No Flying Monkeys: The Wall Background

The Inspiration for My Background--Barbara Elmore

Now that I have the ruby slippers out of the way,  it's time to work on the wall in the background.  I originally intended to stitch this in cream Splendor using either Double Stitch or Staggered Crosses.
http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com/2015/05/no-flying-monkeys-background-stitches.html

But I am sure you all realize that the best laid plans fall apart at least occasionally!  I did some test stitching with my cream silk in the margin and before I even had 3 Double Stitches in place I knew that the color was too stark and the stitches I thought would work were too small in scale.  What to do?   I could browse my stitch books again, looking for stitches that would resemble larger Xs or I could figure out how to enlarge one of my chosen stitches to make the scale right.

I did neither.  I started fantasying about the teaching piece of Barbara Elmore's shown above.  It's called "Las Flores de la Noche" and you can see the design on her website as well.  (Photo courtesy of Barbara Elmore and posted with her permission.)
http://www.barbaraelmoredesigns.com/barbaraelmoredesigns.com/Canvases/Pages/Teaching_pieces.html#42

Look at the background carefully.  It's rows of gentle waves separated from each other by skipping a thread.  This allows the lovely paint of the background to show well.  This isn't going to work as is for the wall of No Flying Monkeys which isn't painted, but I can use the general idea.  And that's what I did.  I created the Gentle Wave Bargello stitch.  It has the gentle undulation of Barbara's background stitch but has smaller rows between each larger row.

Inspired by Barbara Elmore

I can't really explain why this stitch is The One, but once I start fantasizing about a stitch, it generally is going to work.  I looked again at the canvas and was struck by the lemon-lime crystals on the ruby slippers and how they emphasized the red of the shoes.  I wonder...?

The Ruby Slippers

So I rummaged in my stash and found a card of a lime green Splendor.  It was too dark but if I combined two plies of the cream with two plies of my lime green, it made a pastel lemon-lime color.  Then I turned my canvas on its side so the rows would be oriented vertically and emphasize the legs and shoes, and got to work, compensating around the letters as I worked the rows.

The Wall Is Done!

Here's the end result.  We have a wall!  Sure it is a pastel poison green, but what do you expect in a witch's den?  The color works well with the blue of the footstool and makes the ruby slippers even redder.  I am a happy camper.

By the way, I deliberately took the photo upside down. I take photos from unusual angles to help uncover problem areas.  Your brain gets used to seeing something and will miss problems if you always look at the canvas right side up.

Next I need to couch a line of something over the edge of the footstool where it meets the wall stitches to make that line even.  Then I will start stitching the lettering.  Stay tuned!

Remember, I am collecting the links as I blog stitch this Point of It All Designs piece and posting them in a tab on the CH Stitch Guides blog. You can catch up on what you missed by going there--just click on the flying carpet photo to magically be transported to my other blog and then back again.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright May 20, 2015 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.