Some small progress

I am back to working on a Teresa Wentzler project each Wednesday after missing a week earlier this month. Still my progress is slow ... but I have gotten far along enough that I am satisfied that choosing a lighter fabric than recommended is going to work out well. This project will probably take all summer to complete ... there are a record number of fractional stitches, even for TW, and the backstitching will be very complicated. She included a separate three pages of chart just for the back-stitching which will be in five different colors.

Tracy's Progress on Lady Hera

I have some progress at last.  Here is my start on Lady Hera by Mirabilia.  I actually started this one on May 26th but was working on Fairy Flora until two days ago when I got up the motivation to change the colors of the yellow dress to gold.  I kept the ribbons the same color, I hope they will work with it.  This one is being stitched on Silkweaver Reflections, 32 count, Starquest.  If you would like my conversion for the dress, don't hesitate to send me an e-mail. Next week I will reveal my progress on Fairy Flora, I am about half way complete with it.  Please visit me at The Mirabilia Stitcher.

Happy Dance for Nimue's Baby Swing

Without flash to show the true colours:

 With flash to show the details, metallics, beads and bells:

I have posted at great length about this one on my blog, so hop over there to find out more.  It's stitched on some 32 count Murano hand dyed specially for me by The Crafty Kitten.  The fabric is currently June's Ltd Edition.  It's a nice green with a hint of paler yellow, I wanted dappled sunlight through trees but not to bright and garish.  I tend to the subtle in hand dyeds so far.  The design is called "The Baby Swing" by Nimue although I bought the chart from Violarium as I didn't know about the Nimue site until after I'd bought the chart!  I can recommend Violarium, I ordered two Nimue charts from them, they were delivered quickly from Europe and came with half a dozen free small charts from companies I'd not seen before.

Happy First Day of Summer

I have been in a stitching slump, so have no new pictures to show you..How about all of you, getting any stitching on fantasy done?

Have a Great Week

Butterfly Fairy

I have done some stitching but my mojo is lagging.The weather is nice now and after the brutal winter here i like to spend time out in the yard.When I get tired of weeding and planting I will spend time enjoying the sun and stitching on the deck. Natural light is so much nicer to stitch in.

Fairy Celebration

Here's my finished Fairy Celebration, she's a freebie from Passione Ricamo.  Stitched on 14count raspberry aid with DMC white and Madeira Metallic Silver.  I'm not keen on the Madeira Metallics, they don't seperate easily and are very thin.  There's also the problem of what to do with the piece you cut off from the long thin packet.  With DMC I use Floss-a-way bags and put the cut-off piece back in the bag (with standard threads I tie it through a piece of card cut from a thread sorter and put it back in the bag.)

She is a gift for my niece who has just had a baby girl.

For those who aren't aware, I have a feature on my blog where I post the contents page of each magazine I buy.  This is to help people decide if they want to look for the mag themselves (I don't post the charts).  The new edition of Cross Stitch Collection has been added today.  Come and have a peek at Serendipitous Stitching!

Fairy Flora by Mirabilia

I don't have a lot of progress on Fairy Flora but wanted to share the little bit that I have made since the last post about her.

New Teresa Wentzler BAP: Tracery Dragons

My new TW piece, Tracery Dragons, just eats up stitching time. There are far more quarter stitches than usual ... and Teresa Wentzler is no slouch when it comes to quarter stitches at the best of times. In this piece, the quarter stitches are offset to make skinny little diagonals. Talk about counting twice and stitching once! More like counting three and four times to make sure these wicked little fractionals are in exactly the right place. I can sense the frog waiting in the wings but so far he has not made even a cameo appearance, thank the Lord! The frequent color changes and all the blended needles seem like child's play compared to the fractionals. I foolishly thought that because this piece required only 46 shades of DMC and was a bit smaller than the usual TW chart, it would take only a month or so to stitch. Not likely!! I usually enjoy Wentzler's work since I have a split stitching personality: enjoying the process as much as the end result. But I fear this piece will not give much joy to the process stitcher within. Furthermore, at the moment the piece has all the aesthetic appeal of a three year old's first finger painting: random blobs of color with no discernible design concept. I have to keep looking at the model photo to remind myself of my reason for stitching the piece. Never had to do that before.

The other potential problem with Tracery Dragons is that, though the chart was designed to be used with a dark fabric, I am using a mid-tone fabric. The floss toss looked fine but that isn't always a clear indication of how the stitched piece will look. I want to believe it will be okay since I dislike stitching on very dark fabric. I'll have a pretty good idea once I have finished cross-stitching and back-stitching page three of the chart ...and since that only involves the bottom two inches of the piece, I won't have invested too much time in the project if I decide it doesn't look right. I have some black linen I could use instead if necessary. I hope it won't be necessary, though.

At least the other pieces in my current rotation are easy, quickly finished and visually appealing ... enough to help me get past the initial ugly duckling stage of Tracery Dragons.

Rose Fairy Update After UFO Week.

I did get some more stitched, I see completion in sight now :)

Happy Monday June 6, 2011

How is Everyone doing Stitching?  I have to admit to not stitching at all this weekend?  How about all of you?  Any Pictures to show us?

Have a GREAT WEEK

A Faerie Finish

Teresa Wentzler's Autumn Faerie is beaded and ready to take to the framing shop. This project has taken nearly two years to complete ... mainly because I'd set it aside for other projects that caught my fickle fancy. But as it neared completion, I began to worry that the chart might have been misleading in calling for only one package of lavendar beads. If anyone wants to know what relief looks like, take a look at the second photo of 42 lavendar beads left in the beading dish after the last bead had been set. While I have stitched several companion pieces to the Autumn Faerie, namely the Spring Faerie and the Lily of the Valley Faerie ... I am not certain I will ever stitch the two remaining faeries in this leaflet, i.e, The Summer Faerie and the Winter Faerie. But I may change my mind so I am holding onto the leaflet. I have already started my next Teresa Wentzler BAP, Tracery Dragons. I just haven't gotten far along enough with that project to warrant a photo ... maybe next week

It is UFO week again for my Rose Fairy.I'm two days into the seven that I will be stitching her for, and I am pleased with my progress so far :) so I thought I'd post a picture of her now, and again at the end of the seven days.

Unicorn and Maiden update

This is after a week more of stitching on my Joan Elliott Unicorn and Maiden. I like to try to keep up with the beading and backstitching as I go so I don't have so much of that to do at the end.