Saturday the Stuart Plaid Lion and I took a field trip to see neighbors who used to needlepoint. Fading eyesight, golf, and trips to Africa have meant that my neighbors don't do needlepoint any more but they are always interested in what I'm stitching and give me good input when I need it.
We talked mostly about the crown that the lion reaches towards on the design. That's my own invention as it wasn't part of the background, but I wanted to add something besides the fading lines from the plaid and came up with a lovely little red crown with a few crystal beads to enhance it. However, Leigh Herself said a golden crown would not weigh down the background the way the red crown would, so I wanted second opinions about how gold would look versus red before I ripped out the red crown. We decided gold would be better so out came the beads and the red holographic Kreinik to be replaced by gold holographic 1/16 inch ribbon in Chromo Gold 002L. It looks great! Leigh, you were right.
I'm not even going to put the beads back. The gold crown doesn't need them to Pop! off the background. Here's a close up.
By the way, I'm still working on the lion's mane. I've added a few stitches to the body and extended the stem stitches down toward the paws, but mostly I am adding thread a little at a time to the mane. Think Farrah Fawcett's hair with plenty of highlights. That's what I am aiming for. Here's Farrah herself for those too young to remember her famous hair--
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I've got at least one more night's stitching on the mane but this piece is getting close to the end.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
