Ophelia: Tenth Post - Pages 5 & 6

After quite a bit of a break, Ophelia is finally making an appearance.

These are the last two pages of the first row!  I stitched them together because the last page in each row are only 13 stitches wide.

First, the color that just seemed to take forever... well it was over 60% of the stitches on these two pages.

Then, continuing on, the rest of the colors.

I know, not nearly as interesting as the last few posts I made on her, but she needs a background to live in.

And, the money shot:

You can see how wide she's going to be.  I'm hoping to get through the next two pages and finally have two complete rows.  I'm more than likely going to stick with her through the next two pages, I might work on something in the middle of it if I get bored of purple, but I'm shooting for the end of next month to get them finished.

Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: August 15, 2009
Restarted Stitching: January 1, 2015
Fabric: 25ct. White Magic Guide
Floss: DMC 1 over 1
Percentage: 20.27% complete
Pages: 10 of 54 complete
Stitches: 68,595 out of 338,400 complete

12 Dragonlets of Christmas: Sixteenth Post - Framed

Here's an oldie.  It was finished in September of 2013.  I'm almost positive I framed it not too long after that.  However, I just recently hung it on my wall.  It was sitting wrapped up because I wasn't sure where I was going to put it.  It actually replaced a different picture, and the other picture found a new home.  I know it's Christmas, but I just don't want it to be hidden for ¾ of the year.

And finally another long overdue post done.  I have a few more in the wings.

Mini Artists Galleries - Leonardo Da Vinci: First Post - Completed

Let's try a post a day the rest of the month, all two days!  I'm going crazy here!

Okay, I got a little crazy on this post, sorry. ;D  I knew I was going to which is why it took me so long to blog about it.

This was a piece I found on CloudsFactory's website.  My sister loves Leonardo Da Vinci and I found this fun little piece.  I showed it to her to make sure she'd like it, since it is kind of cartoony.  Of course between the two of us we had to mess around with it a little bit.  To the right is the original design.  My sister though it might look nice with the wording surrounded by Leonardo and his works.  So it took a bit of playing around, but I finally came up with something that I thought looked good.  But I won't show it to you now, you'll either have to read to the end, or scroll down to the end.

I decided to use one of my favorite fabrics for this 28ct. Legacy Cashel Linen by Picture this Plus, since, again, it's a parchment like color.

First off, was the wording.  I was actually driving home from work, ready to stitch this as soon as I got home, when I came up with an idea.  Leonardo was famous for trying to keep his works secret, one way that he attempted to do so was by writing mirrored.  I found a little information about that here if you're interested.  So I thought it would be cool to stitch the writing backwards.  However, it was a big leap so I consulted my sister to find out her thoughts and she thought it was a great idea, so I did it.

 Here is it mirrored, or unmirrored, so you can read it:

The next thing I stitched was Leonardo himself.

First off I did the three sketches at the same time, which were surprisingly close in color to the fabric I chose.  The titles are links that lead to webpages about the images.

Aerial Screw	Self Portrait	Vitruvian Man
First Color
Remainder of Cross Stitches
Back Stitched
"Framed"

Next, the paintings, again the titles go to pages to learn more about them, if you're so inclined.

Lady with an Ermine	The Last Supper	Mona Lisa
Some Colors
Rest of Colors
"Framed"

I did change the color on the frames for these.  It was supposed to be the golden yellow that you can see in the clothing of the fourth figure from the right in The Last Supper.  I changed it to Kreinik #4 braid, Vintage Gold.

And finally, all together:

It's now in the process of being framed, so hopefully I'll get that posted faster than some of my other pictures.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Mini Artists Galleries - Leonardo Da Vinci
Pattern by: CloudsFactory
Started Stitching: December 3, 2015
Finished Stitching: December 9, 2015
Fabric: 28ct. Legacy Cashel Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 1, Kreinik 1 over 1
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 2,866 out of 2,866

Dragon Game: Third Post - Framed

Hi all, I know, I went dark again.  Between Christmas and my nephew's birthday, I had two cakes to make, one for his family birthday on Christmas Eve and the other with his friends last weekend, I've been rather busy.

But I have been stitching too.  I finished a piece for my sister that is in the process of being framed, I need to blog about that one.  I'm almost done with one for my mother, I just have to do back stitching, belch.  I did another challenge from the HAED FB page, so that was another start... oops. ;D

Anyway, the real purpose of this post is to show Dragon Game framed, and here it is:

I'd forgotten to mention that I'd altered it very slightly.  On the left hand side there was a leash of sorts coming out from behind his wing.  Without it being attached to anything else it looked odd, so I left it out.

Now I'm going to work on a few more posts that I really need to do.  Framed pieces that have been framed for over a year, Items I've started and quite a few I also finished but was too interested in moving on to the next thing instead of posting... I'm such a bad blogger.  I'll catch up eventually.

Storykeep - Magical Arrival: The Seventh Post

I mentioned last month I had been working on some pieces that were long over due to be finished.  I mentioned that Storykeep Magical Arrival was one of those.  On top of that, Michele Sayetta who creates the HAED charts, challenged us to do 100 stitches a week over four weeks, October 28th to November 28th, which really, is not much.  I entered Magical Arrival as my challenge piece.

Here he is before (left) and after (right)

19,736 Stitches

20,880 Stitches

And what should have been quick and easy wasn't since I started working on something else and got sidetracked.  But I did exceed the 400 stitches with 1144.  They were mostly in the stocking and wall.

I'm not sure what happened, but it looks like something was spilled on it, it's mostly not noticeable, but I'll wash it after I'm done and see how it looks, there's a few sections that I might restitch, but it's mostly okay.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Storykeep - Magical Arrival
Original Artist: Anne Stokes
Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: January 31, 2012
Fabric: 18ct. White Aida
Floss: DMC 2 over 1
Percentage: 87.82% complete
Colors: 56 of 89 complete
Stitches: 20,880 out of 23,775

Dragon Boo: Second Post - Complete

In keeping with the theme of yesterday's post.  Here's another random finish on something I haven't posted on in a while.  October 30th of last year to be exact.  Not as long ago as Dragon Game, but close enough.

I never added this to the WIP page because all I had left was back stitching and I figured I'd get that done quickly.  However, I had a large aversion to back stitching, I guess, and just never finished it up.  At least until today, or last night, depending on how you look at things.

I had the first dragon done shortly after my last post.  Today (Yesterday) I did the other three.

And finally a very small project that should have taken less than a week is done in a little over a year.

And now it's time for bed.  Good Night!

Project Stats:
Pattern: Dragon Boo!
Pattern by: Dragon Dreams & X's & Oh's
Started Stitching: October 5, 2014
Finished Stitching: October 15, 2015
Fabric: 28ct. Eek! Cashel Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 2, Kreinik 1 over 2
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 1250 out of 1250 complete

Dragon Game: Second Post - Complete

The last time I blogged about this was over two years ago.  Wow, time flies.

It was stitching along quickly and then I started working on a dark brown color.  It wasn't until after I'd finished the color that I realized I used 3371 instead of 3031.  I thought I'd be able to just leave it and go on my way.  However the color was way too different.  So I had to frog all the stitches, 328 stitches.  Now the problem was I had also stitched the black, and it was very difficult to tell the difference between 310 and 3371.  I picked it back up about 10 days ago determined to get it back on track.

After I finished frogging and restitching I was happy that I had decided to redo it.

And since it was small, I kept going...

And going...

Until it was done.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Dragon Game (Retired)
Original Artist: Molly Harrison
Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: July 19, 2013
Finished Stitching: October 15, 2015
Fabric: 20ct. White with Gold Lugana
Floss: DMC 2 over 1
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 5,121 out of 5,121 complete

The next long abandoned project is SK Magical Arrival.  I lost my progress on my chart back when my hard drive crashed.  I have no idea which colors I've stitched and which I have not.  I need to work it through and figure it out so I can finish him up.  According to my last post he's over 78% complete and I'd stitched a bit more after that post.