Wanted: Opinions!

[That70sHeidi]

So I have this image I love:



And it charted up nicely with just two colors - black and a light gray. It will be about 8x10 when done, so hey, easy framing as well.

My question is this: What do you think would be a good color combo here?

I do like the black/white and white/black ideas, because it's classic and fitting for such a mod retro piece.

However, she IS black, so I was thinking brown Aida and maybe either a cream or gold thread? Or vice versa and do it on a cream background with browns. I've never stitched with browns and I do love the color.

I will probably end up giving it away someplace, I just want to stitch it to... well, stitch it. If I knew of someone's decor I could do a custom piece, but as I don't know who it will end up with, I'm stuck. I think it'd be awesome on a navy cloth with light blue stitching....

Also, it's on 14ct now, but I was thinking maybe something else. I can't find any info online that explains the difference between the sizes of Aida though... Or what the whole "one stitch over" or two over or however others have worded it means. I've always done 2 strands of floss through, well, the holes provided. What else is there? And what's the benefit of stitching on a 20ct rather than a 14ct?

Anyway. Opinions on the piece are greatly appreciated

[Rose]

The 20ct as compared to the 14 ct will be much smaller as the number of stitches per inch are 20 as compared to 14.

When working with material such as linen and eavenweaves you can work then either over 1 thread or over 2 threads. The meaning of this is how small you want your stitches to be. Lets see if I can make this clear. A 28 ct evenweave fabric worked over 2 would be the same size as 14ct aida. But if you work the 28ct and just go over one then the size of your pattern will be half as large.

As for what colors to use I like the idea of going with a dark tan or brown fabric and using gold thread I believe the affect would be very dramatic.

[merrywether]

I agree! I think the brown fabric with gold or cream thread would be really beautiful

[Serinde]

Have you thought about using a variegated gold/brown/cream like DMC 111? This would lift a monochrome design. On a dark background it would look stunning.
Or perhaps a terracotta?

[mags]

I too like the idea of gold or cream on brown. I think I've seen something similar but can't now find it

mags

[Kitsune]

For myself, I think that either the brown aida or cream aida with the cream or dark brown thread respectively. However to add a bit of colour, I would take gold wire and 1 or 2 lines of your thread and variate it in. (See demonstration below for bad description. lines /= regular thread ; lines \ = wire with thread. )

/////\////////////
\//\\\//////\\////
//////\\\////\//\/
////\\///\/\/////

Pretty much a random allotment with the gold wire and the colour will draw your eye to it! And then you could backstitch the outline in gold as well! It would really look great that way I think!

[Ekidna]

What a gorgeous pattern!! My first reaction was that silver metallic thread on black fabric would look stunning, but as you seem to be gravitating towards the brown, I would stitch gold metallic thread on the brown, especially for the hair/headpiece.

I found all the aida/evenweave counts confusing at first, but the numbers ALWAYS stand for the number of holes per inch as Rose said. Because evenweave and linens have more holes per inch, that's why patterns will say 1 or 2 (strands of thread you are stitching with) over two of the evenweave holes.

This means that 14ct aida is exactly the same size as 28 ct evenweave or linen and means that there's 14 stitches per inch.

If you want to use a smaller count (so that the x's stitched are smaller) try 18 ct aida which is 36ct evenweave. (18 stitches per inch)

I am currently stitching a piece on 40 count (20 stitches per inch) evenweave which I am finding not too bad to stitch on.

I do apologise if you know this stuff already, but it took me quite a while to work it all out myself!!

[That70sHeidi]

Thanks for all the feedback ladies!

I think I will be going with the brown cloth and gold thread. I have some left over from my Phoenix project...

And I decided to order online instead of going to the stitch shop, because then I can order a bunch of different things at once, and can remove the social interaction aspect It will eliminate having to go to different stores in town as well to get things, especially now that the craft stores are crazy with holiday people.