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| Cat Topiary without French Knots |
There are only four topiary bushes on dede Odgen's Cat Topiary Garden design but they seemed to go on forever! Since I choose to stitch them in a variant of skip tent that uses cross stitches instead of tent stitches (using two plies of my DMC cotton colors), they did take a while to stitch. All the topiaries are shades of medium to dark green against the blue tinted other bushes, so they stand out from the background, but I wanted to make them stand out even more, so once the skip tent was all finished on all four topiaries, I added tiny French knots (one wrap only with the two plies of DMC cotton) along the yellow highlighted edges of each bush. That gave a rather leafy edge to the bushes. In the photo above you see the cat topiary before any French knots were added. See how the cat shape blends into the bushes behind it slightly? The other topiaries have the same problem to a lesser degree.
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| Topiaries with French Knots |
This photo shows the cat with its French knots in place. The addition of small French knots helps lift the design somewhat and defines it. By the way, remember my complaints about how the layer of tulle that lies on top of the canvas prevents my basketweave and any satin stitches from being as smooth as they normally would be? The same layer of tulle really helped give my French knots something to hang on to. Ordinarily I would not be able to use French knots on a skip tent area but the tulle really helps in this regard.
In other words, tulle is a plus on top of your canvas sometimes and sometimes it isn't. Choose your canvas carefully if you are going to use this technique.
Once I finish the tiny French knots around the feet of the cat statues, I can turn my attention to the gate, which is the last remaining large element of this canvas.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
