Ending the Leaf Adventure and Starting Another

Cha Progress to Date

I promised you a photo of all the finished leaves around Cha's large flower and a photo of the whole thing so you can see it all in context.  Above is the Big Picture, with the flowers, leaves and fruit cluster all finished.  The bird is untouched and only a little background finished.  Below is a close up of the leaves around the big flower so you can see the difference between the rounded leaves with the brown veins and the one upright one with the green vein.

Three Backgrounds

When I got to this point, I happened to read Gay Ann Rogers' newest technique posting on her website.  It hit me like a ton of bricks!  (I'm sure it wouldn't have struck me so strongly unless I'd been unconsciously thinking the background wrong already.)  And it started my next adventure on Cha--wide diamonds, the gorgeous background stitch that I love, is just not right for this canvas.
http://www.gayannrogers.com/site_2/Techniques_11.html

The photo above is labeled "three backgrounds" for a reason.  If you look carefully you'll see wide diamonds on the left, a bit of skipped tent stitch along the front edge under the flower, and tent stitches between the flower and the bird and along the left edge.  Skipped tent stitch will minimize the color changes in my JL Walsh silk/wool pink overdye but it has too much texture for this background.  I found I was bothered by the dotted Swiss look, which seems distracting.  I already have wide diamonds screaming LOOK AT ME!  Substituting skipped tent isn't the answer to my background.

Tent stitches are.  I am in the process of ripping out the skip tent test and the wide diamonds and tent stitching the entire background.  I can't use basketweave, by the way.  If I do, I'll get diagonal stripes of color.  Instead I will need to work this line by line, with occasional areas where I'll concentrate pale or darkest medium pink.  The background will look somewhat mottled but I like it as this reminds me of the way old fabric fades.

Tent stitches should work very well given what I plan to do to the bird.  But that is a story for another day.

I recommend you think over Gay Ann Rogers' words carefully and look at your current painted canvas with them in mind.  You may find yourself embarking on a new adventure, just like me!

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