Friday, December 21, 2012

Angel progress: winging it

Time and time again, people have asked me the question: "Where do I begin stitching on a painted canvas?"  Pretty much anywhere you want to, with a few exceptions, is my answer.  And this canvas presents one of those few exceptions.

The general rule of thumb in needlepoint is to stitch white and light-colored threads first, to avoid having pesky darker threads traveling to the front of the canvas and rearing their ugly heads to mar your masterpiece.  This angel has such a large expanse of wing area that I really do need to stitch as much of it as I can before moving on.  I've made good progress working the Nobuko stitch in the wing layers with Kreinik #12 tapestry braid #032.

 When I was ready for a break, I moved on to the lamb, which also needs to be stitched before I can touch even a smidgen of the angel's dress.  The lamb's head and legs were stitched in basketweave with white Medici from my stash, with gray Medici in tent stitches providing the shading.  Black Petite Very Velvet provided the hooves.

The center portion of the lamb will have to wait for the dress around it to be stitched--very carefully!--since it will be worked in French knots, which I always do after the areas around them are completed.

1 comment:

coral-seas said...

LOL! I wish I had known that before I stitched the first of 2 cushion covers with red roses on a white back ground. I thought I was being very clever leaving the white to last so I would not get it grubby. I soon learnt the error of my ways.

The second one I stitched the background first - that was my second mistake! I ended up with one pristeen white background and one pinkish background. :-)