Swimming with the fishes

There's trouble brewing when two designers start to play the "what if" game!

As I was stitching the background of my previous project, "Dreamgirls," using a jacquard stitch in three colors with DMC cotton floss, it turned out both designer Judy Harper and I were considering another use for this stitch: a water background. There was only one way to find out for sure if the stitch would work--stitch it! Judy had the designs for the fishes; I had an idea for a canvas. So we've decided to collaborate on this next project, with Judy providing the fish designs and me cooking up the stitches!

Judy sent me scans of what turned out to be boatloads of fishes! I chose these three, and then "stitch-traced" them onto scrap canvas. When we were both satisfied that I could do justice to her drawings, I arranged a pleasing grouping within a seven-inch square and transferred the designs to the final canvas as a line drawing. I goofed a little in the original placement of the angel fish, but fixed the problem and am now ready to move ahead.

As was the case with "Dreamgirls," I will first draw the jacquard background onto the canvas--I want to sit back and stitch, not count endlessly! I've also decided on the threads for the background: Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #006 and a "needle-blending" of DMC cotton floss #518 and #3848--two strands of each. I've already done a "test run" using these two colors, and am very happy with the watery blue-green they create.

I'll get a fair amount of background under my belt before deciding on the colors for the fishes themselves, so for a while all you'll see is water, water everywhere!