Mardi Gras Mask - Complete!

Finished! The back stitching here adds a subtle sharpness that actually makes a difference in spite of the dark fabric.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 18

And now, all but back stitch.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 17

Has it really been 2 weeks since my last update? I have been insanely busy with real life issues, and just this weekend seemed to find my needle, thread, and q-snap. I am stuck in, as a good stitcher friend of mine puts it, "back stitch hell." I have run out of 032 Kreinik Citron blending filament, and am trying to find a good time to pick up some more. But the beads are complete, the border (sans a few fleur de lis in the corners - they look like penguin silhouettes without the thread) almost so, and I need two more gold bells. But the back stitching is almost half way complete, and possibly this will be finished by July.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 16

The face of the mask is complete - including back stitching. I rarely see the difference in back stitching on dark fabrics, and this isn't any different. But the eyes with the back stitch do look cleaner than the eyes without. To me, they do, anyway. I think i am going to have to add the rest of the gold bells before I back stitch the rest of the mask itself. Beads and the rest of the border are still last on the list.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 15

It looked ridiculous all off-kilter like that, so I rearranged it last night and got back to the mask. As you can see, the outline is complete, and I will fill in the spaces starting today at lunch.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 14

I hate going a week between updates, but the rest of last week was extremely busy. I did get some stitching in, but most of it was from this past long weekend.

The mask itself is starting to take shape, and the next big challenge is going to be the beads (which have been removed). Likely the beads will now be the last thing completed.

The image is kind of funny all stretched out of shape. Looks like the complete side of the mask is weighing it down...

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 13

Just keeping on the border. I considered alternating the corners purple and green with the yellow fleur, but my eyes can't make out the contrast between the yellow and green very well, so I decided against it. Still need more 028 Citron Kreinik.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 12

Not too much progress (in my opinion, but I get shouted down a lot when it comes to that). I have too many options for what I want to finish first. I think the border is going to be the winner for that.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 11

More border work, and starting to outline the rest of the mask as well.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 10

Moving right along with the border. I want to get one of the fleur-de-lis in the corner completed to see how that is going to work out. I am concerned I am going to run out of gold filament, so I may have to look into procuring more.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 9

My progress may look like a lot, but it could have been so much more.....if only I had looked at the pattern once in a while over the last few days. I was under the very certain and positive beyond all doubt assumption that the borders were solid - the mask did not do more than bump into them for the rest of the pattern. And after a week of putting in the border, then completing the border and starting to fill it in at FAST on Saturday....I realized I was in error.

SO....Saturday night I spent the evening tearing out most of what I had done....well not most, but chunks of it, while trying to preserve as much as I could of completed stitches that did not need to be redone. Once I got past that, I was able to start again. I got in some of the green border for scale and positioning, added in the mask where it intrudes on the right border, and then finished it off with the rest of the gold and purple.

Now I am working with the beads along the bottom border.

AND I messed up the mask itself. It is supposed to be white with silver filament but I did white with pearl. I THINK it is going to look OK with the gray and silver accents, so I am going to leave it as is for now. We will see after I get the beads and bottom border finished, probably at the end of the week.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 8

Three weeks already. Hard to believe. Been a busy 3 weeks outside of stitching, so I am not as far along as I thought I would be. But, still, the shell of the border is almost finished (tonight likely) and I hope tomorrow to finish the rest of the white and pearl filament part of the mask while I am at FAST on Saturday. Though I may go ahead and start filling in the border, since it requires very little attention to the pattern....which makes for a good thing to complete while socializing.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 7

Back at it again. I kind of wish I had looked for another yellow filament spool, but I think I am going to have enough to finish all of the yellow. It makes me laugh at how out of true a fabric can get stretched when using a q-snap. My border looks like I was enjoying Cinco de Mayo a little too much while stitching...

Weekend Update

I am almost positive I did not stitch anything from Thursday night until this morning. That doesn't mean I wasn't crafty, however. I spent part of a drippy, dreary Saturday at The Crafty Framer in Largo, talking with Peggy and Lexy about getting some things framed. The rest of the day I spent pin stretching items with Lexy.

I have a number of finished projects that are sort of languishing in paper towel rolls, waiting for frames. Obviously the Pelican and Elemental Cosmos are among those. I discovered a 12X12 black frame I picked up a while back as a clearance special at Michael's, so I needed a foam board to use to complete it. Into that went Elemental Cosmos. Still not sure where I will hang it, but it is ready.

I also got quotes for the Pelican, a project called A Room With a View that is a lighthouse cross stitch, and a piece I did called Always Kiss Me Goodnight (pictured below, pin stretched) that I purchased at the 2013 Market Day sale at Crafty Framer. I completed the project just a month or so after the sale, and there it sat, all rolled up, waiting to be remembered.

We also talked about the FAST event that is next Saturday, and called and recruited a fellow stitcher and veteran of FASTs past, to come and join us. Lexy will not be able to make this FAST (boo) but she will be there in spirit.

Pin stretching a 28 ct piece of fabric, as I learned, can be tricky. It does not take a lot to throw the design off center, or pull it out of true. My first attempt was not very successful, so I went home and removed all of the pins. Last night I gave it a second attempt, paying a LOT more attention to detail and trying very hard to keep a straight row of pins. It isn't perfect, but it does look better than it did.

Also, I managed to acquire more Kreinik #4 Very Fine Braid 001 and Kreinik Blending Filament 032. I bought all that Peggy had, just in case. So now I can get back to the mask (I hated knowing I needed colors even though I could do other portions of the project).

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 6

Not too much progress - I have had other things taking up normal stitching time at work. And the filament goes slower than just cotton anyway. I dislike tangles as much as the next stitcher, but it is especially annoying when the shiny filament detaches from whatever it is that helps give the filament some strength. Just when starting a new strand to stitch. LOL that was when I put it down last night for the night.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 5

I ran out of Kreinik #4 Very Fine braid last night. I also misplaced my Kreinik 032 Pearl Blending Filament spool, I think at lunch at a restaurant, so that will have to be replaced as well.

So, since those colors were not readily available to work on the face part of the mask, I moved to the border. As you can see.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 4

Moving right along. You don't appreciate the effects of your light source until you work with a dark fabric. Sometimes I fly through the pattern, seeing everything clearly. Sometimes I can't seem to see my hand in front of my face. And then the stitches look like squashed bugs.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 3

I am not sure I am using the Kreinik Very Fine Braid #4 properly. I wonder if I should be using two strands instead of one. The blending filament, for the pattern, is clearly stated as one strand of cotton and two strands of filament. But the braid, I am assuming, is supposed to be two over two, just like the rest of the cotton. I will have to ask the stitching groups I am a member of and see what they think.

At any rate, I am going to have to buy more braid.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 2

I am not a fan of stitching with blends. This pattern has a number of blending filament colors, and then that metallic fine braid. I tend to pull my stitches tight. The filament and braid tend to shear when I do that, so I am having to slow down. And tearing out mistakes with filament is not entertaining either, so that is making me slow down as well.

Maybe these are good things, in the long run. n the short term, they are annoying. But it is starting to come together after only the little bit I have done.

Mardi Gras Mask - Update 1

So, new day, new project! Actually, I have been pondering making this mask since I saw it in the Jan/Feb 2013 issue of Just CrossStitch magazine. I am making it for an old friend who, I remembered somehow, collects masks. This project will be done on 28 count black linen, and includes 5 spools of Kreinik blending filament and 1 spool of Kreinik braid. Lots of greens, yellows, silvers/grays. The pattern was designed by Sharon Pope.

Here is the first section of stitches.