Villa Mirabilia progress

Exhausted

Tamara is not well, as soon as she gets better, another infection pops its ugly head up. I'm worried for her health, not just because of the illnesses, but also the whopping amount of medicine she has been taking recently.
To top it off, my sleeping disorder is back, so I get hardly any rest. I am trying to use the unexpected extra time productively. I'm re-reading some of the classic books that were mandatory literature in school, but being too young, I failed to understand and thus appreciate them. I'm reading Madame Bovary and next on my list is Catch 22.
I have done some stitching too. I spent two weeks under the spell of Red. It was weird but fun. I couldn't even think of another project. I still keep it nearby, but now I'm working on a Lanarte kit I started about a year ago. Nowadays I'm too tired to enjoy stitching. I make myself do it because the alternative would be sitting numb in a corner, staring in the distance and drooling quietly.

Red speed stitching

WIPocalypse sign in

February 14 – Topic: How many projects do you generally feel comfortable having in progress at a time?  Tell us about your one-at-a-time or rotation habits!

LOL. Comfortable. I am very comfortable with the idea of drowning in WIPs. Cross stitching is my favourite hobby, and I am quite certain it has saved me and changed my life for the better. I'm not going to ruin it by setting goals or deadlines or limits. That's not a hobby, that's work. So whenever I feel like starting a new project, I start it. I stitch on whichever WIP itches the most in my mind. I love the whole process, from staring at a chart and drink in the sight, to daydreaming about working on it; gather all the materials, pick or even dye the fabric, do the occasional conversions, experiment; stitch, photograph, blog, stitch, photograph, blog, until the eventual happy dance when I can start daydreaming about framing or other ways of finishing an item. I love all of it. And I'm done apologizing for it. No rules. No habits. No deadlines. Just the joy of stitching.

My love for Mirabilia never dies

Mirabilia has a new chart out, she is called Cassiopeia, and I have already added her to my ever growing wish list. I put Villa Mira aside for a while, as I got fed up with the pinks, and resumed working on Red. No progress photos yet. Last week I managed to buy a few colours I was missing, including black. Now I am back to stitching and loving it. I should write my WIPocalypse entry for this month, but lack the energy. I will make myself do it this week though, stay tuned.

Pink troubles

I continued working on the Villa Mira lady's skirt, but hit the breaks when I reached the bow it is a very bright pink colour I don't like and so avoid whenever possible. I am not familiar with the pink palette. So when it dawned on me that the 600 and 601 shades of DMC look identical, I became uncertain. Is it the lighting, did I make a mistake when I wound my floss on the bobbins, or are those colours simply that close to each other? Am I even gonna see any difference on the stitching? I didn't have Internet access for most of the holidays. I thought about contacting my stitchy friends, but I didn't wanna disrupt their family holiday time with such trivial things. So I jut put it aside and worked on my other projects. After all, there is no shortage of those! Here's how far I got:

New tradition

The new year doesn't officially start until I start stitching on a new Mirabilia! That is a brand new rule I have just decided to turn into a tradition. This time it's Red. I mentioned how much I wanna stitch her and one of my most beloved friends mailed me the chart as a R.A.K..
I don't do resolutions because they are a pain in the back to stick to. I am a single mom with depression but no job, I have enough on my plate already. If I made any resolutions I would only beat myself up about not sticking to them 100% to the letter and would just make my life unnecessarily hard for myself. The last resolution I ever made was to just stop doing that to myself. I do have some vague plans of what I want to do in 2014, but as a true pirate, I tend to think of them more like guidelines rather than an actual set of rules. ;-) So here are my rough sketches of things to do:
   Enjoy the moment. Life is a series of moments. Several decades worth of moments, but still.
   Enjoy my body. It is fully functional and it wasn't always like that. No matter how long ago it happened, I can recall what it felt like to be pushed around in a wheelchair. The real reason for me to work out is not about weight or looks, it's the sheer joy of being able to do it. I will keep reminding myself how much I love it to inspire myself to get more exercise.
   Improve my craft. I've been cross stitching for over 20 years, but I only learned about specialty stitches some 18 months ago. At first I was not even that interested, but then I stitched the Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden and I got hooked. This year I will try and learn several stitches, learn their name, origin, history, use, everything.
   Stop wasting time on things that don't really matter. Often I do things I could not care less about simply because I think they are expected of me. Not as often as I used to, but still. I wanna stop.
   Spend less time with people who just use me and more with the ones that truly care about me.
   Spend time to figure out what I wanna be when I grow up. If I could pick anything, it would be the Doctor's companion, but I wanna find something to do until the T.A.R.D.I.S. materialises outside my door.
   Last but most importantly. Have even more fun with my girl. It is clear to me that we are different. She is forever moving and active. My favourite activities start with taking a seat in a comfortable armchair. She will never have the patience to stitch or read like I did, she can't wait to leave the cinema after a movie, she does her drawings in several sessions because she can't sit still to finish in one go. It's not easy to accept that. I can do it most days but not always. I will try and find more ways we can spend time together and make them good times too.

Getting closer to the stars

I spent some time working on Stargazer recently. I didn't realize there would be so many beads on her dress too! I'm wondering if I could add them as I go, but I stitch with a hoop, as your expert eyes can probably see on this photo below, so I am not sure if that is a good idea. Also, I have decided to do her skin over one for a more sophisticated look. I really love it so far! I hope to do more on her during the holidays. Who knows, if I really get down to it, I may even finish her this year... although, knowing me, it is highly unlikely.

The skirt keep growing

I am still very much under the spell of Nora Corbett, when I am not stitching Mirabilias, I am looking at others' progress pictures online or staring at my own charts, admiring my fabrics and planning conversions. So, same stitchy lunacy as usual. Most of the time I'm working on Villa Mirabilia, with the ever growing chequered skirt I love so much. I also decided to do her skin over one. These are my latest pictures below. This week I am working on Stargazer, I will post on that in a few days. 

Mirabilia madness

Nora Corbett has a hold on me. Her designs are amazing and I just cannot stay away from them.

So she released Persephone some weeks (months?) ago, and I just had to order the chart immediately. I had a bit of extra money so I got the embellishment pack as well. I already picked a wonderful hand dyed fabric by Stephanie and bought the DMC floss required. No hand dyed floss yet, as the fabric I chose looks very different from the original. Therefore I will stitch the lady before I decide what colours I should use for the background pattern. Long story short, I have her kitted up and she is patiently waiting her turn.










 Then they released Red, which not only looks amazing, but she also reminds me of Ruby from the TV series Once Upon A Time. I love that series and Ruby is one of my favourite characters.

(SPOILERS!)

You may already know that I have a thing for werewolves. So for me Red has an extra special meaning. I don't even have the chart yet, but I bought a piece of 32ct grey marble linen and most of the floss. That is how nuts I am for this chart.

It was then that I realized that as much as I like finishes and try to make myself stitch smaller designs, my true calling is Mirabilia, as these designs give me the most joy, and I feel happier working on them then I feel finishing anything else. So, after years of futile efforts of not making more WIPs but concentrating on finishes, I finally embraced my nuts-for-Miras side and started working on Villa Mirabilia. It is my absolute favourite design and had it kitted up for years. I didn't start on it because its size scared me and I kind of assumed it will become a UFO. But now I had enough of waiting. I work on VM and every single stitch makes me happy. And, at the end of the day, that is all that matters.

Just the pictures

Back to blogging

I missed blogging, but due to recent rearrangements in my job I just couldn't find the time and/or energy to do it. It's been a long winter and I missed my sunshine. I mostly run on solar power. Also, I have more and more problems with blogger, so I started to experiment with Wordpress. I may move my blog there. I will let you know if I do. Here is a brief recap of important things that happened, told mostly in pictures. 

2013: The Year of the Frog, apparently

So, as we have previously promised to each other on a drunken night of cross stitch admiring, on the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, some friends and I have all started to stitch a new Mirabilia project, as we agreed. And although I have only been working on it for three days, I already had to frog at least five times, which is annoying, but it will not put me off! I am stitching Stargazer on Stephanie's beautiful opal fabric called Midnight Tryst and this scan was taken after the first day. I promise to finish this one before the year ends.

My conversion

Many of you lovely stitchers have asked me about how I converted Rose of Sharon to the colours I am currently working with. I promised a post and here it is!
First I checked the chart to see which symbols correspond with which colour. I grouped the yellows of the dress and the blues of the ribbon in two columns in my notebook, going from lightest to dark. Then I started picking DMC purples for the dress. I quickly realized that regardless of their amazing range, I will not be able to get the desired effect with just one brand. One of the perks of working in a needlework shop is that I am surrounded by stash, that is currently not mine, but that is just a glitch in the Matrix, sooner or later they will ALL be my prescioussss! So I filled the gaps with Anchor floss. For the longest time I could not decide on the colour of the ribbon, but Stephanie's beautiful Forest Bloom fabric gave me the inspiration to use a green shade and I didn't regret it.
So now you know the story and you will know the numbers too.
Original (DMC)/ My version
676                    DMC 3836
680                    DMC 3834
729                    DMC 3835
745                   Anchor 90
746                   Anchor 103
829&680          DMC 154
931                   DMC 3812
932                   DMC 958
3752                 Anchor 186
3756                 DMC 964
In case you were wondering, yes, I am planning further changes to the design, I want to stitch the columns in full as they would look weird on this fabric otherwise. I wanna change the flowers' colours too, but I will cross that bridge when I have dealt with the troll hiding under.

October in November

It's time for the October edition of the WIPocalypse report. Do not adjust your clocks and calendars.

Kit by Vervaco

Progress and S.E.X.

I've been stitching a lot lately, obviously I cannot show you the secret project, but I can inform you that it is growing steadily and I even started another minor secret project I am about to finish and reveal. Here are my progress pictures and a photo of my recent purchases. Yes, I've been a bad girl and increased my stash yet again.

The thrill of a new start

I was gonna start working on Tree of Stitches by Abi Gurden this week, but fate had other plans. :) Just as I was finishing my previous blog post, I hear a knock on the door. It was the mailman with Stephanie's wonderful fabrics! I spread my favourite piece on the bed, spent half a day marvelling at its beauty, and realized I won't be able to go to sleep before I put my needle to it. So I took a deep breath and a last look at my conversion table, and started my purple version of Mirabilia's Rose of Sharon.

This is my progress after the first day.

This is my progress after three days. I'm going slow as I have changed methods. I cross every x one by one to make sure my stitches are more even. A friend of mine suggested trying this and I like the result so far. I spent some time today trying to figure out what her ribbon should be like. On the original yellow dress it is blue. On my version... it will be... green. Not sure if it would work, but I fell in love with the colours! I will keep you posted and you can tell me what you think.

Tree of Stitches, and all the lovely hand dyed floss I chose for it, will have to wait a little longer. ;)

July WIPocalypse at long last

I think I didn't post in June. That's because I got my new job in late May and had a lot to learn and even more to do. But I never stopped stitching, and here is proof!
I apologize for picture quality, I snapped these with my cell phone.

Almost mid-month April WIPocalypse report

March had been a pretty hectic month and a particularly unlucky one for our family, so I am glad it is over. Here's hoping it will never surface again. Not only were most of us really sick last month, my baby was also bit by a dog very badly. I will never ever get her screams of pain out of my head for as long as I live. Never. Ever. It's been almost a month since it happened, but I wasn't ready to talk about it until I could see it healing. She was bit on her thigh and most of the minor bruises are almost gone, but two big holes where the dog's fangs have pierced the skin are still healing and will take at least another month before they are closed. For now, we change bandages several times a day to make sure the wound gets some air too. My girl still refuses to look at it. It seems the horror of being injured is multiplied by the disturbing sight.

And now for the regularly scheduled stitchy news. 

Frog visit

Since a few members of the WIPocalypse SAL have mentioned that they are doing this thing called Mirabilia March, I have decided to concentrate on Circle of Friends more than any other project. I must be rubbish at concentrating, as I managed to make a huge mistake. I don't have dyslexia, but I somehow couldn't tell the difference between the numbers 745 abd 754, so what was supposed to be a nice, light yellow section, was stitched entirely with the flesh shade pink. I only noticed my mistake when I went on to work on the ladies' arms and realized I know this colour, and upon checking more thoroughly, I noticed I have two skeins of the same floss in my kit. So I had to frog the whole thing, and I swear to the goddess of cross stitching, I spent more time removing those stitches than I had putting them in in the first place. Below are the scans of the before and after phases of frogging. The photo of the correctly stitched piece will go to the WIPocalypse report later this week.