Day 182 - 365/2014

Day One Hundred Eighty-Two 

Hey...I'm posting this in time/on time for a change -- maybe I can go back to being more regular...I hope so.

Anyway -- today has been about hand stitching the circles on the large collage (well, large in comparison to other stitched projects so far).  First order of business (which I should have done yesterday) was to erase the puncture guidelines (as best as possible).  Then I stitched each line of circles in both directions.  The second largest circle was actually done in one direction...and it did make a difference...the stitches are not as tight and also while coming up through from the back on the second pass stitching, I seemed to split the original stitch a bit...not very noticeable but I am aware of it.  

The penciled guidelines for the punctures that needed to be erased.

You can still see the guidelines but they are better than they were -- and actually the first one is still there, and it made the embroidery floss a little dirty in some spots but not really noticeable...it mainly made my fingers dirty-ish to work with it.

Sewing the first circle in the other direction to make the line of stitches solid.

The back of the canvas...that was pretty tight working next to the wooden part of the back of the frame.

Twink was Mr. Pest-o...he kept being cute and flipping over on the table (table dancing) to get closer and closer to the canvas as I was working.  I had to keep getting him to leave the table.

Second circle complete -- back version.

This is a time consuming process (at least it is for me) because you have to pull the needle in and out of each hole and on the backside of the canvas it is almost like it is self-healing.  You can see a pinpoint of light through the hole if you balance it in front of a light source but mostly that is hard to do with the canvas this size...so it is slow going.

You can find the holes on the frontside easily.

All of the circles complete now.

It is pretty subtle -- that is what I was going for.

A slightly easier to see view.

From a more normal viewing distance you don't really notice the stitching unless you are looking for it.

I can't decide yet whether to do a bit more stitching (like more circles) or leave it...or make another simple pattern with a slightly different shade of embroidery floss...or maybe a deeper shade like orange or something.  Although my work is pretty far from what I would call "fine art" I also don't want to cross the line into what might be considered more "crafty".  I don't want it to come off like a scrapbook page...although there is nothing wrong with that. 

I would LOVE to eventually be able to sew parts (either by hand or with that machine I bought) separate from a collage and then stitch them onto the collage...I think that would look less crafty (to me) but that is still quite a long way off.