Q: How long can one spend stitching on the same two inches?
A: What feels like forever.
I wanted to do something to the white space on this corner of "Iowa," to secure it to the base cloth, add some texture, and to balance the heaviness of the two crocheted pieces that are appliquéd onto other areas.
First I tried a running stitch outline. You can faintly see the uneven lines on the right-side above, emphasis on the "faintly".
Next came an experiment in satin stitch, as seen on the left. More texture? Definitely. Balance? The weight of the stitch teetered the totter to the other side. (Aside from the fact that I'm not very good at it.)
It took almost as long to take out the stitches, as it did to put them in.
Thread beads seem to be doing the trick. The background is filling in lickety-split, in a fraction of the time the other fussier stitches took. Taught by Jude, they are one of my very favorite stitches, for ease and whimsy (among many other things). Just a couple of days ago, she shared the magic of them again, here.
They look right at home in this field of flowers.
