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!.