Sunday, August 29, 2010

Bordering on the other-worldly


I'm fairly predictable when it comes to starting a canvas: if it has a border, I usually begin stitching there. Likewise, if there's a lot of one color involved, I tend to put as much of that behind me before tackling "juicier" areas!

I'm stitching "The Gamblers" as a door-hanger, and already know how I'll have it finished-- backed with black velveteen. I think of a border as a frame for a smaller scene, so I wanted this area to have a slightly higher profile.

The inside and outside perimeters of the border have been worked with black Petite Very Velvet in a slanted gobelin stitch, over either two or three threads. The inside background used four plies of white DMC cotton floss in a diagonal mosaic stitch to add a little texture. I then started to fill in the symbols for the playing card suits with the same PVV in basketweave.

There's also a fair amount of orange background to be worked in the center section, but I'll need to do a little "ghostly" stitching before I can start this area!

2 comments:

Possibilities, Etc. said...

I love coming here to see this, as it still makes me smile, if not LOL. I like what you're doing with stitching, as always, and look forward to the ghostly guys. I suppose the trio is singing somewhere in the background, off camera.

Cool City Stitcher said...

I like it.. puts me in the mood for fall. And it makes me smile too, as did last year's Dream Girls!