did question whether the old stitching would destroy the look of the new stitching but I knew better than to take scissors to canvas again. Just as we are always progressing and growing, so it is with our creative work. As I now work on several canvases at once their evolution is not an issue but rather an enhancement. One canvas learns from the lessons of the others. Stitching imitates life.

The completion of Trois Oiseaux took me only a year and a half because I wanted to complete it for entry in a juried fiber art show sponsored by the Oakville Arts Council in Oakville Ontario. I won Best of the Show and a $1000.00 prize! What an exciting moment it was to be the winner of the show, to be honored by the judges and organizers of the show and to be paid for my efforts. Through all of this celebration, I never forgot my history with this canvas, the lessons and the joy that it has brought to me. I think about what I almost missed.

Embroidery Canada magazine featured Trois Oiseaux on the cover and included an article. Weaving New Rhythms published another of my pieces because of this win.

The lessons of Trois Oiseaux have taken me further towards my love of stitching huge complex pieces. There is so much to be learned from and challenged by them. A huge project can be seen as a collage, many parts within the whole. Just focus on one part at a time, take one step at a time.

Trois Oiseaux is of a style called Mille Fleures. A canvas with Mille stitches is simply one stitch followed by another stitch, again and again . . . till the journey is complete.

>Click within the stitchings to see the detail images: