So, I’ve been working on a sculptured stitchery and candlewicking kit Majestic Balloons designed by Roger W. Reinardy, and available from Janlynn. It’s called sculptured stitchery because the design is backstitched over cotton batting to create a 3D effect around the balloons. The colonial knots creating the big dots and the straight stitches are the candlewicking part of the design, done in candlewicking thread. There’s also some satin and stem stitch in floss for additional decoration.

You do most of the stitching before attaching it to cotton batting. This is my progress so far:

I love the satin and stem stitching – it’s super glossy and stands out well, a whole lot more than I originally thought it would when I saw the beige colors of the floss. But all is not well. I tried adding in some of the knots and straight stitches in the candlewicking thread:

I hate it. The candlewicking thread is incredibly dull next to the floss (it’s even worse in person). The knots are ugly monsters. I can’t imagine adding dozens of them all over the place. I’m not going to ruin a perfectly lovely design like that. I stopped at knot #2. I’ll be ripping that out, putting more floss in its place, and I’m going to do all the knots a lot smaller. All I have to do is decide on coloring, something that will complement the existing colors.

P.S. There are two more designs in the same style by the same artist: Lighthouse and Ocean’s Edge. Both look great, although I would almost certainly end up axing the candlewicking thread on those as well.