Pumpkin SAL – Finishing Up

Today we’ll finish up this stitch-along with the last three components: stems, background, and border.

Stitch the stems in Tent-Cross Check, below using any light yellow-green thread in your stash. I used a Planet Earth 6-strand Silk here, but I plan on using a variety of threads this color. The stems are not al the same shade, so using several threads is appropriate.

Finding a background is particularly difficult for a canvas such as this. The design itself is busy. Although the pumpkins are floating on white canvas, often they are only a thread apart. In addition, there are no open lines vertically or horizontally any where except on the outside edges.

These two factors mean that any stitch that requires counting, no matter how small, will not work. There would be just too much compensation to get a good sense of any pattern. That leaves us with Tent Stitch and variations.

Using a full coverage Tent variation, such as Dotted Swiss, might be a possibility. But because the pumpkins are all Tent Stitch patterns, it would end up looking too dull, no matter the color.

That leaves us with open Tent variations. I quickly discarded more open variations, such as Background Stitch, because of the compensation issue. I discarded my favorite background, T Stitch, becase the many narrow spaces would disrupt the stitch pattern.

I finally decided on Reverse Skip Tent, below. Because the lines slant in the opposite the Tent in the pumpkins, it is a counterbalance. Because it’s open, it acts as a background, behind the pumpkins.

i used a single strand of Creme Fraiche (316) Watercolours for my piece and extended the background five threads beyound the edge.Caron makes several “white” colors of their hand-dyed threads and any of these could be used. Possible choices include: Natural (000), Pearl (078), Snow White(100), Harbor Mist (119), Hint of Mint (129), Barely Bue(256), Linen (312), Chardonnay (34, and Marshmallow (325). There are also several colors that are almost white but tinted with a color. I decided against these because of the many colors in the pumpkins themselves.

Adding a border is optional. I like that it finishes and frames the pumpkins nicely. However it were finished as a picture, I’d leave off the border and extend the background by another five threads. The border is stitched in Beatty, below, using a golden brown crewel wool.

Our next stitch-along will start late this summer.