Anthera: Fourth Post - Framed

Here's the last two posts for the first five projects I framed recently.

I rarely single mat anything anymore.  I just think they usually look better with at least two mats.  However, on these two pieces, there just wasn't another mat that looked good with the pieces.  You can see on the upper right hand corner the mat has glossy black swirls on it to kind of match the swirliness of the piece.  According to Google, swirliness isn't a word... I'm using it anyway.

Colombina will be posted in a few moments.

Anthera: Third Post - Complete

Success!  Anthera is done, I finished it up last night.  Now... I did have to be a little creative on the last three stitches, I almost ran out of thread.

I did the left half first:

Then I completed the right side:

Project Stats:

Pattern: Anthera

Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs

Started Stitching: November 13, 2012

Finished Stitching: November 19, 2012

Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave

Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with black filament

Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 3,580 out of 3,580 complete

Now all I have to do is wait for the thread to arrive for Colombina then take a few moments to finish it up.  The tread should arrive by the end of the month, or early part of December.

Anthera: Second Post

Well, the eyes did take me as long as I thought they would.  All day Wednesday in fact.  Well, part of that was due to the fact that I had to take out about 90% of the left eye, I hate it when I make a stupid counting mistake.  Here it is all fixed and done:

Yay, no more of the black filament, which doesn't look as cool as the silver, but oh well, I am not undoing it again.

So I started to work on the top curls, but I guess my body decided it hadn't been sick for a while and Thursday was the perfect day.  So, I didn't get much stitching done, and I think I slept for about 3/4 of the day.  So now it's Friday, I'm still feeling a little weak from my illness, but it doesn't take too much energy to stitch, right?  At least this picture isn't as crooked.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Anthera
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: November 13, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with black filament
Percentage: 77.26% complete
Stitches: 2,766 out of 3,580 complete

I'm going to have to take a break until Monday on Anthera.  My grandfather is going to be in town so I'll be spending a bit of time at my parents' place visiting, and I can't very well work on my mother's gift while she's in the same room.

Anthera: First Post

Well, after the disappointment of not being able to finish Colombina, and further disappointment of the thread being out of stock where I normally order it from, I've done quite a bit on Anthera in just one day.  Almost 34% of the total!  I'm feeling much better about being able to finish both of these in time for the holidays.  I pretty much have no doubt that I will get them done in time.  To the right is a reminder of what it looks like.

First up, here's a pic of the fabric and a portion of the thread I'm using, Caron Waterlilies Salt & Pepper.  The fabric is very lightly dyed, I was actually impressed that the difference in colors was visible in this picture.

Next up is the center of the piece.  Basically the "body" of the butterfly.

And this is where it is now:

The bottom part is done.  I'm going to start on the eyes and get the filament out of the way, which, if Colombina was any indication, will be the most annoying part of the piece.  Luckily there are less stitches around the eyes that need the filament than on Colombina.  I'm hoping to get enough done today that I'll have to bore you with yet another post tomorrow!

Project Stats:
Pattern: Anthera
Pattern by: Fire Wing Designs
Started Stitching: November 13, 2012
Fabric: 28ct. hand-dyed Evenweave
Floss: Caron Waterlilies 2 over 2, or 3 over 2 with black filament
Percentage: 33.85% complete
Stitches: 1,212 out of 3,580 complete