Merry Christmas! I was finally able to finish off these little guys today. I don’t know how I will be finishing it off, but this turned out so cute! I was a bit worried about the color scheme in the beginning but I think it all came together nicely.
I just picked up this pack of fat quarters at Walmart and I think one of them will work perfectly for the finishing!
XXX
Carrie
What a miserable weekend! Our power went out Thursday morning. I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to the sound of horrible wind. It had been predicted that we would be having an awful storm. I decided to get up and use the bathroom in case the power went off. Sure enough, it did, about 2 minutes later. But only for a few seconds, and then it came back on. It kept going back and forth from full power to half power, so we knew we needed to turn the breaker off so our appliances would not be damaged. Before my husband did that, I filled up a couple of jugs of water and woke my daughter and told her to find some clothes, get dressed, and use the bathroom. She was able to get herself ready for school and then we shut the breaker off. A few minutes after that, the power went out in the area anyway. My husband had an awful time driving her to school, as trees were down everywhere and he had to keep turning around to find an alternate route. When the power finally got turned back on Sunday afternoon, we had been without it for 79 hours. Luckily because it was so cold outside (in the 20s) we were able to put all of our food on the porch and we didn’t lose anything. Unfortunately because it was so cold outside, it was really cold in the house. And we live in an area with so many trees, we get very little sunlight. Even when all the lights in the house are turned on, our home is very dark. But, for about an hour a day when the light was decent, I would draw up a chair next to the kitchen window and work on a new project. I first started with the Merry Christmas Robins but that proved impossible on 28 count white fabric. Instead I started an Emma Congdon design I had already kitted up, on 14 count Aida.
There will actually be gingerbread men on this mandala when it is finished!
XXX
Carrie
This project finished up so much faster than I expected, and I love it. But I am a bit disappointed at how much of the white pattern shows underneath the stitching. I wish the lines had not been put onto the fabric so thickly. But I am a perfectionist, and I doubt anyone else would scrutinize my projects the way I do. I also think I may paint the wooden hoop a bright color, perhaps neon green.
I would definitely try another embroidery project in the future, but I think I would prefer to use my own fabric and threads and transfer the design to the fabric myself. I could definitely see myself doing a sugar skull pattern!
XXX
Carrie
I love how this mandala is coming along. I am so glad I have started on some fun colors, as the white and yellow was making it look like I wasn’t making progress. Most of the project is stitched in backstitch, which is super fast. I modified one part that was supposed to be done in couching stitch and did it in stem stitch instead, to avoid much aggravation!
I’m not thrilled with the purple french knots. The white pattern underneath is so thick, that even using two strands of floss and wrapping the needle 4 times didn’t cover it all. My project also isn’t looking just like the one on the cover of the kit, either. The orange and pink that I am doing now are only 3 strands of floss, and on the package photo they appear to be 6 strands – just as thick as the other colors. But I have no way of knowing if I will have enough floss if I use 6 strands, so I am sticking with the 3 that they say to use. At the end of the purple is supposed to be a huge 6 strand blue french knot. But I am saving my fingers for now and will do that absolutely last!
Another problem I found is that part of the chart is colored wrong – one of the pink petals which I just completed is colored yellow on the chart but is obviously supposed to be pink, like the other 7. And there is no indication of how many strands to use for that area at all; they completely forgot to put it on the chart. So I just guessed that it should be 3 strands like the orange, and it looks OK. I wish they had had someone proof-read their chart before going to print.
I definitely think I can get this finished by Christmas, although it is not a “Christmasy” project. But this weekend I am setting aside time to finish off my gingerbread houses. I bought the foam core board and red pom pom trim (darn, they didn’t have the light green that was used in the magazine) and I should have enough silk pins to get it finished. I am just a little worried about what the back will look like. I am definitely not using glue, like the magazine suggests!
XXX
Carrie
I have worked on this new embroidery piece for a few days, and I love how it is coming along. But I didn’t love the awful stitch diagrams to show you how to complete each stitch (YouTube to the rescue!) and I didn’t love trying to use 6 strands of floss wrapped around the needle twice to make French knots. The needle provided simply won’t go through the fabric, and none of the needles I have on hand have big enough eyes to accommodate 6 strands, while being small enough to pass through the fabric. I also tried out the couching stitch but it was just horrible. Perhaps on straight lines it would not be so bad, but it is only used on rounded areas, and it took so long just to do one tiny area. I ended up taking it out and doing it in backstitch instead. This is the rounded blue areas on the outside. I think it looks just fine using backstitch.
I am a little worried about the inner portion of the design, which uses many less strands of floss. I am not sure it will be sufficient to cover the white lines of the design. I guess I will have to wait and see how it looks when I get to it.
All in all, this is a fun project that I can pick up and work on for a few minutes at a time, without the need for counting or concentrating. It is just what I needed to work on at the moment.
XXX
Carrie
The other day on Facebook I saw a post from a lady who had purchased a kit and was going to start it. It was her very first project. I thought it was adorable – a neon colored mandala displayed in a hoop. Some other people pointed out that it was not cross stitch at all, but embroidery. Others said they had stitched it and loved it, while others said they could not get the hang of it. I have done embroidery before, although certainly not as much as cross stitch. But I adored this project and decided to search for it online. I ended up finding the kit on sale on Amazon for $6.99 with free shipping, and there were only 4 left in stock. I looked at it for a few minutes and then there were only 3 left. I decided to snag one before they were gone, and sure enough later that day they were sold out. I plan on working a bit on the mermaid pattern for a while, but then I want to dive into this. The hoop is only 6 inches, so it has to be a small project. Lately my brain fog has become worse and worse, and even if I am having a pain-free moment in which to stitch, the counting is difficult. I think doing a project like this will be easier since you are simply tracing the pattern on the fabric.
The kit is by Leisure Arts and is called Mini Maker Neon Mandala, item 49808. It retails for $7.99.
XXX
Carrie