I’m still playing around with the negative space idea, which
has expanded into looking at different ways of making backgrounds a little more
interesting. OK, what I've been doing is similar to the overall stippling stitching that quilters
use to fill in space between more “important” parts of the design, but overall
stitching patterns can also be used as design elements in themselves. For example, in this fishy
design I’ve used it to suggest the movement of river water
Painted fish and stitched water
I really like the way these fish turned out – in particular
I like the contrast between the impressionistic misty painting and the hard,
precise lines of the stitching. The only problem with this approach is that it
can’t really be reproduced, because the painting, and the relationship between
the painting and the embroidery, will differ every time. But who knows – next time
it might be even better