Revelation

I have been stitching on Revelation for the past week. I recently restarted on 25 ct pink lugana 1x1. I had been stitching 2x1 half cross on linen, but the fabric was warping. So rather than waste more time, I restarted. Here's a pic- I did it without the flash, because with the flash it seemed too bright. You'll have to ignore the shadow at the top :)



Now for my other HAED projects that are 2x1 tent stitch... I am restarting them all. Why? Same reason. If they were started on linen or lugana, the fabric is not strong enough to keep from warping. My Vision of Light is stitched on Monaco which is much stronger than linen or lugana, so it will be fine. I am also leaving Sea of Roses alone because it is on Monaco. The others have just a little done, so no matter what the fabric, they're getting the restart and 1x1 treatment. I like the look of the 1x1 better anyway. I used to think that 2x1 tent was twice as fast as 1x1, but turns out confetti is confetti. An extra millisecond to cross the top leg really doesn't matter when you have to rethread your needle 50 times in a 10 x 10 block!!

Hope everyone has a great stitching week!!

Vision of Light Update

Well, here she is after the April SAL challenge on the HAED BB. I decided to do a "chunk" instead of stitching straight across. I had no idea how much faster it would be! I completed over 5000 stitches during the SAL- probably because I didn't have to rethread the needle over and over and could actually complete a color all the way down. I stitched in five block coloumns.

I've now reached the 50,000 stitch mark and it has taken 300 hours!

I've included an up close pic of the jewelry. Had to be a little dark to show the beautiful sparkle. It took about 8 hours from start to finish. I used DMC precious metals and antique effects. Very fickle stuff to stitch with, but worth it. The hardest part was trying to "chart" the jewelry. Obviously, there were more colors charted than I had to choose from and it was also difficult to decide which part was necklace and which was skin. So, I did my best and am happy with the result. There's a little metallic blob of knots in between the earring and the necklace- you'll have to excuse that. I couldn't do a loop start with this metallic stuff, so intead of tent stitching, I did it 1x1 full cross. I think I'll like the contrast with the rest of the piece which is tent stitch 2x1. Oh, and I did this out of sequence to give me time to change my mind and frog it all out before I actually get there with the cotton. It's virtually impossible to frog very much when you park threads without tearing out the stitches you want to keep!!

The last pic is there because I'm going to use one of the colors as the gems set in her jewelry. Still haven't decided which one. I'll probably wait until I get there with the cotton part to decide.

Changing my rotation and April goals

I have decided to rotate based on "screaming" rather than my normal list of WIPs. I think that will make stitching much more enjoyable. I was becoming overwhelmed with the thought that I must stitch this or that because it was coming up in the rotation and having to put one that I loved away to stitch on a lesser favorite. So, now I am stitching whatever I want whenever I want to... let's face it, it's not like I'm going to get all these HAEDs done in my lifetime anyway!!

I'm also going to try to remember to list my monthly goals... my April goals are as follows:

1- 2000 stitches on Revelation (my restart)
2- 4500 stitches on Vision of Light
3- Start QS The Napping Hat by Molly Harrison
4- 1500 stitches on Midnight Orchard
5- 1500 stitches on La Belle

I am also going to do my best to remember to post progress pics of each of my goals.

The HAED BB had an Easter Creature SAL- the perfect opportunity to start The Napping Hat. Here she is after the SAL with 5500 stitches done (17.6% complete)


She screams very loudly to be stitched, however so does Vision of Light. I'll be stitching VoL this weekend for the April Challenge SAL.