After I worked a bit on the background last night, I realized we've reached a fork in the road. Let me explain.
I always intended to work some of the lines up into the plaid and have them fade away into a background of darning stitch patterns. I planned to use a fleur de lis for the darning stitch as that is a prominent part of the Stuart royal court of arms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Stuart
But I never found or was able to create a small enough scale fleur de lis to fit into the background space. I did find a lovely little crown pattern in SuZy Murphy's SuZy's Darn Stitches, which is a book full of darning stitches for borders or backgrounds. In the photo above you see two crowns from page 101 done in the 1/16 inch Kreinik holographic ribbon.
http://www.threadneedlestreet.com/booksndptstitches.htm
The dilemma comes because I don't think I have enough space to work both fading lines and the crowns. Do I rip out the lines that are in the empty background space and just fill it with crowns? Do I rip out the crowns and just do a few more lines? Or do I stop here and go with what I have stitched, just filling in the background with tent stitches around what is in the photo above?
I am having trouble deciding and I'd like input. Therefore I am about to post a poll at the top of Blog for folks to vote on their favorite background. I'll wait a couple of days until I have another Stars block finished and we'll see what the poll result is before I take the right fork, turn left, or stay on my current road.
While you debate, you might want to visit the new Pocket Full of Stitches blog. The shop has transitioned to its new owners and is having a sale on current stock. The day's sale is announced through the blog postings about the Designer of the Day.
http://pocketfullofstitches.blogspot.com/
You will want to visit the shop itself to see their announcement of the two new monthly clubs for the year: Kelly Clark's Pears set and the Renaissance Designs' Halloweenies ornaments. PFOS is famous for their monthly clubs and a favorite of many stitchers. I am really glad the original owners were able to find someone to take over the shop so that it continues after the retirement of its founders.
http://www.pfos.com/
Speaking of clubs and Halloween, I just stumbled across Needle Orts' Halloween ornament set. These are different and fun for the holiday stitcher. They are all on this page mixed in with the nutcracker club canvases.
http://www.needleorts.com/category_results.cfm?Category=16
I'll go set up a poll while you browse. See you back here shortly!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
12 comments:
How or where do we sign in to vote???? Lynn
Hi Jane,
I vote for the Crown. (I clicked on the poll & the Vote button, but nothing registered.) Great blog. It will be wonderful to see the Poll results, and of course, your final decision.
I think the crowns are too prominent and are going to take focus away from the lion. So I would ditch the crowns and work with the faded plaid lines.
I worry. That rich and flowing mane, the extended claws, and the whirling swirly tail needs a muted background. But that is just my opinion and I'm sure I will be dazzled by whatever you do.
I think the faded lines look wonderful, and I really like the two crowns that you stitched. So I would go with one of you ideas to leave what you have and to surround with tent. Gorgeous ornament! Indiana Robin
Okay, I, like the others, couldn't figure out how to sign in to vote. I love the plaid lines fading into nothing. While I do like the crowns, I think it would take away from the intricacy of the lion.
Pamela
Tucson
I am going with the current background, or just the two crowns....have the lines fade out and then fill in with tent as needed. I too tried to vote and nothing happened!
I would use the current background even though the other ideas are very tempting. I couldn't get the poll to let me vote.
The faded lines are my vote; to mee the crown seem to busy with the lion. Looking great though!
To me, the many crowns are too busy, but I like the idea of one or two. What about doing them in the same color/thread as the background and leaving an area blank around them before doing the tent stitching? Definitely like the fading line idea though.
fleur de lis darning stitch gets my vote. this is gorgeous jane---
Sorry, Islander, the fleur de lis is the pattern I gave up on. I couldn't find or make a good one small enough in scale. But just one would look very pretty over on the right around the lion's tail. . . .
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