Giving Away Good Stuff!

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.

Midsummer Night's Fairy

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....

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

While backstitching may not be fun....

...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 ;-)

Restless this week

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?

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

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?)

Hmmm....

Could be that another finish is looming on the horizon, which would be great! (Then I could start MORE projects...yay!)
 

I'm working on the skirt area right now to have a break from working with Kreiniks, then it will be back to the wings to try to finish those up.  I realized that I had my first Midsummer Night's post nearly a year ago, so it's about time to get her finished up.   That's the great thing about blogging - it's really making me accountable for my projects so that they don't become UFO's LOL

Ahhh...that's better!

So with the Mermaid of Atlantis finish on hold for now, I'm back working on Midsummer Night's Fairy.  This is a "before" picture;  I have to say, the whole gaping mouth thing has been freaking me out when I look at this picture LOL  It's very blow-up-doll-esq.  Obviously that needs to be taken care of ASAP  LOL

So the first thing I did yesterday is finish her face off.  I still need to backstitch the lips, but don't have that thread color in her "kit".   I'll either scavange some from another kit or pick up the floss later this week.    But she's not giving me that apocolypse look anymore so it's all good for right now LOL

I also made some good progress on her wings, which are done entirely in Kreinik metallics.  Ugh.  NOT my favorite thread to work with but it does give a really lovely effect.   I tried Thread Heaven for the first time with this project, and it's been a huge help.

Quality Time with Midsummer Night's Fairy

What can I say - she needed a little TLC and work. She has a ton of metallics (all of the wings) so I'm working on them a little at a time, and alternating with the floss stitching so I don't get burned out on it. Although I don't especially like stitching with Kreinik, the effect is fabulous. I've been using Thread Heaven, which is a thread conditioner and that makes life so much easier.

Here's Chatelaine's Knotgarden:


This is my first Chatelaine project, but definately won't be the last. I really love the kaleidoscope effect of the mandalas. I'm planning on doing a series of four or so of the Garden Mandalas.

Here's Meeting on the Turret Stairs from Artecy, which is a reproduction of the Burton painting:

It's all confetti stitching, which can be frustrating at times. However, I love the effect that the piece has, and plan on doing more Artecy painting reproductions in the future. I am using Aida for the first time in years for this, since it's all whole stitches and none of the background shows.

And yet another Mirabilia here, Sleeping Beauty this time:

Sleeping Beauty was the first Mirabilia I ever attempted years ago, but I gave up on it because at the time, it was too above my skill level. I'm really looking forward to getting her finished at some point soon.

And finally, Mirabilia's Midsummer Night's Fairy:

She clocks in as my oldest WIP, so needs some special attention in the coming months. Like many of the fantasy Mirabilias, she has lots of beads and metallic threads.

Getting a Head

Neither Summer Queen nor Midsummer Night's Fairy are headless anymore.

I'm back focusing on getting Summer Queen finished. I'm also looming on the end of the semester at school, so I'm not sure how long it will be until she's finished. I have some stitching to finish (STILL filling in all that white!, plus finishing her hair), and then the beads and backstitching, so probably two weeks or more.

Midi has a face and hair now, and I've started on some of the metallics. All of the wings (a large part of the overall design) is Kreinik metallics, either alone or blended with floss. I finally got around to trying Thread Heaven to keep the metallics from being a total nightmare - what a difference!! Thread Heaven is basically a wax-consistency product that you run the thread through and it keeps them from fraying and otherwise driving the stitcher nuts. I'm actually annoyed at myself that I didn't try it sooner, but for sure, I won't be stitching metallics without it again. Midi has been placed on hiatus for a little while so I can finish up Summer Queen and probably spend some time working on other projects I have going.

An earlier picture of Midsummer Night's Fairy

So I broke down....



...and started Midsummer Night's Fairy. I needed a little break from working on Summer Queen, and I truly intended to get back to one of my other (many!) WIPs for a couple of days. But you know how it goes - that bag of pristine linen and threads just called to me! So here's a couple of day's work. She's actually going very quickly right now, but there will be a LOT of metallic thread and bead work coming up. I finally got some Thread Heaven so I'll see if that helps with the metallics. Midsummer Night's Fairy is being done on 32 count Misty Blue belfast linen. It's darker than what the photo is showing.

Midsummer Night Fairy after the first evening.

No commment other than this was NOT intentional.

Materials for Midsummer Night's Fairy by Mirabilia

Yeah, ok, I know. It's another Mirabilia. I think the background color for projects is very important. I still think the best way to find a good fabric is to get your floss together, and just toss the pile on top of the fabric - you'll see fairly quickly what works and what doesn't. This is Misty Blue 32 count belfast linen.