The Castle framed Wednesday, Dec 20 2006

Yesterday I took it back from the LNS and finally framed it. You can see the frame colors I wrote about in a previous entry. Although I will surely re-take photos of everything once there is something better than webcam around. I framed it yesterday but had to wait until today’s morning because I needed daylight.

I also bought a present for mom - a small Vervaco kit. Will have to see whether she will enjoy stitching it as by now she’s doing only stamped cross-stitch. But I hope she’ll like it and entirely switch to counted cross-stitch.

We finally have some snow after long weeks of foggy, humid and relatively warm weather. But it melds quickly because the temperatures are high. But better this than the fog. This fog was driving me crazy and it did annoy my body a lot more than my mind. We *had* to abandon work and all and travel one day up to the mountains just to see some sun rays. Almost similar to taking a breath of air, really. But after we drove back into the “canyon of fog” I again felt how it affects me most negatively. In short - I wish this winter to finally end. No worse than colorless, expressionless skies without any major changes ever happening, or snow that melds at instant.

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short update Monday, Dec 18 2006

Not much new, I had no time to stitch as much as I wanted to last week. So the current status of both my projects is rather poor.

I started on the Roman before receiving Tuscan View so it might look as a lot of progress while in fact it’s not.

There’s so much I need to do and the holidays are approaching. Still I hope to have some more time to devote to stitching than before. I hate such “gaps”.

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First progress on Tuscan View Tuesday, Dec 12 2006

I expected it to move faster than it does. /hint: one of the reasons for fast stitching speed is the fabric. Working on Evenweave is like cutting butter with knife, on Aida is like cutting bread.

But I also decided to put away all the rest of my projects that are on evenweave because with time one gets used to Aida and the process goes more smoothly (no irritants to keep you constantly comparing “now that is a lot better”).

Dislike: stitching with 3 and 4 strands. Sometimes it seems to me that those 4 are unnecessary. Besides they’re very difficult to do on Aida.

Like: Very interesting effect that achieves a lighter tone by stitching a part with 3 strands and then with 1. Another designer would put a different lighter color or a blend but here the tone looks perfect.

Another like: So far the colors look as they should. I think it will turn out exactly as on the photo. Also here I am doing the backstitching as I go - want to have the complete picture right away.

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Tuscan View Saturday, Dec 9 2006

S. has arrived. Her arrival was postponed with a few days because of weather conditions. And with her came the Tuscan View, so, happy me

The picture on the cover looks stunning in RL. But the given fabric is yellowish and not ecru as shown on the cover photo. (hmm.) Of course it’s Aida, so will have to see how to deal with this.

The thing I really didn’t liked is floss sorting. It’s offered to be done in such inconvenient way that I had to take it to B. to help me with it. The method is horrible; if the number of strands was not listed for each color, I doubt I’d have the *nerves* to stand this invention and find out which color is “pink” while having 3 shades of such. That difficult to just put the floss number and write “symbol X in the chart corresponds to number X”? (and then what Dimensions threads numbers are used for if the threads themselves are not labelled with anything?)

Anyway, I hope the stitched result will impress me. Will have to watch for the fabric to fit properly and avoid errors because to re-stitch will mean to lose from the threads - and if gone, they’re gone. No mixing DMC/Dimensions in one place.

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Gargoyle Bookmark I Monday, Dec 4 2006

What a beastie *This* is what I call cute.

I am already in a mood for the next big project but have to wait some more time. So I started one of the Roman figures. Lot of work, not enough free time, but hope this week will be the last hectic one before the longer holiday weeks. There’s so much I need to do purely for myself that keeps being postponed; and in the mean time I will have to prepare the house for guests on Wednesday and then move on with work until Friday evening.

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The Castle finished Saturday, Dec 2 2006

I am finally done! Today was a “good working day”, I seemingly had amounts of external energy for accomplishing much more than I usually do - I worked, then did housework, shopping and then a couple hours of stitching. This resulted in:

*click*

You’ll have to again excuse me if the two parts seem too visible - I did all I could to adjust the scans.

It’s good to blog about cross stitch because you also know your project starts, finishes and all details without putting much effort into keeping notes, spreadsheets and what not. “The Castle” was started on Sep. 23-rd and finished on Dec. 2-nd, which roughly makes two months and one week. Not bad…But I am not pursuing any deadlines or world records for fast finishing.

Changes/modifications:

I omitted backstitching some areas, like the mountains. IMO, they’re distant so should not protrude so much. Not that the backstitching would make them over-exposed, but omitting it was for me even a better idea.

I backstitched the dragon’s forehead with very light green instead of the usual DMC 500 for the dragon’s body. My variant looks a bit better to me, but then this is again a subjective preference.

My impressions from this design are very good. I can’t skip to notice that in contrast to St.George which was generally the same difficulty type, I pushed myself at some point only and only to finish it; and with The Castle there was never such a moment. Either it is a growing experience, or the design’s vibe, or both

My next TW? I don’t know yet, but I am eyeing “Day” from the same book or excerpt from “Castle Sampler”. Or if B. (my relative) is kind enough and less busy so to stay at home for a couple of days, there might be something from PatternsOnline. But it depends mainly on him.

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Bookmark update Friday, Dec 1 2006

Still backstitching “The Castle”. I am not sure I like the idea of backstitching with two strands in some places, although it doesn’t seem that rough if looked at from a certain angle.

At the Solarium I mentioned that backstitching gives no major difference; this already looks so only for the low part of the design. The castle looks a lot different when backstitched than the rocks which are done with more bright 413.

I also noticed that the one strand of thread looks more “thin” in areas with two 3/4. Not particularily for this design, the combination of these two techniques in general. Not very good effect, esp. when the backstitching thread color is not very dark. With darker colors the coverage is better. I might think of going back to two fractionals instead of two 3/4.

Gargoyle bookmark I.

Compared to The Castle this bookmark is not so finely looking, but taken by itself it is good. So far I am enjoying switching between backstitching and this small project. I want to finally get the big one done but seems that it will take few more days. And I already “anticipate” the scanning and joining of two pictures into one. Someday I must finally buy myself a digital camera.

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