Adding the sizzle

I've done some more basketweave on the ghosts, enough so that I treated myself to filling in the alternating colors in the jacquard pattern of the background. I'd made some progress with the DMC cotton floss #552 (purple), and started adding the black floss every other line of tent stitches outlining the predominant DMC #946 (orange).

If you look back at my first post with the background painted a solid orange, you can definitely see a difference comparing the two photos. In this case, the choice of stitch, as well as the colors used to execute it, creates a design element of its own. The white of the Kreinik metallic braid used for the ghosts appears whiter and brighter; the tri-colored jacquard stitch grounds the ghosts yet creates an electricity of its own. On another canvas, the background would look ridiculous, but for Halloween, a time when grown people do things they'd never do any other time of the year, it's perfectly acceptable!