Her Boudoir

2011-09-23T07:18:00.001-04:00

Long time, no see, eh?

Working on some updates to be posted over the next few days :-) I promise!

Queen Mermaid - Finished!

2011-05-23T19:19:00.001-04:00

The particulars: The pattern is Queen Mermaid by Mirabilia. The fabric is 28 count (done over 2) Sterling Silver hand dyed linen from Silkweaver. She was started September 2010 and completed May 22, 2011.

She is my first finish of 2011. Ack!

QM is my first project since deciding to switch over to using 28 count fabric instead of 32 count fabric. After struggling getting all the beads on Midsummer Night's Fairy with her 32 count fabric, I decided that I'd start kitting up projects with 28 count if there were a lot of beads.

And QM definitely has a lot of beads, but honestly? They're so scattered across her that I don't think upsizing the fabric made much of a difference, except perhaps for her beaded collar and crown. But you'll be glad to know that the beads are sitting nicely in those areas thankyouverymuch. If I'd substituted Miyuki Delicas for the Mill Hills, I wouldn't have had anything to worry about at all as far as getting beads to fit neatly on. Duly noted for future projects.

The briolettes are a nice touch as far as the sparkle factor goes but are just kind of hanging on to her lower body. If I had to redo, I'd probably relocate them so that they looked like they were hanging off some of the seaweed instead of just hanging on to random body areas. Just sayin'. Also, the areas on the pattern that were left open for the briolettes and flower treasures were entirely too large (and oddly shaped to boot), so I did quite a bit of filling in there.

As I've mentioned before, I intend on doing Mirabilia's Deepest Love as a companion piece to Queen Mermaid. I have her kitted up and tucked away with another piece of Sterling Silver linen but I'm not sure that she'll be my next Mermaid start. Enchanted is calling quite loudly so we shall see. Eventually I'll have them framed to match so QM and Deepest can hang out together, probably in the powder room.

Queen Mermaid...nekkid!

2011-05-21T10:58:00.000-04:00

Nekkid in that she's all finished with the cross stitch, but still needs her beads and just a bit more backstitching. Yay!

Lots of beading to do, so it will probably take a few more days.

Every Queen needs a little bling...

2011-05-20T11:14:00.000-04:00

It's almost that time!

I pulled out the beads for Queen Mermaid this morning, although I'm not quite ready to start beading. I'm using all the recommended Mill Hills. More on Mill Hills in a few....

The numbers in the slots are clipped off the Mill Hill packages, just so I know which ones to use where. It's a lazy way to keep track but highly effective.

And of course, the Mill Hill Treasures:

Sparkly!

I'm looking forward to doing the beading...just a little more stitching and backstitching to do first.

So. About Mill Hills. There's always leftover beads at the end of a project, and the question is what to do with them. In theory, I could bag them up, tag with their ID number, and hope I can use them for another project. If you've been following my blog, you've probably already figured out that is probably far too organized for me. I do have a small "bead soup" type jar that I usually toss the leftovers in.

And now, there's the new bead stitching/jewelry obsession, and frankly, Mill Hills are not good for this type of use because as you've no doubt noticed if you've used them, they're not exactly the most even-sized beads out there. That's being diplomatic, right? Anyway, they're fine for stitching - there's usually plenty of them to pick through and you can discard the truly awful ones.

Did some searching around and I've found that you can get the tubes of Miyuki Delicas for about the same price as the smaller packets of Mill Hills online...and the added bonus is that the Delicas come in more colors and are just about perfectly even so can be used for my other crafting activities.

So I think, in the future, I'll be swapping out Mill Hills on stitching projects for Delicas so I can use the leftovers in jewelry projects. There's certainly no shortage of Delica colors so I can't see having a problem finding satisfactory matches.

Well hello there....

2011-05-19T17:32:00.001-04:00

Obligatory face shot....she needs some beads!

Slowly but surely!

2011-05-17T09:20:00.000-04:00

So even with a finish so close, I'm in a bit of a stitching mojo funk. I'm not really sure why, other than it hits the best of us from time to time. I'm still stitching; but just an hour here and there really. Ugh. Maybe I need a new start to kick me into high gear?

I am getting really close to being able to bead Queen Mermaid though. Here she is.

Arms and head done....most of the hair (although I'm short one color - ack!)...her gift and some seaweed to do as yet.

QM Watch

2011-05-07T06:56:00.000-04:00

And the Queen Mermaid watch is on!

There's only a minimal amount of stitching to do on her now - mostly her face, hair, another arm, and the funky box thing she's holding. Oh excuse me. Her "treasure". LOL

And of course, the requisite going back and filling in anything I missed, some backstitching, and beading. Lots of beading! But regardless, there's an end in sight, and it's high time I had a big finish this year, so QM is my focus until she's complete.

Never fear, fellow Mermaid lovers, I have more Mermaids lined up. If you recall, my plans for QM include stitching her a companion, Deepest Love, on the same fabric. Long term, I'll get them framed to match so I have the option of having them "hang out" together. That said, yes, Deepest will be my next start, but I'll probably give a little love to some of the other Mira projects that I have going first, since I've been focusing on both QM and Knotgarden lately.

Check back for regular QM updates - she'll be finished soon!

Just peachy...

2011-05-02T09:48:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago I went to a local Beadfest to wander around the vendors, and ended up feuling my pearl obsession a little more. I picked up a couple of strings of lovely peach colored freshwater pearls with the idea that I wanted to do a wider cuff bracelet in right angle weave, similar to the amethyst bracelet I made previously.

I wanted to do something monochromatic, so I added size 11 Miyuki seed beads to the mix to keep it simple.

I spent much of Friday watching the royal wedding festivities and playing with beads - not a bad way to spend the day!

Here's the bracelet I came up with:

I used a slide style clasp so the cuff would sit flat when wearing it.

And a close up:

I keep seeing 6 lb Fireline being the recommended thread to use, but I tried 8 lb for this project to see if that would give it a little more body, which it seems to do. The knots when ending threads aren't as tight though since the fiber is a little heavier, so I made sure I went through quite a few beads with it.

Right angle weave seems to be a very popular beadweaving stitch, and I can see why. It's not hard to master and is quite versatile. I'm sure I'll be experimenting with it again with other projects.

Because the pearls are slightly irregular, you can actually see some of the threads here and there in the bracelet, but I'm still very pleased overall with the effect. I have another pearl cuff bracelet that I wear all the time, so I think I'll end up with a lot of use out of this piece.

And of course, I wanted some sort of coordinating necklace. I chose to do a variation of the Gothic Chevron necklace from B&B's Your Seed Bead Style book. The pearls I was using were larger than the recommended size for the pattern, so I also opened up the bottom a little by adding a few seed beads in there as well.

Very grand, eh?

This was quite fun to make and easy once I got the pattern down. I did start it and undo about five times until I had the variation down pat that I was doing. It doesn't sit perfectly flat on my neck which bothers me a bit and I might redo it in the future as I get better with beadweaving skills. Since I did spend a bit of time reinforcing the necklace, it's going to be a project to take it apart though LOL To be fair though - our necks aren't one continuous curve so if you make a collar with an even curve, there ARE going to be areas where it's not perfectly smooth.

I did one repeat of the patter to put together some earrings:

Meh. They're ok. I'm not sure what bothers me about them.

I had about two dozen leftover peach pearls which I suppose I could have just tossed in my stash along with another tube of the seed beads. Although I like the collar, it's not a very "casual throw on" kind of necklace so I started paging through some of the various bead magazines I have, looking for inspiration for something a little lighter. I've really been drawn to St. Petersburg chain because I like the feathery lightness of it, and found a project that I borrowed some elements of.

This is what I came up with:

Since I didn't have many peach pearls left, I dug in and added some small white potato pearls in, and some rocalle (15/0) seed beads with a white pearl finish. I like how delicate the chain came out and it was a lot of fun to stitch.

Nine of Twelve

2011-04-25T10:04:00.000-04:00

Page Nine of twelve pages of Knotgarden - complete!

More or less, anyway, as they beadwork and specialty stitches are nowhere near done.

Still, only 3 more pages of cross stitch to do on this project...unbelievable!

Amethyst Bracelet

2011-04-17T20:40:00.003-04:00

My first attempt as seed bead stitching. The larger stones are 4 mm amethyst beads and the pattern is a freebee from Bead and Button. If you click on the picture, it will come up much larger.

I've been reading a lot of beading blogs and forums online lately to try to learn, and along the way I picked up the little gem that the Fireline 6 lb sold in sporting goods stores is the same Fireline 6 lb that is sold for beading...but it's about 1/3 the price if you buy it in a sporting goods store. You have to buy a much larger spool, but it's all good - I won't run out anytime soon and it's not large to store.

This was surprisingly easy to do, but I do have a lot of experience reading various craft patterns and doing different types of embroidery. Once I got in the groove, it only took about 2 hours or so to complete.

I have my next seed bead project planned and it will incorporate some of my beloved pearls (if I haven't mentioned it, I'm obsessed with pearls), Swarovski crystals, and Delica beads. I am waiting for a few supplies I ordered online.

And one more....

2011-04-14T18:15:00.000-04:00

Last one, for now anyway.

I have to rework the earrings...I like the design but the execution isn't as smooth as I'd like.

Close ups of the mixed jasper set

2011-04-13T08:33:00.001-04:00

Per a friend's request, close ups of some of the jewelry I posted yesterday.

The necklace:

The pattern is quite random, which works really well if you have some consistencies. Each element is separated by six stone chips, and each round polished jasper is flanked by silver beads.

Another close up:

And here's the bracelet:

Just a simple stringed bracelet of the polished round stones alternating with silver beads. I picked up some memory wire today so I should be able to make a wrap bracelet that matches the pattern of the necklace later this week.

Ribbons and Seaweed

2011-04-12T09:33:00.000-04:00

It's Mermaid week, so I've been working on Queen Mermaid, slowly but surely. I finished her arm, but was focusing on filling in the cascading ribbons and the seaweed. I'll probably finish off that one batch of seaweed before putting her away until next month.

QM is getting close to getting finished, isn't she? Once I get all the stitching done, there's a TON of beading to do on her. They really are all over her, and I have found that I've missed a lot of stitches since the beading has really broken up the stitching in a lot of places. I'm filling those in as I notice them, but I expect when I start beading I'll find a lot more and have to fill in.

I'm debating if I want to work on another project for a week or so or just go straight back to plugging on at Knotgarden.

Exploring a New Craft

2011-04-12T09:27:00.002-04:00

Because I don't have any other projects to keep me busy, right?

Over the years, I've played around with making my own jewelry - quite a lot as a teenager and less so as an adult. Still, I love beads and it's fun to mess around with such things, so I've been working a little more towards learning proper techniques and such lately. I thought I'd share two recently finished projects.

This first set uses deep red beads alternating with small silver beads. It's a simple, chunky design that is actually quite striking. I don't think I managed to really capture the depth of color of the beads with this picture, which have slight variations to them. You can see towards the change in pattern at the back of the necklace where I ran out of the silver beads and just filled in with the red ones. It works! I've since found some more of those beads but I don't think I'll bother to change the necklace.

The next one was just finished this morning and the camera definitely does not do it justice.

The necklace is an infinity style - no clasp, no beginning or end, just a few strategically placed crimp beads to hold it together. It's a mix of different jaspers, blending chip stones with 4 mm, 6 mm and 8 mm jasper rounds with silver beads and a few pewter beads for some visual interest. It's 75 inches long, so I can wear it as two long loops, three shorter loops, or as a four-strand choker with the use of a clasp. I really love this piece - the stones are gorgeous and interesting with all their natural variations. (Yes, Michelle - this WAS inspired by that fab pearl necklace I have been drooling over!)

The bracelet shown is one of several that I'll be making. I need to get some memory wire so I can make a multistrand style wrap bracelet with the rest of the chips. I also think I'll probably use the rounds mixed in with pearls using a pearl knotting technique I want to practice.

So that's it for now. My next project will be an adventure in seed bead weaving - just gathering materials for that and then I'll have to find a block of time (ha!) to work on it. I picked up a couple of seed bead books to teach myself, and I'll probably take a class or three at my local Potomac Bead Company when I can fit them in my schedule.

Welcome April!

2011-04-01T07:55:00.000-04:00

I guess the fool is on us, eh?

3 Gates, 12 urns, and a border

2011-03-31T09:11:00.000-04:00

I don't seem to have gotten very far with Knotgarden the last two weeks, but here's what I've done. Still lots to do, but I am putting it away to work on a Mirabilia or two and give myself a break.

A couple of weeks ago, I also started keeping an Ort jar....why not, right? I had a spare jar, I certainly have lots of ends. Here it is thus far:

Welcome Spring!

2011-03-24T09:09:00.000-04:00

(Sort of)

More Knotgarden

2011-03-21T07:05:00.020-04:00

It's been a busy week and I don't seem to have gotten much done on Knotgarden at all...ack! I have however finished off the third gate and am currently working on the flowers/greenery at either end. Confetti stitching. How do I love thee. NOT!

And no, your eyes are not deceiving you - I have finally started filling in some of the specialty stitches, starting with some of the Algerian eyelets in the border. The pattern calls for using just a single thread but I didn't care for how that looked, so two threads it is. The eyelets are fairly simple to make as long as you can manage to get them started properly AND keep the tension even throughout since you want to open a small hole in the middle (hence, an eyelet!). I just did a few down the one side so far, but they're fairly quick to bang out. Hopefully the rest of the specialty stitches will go that smoothly.

You may recall in previous posts that I debated for a long time whether to spring for the hand dyed silks for this project or just substitute DMC. I ended up going with using the Caron Waterlilies conversion rather than Thread Gatherer mostly because they were just easier to get. I've also used Waterlilies more in the past and there was a better chance that I'd be able to use any leftovers since that's what Mirabilia uses. While hand dyed silk fibers ARE gorgeous and bright and have their own luminescence, I will say that if you wanted to use DMC, the final product would still be gorgeous.

I pulled out the baggie of beads for Knotgarden as well. Specifically I wanted the Kreinik so I could start adding that to the gate. I'd forgotten how many beads are in here! A lot of those are the Treasures, so it's not like they're all the tiny seed beads that need to go on. As always, I won't start beading until all the stitching and specialty stitches are in.

And as always, when one project is nearing an end, I'm thinking about the next project. It's been 2+ years since I decided to do a couple of the Chatelaine garden mandalas, and I still think I got it right with three I picked to do (Knotgarden, Watergarden, Alhambra Garden). I still love all three designs, to the point where no other Chatelaine is going to line jump. I appreciate that I went with projects with no over-1 stitching and had reasonably affordable materials lists. Every time I look at the patterns...I'm just so in love with them still. Good call, if I do say so myself!

I have decided that I rather like some of the architectual Chatelaines mandalas and will probably do some of those after I've worked on these Gardens. But that's what - 4 years before I will finish the next two? No rush to decide!

I am very much looking forward to getting Watergarden started. I have the DMC floss for it, as I got a piece of blue fabric in trade a while ago and wanted to do a floss drop. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll end up using that fabric - the blues of the center don't pop enough off it, and I need to get a piece of antique white instead. Rather than piece together all the beads/specialty threads like I've done with Knotgarden, I'm going to go ahead and order the kit from European Cross Stitch. That should make my life a little easier!

I'm debating a little bit whether or not I'll just work on Watergarden until it's done or get started on Alhambra and work on both at one time...what's another BAP, right? I'm at the point where Knotgarden HAS gotten a little repetitive, but at least it's a couple of weeks out from being completed.

Baby Afghans

2011-03-19T07:57:00.000-04:00

Off to a family baby shower today, so you know I had to make something special for the little one. With baby afghans, I typically chose to do simple designs in highly washable yarns - they're meant to be used, washed frequently, etc. These are for a little boy, hence a lack of ruffles or other florishes.

This one is just a simple shell pattern. The yarn is a super-soft acrylic sport weight in a pretty yellow/turqoise/white ombre, and I used a little solid white for the border.

I opted for a reasonably tight repeat shell pattern so while a lighter blanket, it will still be quite warm. Also, as it's a lighter yarn, it took quite a few extra hours to crochet a blanket of substantial size, and it's a pattern that's easy for me to hammer out.

The other one I did is my favorite of the two.

I fell in love with the yarn, which is Red Heart's "Ocean".

I love the swirling blues and purples in it, so I let that guide me to a pattern. I chose a slightly more open pattern because it's a heavier yarn - standard worsted weight - and I wanted to have kind of a wave pattern to again pull out the ocean theme.

Size wise, it's quite a large afghan so it can cover Mom as well if she's cuddling the baby or be spread out to play on the floor.

I'm really pleased how this one came out, and have tucked instructions away because I could see making it again at some point in the future.

Here's a little detailing of the wave pattern and the edging:

And so, they are off to their new owners today and will be enjoyed.

Spring is coming!

2011-03-14T18:04:00.001-04:00

Or coming along, anyway!

I opted to work on Celtic Spring for a little while this week and made some great progress with her skirt. I need to pick up some gold metallic for her skirt, as there's quite a bit of it throughout and I would prefer to fill some of it in as I move along.

I really like the blending of the lavenders - the 200 series in DMC - and might opt to steal those colors for the lavender conversion of Rose of Sharon I have planned for sometime in the future. I haven't quite nailed down the colors I wanted to do for that, so I might make it simple on myself and just swipe them from Celtic Spring.

Oops....wardrobe malfunction!

2011-03-08T07:45:00.000-05:00

Of sorts, anyway. I was trucking along with my #4 peacock Kreinik, filling in a lot of the body area that I'd previously skipped. Ran through the one roll, reached for my backup roll and realized that instead of another #4, my ONS had accidentally sent me a #8....ack!

So here is Queen Mermaid, not quite covered up:

I'll have to order another roll so I can finish her "top".

I'm fairly pleased with my progress overall this week, wardrobe malfunction aside. Finished her tail, filled in more of her body, got started on her arms, hair.

The interesting thing is that depending on the light (day, night, OTT lite, etc), the color of the fabric (Sterling Silver by Silkweaver) keeps changing between gray and blue and somewhere in between. It has a really interesting depth of color and luminosity that I can't seem to quite pick up on the camera (as per usual).

Mirabilia Mermaid SAL

2011-03-01T07:34:00.001-05:00

Towards the end of last year, I joined up with some fellow Mira mermaid enthusiasts on the Mirabilia Stitchers discussion board for a Mermaid stichalong (SAL), where we'd work on our chosen Mermaid the first week of every month.

I opted to do Queen Mermaid, because I had just started her anyway. I ended up not working on her in February because I was cruising along with Garden Verses and enjoying working on her (what can I say - at the end of the day, this IS a hobby to enjoy above all else!). I put away Knotgarden yesterday and got a head start on Queen Mermaid for March.

Here's where she is as of yesterday:

The fabric is Sterling Silver by Silkweaver.

I definitely will finish up her tail fin this week, and probably get some work done on her back and arms. I'll post another picture at the end of the week so I can see how far I got.

As with most Mirabilia mermaids, she seems to be working up fairly quickly. I'm looking forward to having both QM and her companion piece, Deepest Love, finished within a reasonable amount of time.

What I've been working on lately....

2011-02-28T12:15:00.000-05:00

I've been working on Knotgarden the last couple of weeks because I am determined to finish it this year. I've got most of the center medallion completed but still have two gates and another dozen flower pots to go, as well as all the specialty stitches and beading. Ack!

Mira updates

2011-02-28T12:06:00.000-05:00

And of course, plenty of Mirabilias in progress.

The Kiss:

Garden Verses:

Christmas Elegance:

Some Project Updates

2011-02-28T12:03:00.000-05:00

Although I've been a little (ha) remiss about posting to the blog, I have been working on various projects and generally making slow but steady progress. As always, I divide projects into "Miras" and "Non-Miras", since there's usually about a 50-50 mix of WIPs.

First up, Scarlet Ribands by Long Dog Sampler:

I'm nearly finished the fourth page of the design - just a little more to go on that.

And Broadway by Silver Lining:

I finally got the center page completed - that was quite a lot of work! Fortunately all the other pages of the design have less stitching so it should go quite a bit faster now. Lots of confetti stitching, but to be fair, you just don't get the same effect without it.

And you knew it was coming: I started the Celtic Ladies series!

The lady in question is Celtic Spring, and she's off to a good start.

Royal Holiday Completed

2011-02-27T08:00:00.003-05:00

The particulars: The pattern is Royal Holiday by Mirabilia; the fabric is 32 count cream belfast, done over 2. Started November 2009 and completed November 2010.

Some notes: I despise using Wisper thread, so I opted to use just plain DMC white as a substitute, something I've done to replace Wisper in previous projects. The only downfall is that there wasn't enough contrast between the white edging on her robe and the cream Belfast that I stitched her on. I fixed that by adding grey backstitching, which does what backstitching is supposed to do and make the edges pop out.

She is my fifth but not final Queen. I plan on doing Queen of Freedom and Queen of Peace in the future, but have no immediate plans to start either of these ladies just yet.

Sorry it's taken me so long to post an update, but I've had some issues with my old camera talking to my new laptop, and what's a blog about needlework without pictures, right? I think it's worked out now so it should be smooth sailing. I have lots of works in progress to update, which I'll do in the coming weeks.

It's always in the last place you look...

2010-11-10T08:47:00.001-05:00

I made it a mission to find my camera this morning, and of course, I did. I remembered taking it out of my purse and putting it aside so I could put the husband's camera in there, and for some reason I remembered doing that in the kitchen. Nope. It flashed on me that I may have done it in the car, so off to the glove compartment and there it was. Doh!

Because really....what's an update without a picture?

Here she is:

Yes.   That IS in fact some of her hair being filled in...woot!

So what's left on her?   Primarily just her head and the white fur cuff along the bottom.   There's a few little areas to fill in like the scrollwork on her skirt and other areas where I need to add the (currently) missing Kreinik.   Off to the store.

The original model of Royal Holiday is done on Chestnut belfast, which is quite a bit darker than the Cream belfast that I chose for my version.    The Chestnut background really made the fur trim on her cloak pop, which the Cream does not do, so I'm going to add some backstitching in there to compensate I think - there isn't any on the pattern.

Almost there!

I will mention....the front page of my blog gets a little visually boring to me when I'm working on fiinishing a project.   All RH, all the time LOL....at least when I'm rotating projects, it's very interesting with lots of different pictures.

Update overdue...

2010-11-09T20:48:00.000-05:00

I know, I know....I'm overdue for an update on Royal, which I assure you I have been diligently working on.   Small problem though...I seem to have misplaced my camera! Doh!   I know I was going to take it to a wedding about 10 days ago, then opted to bring the husband's (SO not used to calling him that yet!) instead as his is better than mine.    I put it somewhere safe since we were on our way out the door...I just as yet have not discovered where that actually is.

I've been working my way up her "back" area, filling in holly sprigs and white trim.   This is where the Dreaded Wisper Floss is supposed to come in...but as I absolutely loathe working with it, I've opted to use plain white DMC floss instead.   I actually opted to skip the Wisper on ALL of the previous Queens as well so Royal will fit right in.

I also did an inventory of the bling to make sure I had what I need to finish....for some reason, I've got doubles of all the beads, and I don't have one of the metallics. How did THAT happen? I'll have to make a run to the local needlepoint store, as they generally have Kreiniks in stock.   I would have done some of the metallic stitching except, of course, what I needed is what is missing. Grrr.

A goal met on Royal Holiday!

2010-10-28T09:53:00.000-04:00

With everything going on, I've still managed to fit in some stitching. Really, when you're stressed out and busy, is there ANYTHING better or more therapeutic than fitting in an hour of stitching at the end of a stressful day? Out of all the chaos comes something beautiful and calming.

I'm participating in a contest of sorts over on the Mirabilia Stitchers yuku board and my goal was to finish all the red of Royal Holiday's cloak for the contest. Normally, that's a fairly mild goal for me, given there were about 6 weeks of stitching time in the contest, but with everything going on (see last post LOL), I thought it was reasonable. Well, with two weeks to spare, I reached my goal - quite impressed with that, really. I didn't think I'd fit as much stithching in as I did.

I'm going to still continue working on Royal until she's done, as I want to get that all important 2010 finish date on her. I'm currently working on the "sash" of ribbons falling down from her waist. After that, I need to go back and fill in some of the scrollwork on her skirt and finish up all the white/gray of her cloak. After that it's onwards and upwards to give her a head!

Nifty little tidbit - although I'll be changing my last name, my "sig" of SMW will get to stay the same for my needlework projects.

2010-10-28T09:39:00.001-04:00

Sorry I've been AWOL for a couple weeks....I have been busy!

As you know, I don't talk much about my personal life on here. I'm just not one to "put it all out there" as it were....privacy and all that :-) However, I will share a little here.

I married the love of my life a little over a week and a half ago! After much stress and planning, we had an absolutely gorgeous wedding on a beautiful fall day....everything was just perfect. Yes, there were a few glitches here and there, but honestly, in the big picture of things - they were no big deal. We had some gorgeous locations for the ceremony and reception so we didn't do a lot of decorating per se, but we did have a fall theme, which included loads of potted mums everywhere, caramel & chocolate dipped apples for favors, some things in the menu that were seasonal (mini sweet potato tarts for passed appetizers, roasted butternut squash soup), beautiful flowers in fall colors (reds, oranges, yellows). We took a couple of the mums home from the ceremony (pictured above) and will plant them in the garden. I absolutely loved loved loved my dress; I also wore a brooch that my grandmother wore on her wedding day.

Back to our regularly scheduled life :-)

So hopefully...

2010-10-09T09:22:00.000-04:00

...I can get Royal Holiday finished in the next month or so. I've been working on her a bit this week, but have been fairly busy as we're counting down to "the event". Ahem.

Anyway, I'm working on getting the red on her cloak done:

Still a fair amount to go and as is often the case with Miras, headless. But every couple stitches gets you a little farther, right?

Once Royal Holiday is completed, I will feel free to start the Celtic Ladies series...one at a time and that series will get done when it gets done They're not huge so if I can finish one a year, that'll suite me. But never fear - I am not QUITE done with Mirabilia Queens...there's still Queen of Liberty and Queen of Peace kicking around. I don't have any immediate plans to do them but I expect I will at some point. And as always, I'd welcome a new Queen from Mirabilia any time Nora chooses ;-)

A new long term project!

2010-09-28T18:54:00.002-04:00

I've been rolling around the idea of doing Lavender & Lace's Celtic Ladies for a lot of years now...I've always liked them but with Mirabilia's Seasonal Queens in progress for ten years, I didn't really want to take on yet another large set until those were done.

I finally finished the four seasonal Mirabilia Queens last year, and I'm going to work on wrapping up Royal Holiday before the end of the year.   In the future, I may do Queen of Liberty and Queen of Peace but no rush.

So, as you might have guessed from the last post, I've decided to commit to doing all five of the Celtic ladies.   It may take another ten years to get these ladies done (ack!) but I'll work on them at and a time, and they'll be finished when they're finished.

I still need to get the patterns for Autumn, Summer and Winter. I bought Celtic Christmas a couple months ago (I'm still surprised that I didn't have the pattern before that). I just ordered Celtic Spring a couple days ago because I needed to order Kreiniks for Queen Mermaid (and I always add a pattern on).

I am definately doing the orange/green conversion for Autumn, and I'm inclined to start that one first.     I am doing Christmas "as is" for the pattern, and probably Spring and Summer as well, as I really like them.   Winter....lol....well I think is a candidate for some tweaking. I'll keep my eyes open to see if there's a conversion around that I like better than the current pattern, but obviously there's plenty of time because I may not start it until 2015 at this rate LOL.

I've joined up with another blog as well, the Celtic Ladies SAL.   Lots of wonderful stitchers over there who are also working on one or more of these ladies.

I'm in love....

2010-09-26T21:01:00.000-04:00

with this version of Lavender and Lace's Celtic Autumn.....

That time of the year...

2010-09-25T12:21:00.000-04:00

Now that fall is officially here and the weather is getting cooler, I start thinking about what projects I want to wrap up before the end of the year.

I seem to be able to average completing four large projects a year, which is pretty good I think. So far this year, I've had three, so there's no pressure to rush.   Feasibly, with three months left, I could finish just about any of the projects I have started....so which ones do I really want to try?

Since my other three projects that I completed were all Miras...it might be nice to finish up something that's not.    Closest to being completed would be my Chatelaine, Knotgarden. Lots of specialty stitches there that will take up some time, as well as beading, etc.   I could also finish Broadway, my Silver Lining rose, although I haven't done a ton of that.    I'm not worried about rushing through Scarlet Ribands, as it's an easy stitch - the size of it is what is taking the time with that.

Mira-wise...obviously Royal Holiday is the closest to getting finished as the other three have only had about a week or so worth of work on them so far.

So...some thinking to do!

Queen Mermaid

2010-09-25T11:41:00.000-04:00

A finish always calls for a new start, doesn't it?

And so I got started on Queen Mermaid (yes, another Mirabilia) this week. The fabric is Sterling Silver cashel linen from Silweaver, which has a lovely blue-silver tone to it, perfect for mermaids. She's the first start of a Mirabilia since I decided to switch over to 28 count fabrics for anything that has a lot of beading on it. I prefer stitching on 32 count fabric for sure, but I think when it comes to getting all the beads on, I'll be happier with that decision - I hate having to struggle to make them fit or leave out rows of them because they just won't.

Mirabilia mermaids just seem to stitch up very quickly, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. They tend to be a bit smaller than the Grand Ladies that I like - for the most part, they comfortably fit on fat quarter size fabrics. I need to order the bling for her as I'll need the metallics sooner rather than later. She has lots of beads and treasures as well (of course!).

I'll probably continue stitching her over the weekend simply because I'm really enjoying myself.

And at last....Sleeping Beauty

2010-09-18T10:52:00.001-04:00

And she is, at last, complete.

The particulars:   The design is Sleeping Beauty by Mirabilia; the fabric is "Fathom" by Picture This Plus, 32 count lugana done over 2.    Started May 2009; completed September 17, 2010.

Backstory:   Back in the mid-90's, I originally fell in love with this design and decided to try it. I'd never done any linen or over 2 stitching at all or anything this large. I made the mistake of starting on the area of the design that I've recently dubbed The Green Monster and predictably, ended up quitting after a couple days.   Put her away.

Re-bought all the supplies in early 2009 (after spending 10+ years exclusively stitching over 2 and on linen, and after having completed several Mirabilias) and got her started again.    She is the first piece that I decided to use hand dyed fabric.

Last winter I was going through about six tubs of assorted crafty things before I moved and found the original Sleeping Beauty...lol..poor thing! It was quite a mess and I know why I quit.

The nickname of The Green Monster came about because the pale green draped area of her skirt was a pain to do! Blends, white, greens, lots of confetti stitching to get the shading effect AND leaving the open swirls for future beading. I ended up stitching one 10x10 square of the pattern at a time because it was the most effective way to move through the pattern. And of course...it also ended up delaying the finish by a week because the pattern indicates you only need one packet of the pale blue beads. Itended up requiring almost four full packets of beads, which I had to order online.

But the Green Monster was eventually tamed - put the last beads on about an hour ago.

2010-09-16T20:44:00.003-04:00

Shhh.....stalking the mailman for my extra beads for Sleeping Beauty...

The Green Monster strikes again....

2010-09-09T10:03:00.000-04:00

Well, it seems the Green Monster isn't quite finished causing me problems LOL

Normally, Mirabilia patterns are quite good about listing when you need extra skeins of floss (although I usually use more - I'm terribly wasteful with floss when I stitch I think) and extra beads (which have been accurate on the other ten Miras that I've stitched).

Alas, not so with Sleeping Beauty. The Green Monster has chewed it's way through the entire packet of beads it called for, and isn't even a third of the way beaded. Doh! I did have one more packet of beads in my stash, but that won't be enough. There also aren't enough of the medium blue beads, although the disparity isn't nearly as great.

I don't think this picture shows really well on here where the beads run out - I'm working on the bottom swoop of the Green Monster, and that's about as far as I got with the one bead pack - everything above that still needs to be beaded. I stopped after that because I can guestimate from there how many more I need and started with the blue beads at the top to confirm that I need more of those as well (and I will).

I'll be away this weekend so no work on her for a couple days. I'll probably wait until I get back to order replacement beads (or just try one of the local needlework stores).

So the grand finish will have to be put off for a little bit...but it's coming!

2010-09-08T16:02:00.001-04:00

....still beading the Green Monster....

2010-09-07T18:11:00.002-04:00

Beading The Green Monster tonight.

Well hello there...

2010-09-07T07:15:00.000-04:00

And finally....a face.

Beading today, and then she's complete.

Filling in the blanks

2010-09-04T11:30:00.001-04:00

Now that the right hand side of Sleeping Beauty is finished, I'm working my way up the left hand side, filling in all the areas I skipped over when I was working there last.

If there's a large area of white on a piece that I know is going to take me a long time, I usually leave it closer to the end so that it doesn't pick up any dirt over the months (years) it takes me to finish it. Ugh. I'm going to have white floss nightmares tonight I think.   I also did (surprise) some more roses, leaving me with a grand total of one more bunch of them over her currently non-exisitent elbo.

I did get a little floss yesterday at Joann's - silly store put a limit on the number of skeins to 32.     I mean seriously. 32?   I almost never buy that few, unless I'm just picking up a couple of colors needed for a project that I'm working on.   Fortunately I was only getting about 50, so I just went through line twice LOL Can you imagine if it was one of my floss blow outs when I buy 200+ at one shot?

I got a fat half of fabric from a fellow stitcher (mostly) through trade that I thought might work well for Chatelaine's Watergarden. Now, I'm not going to be starting that until I finish with my current Chatelaine, Knotgarden.    I thought it would look good on a blue background, and you know I like more muted colors than bright ones. Since I got the fabric, I wanted to do a floss drop to see how well that color would work.

So here's the floss drop. Although it works really well with most of the Watergarden colors, I think it washes out the bright blues (on the left) that are one of the reasons I really like Watergarden in the first place. There's also a lot of bright blue beading as well.

I have plenty of time to decide whether or not I'll stick with this fabric or maybe just use an antique white. Either way, I like the fabric itself (a solid cashel) so if I don't use it for this project, I'll surely use it for another.

Sales!

2010-09-03T06:19:00.001-04:00

Joann Fabric has DMC embroidery floss buy 3-get 1 free Friday through Monday this weekend.

Michaels has a bunch of coupons here; some are good all week while some are only good Sunday and Monday.

Have a great Labor Day!

Everything's coming up roses...

2010-09-01T07:22:00.004-04:00

.....and finally, a (nearly) completed frame. I still have some greens to fill in one the upper right hand corner, but all the flowers are finished. Whew! Don't ask to look at the back in that section LOL

I had a few nervous moments where I thought that the one side of the frame wasn't going to match up with the other, but no, turns out I made a small mistake that was easily frogged.

I was hoping to get the entire corner finished over the weekend, but that proved to be a little too ambitious. I should be able to finish up this corner in the next day or two, and move back to the left side of piece and fill in all the areas that I missed there, including even more roses...ack!

Sleeping Beauty gets a Blue Ribbon

2010-08-27T07:16:00.000-04:00

....or at least the bottom of her skirt does.

I'm making good progress up the left border this week, and shoudl be moving on to the urn today or tomorrow.

It looks like the border SHOULD line up correctly with the top border...yay!   I'm always a little nervous about that.   Still, I'm not going to be daring and start working my way down instead of up - I suspect that would be courting disaster LOL

I'm so excited to be this close to finishing her....it's been a long, long journey to get here.

And since I just keep showing "teaser" partial pictures, here's a full picture of where she's at now:

If I had to guess, I'd say I could be beading in maybe two weeks. Yay! After I finish the top right hand corner (hopefully maybe this weekend?), I need to go back and finish her hair and face, fill in a bunch of white in the draping that the left, and add a couple more sprays of roses. Although there's extensive beading, it's fairly straight forward with only three colors of beads.

Let the countdown begin!

Turning a corner....

2010-08-23T06:54:00.001-04:00

...literally.

I like how the spray of roses looks against The Green Monster.

I'm working my way up the left side of the pattern now.   I've completed out to the top left corner but still have to do all the detailing there (ribbons, roses, little purple things) as yet.

Hopefully it'll all meet up in one line LOL   I'm sure it'll be fine (that, or I'll just tweak the pattern and you won't be able to tell - not that I've ever done THAT before ;-)).

The last of the stash has arrived...

2010-08-21T08:23:00.001-04:00

I know. You were worried ;-)

My sterling silver from Silkweaver arrived yesterday. As for the color variations on it, it is VERY subtle...so much so that when I first saw it, I wasn't sure if it was hand dyed at all LOL Honestly, it's not that different from the confederate gray I recently got (although twice as expensive). All in all though it's true to the color sample on Silkweaver's website and I think it will do nicely for the it's intended projects.

As always, I was compelled to do a floss toss, although it's a great neutral fabric that you could put just about anything on and have it look good. The blue undertones in the grey make it a really nice alternative for mermaids to using a blue.

Here's Queen Mermaid.   I think it's a better choice than the Amsterdam blue I was originally going to do her on. My fat quarter of blue has been returned to stash and I'll pair it up with something else another time.

There's a lot of bling on Queen Mermaid (which I haven't yet gotten) so I chose a cashel (28 count) instead of my usual belfast (32 count) so that it's not such a struggle to get the Mill Hills to sit straight on.   I am also considering switching over to using Delicata beads in the future, which are slightly smaller than Mill Hills and sit better on 32 count over 2 fabrics like my beloved belfast.

She'll be the next in line for a Mirabilia start...can't wait!   I think she'll actually work up very quickly, as mermaids seem to do.

And here's her companion, Deepest Love.   There's more blues in the coloring than in Queen Mermaid (which has a lot of greens) which is another reason the gray background works well for both of them.   She has some beading but not quite as much as Queen Mermaid; again, added bling is on the wish list but I haven't gotten it yet.

I consider a project ready to start when I have pattern, fabric & floss...I can always buy the beads/metallics later.   So if you're keeping count, that's three Mira mermaids I have ready to go now. Ack!

The model for Deepest Love is actually on the Amsterdam Blue I nixed for Queen Mermaid, but I think she'll look lovely on the gray.

I'm not sure when I'll fit in doing Deepest Love, but I figured if I wanted to do her on the same fabric as Queen Mermaid, I needed to buy the fabric at the same time, especially as it's a hand-dyed.

I'm really happy that I decided to do these two as "companion" pieces.   Having the same fabric really pulls them together I think, and eventually (when I hit the lottery and can catch up on my framing) I'll have them framed in the same frame, same size.   I may not ever hang them together but I like having that as an option.

So I performed surgery very carefully and split my fat half of fabric into two fat quarters and have packed away these lovely fish for now.

The Green Monster is done!

2010-08-20T07:56:00.000-04:00

With all this plotting and planning and stashing, yes, I have actually squeezed in some stitching.

And as is appropriate with so much planning for new projects, I'm pushing to get Sleeping Beauty finished. There's still quite a bit to do, but I'm slowly but steadily working through it. Of significance, I FINALLY finished the green monster, aka her skirt, yesterday!

This was the ONLY time working on any Mirabilia where I had to go back and work 10x10 grid squares on the pattern. As I've mentioned before, there is not only the shading between darker greens into white, but also leaving the swirls open for beading. Argh! It was a complicated process to be sure, but it's finally done.

As you can see, I'm working on adding more roses, of which there are plenty still to go. I will probably work my way out to the right border and finish that first, then work my way back and fill in areas that I have done some of the work but not completed (lots of that!).

Floss Drop

2010-08-20T07:36:00.001-04:00

Alrighty....here's the floss drop for Rose Celebration on the Charm. Unfortunately I'm missing three colors for the skirt because the store I went to was out of a lot of colors. Well, not a lot , but a lot of the ones I needed LOL so same difference.

In comparison to the skirt colors (the ones separated off to the left), the fabric actually has a lot of blue/purple in it. That's a good thing, because there's also some purple detailing in the piece, and means that the pinks of the skirt won't get lost into the background.

Additionally, GoldenAngelWorks left me a comment on my last post showing someone else's Rose Celebration, also done on a pink background. There's a picture here of it framed. While it's a different fabric, it really gives me a better idea of the potential once it's stitched.

I'm going to pick up the rest of the floss colors today, and make a decision, but I'm feeling a lot more comfortable about my original choice.

I wonder if my mailman knows he's being stalked?

2010-08-18T09:16:00.002-04:00

Which is what always happens when I've ordered some cross stitch things and they haven't all quite gotten here yet....

I'm still waiting on my Silkweaver fabric, but that should be here any day now since they said it was shipping last week. Since that was the "kick off" of my little fabric buying spree and it's the last one to show up, it's inciting some mailman-stalking-behavior on my part LOL.

Meanwhile, I did get some other goodies.

Heidi from Mirabilia Stitchers was doing a little de-stashing and I bought some fat quarters of cashel linen from her for a really good price. They were colors that I'm very familiar with - confederate grey and waterlilly - and also are very neutral so there's so many things I could use them for.

Although they won't be used anytime soon, I'm already plotting potential pieces for them. Size-wise, they're ideal for fairies and mermaids - designs that are just a bit smaller in scope.

Although I haven't decided yet (and won't for a while), the confederate grey has a few contenders, such as Christmas Flourishes, Lilly of the Woods, Woodland Fairy, and Cottage Garden Fairy. The waterlillies is perfect for a mermaid - maybe Bluebeard's Princess Mirabila. Titania would work great on either one of them.

I got my order in from Picture This Plus yesterday, and have a bit of a dilemma. I ordered a piece of Mercedes for Enchanted Mermaid, and I think that will be perfect.

There is a particularly dark spot on the fabric and I think if I position it right, I can get her lighter tail to be stitched over that spot, which I think will look really good.

You'll notice the floss there - Michael's had a 25% off sale on Sunday night only, so I picked up floss for Deepest Love and Enchanted. I made the mistake of NOT getting floss for Rose Celebration (which was on my list) simply because I had someone waiting for me, and you know how long it takes to both pick out floss and get it rung up....one....skein....at....a....time.

That was a mistake, because now that I got the fabric in for Rose Celebration....I think I might have made a mistake.

It's just SO pink!!! I knew it was going to be pink but I don't think I realized it was going to be that PINK, you know? There's also a fair amount of pink in the design.

I have a week to decide if I want to keep it or send the fabric back and exchange it for something that will work better. I'm going to go ahead and get the floss of her so I can get a better idea of how the colors will work. If I send the Charm back, I'm leaning towards more beige-y brown backgrounds, like Heritage.

Making much of time

2010-08-14T10:32:00.000-04:00

I wanted to work on an easier piece as sort of a "palette cleanser" this week, so I pulled Scarlet Ribands out.

I have to say, working with one color definately simplifies things, doesn't it? It's a large pattern though so it's going to take a fair amount of time....I'm only about 2/3 done of page 3 of 12 pages...ack! I think this will end up being a two-year + project.

Anyway. I wanted to work on something simpler this week because I'm pulling Sleeping Beauty back out and I'm going to push to get her finished. Yay!

Coconut-Lemon Hand Scrub

2010-08-14T07:09:00.000-04:00

Confession time. While I've never really been one to wear a lot of makeup, I've always loved lovely scented body products like shower gels, lotions, scrubs, etc. And while I maybe don't buy the most expensive products, I always have plenty of them around.

Lately, I've become more and more interested in making some of these products myself, because I think there are ways to make better products for less money per use (although the initial purchase of some of the ingredients is more expensive). I thought I'd share with you my latest creation. It was inspired from a couple of different "recipes" I found on the web, and I'm sorry but I didn't save the links to give them credit.

Some of the ingredients you might not be familiar with, but they are reasonably available.

I've been using extra virgin coconut oil for a while now; it's a fantastically healthy oil to eat, and it's also good for your skin.   Using it straight is a bit messy though, so expect to see it show up as an ingredient in other things as I experiment more.   You can get coconut oil (make sure to get the extra virgin/expellor pressed rather than regular, especially if you're going to consume it) at a health food store or with the organic/healthy type products in a regular grocery store.   I order larger containers like this online because even with the shipping, it's less expensive than multiple small jars.

The other ingredient is sweet almond oil which is also a great skin moisturizer.   I also ordered this online from Netrition, but it's available in a lot of places.    I've seen it in a few health food stores.   You could also substitute jojoba oil, extra virgin olive oil, or even just all coconut oil in place of the almond oil if you wanted.

Otherwise, the ingredients are easy to find.

For the scrub, mix 1 1/2 cups of epsom salts with the zest of one lemon, juice of one lemon, 3 tablespoons of coconut oil (when liquid; warm slightly if solid), and 3 tablespoons of sweet almond oil.

That's it...just that simple.    If I had a little lemon essential oil, I would have added a drop or two of that to boost the lemon aroma as it's subtle.    Lemon is used because it can help strengthen nails as well as acts as an astringent/anti-bacterial/antifungal.   And of course, it just smells lovely and fresh.

To use, just scoop out a generous tablespoon of the scrub and work into your hands, elbos, heels, wherever needs a little TLC. Rinse with warm water and pat dry.

Your hands may feel a little greasy after using this if you're used to commercial products, but give it about 15 minutes or so and your skin will feel wonderfully soft and smooth.

Enjoy!

Introducing Garden Verses

2010-08-07T08:42:00.002-04:00

Obviously working on three Mirabilia projects at once isn't enough, particularly when one is so close to being finished. And so, I indulged a little bit (ok a lot) and started on a new one this past week.

With my love of the Queens, it's no surprise that Garden Verses is a favorite as well. She's #4 of the Mirabilias (there's over 100 Miras now), so quite an old design, relatively speaking. Like most of the older Miras, there's not so much bling on her - no beading at all and just some gold blending filament.

The colors are rich and royal with purples and burgandies, which is why I consider her at least a first cousin of the Queens.

I had a good couple of days working on her this week so here's where I got:

I usually start in the middle of the pattern so this is her lap area. The fabric is Apricot belfast (closest DMC color is 948 to give you an idea) which I'm also doing The Kiss on. Because of her size, Garden Verses needed a fat half of the fabric; there was enough leftover that I could squeeze The Kiss on, and the fabric color works for them as well.

So if you remember in the previous post, I was trying to get as much of the golden-yellow-brown skirt done as possible on Royal. This is why - Garden Verses has an identical color palette for the main dress. For that matter, there are quite a few Mirabilias that use these colors for the dress. Of Miras that I've done, Fairy Idyll, Autumn Queen and The Dreamer all feature dresses in this floss color range; now Royal and Garden both are wearing the same colors. For future Mira projects that I'm doing, Rose Celebration, Venetian Opulence, and Rose of Sharon also have tawny yellow dresses (I will be changing the color of Rose of Sharon's dress though).

You would think that all these ladies would check with each other to make sure they're not all wearing the same thing, wouldn't you? Apparently not.

Royal Holiday

2010-07-31T07:39:00.001-04:00

It's Royal Holiday's turn this week!

I have to do a "before" and "after" picture of Royal because I'm actually quite surprised that I got so much done.

Here she is at the end of the last time she was in rotation:

And while I don't feel I worked on her an inordinate amount this week, I was focusing on getting as much of that golden brown skirt done as possible. It was actually very easy stitching with no confetti, not a ton of color changes, etc.

And here she is:

I know, right? I did feel a need to take a break from all the browns and do some of the red of the cloak, but I got almost all of the brown skirt completed. An extra hour or two will complete that, plus some time working on filling in the swirl pattern with the metallics. They will have to wait for the next rotation.

And there's a reason why I wanted to get most of the skirt done, but you'll have to check back in a few days to find out....mwahahaha...

And just like that....

2010-07-26T20:42:00.000-04:00

The PtP sale is over....doh!

Warning....reading this post may result in spending money....

2010-07-26T10:41:00.001-04:00

SALE!!! Yeah, it's my favorite word too.

Picture This Plus is having a Christmas in July sale on their hand dyed fabrics. Add the fabric to your cart and you get at 25% discount taken off....wooo hooo!

(Don't ask. Blew the non-existent budget.)

Two Gates, Twelve Urns, Six Pages down....

2010-07-24T07:47:00.000-04:00

And I think I can officially (finally!) call half way done on Knotgarden.

I have also made a decision to use the variegated silks for the specialty stitches (none of which have been completed). I think it'll add a little extra pop, so I've added them to my (very long) shopping list. I have all the beads tucked away for this project but obviously, I'm not close to getting any kind of beading done. It's only JUST going to fit on my largest scroll frame to bead...ack! I'll make it work.

Sneak Peek....

2010-07-23T07:03:00.002-04:00

My upcoming....ahem...."project" in October.....

(With my well-documented Mira addiction, you *knew* it would be something grand, right?)

Adieu to Sleeping Beauty

2010-07-18T08:19:00.004-04:00

No updated picture, since I haven't made much progress since I posted a picture the other day. I packed her up yesterday and I'm working on Chatelaine's Knotgarden this week.

Next time Sleeping Beauty comes up in rotation, I'll work on her until she's finished.

So Naughty.....

2010-07-17T10:14:00.001-04:00

Truly....

Back in the last round of kitting up Mirabilias, I had a piece of Amsterdam Blue linen that I wanted to use up, and decided to do Queen Mermaid on it. After I got the floss...I was a bit "meh" about the floss drop on the dark grey-blue fabric.

I think it could have worked, but the Amsterdam Blue just wasn't bringing anything to the table to make Queen Mermaid pop.

I obviously wasn't in a hurry to start the project (having so many going and a bunch of other Miras also kitted) so I just sat on the project, occasionally thinking about what to do. I was ok reconsidering the fabric because I already had the piece; I don't feel like I'm "wasting" it as it will just go back into storage where it's been the last 2 years.

Anyway....I go play on the Mirabilia Fabric Viewer fairly regularly, and after playing around quite a bit, I have really grown to like the idea of doing Queen Mermaid on a pearly gray background. Of course, there are a lot of options there, in both solid and hand dyed. You know me - I don't especially like a busy background, so I prefer either solids or just a subtle design. Since solids are a lot less expensive than hand dyeds, there's that to consider as well.

I jumped into a conversation on a Mira discussion board about the fabric for Queen Mermaid, and it was suggested that she's a great companion for Mira's Deepest Love, because they both form either side of a circle, like so:

In fact, someone rather ambitious has done both mermaids on one piece of fabric here.....isn't it fantastic?

So of course, now I'm sold on doing them both (although I will do them as 2 separate pieces), which means that I also want to do them on the same color of fabric....which means that I not only have to buy a new piece of fabric for Queen Mermaid but also for Deepest Love...have I mentioned that my budget is really tight right now? LOL   Fortunately, I already have the pattern for Deepest Love.

Anyway....I've been jonesing to get started on Queen Mermaid the last couple weeks, especially with Sleeping Beauty drawing to an end.   I narrowed my fabric choices down to Zweigart's Pearl Gray (a solid) and Silkweaver's Sterling Silver.   Both pieces are heavily beaded and as difficult as it was to get all the beads on Midsummer Night's Fairy on 32 count fabric, I had decided to start using 28 count fabric for heavily beaded works when possible.

I've been playing around all morning with sizing so I can buy the smallest piece of fabric possible (and therefore spend the least), and if I do them on 28 count and deal with there only being about a 2 1/2 inch margin on either side (there will be a larger margin top and bottom)...I can get both pieces on a fat half of linen. YAY! I really try not to have extra pieces of un-assigned fabric in my stash; it's both the storage and the cost of having something that is not being used.   Obviously it's a good savings if you can make a pre-sized cut of fabric work for you rather than buying a bigger piece and wasting a bunch of it.

So the winner?

Silkweaver's Sterling Silver. I broke down and ordered a fat half this morning.

I think they will be beautiful on this fabric. I know a lot of people really like the brightly colored hand dyed fabrics, but they're just not my speed for the most part. This has got a lovely subtle shading, like Fathom from Picture This Plus, which I did both Mermaid of Atlantis and Sleeping Beauty on. I got a fat half there and squeezed as much onto it design-wise that I could, and that worked out well.

So yes...I was naughty. I didn't really need this but sometimes, you just have to!

Still Going...

2010-07-13T12:01:00.000-04:00

Yes, yes...I'm still working on Sleeping Beauty. I just haven't felt like changing projects as yet, and she's growing nicely now. I still have a lot of areas that I haven't completed and need to go back and fill in, and there are plenty more roses to do.

I'm currently working to finish off the bottom of the green swirly part of the bedding. I'll be glad when that's done.

I got the roses across the top finished, but there are a lot more scattered around that need to be completed. You can also see where the top border on the right is starting to curve down, so that gives a better idea of final dimensions.

I will putting her away on Friday to move along to the next piece, but next time around that she's in rotation, I'll be finishing her.

Coming along nicely...

2010-06-26T09:28:00.000-04:00

Sleeping Beauty is coming along nicely. I am invoking executive privilege and will continue to work on Sleeping Beauty for an additional week. I wanted to get some more of the pesky roses done as there are quite a few, and I don't want to leave it all until the end. They're pesky because while beautiful, there's a lot of confetti-like stitching in them. I wanted to get some work done on the top border this week and just didn't get to it.

I did get most of the green swirly swag of the skirt done and am currently working on the upper part where it's blue and white shaded. You can't see the blue stitching too well on this picture so I took a close up. This is going to look spectacular when it's beaded.

I have to say, I am tempted to keep working on her until she's finished at this point. Not only do I have lots of other Miras crying to be started, but I just love this design and it's been fun to work on. We'll see how I feel about it next Friday LOL Knotgarden is up next and I really want to work on that as well.

Broadway!

2010-06-18T16:31:00.000-04:00

I had hoped to get the first page of Broadway completed this week, but won't quite make it. This is the only page of the patter that is just about completely stitched, so the subsequent pages will go along quite a bit more quickly.

I'm still pleased with the progress....love the colors! It never quite comes through in a picture as it does in person. I love how the petals swirl around the center. I don't quite see it as I'm stitching because I'm working on 10x10 blocks but it's always a surprise when I step back and see what all those little X's form.

I could almost just finish this one page and have it framed as is....so gorgeous!

Strawberry Sampler

2010-06-18T15:07:00.002-04:00

I was in the neighborhood of Strawberry Sampler this week, so I stopped in for a look around. I've been there before, but it's been probably two or three years.

I think I'm destined to be disappointed in cross stitch stores because my tastes are very specific. I miss Countryside Stitchery which used to be open in Newtown, PA - always tons and tons of patterns, and that's what I'm really interested in if I'm not shopping for materials for a specific project.

And honestly....patterns are where it's at for me - it's the ONLY thing I collect, and I'm specific about the ones that I want. Right now, it's mostly Silver Lining ones, some old Mirabilias that I don't already have, and a few others. But there's no pressure because I won't be kitting up anything new soon.

They did have a couple Long Dog Samplers which were nice to see, but they're very pricey for "recreational shopping". I picked up Celtic Christmas, which I'm surprised that I don't have - it's a piece I've long enjoyed and I'm not ashamed to admit that somewhere in the back of my mind, I'd like to do the four Celtic seasonal pieces.

So, I think that if there's some specific threads/materials you want or you're looking for stitching goodies other than patterns...might be worth a trip. I'm probably too roped into my specific tastes and it's easier for me to shop online.

Cat and Mouse

2010-06-12T09:47:00.000-04:00

Yay for quick service!

I ordered my extra floss from HDF last Sunday and had them on Thursday. Not surprisingly, it's a different dye lot than those I already have but since I ordered them six months apart it's to be expected. They look identical to me but I will still blend them when I stitch, because it tends to be more obvious if there is any kind of color difference then.

Despite my feelings that after stitched, there's not a huge visual difference between silks and regular DMC....the silks certainly do feel fantastic.

And of course, working on Scarlet Ribands all this week. I didn't quite get the second page finished, but I'm working on the partial motifs that overlap from page 2 to page 3. The partials at the bottom of the page are complete.

I thought I might get bored working on a piece that only has one floss color, but I actually like the simplicity of it. At this stage, it's not quite as spectacular as some of the other pieces that I'm working on (like Broadway, which is coming up in rotation next) but it's really interesting in a subtle kind of way.

The details are just really great. For example, there's this little cat and moust detail, although the cat isn't quite finished as it overlaps to another page. I do just enough on the overlap section that I won't have any problem picking up where I was working previously when I get to the next page. Other than the historic appeal of red work, there's just a lot going on.

One page down....

2010-06-06T07:00:00.006-04:00

....eleven more to go. This is page one completed. The pattern pages are printed with a shaded overlap to each page, which is really nice since I prefer work on one page at a time. It's easy to see where the overlaps are.

I thought last time that I worked on Scarlet Ribands that I hadn't ordered enough silks to complete the project, and I definately think that's the case. I finished the first complete page of the pattern, which used three full skeins of silk (Hand Dyed Fibers' 1147 OMG Red).

In theory then, it should take me about 36 skeins to finish all twelve pages of the design.   I didn't have nearly that many, so I ordered the balance of the threads this morning with two extra skeins.   I hope there's no problems with the color lots being too different since it's been a couple months since I ordered the first batch.   If there's a difference, I'll just have to do some blending - not a big deal.

This is the first project that I've ever tried to do in all silk floss as opposed to DMC with some silk highlights (usually Waterlilies). I like working with the silks - there's a great feel to them. I'm not sure that I think there's a huge difference in appearance from DMC though other than the silks have slight color variations in them.   Because this design is one color on one background, I thought that it would be nice to try a different floss for it, and I am pleased with how it looks so far.   And of course - there's always that factor that I *know* it's done in silks and not cotton that is nice. (Sort of the opposite of when there's a mistake that no one else sees,but you do and it drives you nuts because the piece is framed and it's a little late to do anything about it).

HDF's are definately quite affordable for silk floss.   Perhaps in the future, I might use HDF in a Mirabilia by doing the dress in silks and the rest in DMC. It would be interesting to see the contrast of silks and the cotton flosses in a piece like that.

Roses, Roses

2010-06-05T07:43:00.001-04:00

Nora does love her roses, which is good because I do too. I didn't have a lot of time to work on The Kiss during the week, but I got a littl more done. And with that, she's packed up and has to wait a little while before she goes back in rotation.

Busy week for me, but hopefully should have some good news on the job front soon.

Up next: back to working on Scarlet Ribands by Long Dog Samplers.

Kiss on the Half Shell

2010-05-31T07:35:00.001-04:00

The future-in-laws are over this weekend and it's turned into one of those "let's sit around and watch racing all weekend" kind of things. I'd like "equal time" at some point and have a Jane Austen movie marathon, but I don't think that's likely to happen LOL

Anyway. I opted to shamelessly indulge myself in a stitching marathon instead. The object of my affection?

I think I've done about 25-30 hours over the last couple days, and the long weekend isn't over yet. Mwahahahaha!

With the head tilt and the flowing hair (and her current lack of clothing) she totally reminds me of classic "Venus on the Half Shell" pose...aka Boticelli's The Birth of Venus. Right, I know the head tilt is the opposite way but without checking the original artwork, you don't really remember that.

Anyway....another day of stitching today! I want to finish off the sky and get started on some of the flowers or her dress.

My Mirabilia Obsession

2010-05-29T08:11:00.001-04:00

Yes, Kathy, another Mirabilia!

And yes...I am obsessed with Mirabilia.   When it comes to stitching, there's Mirabilia, and then there's everything else.   I like a lot of the "everything else" to be sure, particularly Silver Lining.  But they're still "everything else".

I first found Mirabilia in the mid-1990's, and it's been all about them since (although I did take a several-year break from doing a lot of stitching - a dark age, to be sure.) They were a little above my skill level then; now they're easy and comfortable for me to work on.   If there's a project (one of the "others") that I'm having trouble with or my stitching mojo is a little off....then it's a Mirabilia that I want to work on to get me back.

I'm definately an "old school big Mira" fan...the alphabet fairies and pixie series are just not my cup of tea.   Give me big, bold, and elegant every time.

I generally plan Mira's in blocks of four.   Sleeping Beauty and Royal Holiday are part of the last block that also included Midsummer Night's Fairy and Mermaid of Atlantis. The new "block" is The Kiss, Garden Verses, Queen Mermaid and Christmas Elegance.   They are mostly kitted up (but obviously still tweaking as I'm going to get new fabric for QM). I still need a few bangles for some of them.

Next block of four?   It's still subject to change, but will most likely be: Rose of Sharon, Venetian Opulence, Rose Celebration, and Enchanted Mermaid.   I also have a few that are tentative after that....Titania, Stone Roses, Christmas Flourishes, Queen of Freedom or Queen of Peace, Deepest Love, My Lady's Garden, etc....there will always be more to do :-)

False start....

2010-05-29T07:42:00.003-04:00

It was supposed to be Wood Warblers I this week on rotation. Warblers is part of one of my "grand plan" large projects - it's actually a series of two rather large bellpulls from Crossed Wings Collection and includes some lovely songbirds, foliage and flowers that change for every bird, some over-1 stitching, etc. I had to buy a full yard of linen for them (28 count because of the over-1 areas) and split lengthwise to have two 18x55 pieces; since there were a lot of overlapping colors I built one large box of floss for both of them to share (and all of them wouldn't fit in one box). When they're both finish, I will get some fancy schmancy bellpull hardware and a yard of fabulous (probably floral) tapestry fabric to finish them off. I envision them being hung on either side of the front door or perhaps on either side of the picture window in the dining room.

Just couldn't get into working on it this week for some reason.

I did finish the first bird and surrounding flora though, so that's one down, eight more to go for this bellpull. I also did all the backstitching because I want to finish one bird completely before I move on. There's just too much backstitching in the overall piece to leave it to the end and then do it all at once.

The bird's eye is over one, and I'll be honest, it looks a little flat to me. Having had pet birds on and off all my life, their eyes are small and black - if you look very close, you can see some color variation, but they're definitely not pale blue/white as this one appears. Grumble, grumble. Unfortunately because it IS over one and multiple colors, it's nearly impossible to frog and fix this bird's. But I'll adjust the others.

So, what did I work on instead of Warblers this week? Funny you should ask....

The Kiss! Yes, it's another Mirabilia. I actually didn't have a lot of stitching time this week but with the holiday weekend here (and being subjugated to lots of car racing on television this weekend), I should get a fair amount done. I am going to get in another day or two working on Warblers.

I had picked up some of the bling for The Kiss a couple weeks ago.   The pattern calls for #8 Kreinik which frankly I hate to work with.   Fortunately I found a needlepoint store not too far from me that stocks (!!!) a huge amount of Kreiniks, so I went through and matched up good substitutes - some exact, one or two very close - in #4 Kreiniks.   I also got most of the beads; I know I'm short a couple packets but obviously am not in dire need of getting them anytime soon.

The Kiss is one of the more petite Mirabilias, and is unusual in that almost all of the background is filled in. As you can see, I've been working on the blue skies. Most of the background fabric will be covered.   I wish I had a little bit more room on the right and left hand sides of the fabric but there's just a 3 inch margin on either side of the design since the fabric is a "leftover" piece from another project (Garden Verses which is not yet started). I might have to downsize to an 8 x 11 Qsnap frame to work on it a little easier.   The fabric is a 32 count belfast linen in apricot.   It's more orange-y than the picture shows but it's a nice color.

I've also had a little fun this week playing with some future Mira projects.   First of all, the Amsterdam Blue that I was going to do Queen Mermaid on is history - I was never 100% about that as a background color and I've decided to nix it. Already had the fabric, so it will just go back into stash until it has a home. Instead, I am going to get another fabric for her. I don't really want to do another blue background, and I really like the look of her on a grey fabric.   The current frontrunner of fabric options is Pearl Grey Zweigart belfast linen. If I can find a shaded hand dyed grey, I may consider that.

Also, a fellow stitcher on one of the Mirabilia Yuku boards pointed out that when you hang Queen Mermaid side to side with Deepest Love, the curves of their bodies is complimentary and they make a great pair. Definately something to think about!  When I get around to ordering fabric for Queen Mermaid, I will get enough to also do Deepest Love if I chose to do them as a pair.

I'm also still tweaking my Rose of Sharon conversion.   I know I want to do her on cream belfast, and am changing her dress to lavender (or possibly rose pinks) and the ruffle to cream.   I'm getting down the colors for both conversions right now, and will decide when it's time to start kitting her up. RoS is a ways off though...obviously lots of projects to get finished (and started) before I get to her.

It's good to be the Queen....

2010-05-21T07:40:00.000-04:00

Or Christmas Queen, aka Royal Holiday. I really should warn any of you who are considering doing any of the Mirabilia Queens.

They're addictive.

I'm now moaning over the fact that after I finish Royal Holiday, there's only Queen of Freedom left to do. Nevermind that I have a long way to go over my currently-headless Queen.

She's actually working up fairly quickly. I spent a week with her last November, and this is after working on her the second full week.

I've decided to just use DMC white floss to substitute for the Wisper in the cloak (which I refuse to use - hate it!). I did that with Autumn Queen; on Winter Queen, I used a blend of white floss and white metallic. I don't think Royal needs the extra sparkle of the blend.

More organizational stuff...

2010-05-19T13:23:00.001-04:00

Here's how all the "boxes" fit into the master organization plan for my stash/WIPs.

I need to backtrack a little. I used to keep a lot more stash, but I wasn't particularly organized and I ended up with boxes and boxes of stuff that I didn't use and frankly, I couldn't remember what I had. Obviously - that's rather a waste of money to say nothing of frustrating because you can't find anything.

I also have tendency to be a bit of a pack rat, so I have to consciously limit "stuff".

So I opted to get these drawer sets from Wally World to keep my craft stuff in. Eventually when I finish unpacking from the move, it will move into the closet in my office.

I had a huge purge of stuff - hopefully the local Goodwill didn't mind boxes and boxes of cross stitch magazines as well as some kits, etc. And yes...I threw out quite a bit as well....still a bit sad about that.

They're great because they don't take up a lot of floor space (tall, narrow) and basically my "rules" are that all my stash has to fit into this.

The two deep drawers at the bottom contain patterns; the other large drawer contains projects that I have kitted up but have not started (it's quite full right now).

One of the narrow drawers houses my Mirabilia pattern collection. I'm going to have to get rid of some of the duplicates because it's getting quite full and I'm running out of room to add more. And why are there duplicates? Refer to above statement about not knowing what I had because I was very disorganized.

The other narrow drawers include one for fabric, one for basic "supplies" like needles, scissors, and other assorted "necessities" for stitching. The last one is kind of a junk drawer with some leftover beads, etc. I am probably going to clean out the junk drawer to use for my Silver Lining patterns.

Disadvantage: The drawers are supposed to be on wheels. Since the whole thing is plastic, the wheels didn't hold up to the weight of all the patterns, etc. Fortunately, they just came out and got trashed.    For $20...I can't complain.

Not shown: I do have an under-the-bed style storage box that I keep all my Qsnap and scroll frame parts in because they simply do not fit into any of the drawers.

There's room for more stuff to be added, but once it gets full, I will have to get rid of some things in order to bring more in.

You'll notice that my "project boxes" are piled on top of the drawers.

The boxes are part of a set that Wally World sells, so they are designed to stack on top of each other like this.

The smaller boxes are individual projects like I showed in the last post.

One of the larger boxes contains all of the pattern materials for my "in progress" projects because I prefer not to fold them over so they fit in the smaller boxes. The other larger box has the materials with Wood Warblers I and II.

Christmas in May

2010-05-14T11:07:00.002-04:00

Time to get back to work on Royal Holiday this week. Because I change projects regularly, I've become fairly organized at how I keep projects when they are not in use, so that it's no effort to swap projects. I started using this nifty little stacking boxes that I got at Walmart - they're inexpensive, and large enough to hold fabric, floss, and other specialty items needed for an average piece. They're not quite large enough to hold the patterns, so I have one larger master "pattern" box where I keep all the in-progress patterns (here, with working copies).

I've switched over to carding up all the floss individually for each project, and keeping it in a small floss box. I got these small half-size ones that are perfect for one project and they fit in the storage box nicely. You can see some of the goodies in there as well - beads, metallic threads, and there is extra floss underneath. I used to just card & box up the floss for projects that had a lot of very similar colors to keep them straight, but decided I liked doing that better overall, so I've been switching all the projects over.

It's a fairly cheap way to keep projects organized, and once a project is done, I can empty it out and use the box for the next project.

The great thing is that when I'm switching over projects, I just have to box up the last one, change out the pattern, and get the next box - everything is there!

Knotgarden after 10 days

2010-05-14T09:08:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned, Knotgarden got a couple extra days since the doily project didn't take a full week. Here it is now:

I'm about a garden gate short of the halfway point now. The next time Knotgarden comes up in rotation, I'll have to get the silk variegated flosses and start in on some of the speciality stitches. Should be interesting! I have done some of them before and the directions make them seem very straightforward.

I have all the beads for this - there are a TON of them! Because of the overall project size, I'll have to whip out the handy dandy scroll frame to do the beading....NOT my favorite but it's useful for beading large projects.

Incidentally, since there's no way I would remember which side is "up" and it does make a difference, I have the top edge of the fabric blanket stitched in green (the other 3 sides are in white). I also have it written all over the pattern that "GREEN IS TOP" so I don't make a mistake.

I can perhaps also start thinking about which Chatelaine I might want to do next...hmmmmm...

And today's bargain....

2010-05-11T18:38:00.006-04:00

Shoes I got on the clearance rack that will go perfectly with my wedding dress.

I think they'll be about two shades darker than the actual dress, but they're a great height (I'm not a high heel kinda gal), and just SO pretty! They definately fit the very romantic/feminine feel that the dress has.

At least I got SOMETHING cheap for the wedding!

Aging Gracefully....

2010-05-10T09:22:00.000-04:00

When I was writing the previous post about Knotgarden, it got me thinking about a couple things.

The great thing about blogging about my needlework and taking pictures along the way is that I can see the progress and keep track of when I started them, etc.   The not-so-great thing is that when I look at how long I've been working on some of them, I start a bit feeling guilty LOL Just a bit, anyway.

I started both Sleeping Beauty and Knotgarden in May 2009.   To be fair, both have made appreciable progress, and although I'd like to be farther along on them (isn't that ALWAYS the case?), they really are in good shape given how many projects I have going on right now.   They'll get to a point in the next couple months where I'll pull them out and just work on them exclusively to finish them up, like I did with Midsummer Night's Fairy and Mermaid of Atlantis.

I'm still finishing about four large projects a year, which is about what I'd be doing if I worked on one project at a time. I can't remember when I last did that though LOL What can I say - I like the variety. I get bored with a project if I work on it for too long a period of time, so working on a variety of different projects keeps the creative juices flowing.

As I mentioned, Knotgarden is the first in a new series of Garden Mandalas for me, so there are more "in the pipeline" for those - I have the patterns, but nothing else kitted up right now.   I will definately be doing Watergarden and Alhambra Garden, and then we'll see.   I have not yet decided whether or not I want these framed to match. Obviously this series is going to be a long-term project, and why not...lol...it took me ten years to complete the last series, the four seasonal Queens by Mirabilia.

Meeting on the Turret Stairs has been lingering since March 2009.   I've officially dropped it out of rotation, because honestly...the heavy confetti stitching, square after square, is driving me a little nuts right now and taking some of the enjoyment of stitching out of it.   I'm not giving up on the project (although to be honest, I've considered it). I'm going to try to just work on it a day here and a day there.   I have another Artecy piece that's also a lot of confetti stitching kitted up - Waterhouse's My Sweet Rose, one of my favorite paintings.   I am holding off on starting that until there's an end in site for Meeting. I really love the effect of these painting reproductions, but I also have to like the process of stitching them..right now, that's not so much the case.

I started Mirabilia's Royal Holiday last November and haven't worked on it since. She's yet another Mirabilia so therefor a fairly stress-free project to stitch on. Obviously Mirabilia is my favorite designer, and they're all a joy to work on.  She's coming up next on rotation after I'm done with Knotgarden at the end of this week.   Unofficially, Royal Holiday (aka Christmas Queen) is #5 in the seasonal Queens series. If I finish her before I get the other four queens framed (I want them to all match), I will probably do her at the same time as well (when that time will be...not so sure LOL).

Wood Warblers I was started in January. There's also a Wood Warblers II, and I plan on doing both pieces. Because the size of the fabric that I needed for them, it was easier to get a full yard of linen and split lengthwise for both pieces than it was to get anything custom-cut. I plan on finishing them both off as bellpulls, and hang them flanking either the back door or the fireplace or the like, so it was important to me that the fabric matched - hence, best cut from one piece. They have some areas of over-1 stitching so I'm working on cashel (28 count) instead of belfast (32 count).   I won't be starting part II until part I is finished.

There's my two recent starts, Scarlet Ribands and Broadway.   Scarlet Ribands will take some time simply because it's a large project, but it's not hard to work on.   Broadway will also be fairly straightforward as well.

I'm switching over to carding up all of my floss for my projects. I had only been doing it for the projects that had a lot of similar colors, but I've decided I would prefer that for all of them. I had a little fling at the craft store with a good coupon and bought more of the small thread boxes so each project has their own. It takes a little while to card up the floss, but I'm just doing it as I pick up that project to work on so it's not too big of a deal.

I have two more projects that I have on the rotation schedule that will be new starts.   You'll have to stay tuned to see what those ones will be :-).

I've briefly mentioned that I'm getting married in October, so I'm also in the market for a wedding sampler. I'm not a huge sampler fan, so I haven't found one that I really think it special enough yet. But the hunt continues. When I do decide on one, that will probably become a priority to do.

2.2 flower urns

2010-05-10T08:04:00.000-04:00

It didn't take me a full rotation (7 days) to do my bedroom doily project, so I took on those extra few days to work longer on Knotgarden.   I've been working on it on and off since last May - so a year now (!!).    Yes, I'm feeling a little guilty since I'm not closer to finishing it.   I haven't even done any of the infamous Chatelaine specialty stitches on it.

That's the problem with working on a lot of different projects ~ I can still only finish 4-5 large projects a year, no matter how many are in progress. Since I have more than 4-5 in progress...some just seem like they are taking forever, even though they're definately progressing.

I suppose the pressure is on with Knotgarden because this IS only one of a series of Chatelaine's Garden Mandalas that I plan on doing...and doing a series means getting one done once in a while, right? (and I'm not even sure of how many of them I'm going to do...I just know that there's two more on the drawing board so far).

The good news?   Knotgarden is still a joy to work on ~ I love this piece!

I originally taped together a couple sheets of the pattern but I really think that's just been too unwieldy. I switched over to working on one pattern page, so you can see that I have 2.2 flower urns completed here - poor #3 got cut off because it was at the edge of the page, as did the floral corner motif.

I also need to go restock some of my floss in the next day or two - I'm running low on quite a few colors. Fortunately, it's just DMC, which means it's only a few dollars to restock.   Although I've gotten all the beads for Knotgarden, I have NOT yet gotten the silk varigated threads as yet.   I've been debating on whether or not to use them or substitute DMC solids for them, mostly for cost reasons ~ the silk floss adds another $40-$50 minimum to an already-expensive project.   Obviously that's a decision I have to make before I start working on the specialty stitches, which is something I'd like to start soon.

A project for the bedroom

2010-05-04T15:46:00.017-04:00

I'm taking a little break from stitching this week to work on a project for the bedroom: two matching large doilies to put on the bedside tables. I have stacks of doilies that I've crocheted over the years, but just not quite what I wanted.

I finished the first one over the weekend while on a road trip, and I'm currently working on the second one to match. I thought it would be fun to show how second piece grows as compared to the finished piece.

Here's the first piece, finished:

It's made with size 10 crochet cotton (slightly thicker) and is currently 19 inches across. Once I wash it, it will shrink down to 18 inches. This is a pineapple design, which is the symbol of hospitality. It's a very popular motif in doilies, and shows up regularly in patterns. It's also one of my favorite motifs, and it ends up on a lot of my projects.

This is the first row of the second doily, which is obviously quite small.

The first three rows. You can see how the pattern starts to take shape.

The first six rows, side by side with the finished doily.

As you can see, they're worked in rounds out from the center, so it grows fairly rapidly at first. Obviously as the rounds get larger, the progress slows down.

Here's the center just about finished, and within the next 2 rounds, the bottom of the pineapple edging will start to form.

The bases of the pineapples are completed here. The interior of the design will be mostly covered by things like the lamps, a cup tray, etc, so for a bedside table, a simpler interior design like this works really well because the edging is highlighted.

The pineapples are about 2/3 of the way done here and you can see how it's all pulling together.

And they are both finished (on the dining room table here). I still need to darn in the ends (you can see them hanging out still), then wash and iron with a little bit of starch, and they'll be ready to use. The thread is 100% cotton so that makes them very practical for actual use, not just decorative.

Roses, roses

2010-05-03T11:06:00.001-04:00

And you know I love my roses.

I haven't worked on Sleeping Beauty for quite a while so here's a "before" picture as a reminder.

I have quite a ways to go on this project yet, but she's been a joy to stitch.

And here's where I got to her this week. The skirt pattern (with the swirls) is actually a bit difficult to do, as you need to leave a lot of space blank for beading (those will come later) and there's a lot of subtle color changes going on. I opted to do that area by completing each 10x10 block at a time, which actually sped things along quite a bit.

The Land of Not-Quite-Finished-Projects Part 7: Celtic

2010-04-29T07:25:00.000-04:00

So once upon a time in my early-ish 20's, I was involved in the SCA and enthralled with all things Celtic and vaguely medieval. Got into costuming to some degree, went to a couple Pennsics, and generally had a good time.

I had a bunch of totes and bags and such that I would do small pieces of embroidery like these and use them to decorate. Most of those bags are long gone at this point - I've gone through stages where I had a good clearing out and they ended up on the hit list.

I think I got these all out of the same book, one of those Dover pattern books that just had black and white Celtic patterns. Some I left monocromatic (obviously) and others I played around with the colors, like this one:

So I think that's about it for this series :-) But never fear, there are tons of ongoing projects and old goodies to share in the future.

Paging Dottie K....

2010-04-25T07:43:00.000-04:00

I still need you to contact me with an address so I can send your pattern to you!

:-)

The center of the rose

2010-04-23T09:27:00.002-04:00

I made good progress on Broadway this week - although there's a lot of confetti stitching, it's also balanced out with fairly consistent runs of the same color, so it works up more quickly than you might think. I'm about halfway through the page I showed in a previous post. Other pages in the pattern have a lot more empty space that this page does (it's the center area of the large rose).

So here it is:

I love the colors, which is often what draws me to specific Silver Lining projects. You can see the center of the rose forming here.

It's always interesting how many colors are actually in a project - you look at the overall picture and think "oh it's a yellow and red rose" but when you work on it, there are so many shades of yellows and oranges and pinks and reds....

And so Broadway will get put aside for now so I can work on another project for the upcoming week.

And the winners are.....

2010-04-21T13:26:00.000-04:00

Christy has won Mermaid of Atlantis!

Dottie K has won Midsummer Night's Fairy!

Congratulations ladies!

Drop me an email at HerBoudoir@aol.com and I'll get your patterns & bling off to you!

A New Start

2010-04-19T09:15:00.000-04:00

A finish always seems to be license for a new start, doesn't it? To be fair, I have been without a Silver Lining project to work on for several months, which won't do at all since there are so many I'd like to do and they are so lovely. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it)

So here is my new Silver Lining project, Broadway. Like many of the Silver Lining patterns, I've been drooling over this one for quite a while. I really love the colors - gorgeous! I think a very simple antique white background works best for Silver Lining designs, so I've chosen a belfast linen to work on.

We had company over the weekend so I didn't have a lot of time to work on it, but here's what I got started:

It's part of the large rose's center, although it obviously doesn't look like much so far. Lots of shades of red, orange, and yellow. I'm working block by block (more or less) unless it makes sense to continue colors out of the blocks.

Here's what the pattern looks like:

This gives you an idea of the complexity of the pattern, which is why I work SL's block by block. I cross off the blocks as I complete them, which helps me keep my place. SL prints their patterns on individual sheets, so I'll just finish it a sheet at a time.

Since none of my other projects are more than halfway done, I'm going to try to go back into a rotation, working on a project for a week, then switching to something else so that they all get some attention.

To Clarify....

2010-04-16T09:55:00.000-04:00

I mentioned that Midsummer is my 10th Mirabilia finish, and someone emailed and asked if that is what the "10" that's embroidered on her is for. That's actually for "2010" as I always "sign" finished pieces with my initials (SMW) and the last 2 numbers of the year so I can keep track of when I stitched it.

Same email asked what the other Miras were, so in order, they are:

1. 1999 - The Dreamer
2. 1999 - Spring Queen
3. 2008 - Mermaids of the Deep Blue
4. 2008 - Autumn Queen
5. 2008 - Winter Queen
6. 2009 - Fairy Idyll
7. 2009 - Crystal Symphony
8. 2009 - Summer Queen
9. 2010 - Mermaid of Atlantis
10. 2010 - Midsummer Night's Fairy

#11 and #12 should be Sleeping Beauty and Royal Holiday, as both of those are in progress. The ones after that should be Garden Verses, The Kiss, Christmas Elegance, and Queen Mermaid, but not sure in what order ~ they are all in some stage of being kitted up.

Incidentally, after I get married in October, my initials will still be "SMW" so that's VERY convenient.

Giving Away Good Stuff!

2010-04-15T08:14:00.030-04:00

In an effort to curtail my overflowing pattern collection, I am GIVING AWAY the patterns for my two latest finishes, Midsummer Night's Fairy AND Mermaid of Atlantis. You've seen them, you've admired them, now you can own them :-) Both patterns are only VERY gently used and in great condition.

And not ONLY will these lovely patterns being given away but I'm also included all the extra beads and specialty threads leftover with these projects in with the pattern. There aren't enough goodies to completely do the whole project, but they'll get you started and save you from having to buy some of the bling. How cool is that?

To enter for the give-away:

1. You must be a follower of this blog (yes, you can sign up now)
2. Leave a comment on this post! Indicate which pattern you'd like to win, Mermaid of Atlantis OR Midsummer Night's Fairy OR Either.   All entries must be received by 8 am EST, Wednesday, April 21st.
3. The winners will be posted on this blog on Wednesday, April 21th. Make sure to check the blog and if you won, drop me an email at HerBoudoir@aol.com with your address, and I'll get your pattern & goodies out to you.

The winners will be picked by a fairly scientific process: I'll write names on scraps of paper, toss them into a bowl, and pick them at random.

The Not-So-Fine-Print:

1. You must live in the continental US (sorry - my postage budget doesn't stretch further than that)
2. Obvious but true: if you win you'll need to email me your address.
3. Winners will have a week to contact me with their address. If I don't hear from you, the patterns will be given to someone else at my discretion.

Note: Support your favorite cross stitch designers by buying patterns new whenever possible - buying used patterns does not financially support them!   If they can't make a reasonable profit designing the cross stitch patterns we love so much, they will no longer be able to design for us.  I am giving away these two patterns because for some reason, I have two copies of both.  I bought one for you AND one for me apparently LOL.

New Mirabilia and a Sale

2010-04-15T07:50:00.000-04:00

A new Mirabilia is being released today: January's Garnet Fairy. I'm glad to see the montly fairy season is being continued (even if I'm a little fairy'd out right now)

ABCStitch also has all Mirabilia patterns 20% off right now.

Midsummer Night's Fairy

2010-04-14T19:58:00.005-04:00

Done!

The particulars: The design is "Midsummer Night's Fairy" by Mirabilia and the fabric is Misty Blue 32 count belfast linen.

Midsummer Night's Fairy is one of my "bucket list" Mirabilia's that I started working on in 2008 - old patterns that I have absolutely loved for years and wanted to do but never did. The list includes finishing off the four queens (done, 2009), Fairy Idyll (done, 2009), Sleeping Beauty (in progress), Rose of Sharon (not close to starting; want to change the colors around), and Middy (done!). I remember first buying the pattern in the late 90's and I just kept looking at it..looking at it...LOL Well, now I can look at the piece rather than the pattern.

Lots and lots of beads....she actually convinced me that in the future, heavily beaded pieces need to be done on 28 count linen rather than 32 count - regular Mill Hill beads are just a smidge too large for 32 count over two fabric.

She is my 10th Mirabilia finish....yay!

Beads...lots and lots of beads....

2010-04-13T09:03:00.003-04:00

You know it's getting close when there are regular updates with close up pictures, right?

While backstitching may not be fun....

2010-04-11T08:21:00.002-04:00

...it definately makes a huge difference in the final piece.

Here's a close up of Midsummer Night's Fairy's wings before doing the backstitch. Pretty, but just sort of "there" with odd pink blobs in the middle of them.

The idea is that the wings are diaphenous and slightly covering her back, hair, and overlapping each other, but it's not particularly clear.

And here's a picture of them after they've been backstitched, with the veining done. So much nicer!

And yes, those are some beads being added on ;-)

Scarlet Ribands

2010-04-08T09:18:00.000-04:00

I was away for a couple of days for the holiday but I got some work on Scarlet Ribands before I left. I'm nearly finished the first page; only eleven more to go LOL I am going to have to do a reorder on the silk I'm using since I clearly did not order enough. It's taken me about three skeins to do the one page, so if most of the pages run about that much, I'll need 36 skeins to finish the project. That puts me at fourteen skeins short of what I ordered....argh!

That'll teach me to try to do higher math to estimate how much floss I need for a project LOL

Got My Hocus Pocus!

2010-04-08T09:08:00.000-04:00

As many of you know, Enchanted Fabrics is closing down. I had my eye on a piece of Hocus Pocus as a background for Mirabilia's Christmas Elegance, so got my order in for that before Enchanted stopped taking orders.

Here's the fabric:

And of course, I had to do a floss drop with it (don't have the beads/metallics yet):

I think this will be really pretty as the night sky for Elegance, which is the only part of the fabric that will show. I'll have to play around with which side will show; however, I don't plan on starting this project until I get my other Christmas Mirabilia, Royal Holiday, completed. Given that I've only just got her started....lol. Anyway, suffice to say, she'll be waiting for a bit, but I had to get the fabric I wanted while it was still available.

Restless this week

2010-04-01T10:39:00.002-04:00

I've been all over the place with my needlework this week - just feeling very restless and unfocused. I get like that sometimes.

After finishing Mermaid of Atlantis last week, I did some work on Midsummer Night's Fairy, since I'm really close to getting her done. I've got almost all of the regular stitching done except for a few scattered leaves here and there. I still need to do the backstitching and the beading, but having just spent a couple days of beading on MoA, I actually want a little break from it. I also need to get another set of 17 inch Q snaps or my scroll frame to so I can bead her. So Middy - nearly done - is put away for just now, and I'll get back to her very soon.

In the efforts to address some of the older works-in-progress, I picked up Meeting on the Turret Stairs again.

I've been working on Meeting for a little over a year now - it's slow going because it's solid confetti stitching. Sometimes my patience for working on the confetti stitching is there, and other times it's just not. LOL Well apparently this is one of those "off" weeks to the point where I was questioning why I was torturing myself with it - that I'm really NOT under any obligation to finish the piece if I really wasn't enjoying the work. So for the sake of my sanity, I decided to just pack up Meeting for now and I'll get back to it when my patience is a little better.

Well, you know that doesn't mean I totally put away my stitching for the week, right? With a solid finish and one on the edge of being finished, I decided I needed something different and a new start (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

Althought I'm not completely a sampler kind of girl, I am interested in different kinds of historic needlework. Redwork has always been of interest to me - story goes (don't quote me on this - it's just what I've put together from snippets of info) that redwork pieces were used to teach young stitchers how to do specific motifs and that one color of thread was used because that was the least expensive way to do it.

This floral urn is a redwork piece that I did years ago (it's actually in the Land of Unfinised Projects pile). I think it will fit into the lid of a Sudberry box that I have in the stash, so I may use it for that. It's done in DMC floss on 28 count evenweave (lugana maybe?). Date-wise, it's probably from the late 90's. It's a nice piece but not a lot going on.

I stumbled across Long Dog Samplers a while ago, and if you like redwork or similar designs - they are very intricate and detailed. And huge LOL.

So I picked out Scarlet Ribands as a project. Since it's just the one color of floss, I spent some time mulling over if I wanted to stick to the usual DMC or Anchor cotton floss, or if I wanted to maybe try something different like a silk floss. After a couple of recommendations and some shopping around, I settled on using a 100% silk floss from Hand Dyed Fibers in 1147 OMG Red. It is comparable to DMC 816 in color, so it's a nice, dark red.

So this is what I started this week. This is the upper left hand corner of the design. I'm working on 36 count antique white Edinborough linen. The camera doesn't pick it up, but the silk has a lovely sheen to it and is really nice to work with from a stitching perspective.

Unfortunately I seem to have completely underestimated how much floss it will take me to do the project. Once I finish the first page of the design, I'll have a better idea of how much floss I'll need for the overall piece and can reorder. I originally got 20 skeins but the small corner that I've completed took over a full skein, and I suspect I'll need another 10 or 15.

I think this will be a really fun piece to do - the only issue is that all the red may get a little monotonous. But that's why I rotate around projects, right?

OMG....

2010-03-30T17:57:00.001-04:00

....I bought a wedding dress today!

FYI....

2010-03-26T11:48:00.000-04:00

There's a lot of new folks stopping by the blog today so hello and welcome to you :-)

Just an FYI - I will be having some giveaways (stash reduction!) over the next couple weeks that will be open to ONLY the followers of the blog (hi all!). New folks are more than welcome to sign on as followers so you can sign up for some of the giveaways as they're announced.

Mermaid of Atlantis - Finished!!

2010-03-25T17:48:00.001-04:00

I had the pictures posted yesterday but was too wiped out to add some commentary. Thank goodness for the "edit" feature.

The particulars: The design is "Mermaid of Atlantis" by Mirabilia. Done on Picture This Plus 32 count Fathom lugana.

She's a smaller design, especially when compared to Mirabilia's many "grand ladies" - just 7 1/2 inches by 15 3/4 inches. However, with three Waterlilies, five Kreiniks, and seven packs of beads....there's no lack of detail or bling. Warning: kitting up was quite pricey with all those extras! Factor in the hand dyed fabric (even though it was technically a leftover from another project) and she's not-so-little LOL

I'm not sure how well it comes through on the photo of the fish, but the surrounding beads (the ones that look like bubbles) are all one color. I attached them using Waterlilies Bermuda Reef (which shows up in the tail as well) since there are scattered stitches of that color; because the beads there are light in color, it gave them a nifty varigated effect that I really like. I'm still trying to figure out what it is she is holding - the pattern refers to it as "treasure" and it's vaguely seaweedy/floral in nature LOL Ah well. It's pretty, nonetheless.

The Land of Not-Quite-Finished-Projects Part 6: Fairies

2010-03-23T11:28:00.001-04:00

So these are the projects that I truly do not know what to do with them.

When I started work on them, I had a misfire on a Mirabilia (it's just not a good idea to do your first Mirabilia as your first 32 count linen project LOL) and I think I was looking for something easier with the same feel to them. Meh. Not quite.

I think the problem is that compared to the Miras, they're childish. If there's any more nieces (or more likely, grand nieces) in the family, I could do something with them, or perhaps to a friends' child. Anyway, they're just not my cup of tea anymore so I won't bother framing or the like.

Obviously, I put quite a bit of work into them once upon a time so I hate to get rid of them or give them away to someone who won't appreciate them. No worries; they've been packed away for a couple of years so there's no hurry to find them a new home.

Beading Box

2010-03-22T09:53:00.001-04:00

This is the bead box I was waiting for so I could start in on the beading for Mermaid of Atlantis. Nothing fancy, but the sections lock individually(and firmly) and there's a slope along the bottom rather than being squared off, so I'm really partial to using it to lay out my beads on a project.

I put the beads out in numerical order and snip the number off the package to drop into each compartment so I can keep track of them.

It wasn't expensive - maybe a dollar, but I haven't seen them around since I got this over a year ago.

And of course, the other thing I needed were beading needles, which also got moved up this weekend.

Objects in the Camera are Brighter than They Appear...

2010-03-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here's today's update on Midsummer Night's Fairy. I've gotten her wings and skirt done and got started on the other side of the branch. By the end of the day it should be obvious that she's sitting rather than clinging on for dear life LOL

I'm always a little disappointed by how the pictures I take look as compared to the actual embroidered piece. That's not actually a bad thing, otherwise we'd probably all save ourselves a lot of time and just hang framed pictures rather do the actual embroideries LOL For example, on the picture, it appears as if her wings blend in with the fabric but if you see the actual embroider, she really pops against the background color (Misty Blue belfast linen).

It just makes it a little harder to take what I feel is an accurate picture of the piece, even though I tweak the colors (ahh love digital photography) to make it more "true".

Since she's a Night fairy, I wanted her on a background that would emphasize that feeling with kind of a moonlight color, hence the blue with undertones of grey (rather than a brighter blue). Eventually I want to do Titania as a companion piece on a "daylight" kind of background that has a distinct daylight feel to it, perhaps a pale yellow or the like. (I know, more projects, right?)

Fireside Stitchery

2010-03-21T20:20:00.000-04:00

I was out and about yesterday, and came across Fireside Stichery, a needlepoint shop in Frazer, PA. I couldn't resist stopping in to see what they had to offer.

They had an outstandingly impressive selection of threads/fibers/beads that show up regularly in my stitching - Kreiniks, Waterlillies, Mill Hill beads. They also carry all of the Anchor flosses, so that will be convenient when I want to work on a Silver Lining pattern as many of the newer ones combine Anchor and DMC floss. There was a huge selection of silk flosses that I've certainly heard of, but have not yet had the opportunity to see in person.

I didn't get anything this time, but I'm sure I'll head back with a small shopping list to complete some of the projects I need to finish kitting up.