When Will I Ever Learn? (Hooty Owl Project)

This Thanksgiving my neices requested that they stitch a Hooty Owl.  This is a BIG honor for me because this is the first request from them I've had.  So I asked them what they wanted to stitch.  "A Hooty Owl" was the response.  Awesome!  Love the Hooty Owl idea.

Here is the line drawing of my version of the little guy.  He's on 13 count so it can be done fairly quickly and designed to work in three colors of Pearl Cotton.  Easy enough!

So there I was the other night, putting in my first stitches and hating the results ONCE AGAIN! Why? Because I didn't color in the canvas and there is TONS of white showing through.  Not a new lesson to me but perhaps I can save you a bit of the same frustration.  On 13 count, using size 5 Pearl Cotton, please! please! either paint or use color fast markers avoid the background showing through if you are stitching in medium to dark thread.

In my case, I used Pigmapens.  Quick and easy.  See the difference below.

Below is the Hooty Owl we will be stitching tomorrow.

Christa,Lilystitch
 www.lilystitch.com