Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient - Finished

Well guys it finally happened, I finished Elegance of the Orient. The post on this project is now up on my new blog www.pulltheotherthread.com, so go check it out HERE

Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient, Nearly There!

Hey guys, I've a new post up on my new blog. I'm very excited. Link Here

Sneak Peek of the piece:

Sneak Peek of Elegance of the Orient Progress. Click the link above to see the rest of this post, including more pictures.

Lavender & Lace: Celtic Spring Cross Stitch Progress

Hey everyone, welcome to February, hopefully we will start seeing some nice Spring greenery soon. Speaking of Spring, in my continuing attempts to avoid working on Elegance of the Orient, last post here, I have some progress to show on my Celtic Lady! I really do feel bad that Elegance has once again been passed over, however at least I didn't start something new, that makes it ok, right?

I was looking for a project that had some nice areas of block colour and no back stitching that needed to be done immediately. I wasn't really in the mood for a HAED project, even though Bridge of Wings has some large sections of just one colour. I wanted something that made me feel like I was making tangible progress and Celtic Spring fit that requirement perfectly.

I worked on the swirls of metallic stitching, using 1 strand of the treasure braid instead of 2. I started filling in some of the gaps left from my last session with this piece and worked my way down towards the bottom of the gown. I also got to stitch the shoe, which for some reason I really like. I think it's that it really conveys she is in motion.

I also finished all the cross stitches in her bouquet and I love how it turned out. The yellow roses look so delicate. There is still some more beading to do under the flowers but I'm happy with the progress I made. I was very tempted to fill in her head piece but it's mostly beading and I wasn't in the mood for bead confetti so that will have to wait.

These pictures show the colour of the fabric I'm using quite accurately, which was an issue I was having with my other photos. It's a very delicate pink colour and the evenweave is so soft and comfortable to work with. I even find that the metallics don't shred that much with this fabric, making them much easier to use.

When I manage to get around to this project, it stitches up quite quickly. Hopefully when I start the other season ladies, I won't leave them wallow unfinished for so long.

Well that's my cross stitch project post for this week, hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to follow me on the various social media. I pop up a sneak peep of what my post will be about on Twitter and Instagram on Fridays, so check that out to get an early clue of what's coming up.

Elegance of the Orient - 3 Sections Done, So Many More to Go

Hey everyone, hope you are all having an amazing and creative week so far. I'm super looking forward to the weekend and hoping to get in some crafting, relaxing and maybe some gaming (Dark Souls 2 or The Witcher 3, for those interested in such things). I may even pull out a finish or two and make some plans on what to make with them, that could be exciting.

Well onto Elegance of the Orient, I have some more progress to show. I managed to complete 3 of my small goals on this piece, the blossoms below the bird, the gold backstitching on the left side of the shawl and the same on the right. I'm pretty happy with that and plan to move onto the flowers and tree branch above her hand on the right side of the piece next.

Dimensions Gold -  Elegance of the Orient Cross Stitch Work in Progress

The gold backstitching in the shawl was tricky and took longer than I expected. It uses 2 strands of metallic and 1 of cotton, which surprisingly makes it more difficult to use than just metallic on its own. I was really glad when I finished the last of those stitches. The only metallic left is in the underskirt and it uses just 2 strands of metallic rather than a mix.

I also ripped back what I thought was the incorrect stitching in the branch, which I mentioned in the post here, only to realise that the blossom and rest of the branch, back to the flower cluster, is also incorrect. That has been put on the to-do list to be tackled a little later.

I plan to do a post on the goal breakdown that I have started to use for this and some of my other projects. I would love to know if that would be something readers would be interested in knowing more about or not. Let me know in the comments section below.

Well that's all for now.

Elegance of the Orient: The Saga Continues

Hey everyone, hope you are all having a fine day today. Elegance has been getting almost daily attention since my last post on her, here if you missed it. Most days I might only manage to get in 20-30 minutes but it has been slowly coming together. I'm still making a ridiculous number of mistakes on the blossoms so I keep having to stitch, rip and restitch them but I will get there eventually.

By far the most difficult piece of the back stitching was the raspberry coloured plaid pattern in the underskirt. I had to do this in sections in order to keep the possibility of mistakes to a minimum. This made working on it easier but it still took quite a bit of time and I had to frog sections more than once! However I have yet to do the metallic back stitching in the shawl or yellow/pink skirt so I may end up wishing for plaid stitching when I get around to those.

Close up of Plaid Back Stitching - Elegance of the Orient

In order to keep on track with this project I broke down all the sections that are left to do and put them on a to-do list. Now I work through each small section and once it's finished I get to tick it off as complete. For example, in the picture below the blossoms to the left of the bird were one item, once they were complete I ticked that off and moved to the next. This is helping to keep me motivated, as each item is a finish of sorts.

Close Up - Elegance of the Orient

I would like to thank everyone who left feedback on whether I should change the incorrect threads on the top kimono flower, mentioned in my previous post on this. The overwhelming consensus was that I should leave it alone, which is what I did. You can definitely tell with the back stitching that it is different to the bottom one but I don't think it looks bad so I'm happy with that solution.
That's all from me today, happy crafting.

Bye for now!

Crawling Out of the Woodwork - Elegance of the Orient

Good News Everyone! Elegance of the Orient has finally seen the light of day and gotten some long overdue attention. It's so strange that I am having such trouble with this project, when there is so little left to be done. I guess part of the problem is that I'm not the biggest fan of back stitching and there is a lot of it in this piece. This is how she looked last time I posted, a shameful 11 months ago! I honestly did not realise how neglected she was until I looked back.

Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient Progress

Well here she is, I finally managed to finish off the bird, a dove I'm guessing, and made some progress on the outline of her shawl and kimono. The cherry blossoms on the trees are surprisingly fiddly, as they are only half stitches and it can be difficult to anchor the thread ends. Also their placement is awkward to get right as they aren't close to the majority of the design. So I have been working on backstitching in the branches to each set of blossoms in order to make sure they are correctly placed.

Error in the branches highlighted with a black box outline

Here is where I confess all to you dear readers, I made an error in the placement of one of the branches, highlighted above. When I first discovered it I figured that I would just leave it alone and work around it but when I picked it back up again I knew that I just wouldn't be able ignore it. It's a very small fix, so I will be ripping out those offensive stitches and re-doing it correctly. I'm also pretty sure that I have done the first bit of the Raspberry coloured cording incorrectly, so that will have to be re-done.

Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient Cross Stitch Progress Close up

Believe it or not those are not the only mistakes in this, no wonder I'm having trouble finishing it. I discovered a long time ago that I had mixed up two of the pinks when I was sorting the threads. Luckily I discovered my error before it went too far but one of the pinks in the top rose on her kimono is wrong. I had always planned to rip them out and re-stitch them correctly before I backstitched that flower but I'm just not sure if I will. If I don't then the two flowers won't match but if I do it's going to take time as I'm not entirely sure which pink it is that's wrong. Fixing it will require lots of comparing and checking with the correctly stitched flower. I would love to hear what you guys think, rip it or leave it? 

Well that's all for now. I hope you have enjoyed seeing Elegance again after her long hiatus. Hopefully I will manage lots more progress on her and she will soon become a finish instead of a UFO.

Bye for Now!

Fizzy Moon Finished!

Hey guys, well here I am again already and guess what....I have a finish for you all. Yes indeed I managed to get the last of the cross stitching in the flowers on Fizzy Moon completed and finished off the back stitching. He has now been ironed and photographed, so without further ado, here he is in all his cuteness.

Fizzy Moon Cross Stitch Finish, The World of Cross Stitching Issue 168

I am really happy with this project, the fabric just complements the piece so well and I love those beautiful purples. This was one of those occasions when I picked the chart and looking through my fabrics saw this and knew it would just be perfect. I so enjoy when that happens, all the elements just come together so easily, if only they all happened that way.

Fizzy Moon Cross Stitch Finsih - Close Up

I did initially have a small bit of trouble with the 2 white French knots in his eyes. It always takes me a few tries with these to remember the trick to them but once I get the first one, the rest are relatively simple. The back stitching on this, while time consuming, wasn't too troublesome due to the fabric being evenweave but I would not recommend anyone try a Fizzy Moon on Aida unless you have endless patience and fingertips like steel.

Now that this little guy is all done, he has been added to the rest of my completed pieces waiting to be used for.....something. I have no idea what it will be made into but I look forward to putting my creative brain to work on thinking something up for him. I have now moved onto Elegance of the Orient, the last post on which you can find HERE, way too long ago. I am eager to try and get this project finished as there is only the outline, detailing and some of the background blossoms left. If I can stick with it even for short periods every day I would think that I could finish it up pretty quickly.

Well that's all from me today, hope everyone is having a relaxing, creative weekend. See you guys soon.

A Successful YOTA - Elegance of the Orient is finally making an appearance.

I have finally gotten together my YOTA post for last month, a week late. The fact that I actually managed to get in any stitching on Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient, has come as a surprise. Nearly all the full cross stitches are complete, leaving the backstitching and the more awkward half cross stitching, which makes up the flower blossoms. These features of cross stitch patterns are some of my least favourite and as a result I avoid this project. My lack of enthusiasm is really a shame, as it is very close to the finish.
Check out my last post on this to see how much I managed: HAP SAL and YOTA Update - HAED Bridge of Wings & Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient

Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient WIP

When looking for a project to work on, I grabbed this one in the hope that I might be able to get in a few hours before it drove me completely crazy. Happily I was able to stick with it over the course of a couple of days. The result is that I completed some of the back stitching and made a start on the bird, the last of the full cross stitching. There is still a large amount of metallic back stitching to be done so that may slow my progress down, depending on how easy Dimensions' metallics are to use. With any luck and some uninterrupted stitching time, I may get this finished in the near future.

Elegance of the Orient Detail Shot

One change I did make in this stitching session was to stitch it in hand rather than on a frame. Where I was working just didn't suit having the frame set up and the in hand stitching worked quite well. The other change was to stop worrying about trying to get it finished. I know I have talked about this before but it is something I struggle with, especially when a piece is very close to completion. I constantly try to work for the finish, rather than just enjoying the process. Learning to relax made a big difference to working on this project and allowed me to get a lot further along than I thought I would.

Is anyone else especially struggling with a particular project? I would love to hear any tricks you have for overcoming it in the comments section below.

YOTA Sept 2015 - My Cheat Post

Well first of all this post is late, and secondly the piece I have been stitching on is not my chosen YOTA piece, though it is a UFO so I don't feel so bad about not making progress on Elegance of the Orient.

For anyone who has missed my Elegance of the Orient progress you can see my last post on it here: HAP SAL and YOTA Update - HAED Bridge of Wings & Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient 

Over the last couple of weeks I have managed to make some good progress on Blossoming Spring. Last week I posted my progress on this project for the first time in almost a year *cringe* This is where I had gotten to in my last post.

Blossoming Spring - Sheila Hudson from The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

I found that I was having so much fun stitching this that I continued on with it during the week and am delighted to say that it has grown.

Blossoming Spring - Sheila Hudson from The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

Now that I have figured out a system for working on the blossoms I find myself  rather enjoying the colour changes and wandering stitching. I have always loved blossom trees and when I saw this chart I just knew I had to stitch it.

Blossoming Spring - Sheila Hudson from The Ultimate Forest Friends Cross Stitch Collection

Have you ever seem a chart of something you have always loved and knew you just HAD to stitch it?  Please do let me know in the comments below.

HAP SAL - Bridge of Wings Progress June

Firstly I would like to apologise for not posting last week, things have been busy and I didn't get a chance to take some pictures of Bridge. The good news is, I have some progress.

Last time I was working on this piece I was having trouble with finding the best way to stitch on this, read about it here: HAP SAL and YOTA Update - HAED Bridge of Wings & Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient. I decided I would try stitching this in hand and see how I got on. The short answer to this experiment is, it was a disaster. I couldn't manage stitching this in hand at all. This led me to set up my floor stand again and it turned out to be the best solution. It is a bit awkward having to take it apart and put it together again but as the progress shows, it works!

Here is where I was last month:

HAED - Bridge of Wings from May

And this month:

HAED - Bridge of Wings June

So I manage to nearly complete page 3 and also made a small start on page 8. I am really happy with my progress this month and I should be able to get page 3 completed by next month.

I know that this is also YOTA time, however I have been working away on Bridge when I have had anytime that I didn't get even a stitch into Elegance again this month. I am feeling very guilty about all the other great YOTA progress going on and mine has remained the same for the last three months. I won't post another picture of the same thing, but if you want to see it check out the link above.

HAP and YOTA SAL May and an Ornament Finish

It is the start of a new month and therefore time for an update on how my HAP and YOTA SAL projects are coming along. Unfortunately this month saw no stitching on either project so I have nothing new to show. Check out last months post HAP SAL and YOTA Update - HAED Bridge of Wings & Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient to see where I am on both projects to date.

I have done some stitching, and finished a couple of small projects. As I normally finish mini pieces as cushion ornaments, I decided I would try a new finishing technique, similar to the pin keep finish. I used some foam core and batting to mount the cross stitch and the same for the cotton backing. Then I joined to two together.

Floral Cross Stitch Ornament - Bright Blooms - The World of Cross Stitching 179

Back of Floral Cross Stitch Ornament

There are a couple of mistakes I made on this piece, the cross stitch is not centred on the board. The corners are not as tidy as I would like and I would love to put some trim around the outside to cover the join but am unsure how to manage that with the hanging ribbon in place. These are all things I will be experimenting with fixing in the future and hope to share with you.

However I am quite happy with how this piece turned out. The pin cushion in the background is another project that I completed recently and made many mistake on, but that is a post for another day.

I am still working on trying to improve my blog experience for my readers. My biggest issue at the moment is definitely trying to get the pictures just right. I don't have much of a problem with content, there are lots of things I want to write about, but getting the photos to work out for me is proving to be a big challenge.

If you have any tips or trick for these types of finishes please let us know in the comments below.

HAP SAL and YOTA Update - HAED Bridge of Wings & Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient

HAP SAL update time, visit here for details. Progress on Heaven and Earth Design's Bridge of Wings has been scarce the last few months, which is a bit disappointing to be honest. This is the second month I have failed to complete my current page.

Bridge of Wings looking surprisingly similar to last month.

Recently most of my stitching is taking place on my couch. When stitching Bridge of Wings I have been using my large Q-snaps but I find it quite difficult to hold due to it's size. I also tried using a scroll frame but the larger ones are too awkward to use in hand, leading to a circus like performance as I have one leg raised by being on tip toes or using my lap stand, having to contort my arms to try and reach around the back of the piece.

I do have a floor stand but find that frustrating to keep assembling and disassembling all the time. The option of just leaving it assembled is always a possibility, if I don't mind having it take up space and tripping over it all the time. I don't want to use a smaller frame and have the clamps over the stitching, experience from other projects shows it can damage or distort the stitches. There is too much bulk in this piece to be able to put some felt between the frame clamp and the project, I tried the clamps kept popping off.

This is also my late Year of the Acronym check in,  for details on this click here.  I did start the backstitching on my Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient piece this month, however there is a lot of detail in this. Several hours of laborious stitching later and I only managed to get some of the upper section of the kimono outlined.

Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient

I believe I may have discovered the cause of my frequent grudge match with backstitching. Once I finish all the cross stitching, my mind starts to convince itself that I am close to completion. However the backstitching still remains, taunting me with how close I am to the finish but still not quite there. I begin to feel that it is being obtuse on purpose, preventing me from crossing another piece off my ever lengthening WIP list.

This is another piece that I have been finding a bit difficult to work with lately. I have been using my scroll frame but I keep hitting my hands off the wing nuts at the back as I bring my hands around. The time I experimented with having the wing nuts to the front, my thread kept getting wrapped around them. I suppose this should encourage me to get the hang of two handed stitching but when my progress slows down I get annoyed and switch back to my usual method.

While fighting with the backstitching, I worked with Elegance of the Orient in hand for a while. It actually helped and perhaps it would be worth trying this method with Bridge of Wings. The thought of trying to manage all that extra fabric as well as the hanging threads has always detered me from trying this. If I ever want to make progress on it and maybe get the illusive HAED finish I might have to experiment a little.

I will post on any solutions I manage to find to these cross stitching annoyances. Please leave a comment on any techniques you have found helpful in the comments below.

YOTA March - Dimensions Gold Elegance of the Orient

Well it's YOTA time here again, this one seem to come around too quickly. Unfortunately this month I made no progress on this piece, not a single stitch.

Here she is as of last month's check in and still is:

Dimensions Gold - Elegance of the Orient

I really had hoped that this would be a finish for me this month, however everytime I picked it up to work on it I just couldn't seem to get into my stitching groove. The same thing happened with both my HAP SAL piece, HAED Bridge of Wings, and my lunch time mini project.

HAP SAL - Bridge of Wings Post
Lunch Time Mini Project Post

In the last week there were a number of days when I was really excited by the idea of going home and settling down for an eveing of stitching. I would get all my supplies together and fully intent on making some progress. After a few minutes I would find that I just wasn't enjoying the process and would have to put it down again. Unfortunately this means that I have nothing new to show you all today but hopefully my creativity will be back on track soon.

In the meantime head to the YOTA page on the top right of this blog and check out how the others are doing.