Break From Blogger

Hey guys,

So I haven't been feeling the blogging mojo for a while now, so I'm going to take a break. I'm not sure when I'll be back.

I'll still be posting stitchy pics on Instagram, so you can come find me there if you like XD I'm therapy_by_thread over there.

Gaming Over Stitching

Pokemon Go is now out in Canada. Let's just say that I have been taking a lot of walks during the time I would usually be stitching.

This is reflected in my current progress. I've outlined about half the eyes. I think I need to re-evaluate my theory that I'll have this finished by the end of the month...


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan

On To The Shiny

Currently listening to the full cast production of American Gods. It's good, but I've long been spoiled for everything so it isn't as thrilling or captivating as it could be. I have finished off the DMC and started the Kreinik, so that's a plus.


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily JobelanBarring any major real life issues or a complete loss of mojo, I should have this done by the end of the month!

June Achievements & July Goals

I can't believe half the year is over. It seems like just yesterday I was toasting in the new year!

Goals for June:
1. Finish Swirling Peacock's tail.I got a huge chunk of it done but I'm not finished.
2. Finish the next Heart. No. I think I should just accept that I don't feel like fixing the Hearts, so they're on indefinite pause.

Goals for July:
1. Finish Swirling Peacock.

Keeping it short and simple (and potentially achievable) next month.

A Good Book Will Take You Far

I was hoping to finish the tail this month, but I don't think that will happen. On the positive side I listened to a really great audiobook this week (League of Dragons by Naomi Novik) and was pretty much glued to my needlework the whole time. Swirling Peacock went from this:


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily Jobelanto this:

Now I just need to find another good audiobook to listen to XD

More Feathers

I'm still enjoying this, so it's more pictures of the same old same old :)


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan

Tail Feathers

It's summer and everything is too hot. And I've barely done any stitching.

Here's what little I've managed on Swirling Peacock.


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan

May Achievements & June Goals

So May is a month that happened.

Goals for May:
1. Finish the next Heart.I didn't touch it.
2. Finish Cinderella. Done.
3. Start something new. Swirling Peacock is about 1/3 done.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. I only posted once. I have to do better in June.

Goals for June:
1. Finish Swirling Peacock's tail.
2. Finish the next Heart.

Swirling Swirling

Has it really been over 3 weeks since I last posted? ha ha ha...

Anyway since the last post I've
a) finished Cinderella (pictures tomorrow because I deleted the ones I took because I thought I'd posted them and now I need to dig her out of storage
b) started Swirling Peacock by Joan Elliot


Swirling Peacock
32 ct Waterlily Jobelan
It's a pretty fast stitch. Those swirls are a bit of a pain since I have to count very carefully (and had to frog one when I miscalculated). The colours are even more vivid in person. I'm debating whether I should finish up the metallic moon or switch to the tail. I really want to start the tail!

April Achievements and May Goals

I didn't do too well this April. Not with stitching and not with a lot of non-stitchy things. I hope May is better.

Goals for April:
1. Start and finish the next Heart. I started it, but I haven't even finished the outline.
2. Finish all the stitching on Cinderella. Done and I've started the beading!
3. Finish the "secret project". No. I didn't touch it.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Finished Mediterranean Mermaid.

Goals for May:
1. Finish the next Heart.
2. Finish Cinderella.
3. Start something new.

From The Depths

As is usual with my bead cannibalism, I ran out of one bead for Cinderella. So I went by my LNS (yes the one I complain about) and while I was there picked up what I needed for Mediterranean Mermaid. It took 45 minutes to finish her off. Why did I put it off for so long?


She has so many beads! It's utterly ridiculous. I'd completely forgotten how blingy she is. I was continually catching the thread on the already stitched beads.

Here's a rather fuzzy shot of her tail.

This entire dark blue/green middle part of her tail is metallics and beads. There isn't a single DMC in here. It's so so shiny in person.

I know I made a few changes, but apparently didn't write anything down so I'm not sure exactly what they are. One thing I remember is that I used the same colour as the tiara for her shoulder strands. As charted, it called for something that wasn't used for anything else. Just those strands. And in the interest of frugality I decided that they could be silver like the tiara.

The freestanding beads that are close to her body are correctly placed. After that they're "approximate". I started from either end and by the time I got to the middle I was just eyeballing them to make sure the "bubbles" were in a smooth line. I had zero interest in counting that carefully, and I'm 100% confident in saying that I don't think anyone would be able to tell.

Because of all the beads it's actually a very 3d kind of finish. And because there's so little stitching, and all of it is in a thin line in the middle of the fabric, the whole thing is kind of heavy and floppy around a lot (and the fabric is a very drapey kind too).

I'd forgotten how much I loved this one. I'm so glad I managed to finish it off.

Title	Mediterranean Mermaid
Designer	Mirabilia
Start date	May 7, 2015
Finish date	Apr 28, 2016
Total time	54.25 hours
Fabric	32 ct summersky jobelan
Floss	Kreinik 001 instead of 019

Bring On The Beads

Thanks everyone for all the framing advice! Hopefully now I can get some things onto walls.


I've started adding the beads to Cinderella! Here she is with her top half done. I have the entirety of her skirt left.

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
It actually took me longer than anticipated to get the beading, because when I started backstitching I realized that I'd missed an entire part of her sleeve and dress. So I had to stitch that. Then when I was backstitching I realized her hand was posed awkwardly:


While it is possible to hold your hand like that (I tried it), it would not be how my hand would look when running away while wearing a giant poofy gown and holding my heaving bosom. So to speak. So I had to remodel it. My version is a bit crude and I feel like the hand is a bit too big, but I prefer it to how it's charted.

Framing Question

I was hoping to have all the stitching on Cinderella done, but no such luck.

I do have a question for people who do their own framing:
Where do you get your frames?

I have so many finishes waiting to be framed but the cost of getting things professionally framed is ludicrous around these parts. And commercial frames available at Michaels/Walmart/etc are in fixed sizes, and my finishes are not those sizes. I'm thinking of doing my own framing but am stumped about where to get frames in custom sizes.

So Close

I don't think I've posted a full shot of Cinderella in a while, so here she is:


Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
I've just got the silver leaves on the flowers and the backstitch before I can start beading. I want to start beading now!

Fancy 'Do

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
So I managed to find a redhead conversion for a different Mirabilia and modified it a little for Cinderella. I'm quite happy with it.

Now I have a few more roses to finish and then random missed stitches and it's onto the beads!

And What About The Hair?

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
I finished off Cinderella's skin and was about to start her hair. The plan was to make her a redhead, and while the conversion I'm using doesn't come with red hair I thought I had another conversion for that. It turns out that "thought" is the keyword here, because that other conversion is only the dress too and not the hair.

So now I have to decide if I'm going to try and come up with a conversion myself (doubtful since I'm not very good at that sort of thing), google one (there has to be a conversion of a Mirabilia design with red hair, right?) or just give up and go with blonde.

March Small

I finished Heart of the Northwest Territories this month. Next month is recharting Yukon. I guess I should dig out the graph paper...

March Achievements & April Goals

I can't believe it's the end of March already. I feel like this month was terribly unproductive :(

Goals for March:
1. Start and finish the next Heart. Heart of the Northwest Territories is done.
2. Finish all the stitching on Cinderella.I didn't even touch it.
3. Finish one mitt. No. I think I'm done with this for now. Knowing me, I'll probably pick it up again in the summer.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Started my new project that I can't post until it's finished because I was asked not to. All I can say is that it's not cross stitch, but it is counted work and I'm enjoying it so far.

Goals for April:
1. Start and finish the next Heart.
2. Finish all the stitching on Cinderella.
3. Finish the "secret project".

More Colour

Taking a break from Venetian Opulence to stitch something I'm not sure I'm allowed to post a picture of. I'll have to check if it's ok.

This is what she looks like going back into the WIP pile.

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct Ivory

A Touch of Green

I stitched some more brown on Venetian Opulence and now am going to stitch a more colourful part. See that smidgen of green I've started.

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct Ivory