The temptation was to smother it in stitch, but somehow, looking at it closely, that didn't seem like such a good idea. What I wanted to do, was to use stitch to support the marks I'd made by dye painting. For me, the piece is 'about' space: there's a small area nestling in the centre, cradled by the darker marks, that in my head, is a farm, surrounded by tall pine trees on two sides, with fields in front. It's funny, the stories we tell ourselves about our work... but I digress. I started with the area to the left, a sweeping section of orange moving to fuchsia. I wanted to give it some scale, and to give some texture to the area without smothering it. The uneven crosses are scaled, getting bigger in the foreground, to suggest distance.
I tackled the dark area next. It dominates the piece, and I didn't particularly want to emphasise that any more, so stuck with dark colours. Blanket stitch delineates the firm line as it curves down and round, and additional stitches reach out into the curve, taking their cue from the blanket stitch itself. Most of that area, I've left clear to speak for itself. That central area has lots of tiny crosses, a reflection of the larger crosses to the left, while at the top, there are seed stitches, and some large, dark stitches to delineate the dark marks at the top right, as if they were somehow silhouetted against the sky (more of that imaginary story).
And that's where I left it. I don't intend to add any more stitch. I think there's a tendency to assume that when you hand stitch, you should leave no inch unstitched. That's not my style. I don't think that stitch should dominate a piece: rather, I think it should play its part, neither going unnoticed nor taking over. If you can only see the stitch, then I've failed. I want to create an integrated piece, where the different elements combine seamlessly (argh...no pun intended) to produce something with a story, with meaning. I think this piece does that, though you may not agree.
