~ Background Check ~

 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