The two things that attracted me to Sandra Vargas’ Playful Squirrel as a mystery class were the squirrel’s eyes and the beautiful colors in the background.  I love all the color changes and subtle variations.

Of course loving that means that I needed to create a fun open background so that we didn’t lose all that beautiful painting.

I worked a blackwork pattern in spots on the background with one thread and then returned to add more layers of color with different threads over the top of the first layer.

Now there is all kinds of depth, shades and tones making a beautiful background for the leaves and berries to float upon.

I chose to work the pattern completely randomly to maximize the shading but you could also work the pattern across the entire canvas and then embellish on top.

The final lesson of this mystery isn’t until September 7th, so if you would like to join us you still have plenty of time.  I promise, the needle felting isn’t nearly as scary as you might think.