A Good Idea

At 3.30am this morning, I had an idea.
I just wasn’t happy with my approach to split stitching the butterfly wing, dividing it into areas to give it texture, rather than using the longest stitches possible.
(Here’s a photo of part of it as a reminder):

If I did it again, I’d use the longest stitches possible, but I’d still be stuck with split stitches between the wing pad channels, because they are so narrow and I have 3 colours to fit into each one)
Anyway, I thought – what if I outlined the edges of the split-stitched areas? To make it look like there are veins all over the wing?
Like this :

It means that I loose the blended effect where two colours meet, but I think that it looks more ‘put together’.
I used the same thin copper metallic thread that I’d used on the wing pad veins. In this case, scanning the piece meant the copper thread really lit up – it’s not quite so obvious in real life. (Please send prayers to my camera!)
There are two types of copper/gold metal thread to go on the wing yet, so hopefully that will pull it together even more.
I did these ‘veins’ in backstitch. Couching down the copper thread would have been far preferable, giving much smoother lines, but the pain in my hands wasn’t up to holding down a light, flighty thread in an exact place then stitching it down with the other through the existing split stitches.
I’ve just been on a spending spree at a fabric shop on Etsy – a selection of 18”x24” for only $3.50USD each – tho they are coming from India, so I do hope they arrive sometime this side of Christmas.
This is for the Main Background, where the entire piece will end up attached to. (Remembering that blue/purple background I’ve got at the moment will all be covered up by split stitching).
Since telling colours on a monitor is so hard, and I use so much dupion anyway, I got a selection.


One of these just has to go with the coral/copper coloured threads in the wing. Or I shall be very annoyed. The intensely emerald green dupion I have stacks of goes with it, but I don’t want an emerald green background. I want something more neutral.
I also picked up a bright orange dupion for the backing of part of the butterfly – but I’ll talk about that when I get to it *grin* (Julie is reading these entries, so I’m not revealing any more that I have to as I go along…..)