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

Ophelia: Ninth Post - Pages 9 & 10 (2)

Okay, warning: I got VERY picture happy.  I did a small project, which I need to post about.  A gift for a family friend, so Ophelia took a little bit longer to finish than I thought.

So this time I was finally able to keep myself on track and finished all the darkest colors on the left hand side of the two pages.

I found her lips.  Good.  Without them I could only think of Pac Man when I looked at her mouth, and she seemed a bit deformed.  Now she's looking much better.  Her eyelids are also starting to take shape.

I think it was around this point that I started doing colors from the least stitches to the most.

And one color left to stitch:

That last color is finally in!

Finally, here she is looking quite beautiful:

I was afraid that after doing her face the rest would be rather anti-climatic.  But I'm actually finding I can't wait to see how well her clothing turns out after seeing how well she's looking so far.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Ophelia
Original Artist: Jonathon Earl Bowser
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: 17.69% complete
Pages: 8 of 54 complete
Stitches: 59,873 out of 338,400 complete

I really should put her down and start working on Christmas gifts.  We'll see what I actually end up doing.

Ophelia: Eighth Post - Pages 9 & 10

I kept working on Ophelia, with the promise of her face, I just couldn't stay away.  I decided to stitch both pages 9 and 10 at the same time, as you could probably tell by my post title.  At first it was a little daunting after only doing a page at a time.  However, I did not want to split the two pages because the split went right through her left cheek.  While I cannot see any of the seams between my previous pages I still figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

I did my usual trick of stitching the background first, which really was not all that much.

That big blank area in the middle just reminded me of how much I had decided to take on.

I was going to go through and do some of the dark areas because they were easy to see on the fabric, but I then decided to do the most prominent color on these two pages which was a pink in her face, it made an outline of sorts so next I just filled it in.

And then I just started filling in here and there.  I just did certain colors as I felt like it.  I really don't have any rhyme or reason to which color I do next.  I focused on a few colors in her tiara, then I got bored of that and who knows what color I went to after that.

See those two random pink stitches below her chin?  Those are the only stitches of that color in the entire chart, so... yay, I completed a color!

So now these two pages combined are 52% done.  I'm not quite halfway through page 9, and over halfway through page 10.  Even as I look at this I'm trying to decide what color I'm going to work on next.  I think since it's so late I'm going to work on her tiara a bit.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Ophelia
Original Artist: Jonathon Earl Bowser
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: 15.49% complete
Pages: 6 of 54 complete
Stitches: 52,411 out of 338,400 complete

Ophelia: Seventh Post - Page 4

Well, this page took longer than I anticipated.  I've been adding beads every once in a while on Mermaids of the Deep Blue, so she hasn't received my undivided attention.

So, I decided to go over to page 4, instead of going down to page 9, and finish off the top of her head.

I did the same thing I did with page 3, I did all the background first, which was actually slightly over 80% of the page.

Then the rest of the page, I did say the rest of the top of her head, but it's mostly flowers on the top/side of her head.  I did all of this part of the page this week, I think it took only three nights after I got off from work.

Here she is currently, 6 pages complete.

All that's left on the top row now is a full page and a partial page only 12 columns wide, all of which is just background.  However.... I think she needs a face first, what do you think? ;D

Project Stats:
Pattern: Ophelia
Original Artist: Jonathon Earl Bowser
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: 13.34% complete
Pages: 6 of 54 complete
Stitches: 45,143 out of 338,400 complete

Ophelia: Sixth Post - Page 3

I've been waiting for this page, and now it's here / done.

I forced myself to do all the background first.  I figured that would motivate me to get it done faster so I could actually start stitching Ophelia.  I'm not sure how well it worked, but the background colors were 67% of the page, but only 12% of colors.

I finished the background and then was going to take a picture, and I forgot.  So instead this picture has all the background colors and two and half of Ophelia's colors.

I got a ton done the first night I worked on her, I might have stayed up really late.  I just have to show up to work, right, if I'm a zombie from stitching all night, that's acceptable, right? ;D

One interesting fact about this piece, there is no black in it.

So here's pretty much everything except the flowers, there's a few bits missing here and there, but they're mostly in the flowers.  Wait, another pic?  How many am I going to take?  What can I say, I'm actually stitching something other than background and I'm excited!

And I finished up the flowers tonight.

And here she is, finally started with the previous pages so you can, maybe, get a sense of the overall scale.

There are two more full pages and a very partial page left for the top row.


Project Stats:
Pattern: Ophelia
Original Artist: Jonathon Earl Bowser
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: 11.11% complete
Pages: 5 of 54 complete
Stitches: 37,600 out of 338,400 complete

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep going to the next page or take a short break and work on Mermaids of the Deep Blue.

Ophelia: Fifth Post - Page 8

I expected to continue with Mermaids of the Deep Blue, but I want to order a different color of bead.  I think what I have would work, but sometimes I can be a bit of a perfectionist, so I want to change it to a closer color.  So I went back to Ophelia.

This time I started on the bottom half of page 8.

Then I finished everything except the colors in the flower:

And finally the flower is in!

Here are all four pages:

I can't wait to get more done so that the flower doesn't look so odd.  It kind of looks like more of the background blob, but once I get the page next to it done, I'm sure it'll look much better

Project Stats:
Pattern: Ophelia
Original Artist: Jonathon Earl Bowser
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: 8.87% complete
Pages: 4 of 54 complete
Stitches: 30,020 out of 338,400 complete

The top of her head will be visible next.  Lots and LOTS of new colors.  I went through my floss to make sure I had all the colors and had to pick up a few.  I'm sure they're around somewhere, but I just wanted to make sure I had them immediately on hand instead of searching.

I also want to thank everyone still reading my blog and especially those who leave a comment.  I rarely reply to comments, however, I make sure I reply to questions.  I just wanted everyone to know how much I enjoy them and I get excited every time I see a new one.

Ophelia: Fourth Post - Page 2

So page 2 of Ophelia started off with a bang.  I got over halfway through the page in the first week.

The last half just seemed to take forever, especially when I got to the main darker purple.  Tonight I was finally able to push through to the end.

As I mentioned, I'm not stitching the parts that are actually Ophelia, which is why the bottom right corner of page 2 is blank.

So, finally three pages down:

The next page is, again, mostly background.  There is a flower that I will actually stitch since it's kind of in the middle.  So be prepared to see a few new colors, finally.  As of right now, I'm still planning on keeping this my main project, however, I did start another beading project.  If I'd known changing the thread count would make me work on it this much more quickly I would have done it ages ago.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Ophelia
Original Artist: Jonathon Earl Bowser
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: 6.78% complete
Pages: 3 of 54 complete
Stitches: 22,956 out of 338,400 complete

Ophelia: Third Post - Page 7

So page 7 is finally done.  I didn't work on it while on vacation, but I've spent a bunch of time on it before and after.

This is how far I was at the end of February:

And finally, page 7 completed:

And here's the ever exciting full view of Ophelia:

Background... lots and lots of background.  Next up... more background.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Ophelia
Original Artist: Jonathon Earl Bowser
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: 4.56% complete
Pages: 2 of 54 complete
Stitches: 15,442 out of 338,400 complete

I think I'm probably going to continue on to page two, again.  I really am still enjoying this, and I'd like to get to stitching Ophelia, unfortunately that's still two pages away, since I'll do page two then page eight.  Those both have a little bit of Ophelia in them, but I'll probably wait until I get to the pages next to them before I stitch her, I think it'll look cleaner.

Ophelia: Second Post - Page 1 (Again)

So, the last time I blogged about Ophelia was April of 2012.  I'm sad to say that every time I started working on her I got frustrated with the 25ct, 2 over 1.  So, I decided to restart her, this time 1 over 1 on 25ct. magic guide, and, I must say, I'm much happier.

This time I took a picture halfway through the first page.

And the first page complete (again).

Project Stats:
Pattern: Ophelia
Original Artist: Jonathon Earl Bowser
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: 2.32% complete
Pages: 1 of 54 complete
Stitches: 7840 out of 338,400 complete

Since I was over halfway through page 2, I decided to go down to page 7 instead, just to work on something "different".  And I'm already 40% through that page too.  As I said, I'm much happier with it now, it's easier to stitch and I don't have any problems with the coverage as of right now, of course the real test will be when I get to page 3 or 9, where there are really dark colors, but the darkish colors in these two pages are covering really well.

Ophelia: First Post - Page 1

This is the first HAED that I ever spent any amount of time on.  And the first one I ever completed a page on.  I don't know what it is about this picture, but I just love it.  The picture is called Ophelia.  It's part of a Tragedy trilogy that the artist created also containing Juliet and Cleopatra.  The artist, Jonathon Earl Bowser, is one of the best artists I've seen on making clothing look... well, real.  It's not perfectly smooth against her body, it really looks like she's wearing that dress and cloak.  This is one of his earlier works, and it just might be my favorite.  When complete, this project is going to be 16" x 33 ¾", almost three feet tall!  It's going to be fun paying to get this framed.

So, as I mentioned, I've completed page one, and I'm sorry to say it's not all that exciting.  It's all background, just splotches of color, as you can see.  The picture was taken February 22, 2011

From the looks of things it's going to be a tad more purple than the original picture, but the colors are limited to what DMC offers, until they offer all the millions of colors our eyes can perceive, I guess we'll just have to get along with 454 colors.  Honestly, I can't always tell the difference between two colors I'm stitching, so 454 seems plenty to me.

I started page 2 shortly after taking this picture.  I'm probably about halfway through that page and it is much the same.  However, in the very bottom right hand corner you will be able to see the beginning of one of the flowers in her hair.  I know you can't wait.  Actually I can't wait.  I thought it would be great stitching so much background as it would be easy... big blocks of color, very little changing of threads.  However, I find myself getting bored and having to push myself to continue with the color.  I don't have a shot of where I'm at right now, I'll post that when I get back to it, actually looking at it right now is making me want to work on it tonight.  Who knows... maybe I will.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Ophelia
Original Artist: Jonathon Earl Bowser
Pattern by: Heaven and Earth Designs
Started Stitching: August 15, 2009
Fabric: 25ct. White Dublin Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 1
Percentage: 2.32% complete
Pages: 1 of 54 complete
Stitches: 7840 out of 338,400 complete