Today's Canvas of the Day is one of the new Wicked series of witches from Leigh Designs. This piece is one of six witch canvases, all done in pairs so that each witch has a sibling with a similar face and harvest moon in the background. All of the witches are on brown 18 count mono canvas and they are all pretty big -- 11 inches by 14 inches.
All of the series can be seen here.
http://www.leighdesigns.com/Grp512x.html
I choose the Wicked Elfrida as my Canvas of the Day because I love the skull on her hat. I think that would be fabulous stitched in Kreinik's glow-in-the-dark thread, shaded with gray silk. Or use all silks for a more subtle shine. Leave the skull eye sockets and nose hole unstitched and add one ruby red bead in the middle for the eye. Use an oval stitch to cover the moon in light coverage, picking the lightest shade of gold from the moon for your thread. You can use DMC cotton here, just one ply, and it'll look fabulous as the shading will show through. You will have to lay the thread, though, for the best effect.
Tent stitch the hat in blacks and purples with something gorgeous like Vineyards Silks to give a slight shine to the wooly felt of the hat. Then do the purple ribbon in as many shades of purple silks as you need to match the lovely painted shading, using diagonal long stitches to cover. You'll need a laying tool as you want maximum shine for the ribbons.
Couch the stems using either the new Memory Thread from DMC that is wired or try couching a Kreinik metallic brown thread with a matching blending filament for some sparkle. The leaves can be done in either tent (the small oval ones) or in diagonal mosaic or even herringbone. Use a matte thread like Mandarin floss or cotton floss or even a nice wool blend like Burmilana for the leaves.
Pad the berries and then do small long stitches on top to make them a bit dimensional. I'd use silk here to make them shine.
The flyaway hair could be a thin wool or Burmilana or one of the fuzzy threads like Alpaca or Cashmere. Use a sharp needle and stem stitch to put these strands right on top of the tent stitches of the witches' hat.
Elfrida's pasty skin should be tent stitched, using perle cotton or a perle silk like Trebizond, or if you can't find the right colors, try blending DMC cotton in shades of white and gray and grayish purple. I'd consider leaving her nose until last and padding it in long stitches over something like half a Q-tip like Amy Bunger does. But this isn't necessary. If you want to try the "Bunger beak," practice on some scraps first and see if you like the look.
Now the background. It occurred to me that it would be fun to cover the background with the word Wicked repeated over and over again, either horizontally or vertically, your choice. Match the canvas' brown color using whatever non-shiny thread you can find. It might be even better to find a slightly lighter or darker shade of brown, depending on how subtle you want the letters to be. There are lots of free charted letters available on the Internet. I happen to like Barbara Bergsten's versions here.
http://www.barbarabergstendesigns.com/stitch_guides.htm
This is not a real stitch guide, not done in any particular order, either (although I'd probably stitch the background, then the moon, then the witch's hat, then the details starting with the skull). But perhaps my approach will give you ideas for the witch of your dreams--or nightmares!
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
Archived Yahoo 360 postings at http://profiles.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
