So I need a background stitch, which means time for Mad Scientist Testing Mode! If you want to pour yourself a cup of your favorite beverage, I'll get out the white lab coat, the protective gloves and the goggles. Meet you back here in a minute....
Ready? Ok, here we go.
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| Pale Purple Test Stitches |
I thought at first that the pale purple perle cotton (size 16) would look best as a background so I did a lot of test stitching in the margins with that thread. As you can see, it's quite pale. I decided that if I used pale purple thread on a cream background it would be even paler. The photo above is greatly enhanced so you can see it, in fact.
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| Medium Dark Purple Test Stitches |
Of all the stitches I like the Smooch lips and the darning circles the best so I did a second series of tests, using the medium dark perle cotton in size 16 again. I started to feel like the porridge at the Three Bears' house--too light and then too dark! I was afraid that the dark purple (and this wasn't the darkest shade of thread I had) was going to overwhelm the letters. I did more stash-diving and came up with all the size 16 perle cottons I had--ecru, white and pale yellow. White was too light and ecru looked dirty on the cream background. I thought I was going to have to order more threads when I used pale yellow (Finca's 1211 pale yellow) on the cream. PERFECT!
Who knew that a pale yellow thread would turn cream on a cream background? It's color magic!
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| Pale Yellow Test Stitches |
But before I forget--here's Pat's progress on her version of this canvas. She's powering along on her pretty darning heart background!
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Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
© Copyright September 5, 2016 Jane M. Wood. All rights reserved.
