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| Carol's Lillian Chermor Gold Fish Canvas |
The traditional water stitch looks something like the background of this canvas from the Sundance Designs Photo Album. (Many thanks to Sundance for permission to link to these photographs!) Personally I think this very horizontal stitch would look odd intersecting with the vertical seaweed on Carol's canvas. What do you think, Carol?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundance_designs/5043098828/
I prefer something like this gray sky background--a vertical wavy stitch. Doesn't have to be this one but I'm thinking a stitch that is roughly shaped like the seaweed bits dangling around the Gold Fish.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundance_designs/5043105350/
However, a more jagged edged vertical wavy stitch would work also. Do you like the sharper edges of this sky stitch, Carol?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundance_designs/5043096466/
Another way to go is to use a darning pattern in the background, using small fish shapes in one thread surrounded by tent stitches in another thread in a slightly different color or texture. Look at the base of this Easter canvas to see what I mean. The fish shapes could be in rows, scattered at random, or be done on the diagonal facing \ the way the fish is swimming. The fish shapes could be beaded or stitched in a metallic thread (either a totally metallic thread or one with metallic woven in like Silk Lame Braid) in a similar color to the tent stitches surrounding them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundance_designs/5043088270/
A fourth choice is to use an all over pattern like the green sky here done in Criss-Cross Hungarian in an overdyed thread to suggest water. This stitch doesn't have a direction but the changes in color suggest water movement.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundance_designs/5042463305
Carol, do you love or hate any of these ideas?
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
7 comments:
What a fun canvas!
I'll put my 2 cents worth in here. I like either of the last 2 options.
A suggestion for the background of Carol's fish canvas is swirl bargello. I believe it is in Brenda Hart's Stitches for the Millennium on page 37, and originally appeared in Jo Christensen's book, Teach Yourself Needlepoint. For a picture of this bargello stitch see "Neptune's Sentry" a Beau Geste canvas (2005 TT18K - Kit).
Thanks for the suggestion, Anon. I am unable to find a photo of the Beau Geste canvas using this stitch but it is a very pretty one. It's a sort of W shaped stitch but with rounded peaks and valleys that seem to run slightly diagonally.
Here is a link to a black & white photo of the swirl bargello. www.needlesandthreadsofruxton.com/newsletters/August2006.pdf
Definitely does not do it justice, but does let you see the stitch.
Thank you very much for the link, Anon! It's on the first page, everybody. Just copy/paste the link into a new window.
Hmm. That Swirl Bargello is an interesting option. I kind of like that one, too. It certainly adds a feeling of movement to the piece.
Dang! More to think about, just as I think I've made my decision.
Carol S.
Carol, this is a series of ribbon-like stitches, each row in a varying width and meant to be done in different threads. I saw it in one of Brenda Hart's books when looking for Swirl stitches. It's very pretty but also very very busy.
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