The Lake House: An Update

I have been slowly adding in stitches on my Lake House piece.  I have started to add in some stretched metals in the water and the tree.  This piece is a bit of an experiment trying out some of the ideas I have from looking at all the paintings in my other research.  As I have been wondering if I could use my metals in a similar way as I have been seeing the painters use complementary colors to create depth and visual energy to the composition. 

 I started by adding some long stitches in with different shades of water (blues, browns, and some peach in there).  I'm using the Valdani threads that I love so much so there is a nice variegation to all the colors.  I'm using a mix of their embroidery floss and their hand quilting thread.  

After I had a bit of the color added in, I started adding some stretch purls.  I'm using stretched smooth silver purl for the strong highlights and gold for the rest.  I love just looking at the lake and all the amazing colors and reflections.  Water is so incredible to study- the texture, the detail, the color, and how it can change in an instant.  I am also varying the amount that I am stretching the purls to allow different amounts of the threads to show.

 After adding in some water detailing, I felt that the top portion needed more stitching.  I started by adding in some bullion knots on the left tree to add some texture and then I felt it needed more so I added in some stretched purls.  This time I'm using overstretched smooth gold for the highlights and stretched rough black purl for the rest.  Again, varying the amount of stretch to change the amount that the thread shows through the purls. 

Most recently, I've added in a lot of leaves--tons of leaves!  I had been using only 1 strand of the Valdani quilting thread and now I have started adding multiple strands together to get a wider variety of color variation and up to 3 strands to add more dimension and texture.  

It needs more leaves and more texture, but I'm pretty exciting in the direction it's going.  I am choosing not to use a frame for this piece as I want the printed layers to shift and I want to work in the tension variations to give the piece more depth and that since of blurred memory.  It's exciting to see it bubbling a bit more as I stitch more into it.  

I think there needs to be more stitching on the water but I'm giving myself some time to reflect on that portion right now as I think it could quickly cross the line to that ever dreaded "over-worked".  For now, back to adding more leaves--lots and lots and lots of leaves!