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 ;-)

Royal Holiday

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...

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

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.  

Christmas in May

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!

2009 ~ A productive year indeed ~ In Progresses

And on to the projects that I started this year and haven't finished (aren't there always a lot of those?) The good news is that anything started prior to 2009 has been completed.

First up: Mermaid of Atlantis by Mirabilia:



I've always been fond of her mermaids, and this one has a ton of specialty threads (silk varigated and metallics) and beads.

Next is another Mirabilia, Royal Holiday:

This is the first large Christmasy cross stitch project that I've ever done, and it may take several Christmases to finish and get framed at this rate LOL ah well...

Royal Holiday by Mirabilia

Royal Holiday is sometimes refered to as Christmas Queen, and is done in the style of Mirabilia's seasonal Queens - she's more of a companion piece than one of the series.

I started her a week ago; it's been a rather stressful week so I've been stitching when I can because it really helps clear my head. She's being stitched on cream Belfast linen rather than the antique white that I used for the other Queens; I think that it will contrast all the white in the piece nicely.

I still have to order some of the beads and the metallic threads, but as I don't do them until the end, I have plenty of time. I am omitting the Whisper thread used for her cloak, because I really dislike working with it. I'll either be using straight DMC white, or I may blend the DMC white with a metallic floss.

She's done for this rotation, and will come up again in a few weeks. Up next: Edith Wolford by Silver Lining, which is a beautiful purple and orange iris.