Week 31 Beauty and the Beast

I have been doing some finish work on this one this week, so I will let you take a look-see :)

Everything to the left of the balcony is done being back stitched and french-knotted. I finished the castle last night and started on Belle - she has a face now!!! I need to finish her and do the rest of the characters on the balcony, plus all the french knots and other backstitch on that side. Then I need to do my boullion rose because I just think the rose as it is is kind of bleh. I want to do something to make it stand out more and be more than what it is now.

I am not going to do a lot of close up pictures this time because I want to save them for when it is completely finished (hopefully later this week!!! EEEEEEEE!!!!), but I do want to show a close up of the french knots. They are actually really fun to do, and so far I have done around 580 of them. I am about 1/2 way done with french knots. :)

Remember, if you click the pictures they will show bigger. Duh :)

I also made a couple of adjustments to the colors I used during this stage, that I will post more about when it is finished. Mostly to add more contrast, or with these flowers above, the light pink knots and the other pink knots were going to be almost the same color so I wanted to be able to see more of a difference.

Anyway, hopefully another update will come later this week when I can report a finish... ;)

Week 29 +5 Days Beauty and the Beast

Surprise post! I finished everything but backstitch and french knots on Beauty and the Beast!!!!! All 62,208 stitches of it! I have been obsessing over this a little bit this week, so I got done earlier than I thought I would. At the beginning of the week, I thought that I probably wouldn't make it by Sunday, then even yesterday morning I thought I would have to just post by the end of Sunday. Then I stitched and was not very productive with anything else at all yesterday and today, and VOILA! BAM! Here she is:

And a close up of the balcony and some of the castle:

There are still hundreds and hundreds of french knots to go, and SO MUCH backstitching, but the end is in sight! And then I can say, 'Look, I spent hundreds of hours on this so I can hang it on my wall. MARVEL AT MY AWESOMENESS!'

Week 29 Beauty and the Beast

I stitched... a bit... this week :) I was hoping to get the big urn and those flowers done this week, but I was able to do even more than that! Closer and closer and closer she goes:

This week I will finish the greenery to the left of the lamp post, and then the final base stitching stretch begins :) Just the lamp post and the greenery to the right of it, and then backstitch! And then french knots! And then I have to figure out what I want to do for a border and such, but the pattern part of it will be done. 

This has been such an amazing project to work on. Much, much more in depth than anything I have ever tried, and I am excited that I will finish it - I am not much of a project finisher in much of anything. Then I can start my drawn thread sampler and work a lot on the blackwork sampler. And of course I will probably start the "Once Upon A Time a Princess Was Born" birth announcement for my daughter... since she's 3 now... :) And I have Snow White and Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty still to do of these patterns... And and and and and - But all of that is on hold until this one is done! 

Week 28 Beauty and the Beast

I am so close to being done with this one! It's so exciting! All of the characters are completely stitched now (except for back stitch, of course). This next week will be lots of greenery and flowers. If I can keep up with my pace (not likely) then I think I can be done with the base stitching in 3 more weeks, probably more like 4 or 5. Still, after 7 months of stitching time, one more month doesn't seem too bad :)

Week 27 Beauty and the Beast, Blackwork Sampler Start

It was a busy week this week. My son turned 1 and we had his birthday party, my husband and I went out on a date (yay!), and I was sick for part of the week so we went to bed at the same time as the kids most nights. Still, I was able to stitch Lumiere's flames and almost finish Belle's dress, and I got just about all of the blues on the Beast done. Just gotta keep plugging away, I suppose! And now that I am just about done with the pearl filament and partial stitches, I am hoping it goes really quickly.

I also started that Blackwork Sampler from Blackwork Journey. I am doing mine in blues and a little bit of purple. I really didn't have much time to stitch on this but I couldn't resist putting in just a little bit :) Here is the outline for the first block:

I am stitching this on a 28 count white evenweave that I picked up at Joann's. I will have to make a couple of alterations as I go to make it fit the fabric a little better - mostly instead of making the sampler 6 blocks tall and 3 blocks wide, I will make it 5 blocks tall and 4 blocks wide. It will also give me 2 extra blocks to fill in as I want, with other filler designs I find that I might like. I will probably only update this one once a month, since that is how often she will be releasing new steps. I am very excited to try this new style of embroidery! 

More Projects On My Mind...

I love working on Beauty and the Beast. However, I think that I will need a little bit of a break every now and then to the complexity of the pattern. My sister showed me this super cute stitch along that a lot of people are doing, for a piece called Once Upon A Time by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. They are releasing a new square each month, and by the end of the year you have an entire sampler. Very cute idea :) I did find though, after much consideration, that the primitive style of cross stitch that this sampler is in, isn't really my 'thing'. But I loved the idea of something that I can work on throughout the year, just a bit at a time to give me a break from Beauty and the Beast those days that I get frustrated or overwhelmed. Here are two ideas I have for it (and I just may end up doing both ideas... lol):

I love drawn thread embroidery. I am finding though that there isn't much going on in that direction, or with whitework unless you look at European blogs. But I did find these two books: White Work: Techniques and 188 Designs, and Beginner's Guide to Drawn Thread Embroidery. The drawn thread book actually has a few samplers in it, and I figured I could maybe do one band per month, and then maybe add to the design from the White Work book if I want to. I ordered the books yesterday from Amazon and they should be here tomorrow (Happy dance!).

Of course, since I ordered the books yesterday, today I found out (through needlenthread.com) that there is a blackwork sampler that will be released month-by-month this year - for Free! It's called The Save the Stitches Sampler. I also love blackwork, with how intricate it looks but not really being all THAT difficult because the patterns are repeats. I have been looking through what she has posted so far, and I REALLY want to do this. Probably not all in black, or even with the metallic accents she has. I might do this one in blues because I LOVE blues - probably mostly a nice, deep blue, with possibly some lighter blues or periwinkles or purples thrown in. Anyway, click the links to see pictures of some of the projects, and anyone is welcome to join me on the monthly projects if they want :)

Beauty and the Beast update will be on Sunday, but bear with me. This week we have been going to bed early to try and get me healthy again (since I am sick this week) and my son's birthday is tomorrow, with his party on Saturday. Things have been busy :)

Week 26: Beauty and the Beast, Hogwarts Crest

I have not posted any progress pictures so far on my Hogwarts Crest, so I thought I would do that. This one is very slow going as it is at my parents' house, so I only get to work on it when there is time there. This means that I typically am only able to put in 3 or 4 lengths of floss per week in. Add that to the fact that this one also took an 18 month hiatus, and you have not much progress. Oh well, I still really like this one :)

I am starting with all of the black outlining, just because it is easier to only have to deal with one color at a time with the way I have to store this one.

As for Beauty and the Beast, I actually feel like I did a lot this week!

Lumiere has made an appearance, as well as the puppy footstool :) It was nice to stitch something with such vibrant colors as a change from all of the browns and grays I have been stitching with. The patio floor has been going pretty quickly so far, and on Lumiere's right side it is done up to the greenery. Lumiere still needs his flames, but those are blended with the pearly filament so I have put them off because I hate that stuff. I will try to do them this week. 

Every week gets a little closer, and I am to the point now where I WILL finish this one. The end is in sight, so I have pretty much put everything else that I want to stitch at home aside so that I can have a major finish hopefully fairly soon. I love looking around on different forums and reading other blogs to see what other people are working on because it motivates me. There are so many different things I want to stitch, but I already have so many WIPs that I need to finish one or two before I start any more. Who knows why I like to choose hobbies that take FOREVER? :) Not me, but I sure do love this one!