Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thanks for the tip - here is what it lead me to >> I added a DIV to encompass wrap_all and it worked like a charm. In an ideal world I could have the graphic go to the bottom of the page (suggestions?) but I'm not attached to that.
http://yame.com.au/word/
The "stitch" graphic sits in front of the "burlap" graphic, the burlap is defined in the theme options bg.
#graphic_wrap {
z-index: 1;
background-image: url('images/stitch.png'); background-repeat:repeat-y;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
width: 1200px;
}