Castle in the Air Part 9

It's been awhile since I worked on Castle in the Air. Finally sat down at my desk and worked on part 9. I was determined to get this part done. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do this part 8 and 9 again, but I will persevere :)

An overview of what's done so far.

DMC 930 & 931

Where's a boo-boo stick when you need one. Just when I finished stitching one side of the dress in DMC 930, I realized I was supposed to use 931 :(

Sigh! I did all this while I wasn't feeling well. That will teach me to stitch when I'm not up to par. What a waste of thread. I hope it doesn't affect the fabric when I remove all of it.

Objects may be smaller than they appear!

Now that's an understatement.

In preparation for the beading on Stargazer, I wanted to get some Nymo threads. I heard the size 00 was really good so I went to eBay to see if I could find a good deal. I found a seller selling two bobbins for $2.52, which I figured was a good price and the bobbins looked big enough that I'd have enough for Stargazer and maybe another project. Boy did I have it wrong.

Here is an image of what I ordered:

And here's what I received yesterday:

The spools are so tiny lol. I just hope I have enough at least to bead Stargazer. It would be horrible if I run out halfway though the project.

P.S. I don't blame the seller in any way. She was very helpful when I contacted her with questions and the shipment came to my house very fast, so I will probably order from her again despite this little surprise.

Old And New

We went to a flea market on Saturday (for those who live in the Montreal area its Finnegan's Market). I went there with a few things in mind to look out for: a new ORT container and some porcelain bowls to use when I am beading.

I had a great find at one stall. I bought the bowls for $10, there are 5 total. My favorite is the blue one in the middle. Another stall was selling a huge assortment of tin cans. They had so many different cute ones that I had to get myself one. Although I have no idea what I'll put in it lol. This one cost me $4.

With these, I was still missing a new ORT container.

Luckily, on our way back I spotted one of the new Michael's stores that opened in Quebec. So we had to stop there and check it out. They have a HUGE selection and the prices are either too high or too low. It depends on what you're into. The one thing I did notice is that DMC threads are $0.49 there (versus the $0.89 everywhere else).

I didn't really shop with a specific project in mind, as I was wholly unprepared, but I did find a new ORT vase. I also found a SMASH book (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PFsArr4Z1s), I've been wanting one for a while, and some cute buttons.

Here's a close up of the buttons

I did end up continuing working on Stargazer all last week and the weekend. Here's an update picture:

September TUSAL

My September TUSAL. It has the thread from Stretch and Stargazer. Much better than my last TUSAL :)

Stargazer Update

Now I know why so many cross stitchers work on Mirabilia projects exclusively. They are so addictive. I worked on it all weekend and every time I put it aside I wanted to go back to it. Now, I was supposed to stop stitching on it and go back to Castle in the Air, but I don't think I'll be doing that :P

Update 2012/09/11: I stumbled on Veronica's version of Stargazer and she had stitched the skin with 1 thread over 1. The effect is stunning and I will definitely have to do the same. I also found this link with pattern corrections The Stargazer Corrections.

New Start

I've been planning this project for forever. I found this pattern two years ago and its been in the back of my head, that if I ever do a Mirabilia it would be Stargazer. Well, during my trip in San Francisco (in May) I went to http://www.needlestack.com/ and asked the sales lady to help me kit Stargazer and Tree of Hope. Unfortunately she didn't have the pattern for Stargazer, but we did find the list of beads required so I asked her to pull those out for me and I decided since I was there I would pick out the fabric as well.

A few months later, I managed to gather all the threads that I needed and noticed that the fabric, which was gorgeous, and the threads didn't really match :(

So I went to eBay to see if I can find another fabric and discovered this seller hshneedlecrafts. She has a very good selection of fabric and if its not in her store, you can send her a message for a special order. The fabric is a 28ct Hand-Dyed Cashel Linen called cameo. It's kind of plain but I feel it will suit the pattern better. I will keep the other fabric for one of Mirabilia's mermaid patterns.

I worked on it for a few minutes yesterday. The fabric is very nice to the touch.

Castle in the Air Part 8

Second update in a row! This one was fast and repetitive. Almost stopped a few times, but I kept telling myself one more and then I'll stop. Next thing I knew it was complete lol.

Here's an overview of what it looks like with what is already done. Part 9 is essentially the same thing on the other side but with a few minor changes.

Stretch the Magic Dragon

My second finish on this blog :) I just finished him this morning and wanted to share it.

Here are some more detailed pictures:

In the end I decided to backstitch only the dragon with the metallic thread, which by the way gave me as hard a time as the kreinik does but the end result is so pretty that I can't hate it completely. The border was backstitched with the DMC thread from the pattern.

I had fun making this, so I can safely say that the experiment was a success and that I WILL be doing more Teresa Wenztler projects. Although I do want to improve my stitches. I noticed while backstitching that some of my stitches were not perfectly taut and they were sometimes too loose. Not sure what is doing that but I will have to be more careful in the future.

Now all I have to decide is what to do with it. It's too big to become a bookmark but too small to frame. I'll just have to put it aside for now.