Last night I added the last few beads to my Marilyn Monroe block and added the last border to the design's top to see how it all looked together. I wanted as much information as possible on this design so I could decide how the sashing would look with or without the purple metallic touches I was considering.
The photo shows the results. First of all, I love the top violet border but discovered it is extremely difficult to keep the two strands of Impressions you need for full coverage straight, even with a laying tool. I am leaving this for now but when I get to the "local" shops after I go to the Woodlawn exhibit, I will check to see if Vineyards Silks has a similar color as it will cover better with only one ply. I would hate to leave this as bumpy-looking as it is now!
As you can tell, I decided it would look better to have all black sashing. In the poll, 47% of the voters thought touches of purple would look nice here, while 37% voted for all black and another 15% were undecided. When I see how busy Marilyn Monroe is and look at other color versions of Stars (see link below for quite a few to browse), I can tell that I am going to need the restful solid black sashing and borders of plain black and plain violet to counteract the flash of the star blocks. No matter what colors you use, solid lines of color help unify the busy star blocks in my opinion.
http://www.ridgewoodneedlepoint.com/index.php?p=stars
So my sashing will be plain black.
However, there is a problem with all black sashing--the terra cotta colored canvas shows through quite a bit. I am going to have to either increase the thread coverage from 4 plies of silk to 5 or 6, or I'm going to have to color these areas with black marker.
I decided black marker was the way to go, so I'll be pulling out the sashing I have finished to color the areas black. I will also color the middle border area black although I am not pulling out the stitching I have already finished at the top and left side. The fern stitch offers better coverage than the fancy sashing stitches do.
Once the existing sashing is removed and the plain canvas areas blacked in, I will restitch the sashing you see above. Then this canvas will be put aside for a while since I have a small painted canvas to start.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
