Hello Friends & Folk ~
it's Thursday!
one more day til the weekend....
~ hoping to get a little kayaking in perhaps on Sunday,
if the cooler temps hold out for us :)
So I am in the home stretch
of finishing the humongous background of my
'When Pigs Fly' punch needle design ~
and I am combining many different variegated colors of Valdani #8 pearl cotton
with plain DMC black/310 cotton floss ~
this lends a great deal of movement to my background,
as I wanted it to have an interesting background for my motifs to 'float' on...
the photo below shows the back, or 'working' side of my project ~
after outlining my motifs a number of times with my variegated pearl cottons,
I intentionally leave 'spot's and places to go back in & fill with DMC black/310
and I ALWAYS use all 6 strands of floss when I work with my punch needle.
How you punch, meaning in which direction,
really has the most to do with how static or not your background is...
I tend to keep my motifs simple, and love to play with my backgrounds....
and since they are usually where most of the punching is on my designs ~
that is where I want to add texture and fun!
Here are a few previous designs of mine
that have interesting backgrounds:
this one is all variegated pearl cotton from one ball ~ in beautiful blues...
this, too is all variegated pearl cottons...
but two different balls of two different colors:
now this one below, is ALL DMC floss...
but I have chosen my thread colors to compliment one another and replicate stains & age:
see how fun mixing it up is?
don't let your background be boring!
for my Turkey & Tallowberries background, I wanted the look of an old hooked rug, that perhaps the maker ran out of the black wool and had to use what she had on-hand.
This is a favprite technique of mine to use with my punch needle and threads:
for my Farmhouse Chores Series, I used one color of variegated pearl cotton for all 4 designs ~
keeping them all cohesive ~ and can you see the movement in them? like the blue sky is being touched by a gentle breeze as my little Farmwife works away:
adding borders and edge-motifs helps to fill up a background a little quicker too,
like the triangles on these two below:
For a lighter colored background, I used 2 different DMC colors...
same shade {white} but different values {bright & darker}:
and don't ever be afraid to add little surprises to your backgrounds!
see the bottom-half of my design below?
see the little 'bubbles' of lighter thread colors set amongst the mostly-black background?
yep....fun and not boring ;)
There are so many ways to add interest to your punch needle ~
like mixing up threads, changing needle-depth for dimensional effect.
etc & so on...
This is where all of my punch needle models live:
in our humble little Needlework Shop here at the farm
♥
~ my chalkboard says it all ~
oh!
almost forgot ~
my passion fruit/flower vine has fruit!
wishing you all a beautifully creative day my friends...
Blessings from the Farm
~
Lori
