Queen Mermaid - Finished!

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!

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...

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....

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

Slowly but surely!

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

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!

Ribbons and Seaweed

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.

Oops....wardrobe malfunction!

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

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.

Mira updates

And of course, plenty of Mirabilias in progress.

The Kiss:

Garden Verses:

Christmas Elegance:

Royal Holiday Completed

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...

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.  

A goal met on Royal Holiday!

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.  

So hopefully...

...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 ;-)

Queen Mermaid

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

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.  

The Green Monster strikes again....

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!

Well hello there...

And finally....a face.

Beading today, and then she's complete.

Filling in the blanks

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.

Everything's coming up roses...

.....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!