Flamingos everywhere

I had such fun stitching The Five Stylish Ladies with their bright colors that I decided to look around for a similarly colored canvas.  I found this one that Trubey designed for Needle Nicely several years ago.

This was originally one of a pair of canvases to be two sides of a purse.  The purse style from Elizabeth Turner calls for the top edge to be about 3/8" narrower than the bottom edge.  If you look closely at the photograph you can see the slant.  I have straightened the edges (the line won't show through my stitching).  I haven't decided what I'll eventually do with the finished product--I learned with the ladies that I may change my mind!

I'm using some of the Splendor leftovers from the ladies and adding additional ones as needed.  I'll be using 4-plies throughout. 

I started with the background, stitching the "sky" area in 2-plies of offwhite mixed with 2-plies of a pale aqua.
When blending strands of different colors, you must take a strand of one color, a strand of the next color, another strand of the original color and then the last strand.  If you put 2 by 2 they will always bond together and not be as blended as you want.  The stitch I selected is my new all-time favorite, the Diagonal Triple Parisian.  It's a really versatile stitch.

I started the background on the far right of the canvas even though I want to concentrate on stitching the flamingos on the left.  That way I've established the pattern all the way across the top and can stitch the background in different areas as I want. 

I decided that each flamingo will be stitched in only two main colors, even though Trubey added a 3rd color to the wings.  That shading really doesn't add anything to the design so I eliminated it for ease in stitching. 

The eyes will be done in a Smyrna cross; the beaks in Alternating slanted gobelin.

The body of the purple flamingo is done in the Mosaic stitch and the wing in a Cashmere variation.  I wanted to make this flamingo's "cheek" just one cashmere stitch  rather than oddments of compensation. 

After much trial and error (that is, stitching, picking out, stitching, picking out...), I decided that the legs will all be basketweave. 

Next week, Miss Pinky gets her turn while I also start on the sand area.