Monochromaticity

Is that a word? I think it must be, or it should be. It seems to be my mood lately when it comes to stitching.

I started a new project the other night, well really early morning. After tossing and turning for hours, I finally decided to just get up at 4:30 am, go downstairs, and see what I could do to make myself sleepy. Naturally, I turned to stitching. Huh? I decided it was the perfect time to pull out a painted canvas I'd gotten from a friend's destashing a little while ago. Donna, needleworker not in paradise, had plucked it and its twin from the stack, keeping one for her and saving the other for me. She immediately pulled colors and started on hers. I mulled it over. And over. And over. I finally decided to go for the subtle approach, a tone on tone in deep purples, using Petite Very Velvet for the words and Silk and Ivory for the background. Then I set it aside for a while.

So the other night/morning, I started stitching it to see whether the contrast would be sufficient and to test a background stitch, since the whole of the canvas consists of two words. Here's what I came up with.

Can you see the letters against the background? I can, but I really want to. When I showed it to the stitching group last night, the consensus seemed to be that it was a bit too subtle. The light would have to hit it just right. So I think I'll continue with it and outline the letters in a coppery metallic when it's all stitched. Or something like that. I'll decide when I get to that point. I'm not sure whether you can really tell what the background stitch is. It's a checkerboard pattern of 3 x 3 blocks of tent stitch and scotch stitch. I really like the texture it gives.

My other monochromatic WIP is the ANG Stitch O' the Month, or SOTM. I'm still working on April. Yes, I know it's supposed to be a light stitching month, as is May, which I have downloaded and believe will be easy to do. For some reason, though, I'm taking forever with April's stitch. Part of the problem stems from my using the wrong thread for one session of stitching, then spending the next session of stitching ripping it out. Gah! This is what happens when you use a monochromatic color scheme that has two of the major families very close in gray value. Sigh. So here's my progress on April's stitch.

Sunday, I'll get to stitch some more on Stars. Mercifully, it's not a monochromatic colorway.

kthxbai.