2009 ~ A productive year indeed!

I wanted to sort through what I've been working on in the last year, and it's been a very productive year to be sure! So let's start with the finishes, most of which were started prior to 2009.

2009 Finishes

Mirabilia's Fairy Idyll:

Finished in February 2009. Fairy Idyll was a long time favorite pattern from Mirabilia, and was a joy to work on. I love all the details like the bed canopy and the bunny statue. She is definately a "boudoir" piece!

Mirabilia's Summer Queen:

Finished in May 2009. This is the last of the Seasonal Queens series for me to finish; I started with Spring Queen in 1999, so yes, that's 10 years to finish. Ack! Here's all the Queens together:

One day I'll get them framed all to match LOL Have to save my pennies.

Mirabilia's Crystal Symphony:

Finished in May 2009 as well (good month!). I gave her to my mother as a gift, so she had her framed rather quickly (usually it takes me a year or more to get pieces framed).

And finally: Silver Lining's Edith Wharton:

Finished in December 2009. I was doing really well rotating projects, but stuck with this one so I could get another 2009 finish.

.....And Edith Wolford is Complete.

At some point, I may even get it framed, but it'll be a while.

So that's my oldest WIP finished. Everything else was started in 2009, and hopefully they'll all be finished sometime in 2010. I treated myself to some new stash today (should be here in a week or two), and have a few new starts in the works (not that I need any new ones just at the moment!)

Getting Close

I'm getting some stitching in, in between baking and cleaning and cooking...

One bud down, one to go

A lot of confetti stitching left...ack!

Seventeen shades of purple and blue....

(And seven of green, just in case you were wondering)

The main flower is finished; just two buds to do and some more backstitching.

Backstitching Details

So I decided to go for the gusto, and try to get Edith Wolford finished before the end of the year. It's the only project that I started prior to 2009 that I haven't finished yet, plus I know I can get it done.

I finished the lower petal and did the backstitching on it as well as some of the stems, which really makes the folds in the petals pop.

Fourteen Shades of Orange and Yellow

So here's Edith Wolford after a week of working on her. And yes - there are FOURTEEN shades of orange and yellow there...ack! I had to card up all of the floss in order to keep the cut strands straight - once I cut floss, I rewrap on the card. Clearly stitching grid by grid is really working for this piece - it's moving along quite quickly now. I really love the orange and purples together - where else but in nature could you get away with that?

The folds on the iris petals will be a lot more distinct once they are backstitched.

Up next in rotation: Back to Knotgarden from Chatelaine!

Edith Wolford by Silver Lining



So this is officially my oldest WIP, not that I have completed very much of it. It's a lovely purple and orange iris - you can start to make out a petal on the right - from Silver Lining, which does the most beautiful detailed roses, irises, and other flowers. I did Dream Lover, a blue iris, a couple of years ago, and I have about a dozen other patterns.

I got very frustrated working on Edith not long after I started because many of the colors are very similar (the orange in the picture is about 12 different oranges), and the center part in particular (where I started) is mostly confetti-style stitches. I ended up packing it up and putting it away in 2008.

When I started working on Meeting on the Turret Stairs , I had to adjust my stitching style to accomodate how the pattern is basically all confetti stitching. The only way you can effectively keep track of where you are is by working one 10x10 square at a time, one page at a time. I am going to apply that way of stitching to Edith Wolford instead of just trying to follow how the colors flow.

As you can see, I've started squaring off the top of a page (the straight line of stitching) by filling in the 10x10 graph squares around what I'd already stitched. I think it should work out a lot more smoothly this time.

The fabric is an off white 32 count lugana.