Recently, I came across a few pieces of 24 mesh or count Congress cloth (by Zweigart) and felt as if I found a new treasure!
I've always liked working with Congress Cloth and so glad to re- discover this is a wonderful material to work on with the softness of cloth but with enough body for the look of needlepoint using a simple tent stitch....of course half and full cross stitches can also be used.
The other plus are the size of the holes or meshes at 24....not too small to strain eyes but small enough for wonderful details!
Congress Cloth also comes in a variety of mostly soft colors......in my collection right now are half yds of white, ivory and black....the black will be an excellent base for stunning color works. I've ordered more colors in the following pale colors of soft mocha, light blue, moss green, light caramel, grey, grey mist, pale blue.
Other Congress Cloth colors available....sand, rose, pale blue and metallic threads woven into white backgrounds, one with silver metallic threads on white and the other with gold metallic threads on white....these last two would be perfect for holiday and fantasy designs, especially ornaments.
Speaking of ornaments, I've thought of using the Congress Cloth similar to perforated paper with the resulting shapes to be used as embellishments in other projects!
I've got many ideas for all those colors of Congress Cloth, especially the black!! I can just imagine how those threads of silks, rayons and cottons, plain or overdyed will glow off the black background......also medici wools.....guess the designs will dictate what types of threads I'll use! Not to mention the fun of adding other embellishments such as beads, buttons, threads, silk ribbon embroidery and whatever else one finds to enhance the design.
I love to mix threads and textures and the best way to find out what works best is to experiment and probably a good bit of frogging before I'm satisfied with a new design!!!