Choices, choices

After several of you commented about the center stitch in the last post, it seemed like a good idea to post a close-up picture of it. Here you go!

I had mentioned that I didn't know what to put in the areas above and below the center. In Jean Hilton's original ScottLee, she used a multicolored Amadeus stitch that ended up as a heart shape, with some crescents on either side. It seemed somewhat bulky to me in the picture, but I had to give it a try. I stitched only half of the motif, and then had to concur with my original thought. It's pretty, but it pulls the viewer's eye away from the focal point of the center.

Fortunately, Jean provided a couple of alternatives to this stitch. In one option, she used several waffle stitches with a very delicate eyelet on top of each. I played with several color combinations for these, but couldn't really find anything that really worked.

The last option used a motif that had already been used elsewhere in the piece: crescents that, when placed next to each other, look like waves. Since I really wanted the center motif to stand out, I thought that using a bit of repetition here would add a bit of calm and direct the eye to the center. I started with the greyish-blue pearl cotton and tried other adjacent colors. The upper of these two color combinations, with the bright red lower wave, reminded me of a mouth with two mustaches! The second combination didn't really improve things. I did like the waves, though.

It struck me as a bit odd that the waves would be oriented this way. The middle "bump" of all the waves is toward the center of the piece. I thought it might echo the shape of the center and the outline of smyrna crosses a bit better if the waves were oriented the other way. To get the placement right before I stitched it, I pulled out the graph paper. When I stitched this version, I tried yet another color combination. I also stitched a crescent variation in the Flair that is used in the corners of the inner-most border. I did briefly think of changing the center wave to the dark burgundy, but then decided that this piece had enough going on, and didn't need any more eye catchers. A consult with some fellow ANG members sealed the deal.

Just to be a tease, I'm going to hold off on showing the final picture until tomorrow! :-)