Melitastitches4fun's Blog

These 3 areas in the outer center area will be the only areas where I will let your eyes “rest” (a little) anywhere on my Rainbow Butterfly (by Danji, Laurel Burch Artwork). Did you know? Butterflies “roost” at night and avoid the rain. The raindrops can be devastating for a butterfly, and so they seek shelter.

The combination blue and green area used a couple of stitch ideas from Painted Canvas Embellishment: An Idea Book by Carole Lake and Michael Boren. The blue crosses are my variation to fit my space of theirs from page 68 on Wings 2 (Planet Earth Silk Ply, Azure 1233). The green is alternating rows of tent stitch going in different directions to change the reflection of light (Planet Earth Silk Ply, Fiddlehead 1056 – love that thread name). The canvas does have shading with it getting dark towards the center. So, I used one strand of the Planet Earth Silk in order to see some of the coloration of the canvas show through.

I did basketweave in the other areas with 2 strands Planet Earth Silk. I didn’t want it heavier than the blue and green area. One strand of the black worked fine for the lines.

Working this out on my computer before stitching it was very helpful. The sides are not perfectly identical. Did you know? Asymmetrically-winged butterflies are called chimera [ky-mee-ra] butterflies.