A First!

So this project represents a lot of firsts for me. It was my first Mirabilia design, my first big finish on this blog and the first thing I've ever framed. Also, it is the first frame we've hung ever in our home. We lived at the apartment for almost 20 years without ever hanging anything and we've been at the house for 2 years and never hung any of the picture frames we've bought or the paintings my sister has made.

So now, my room is the only one with anything hanging. The frame is over my bed, so it's still kind of weird to see it there when I wake up in the morning. But it's looks great in my room.

I ended up getting Stargazer framed at GEMST. They gave me a very good quote and the sales person was great. As soon as I showed him Stargazer, he knew exactly what I needed and picked out different frames that could match. We ended up picking a frame that has a line of "pearls" with an inner frame so that it would lift the glass over the fabric on account of the big 6/0 beads.

Stargazer Completed!

It's finished!

By Friday night I had 10 beads left to put in, so Saturday afternoon I sat myself down and worked on putting in the last beads. And it's done :)

My sister took some really nice pictures of it on Sunday. We had great sun that day.

Next step is to find a framer. I'm going to have to ask around for a place that has experience in framing needlework. I remember asking Omer Deserres for a quote and the cost went over $100 o.O so I've already braced myself for the shock lol.

Finally an Update!

I've been very bad. I keep saying I'll post an update picture of Stargazer and never doing it lol.

So much has happened since my last update. After "losing my marbles" I realized that I didn't have enough of one of the mill hill beads (not the one that was dropped). I kept looking at what I had left to bead and the amount of actual beads I did have left and there just didn't seem to be enough. It didn't help that I was cherry-picking them to make sure the color stayed consistent. But it turns out I wasn't crazy. After checking the Mirabilia site, I found out there was a misprint on the copy of materials I had.

The dress is now completely beaded and I am now working on the sky.

The colors are so pretty to work with. I love those shades of blue.

Stargazer is now off the frame and back on the Q-snaps. I realized that I couldn't roll the sky part especially with those Mill Hill size 6 glass beads, so I ended up just removing it from the frame.

I lost my marbles

Literally! I was working on Stargazer last night, when I bumped the bowl that contained the beads (petite beads at that!) and all of it went on the floor in my bedroom. At this point I completely lost my mind :(

I spent the next 30 minutes crawling on my hands and knees with my cell phone as a flashlight trying to find all of them. I think I got all of them but you can never be sure. The beads were so small, ToT why couldn't this happen with something that was a little bigger.

After that happened I didn't have the heart to work on it. Here's what I have so far.

Stargazer Beading Start

Over the weekend I started the beading on Stargazer. I removed Castle in the Air from the frame and replaced it with Stargazer. I figure it would be easier to work on it like that than on a frame.

I placed approximately 586 beads. It went by very fast, I loved working with the Nymo thread. I think next time I'll order the bigger spool, it will become my go to thread for beading :)

I've already moved on to the next mill hill bead, but I'm going slower. I'll try to post a more recent picture soon.

Busy as a Bee

I haven't posted anything in a while. Not because I wasn't stitching, I was. It's just that every time I come to stop and do a posting I realize that if I just keep going for a little bit I'll be able to finish the dress, that I'll be able to finish the hair, the skin,... 2 weeks pass by and I still haven't made a post lol.

So here she is, my Stargazer all stitched up. All I have left is the beading.

I did end up stitching the face with 1 thread over 1. And she looks gorgeous like that. Here's a close up:

I am going to try and not start the beading until next month. That way I can try to make some progress on Castle in the Sky and maybe start another very small project. I already picked one out. It's a pattern by Awenmir of Ichigo from the Manga Bleach. She has many other patterns on her site here http://superstitch.110mb.com.

Small Progress

I think I might have overdone it in the past few weeks working on Stargazer, I've been getting neck pains. So last week I decided to slow down a little and didn't cross stitch anything. I decided to use that time to catch up on my reading.

I worked on it a bit on the weekend and it looks like I did a lot but I really didn't. I think filling in the gaps gives the illusion that a lot of stitching had been done.

Dessins Isadarena

I've been following a cross-stitcher from France named Isabelle and I always love her blog because its so pretty and feminine. She is actually the reason why I have Chatelaine designs on my wishlist. After seeing her progress and how beautiful they come out I just had to add them.

Isabelle also designs very beautiful patterns based on old french "broderie au filet". I ended up buying 3 of them and she gave me an extra one as a gift (Patins d'Argent). My favorite is Le Cerisier. I can just see it as a cushion.

Merci Isabelle pour vos merveilleux dessins! Je vais avoir beaucoup de plaisir a les brode

Le Cerisier

Tendre Amitie

La Serenade

Patins D'Argent

I also worked on Stargazer all of last week. Here's an update picture:

Canadian Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend so I took advantage of the long weekend to work on Stargazer. I made a lot of progress.

Post DMC 930 & 931

After last week-end's disaster I never ended up posting an update on Stargazer.

Last Friday (not the one that just passed, but the one before that) after realizing my mistake, I stayed up late removing all the stitches. I refused to go sleep knowing that the mistake was there and I wanted to start with a clean slate the next day.

So here's what the area looks like after the clean up. Not too bad and whatever you can see will get covered up eventually.

Saturday I redid all I had originally undone, this time in the right color. It actually went faster because you could clearly see a hole where the stitch is supposed to go, so I had less counting to do :P The picture below is my progress up till last Thursday.

I will go back to working on it once I'm done with Castle in the Air part 10, which is almost done :)

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.

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:

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.