Saturday, September 5, 2009

Big Versus Little Sky Stitches





The photo above shows the old large Ming Variation stitch in the right hand side of the sky and the left side shows the smaller balloon stitch I found which is a smaller scale, less oval version of the stitch that some of us think is too large.  It was easy to pull out the left half of the sky as this is a light coverage stitch with only one ply of silk.

Here's a tip about ripping out--use the eye end of the needle to gently pull up a stitch.  If I use the business end, the sharp tip catches the silk the wrong way and I end up pulling half the ply out, not the whole thing.

Comparing the two sky stitches, I like the Ming Variation better but it isn't right for this canvas. It is too large.  So I ripped it all out and continued filling the sky with balloon stitch.

This photo shows an all balloon stitch sky with some of the palm fronds stitched in.  I'm using stem stitch and a variety of threads, but more about that later when I have more palm fronds stitched.

Thanks for your input, everyone!

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow

6 comments:

Robin said...

You're right! Love it. Smaller is better. Great educational lesson from the Master in Chilly Hollow.

The Chilly Hollow Needlepoint Adventure said...

Robin, I wouldn't have noticed unless Liz had pointed it out. The morale is Pay Attention when you stitch. That is harder than you would think. We get very focused on what we are stitching right then and forget to look at the Big Picture.

LIZ said...

Looks much better! The palm fronds are looking great. It is amazing how much design can be packed into such a small space!

NCPat said...

Yup! That is the one!

Donna said...

I agree. It's definitely a better sky now.

Not sure how well the tree fronds stand out though. Could just be my monitor...

Edy said...

As usual, you are right about the scale of the stitches for the sky. The smaller stitch adds to the whoe perspective of the piece...afterall, the tree should be larger than the "sky" ...it is in the foreground.