Saturday, August 8, 2009

Tanned Skin


As you can see, I'm stitching away on the mermaids. I was a bit tired to count out the Helen's Lace stitch on the tails last night or to do all the compensation necessary, so I switched to tent stitching skin last night, using the more tanned shades from my Splendor Design Collection of Bronze Porcelein skin tones (silk floss from Rainbow Gallery in a set that will mimic tanned skin). I didn't notice it last night but when I took the scan this morning I realized that the little mermaid's shading is too stark a contrast and her arm resting on the smaller dog's head is too jagged. I'm going to have to do some ripping out to replace the darker skin with something a bit closer in shade and to smooth out the arm.

I have (thanks to Waste Knot in Arlington, Virginia) some tarty red hair thread (overdyed red boucle) and some bleached blonde hair (blonde and brown roots in Vineyards silk). And courtesy of Needlewoman East in Falls Church, VA, I have a new tiny Needle Bling magnet, a Hello Kitty style silver cat face with a red crystal flower above one ear. I'll make sure the magnet shows up in the next photo I take. I didn't leave it on the canvas in this morning's scan as I don't like having a strong magnet next to any computer equipment and can't have anything bumpy on the canvas I'm trying to put flat on the scanner bed. I should mention that the photos you see of Cape Cod Dogs are all cut off because the canvas on its frame is larger than the scanner's window. But I'll take a photo instead of a scan so you can see the magnet. Although I was tempted by the multi-colored apple and the darling blue crab, I went with the cat. Meow!

Cape Cod Dogs' design is 12 inches by 12 inches on 18 count canvas, which is really a bit too wide to fit on the 8 1/2 x 14 scanner bed, especially with two inches of bare canvas all around the perimeter of the design.

Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow