Saturday, February 18, 2012

Marta Mask by Leigh Designs

Some of you may recall that DH gave me the Marta Mask canvas by Leigh Designs for Christmas 2010.  Well, I am finally ready to stitch this gorgeous thing!  As a counted person, I am quite intimidated by this large and stunning design.  I hope I can do it justice!  I have spent lots of time selecting threads and thinking about stitches & techniques.  The actual painted canvas is darker than the picture on the website, and I like the picture, so I'll be using lighter threads than are indicated by the canvas.
So here we go.  I have done just a little bit.  First I stitched the mouth in Slanted Gobelin using an overdyed red silk.  Ordinarily I would not do a bright red thing first on a light background, however, I wanted to make sure just where I wanted the edges of the lips in case I needed to make any adjustments.  I think it turned out well!  Next is the "petals" on the face.  I just got the ones on the left side done and they need some tweeking.  I laid down "padding" with white pearl cotton and then stitched over it, more Slanted Gobelin, with white Neon Rays Plus.  Finally I outlined the petals with a Whipped Backstitch using Kreinik #8 braid, whipped with Kreinik #4.  I'm not happy with the Whipped Backstitch - I think it needs to be heavier, so I'll take it out and try again before I tackle the Petals on the other side!.

3 comments:

Agata said...

omg this pattern look amazing! really cant wait to see it completed :)

Nancy L said...

I can't wait to watch this develop! Love those beautiful lips.

Sheena said...

Liz, from your picture the whipped chain does not look like it needs to be heavier, it looks good. But I am not looking at it from your shoes :) Love the piece, Leigh is a fantastic designer.