FWIW, DMC's site was doing a thing where any order from them over X amount, they'll send 3 decent sized pieces of red aida as a Valentine's Day promo. Not sure if they still have any in stock to hand out, but it's good stuff and worth checking to see if they do if you need/want anything from there.
New experiment below, normal high quality cotton. The stabilizer can go through any inkjet or laser printer, and is water soluable. (Grid is printed on the inkjet here.) Trying the same stitch pattern from the tight gradient thing in a more 'open' look over the fabric, which is a crazy rainbow tie-dye cotton that will ideally show through; the cross-framing will proooooooobably be metallic and done after the stabilizer is removed since I think it will make the metallics even worse, and all the places to put it will be obvious by then. Fingers crossed it will work.
Also, yay, new neato scissors came. (I've wanted those forever, and while they're cheap as hell at a whopping $9 they kept getting put off for over a year.)
