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Pulled out my “Second City” Chicago canvas from Third Coast Stitches today. This one has had me stumped for a bit because I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the background — I just had to figure out how to make it work.

The inspiration? Those vintage Chicago Fire bricks. 🧱

The trick was getting the scale right. Too big, too small, wrong proportions…and the whole thing would be off. After a little needlepoint math, a whole lot of counting canvas, and some sketching, I finally got the ratio figured out and mapped the bricks onto the canvas.

And I think this laid out REALLY well!

I kitted the focal point while I was at Third Coast Stitches, but I knew those bricks couldn’t be a solid color. That just wouldn’t be true to the inspiration. So I worked with the ladies at The Courtly Canvas to find the perfect variegated Threadworx threads to get all that variation you see in the real bricks.

Check it out alongside my inspiration photo, the freshly sketched brick layout, and all those threads ready to bring it to life.

Now that I’ve solved the brick problem, I suppose it’s time to actually stitch them. 😂

#Needlepoint #ChicagoNeedlepoint #ThirdCoastStitches #ChicagoFireBrick #LagniappeFarmAndRanch