Easter Eggs - Complete

Well, one of two is complete. I am still not sold on doing the second one, but I am ready to do a different project so I will call this one complete for now.

Easter Eggs - Update 4

Good weekend of stitching, even some out in the sunlight on Saturday. I had to move the pattern in the frame so that I can stitch the bow on top.

Easter Eggs - Update 3

Color blindness is often amusing more than it is annoying. For example, the aqua and pink squares in the center that look vaguely of 80s Miami art deco bathroom tiles are very difficult for me to differentiate. A friend asked why I picked the pattern to do if I was going to be unable to see them. I told her that, well, it looked OK in the picture. I had assumed it was all one color or the other. With difficulty I can identify the squares.

Easter Eggs - Update 2

I went out last night and picked up the remaining flosses for the project (I was short 6 of them). I immediately put them to use, filling in between the yellow bands with blue.

Easter Eggs - Update 1

I started this last month, but I put it down to make the Ghostly Mandala. This project is from Just CrossStitch magazine, April 2013 issue. The design is by Sharon Pope. There are two eggs. I have not decided how I will finish them yet. I am doing this on 28 count fabric, what looks to be some sort of cream color.

Wedding Announcement - Heart Swirls

So, late Monday night we got word that one of Dorissa's cousins got married, and that a gathering was going to be in two weeks to celebrate it. Dorissa said it would be nice if we could whip up an announcement as a gift. So, after going through the patterns I had on hand as well as scouring the internet for a quick, yet nice, announcement pattern, we found an item in the just Cross Stitch magazine from January/February 2013 (Heart Swirls by Sharon Pope). The pattern is a lot larger and quite ornate than the finished product. However, this is the center of a much larger heart, and seems to have been included as a smaller variation of the pattern. Interestingly, the example of the pattern included the smaller version, framed, done with DMC 127.

I had DMC 127. I also had plenty of white Aida to choose from. So I went with 18 count. I finished the letters with DMC 823.

Here is the finished product. I will take it with me Friday evening to pick out a frame at The Crafty Framer.

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).