It's done! I finished it! Cookies for everyone!
Behold...
Gotta admit, I actually was a little weepy when I finished this last night. Lots of symbolism in it for me, lots of work. And I'm so thrilled to finally be able to share this finish with y'all. Thanks so much to all of you who have cheered me on and said such nice things about my work. It helped me stay motivated on a complicated project. Thank you.
Now help me celebrate by treating yourselves to something delicious today!
Thanks so much for the kind words about Snowfire Christmas, and about my homemade stitch diagram. That was a first for me, and it's gratifying to know it was helpful to some.
Here's where I am as of last night... I'm so close, y'all!
In choosing the color for the words, I fiddled with all of the colors in the sampler: a paler shade of grey, white, two shades of green, two shades of red. I wanted the words to blend in to the sampler instead of dominate it, so I chose the darker grey. I also toyed with the idea of using a more elaborate alphabet and stitching the words over one, but I decided I enjoy being sane and opted for a simpler alphabet stitched over two. I'm so glad I did, because just stitching the "and" over one was plenty of over one stitching for me.
So. teeny.
I had a great deal of assistance from the Stitchy Supervisor while working on this section. Not sure how I could have done it without her. Standing on the chart:
Lying down on the chart:
Dozing off on the chart:
Baffing on the chart:
Making sure the chart is marked correctly:
Such a lot of supervising.
I hope, hope, my next update will be a finish. I'm going out of town on Saturday and wanted to have this WIP done before I leave, but there's a row of elaborate beaded snowflakes standing between me and the finish. We'll see. Stay tuned!
I set a goal for myself to finish my two main WIPs before I allowed myself any new starts. After finishing Woodland Sampler, I turned my attention to Snowfire Christmas. If you're just joining me, this is a Just Nan sampler that I've changed the fabric and colors on and converted to my wedding sampler. I finished a couple more bands and have started stitching our names and wedding date. I so wish y'all could see this sampler in person.
Robin in Virginia asked a question about how to do the Rice stitch variation (second to last band). I searched for a diagram of this particular variation--there are so many--but I couldn't find one exactly like it. Rather than post a picture of the stitch diagram on the back of the chart (copyright violation?), I just decided to make my own. It's not very sophisticated, but hopefully it gets the information across. I intentionally photographed the stitches in low light because it makes them easier to see.
To make it easier to follow the progression of the stitch, I drew the various sections on separate stitches... otherwise it would have looked like a blob of pink lines!
From left to right:
1) The first part of the stitch is a large cross stitch, 3 stitches high x 3 stitches wide (when stitching over two). The first leg of the stitch is top left down to bottom right; the second leg of the stitch is top right down to bottom left.
2) The corners are stitched in the order they are shown: top left, bottom left, bottom right, top right. The individual stitches are stitched shortest to longest.
3) The last element of the stitch is the "+" over the center of the large cross stitch. The vertical stitch is done first, top to bottom; the horizontal stitch is done last, left to right.
Clear as mud? It's really not a difficult stitch, just a bit tedious when you're doing a million of them. If my instructions are lacking--and I'm sure they are--I think once you start fiddling with the real thing, as opposed to just reading about it, you'll get it.
I'm doing our names and wedding date now, and after that all that will be left is another row of big, sparkly snowflakes. So close...
A couple more bands done on Snowfire Christmas. The second band was supposed to be pulled work, but as I've mentioned before I'm not a fan, so I changed that one a bit. Two more skinny bands to go before the section where I've decided to stitch our names and wedding date. I think I've settled on an alphabet, but I need to chart the bands. I'm pretty sure I'll be stitching it over one. Then one more band of snowflakes, and I'll be done. I was hoping to have this done by the end of the summer... we'll see.
Welp, another month gone by, another band done. *sigh* At this rate, it'll take me until December to finish this sampler. I'm just not getting/taking the time to sit and stitch like I need to in order to make the progress I want to make. I'm sure a lot of y'all can relate to that. So, here's a band of right angled leaf stitches.
Now I'm going to go stitch something that doesn't require me to stare at the chart.
Well, here I am, sneaking in under the wire with a sad little sampler update. I managed to get one whole band stitched this month. I guess that's better than no whole bands, but really. I'm now a couple of bands behind my schedule, as I want to have this finished in June. I still need to find an alphabet I really like and chart our names and wedding date, which I'll be using to replace a couple of bands. Here we are...
I survived that band of snowflakes... but just barely! Made a few changes. The small white band of satin stitches below the triple leviathans was supposed to be pulled satin stitches, but I'm not crazy about the look of pulled work, so I just did satin stitches. Also, the corners of the white snowflakes have extra stitches, and I've used four beads instead of three, and placed them differently. Glad to have a little break from this 'til next month!
Off to stitch something with no beads and no eyelets.
I'm only working on this one for the first week of the month or so, but I did manage to get another couple of bands done. I slightly altered the red band to make a row of full circles.
For information on the design, fabric, fibers, and all of my changes, just click on the Snowfire Christmas label below.
I've got a bunch of other projects going (unusual for me), so I'm only working on this project for about the first week of the month. Progress won't be as fast as it could be, but I'm thoroughly enjoying stitching this sampler. Here's my January progress, before I put it to bed until February.
For info on fabric and color changes, click on the "Snowfire Christmas" label.
...
and because I'm excited!, I'm sharing a little sneak peek of my progress on a SAL in which I'm participating. It began on New Year's Day, and the project is whatever design you've been really, really wanting to stitch but just haven't got around to yet. The updates are supposed to be shared on the 15th of each month, but I can't wait until next week. I'm too excited to finally be stitching this, and I'm too happy about how it's turning out, especially since I've made my usual numerous changes.
Over on the right, you'll see a picture of Just Nan's Snowfire Christmas, which I'm stitching as a wedding sampler for our Christmas wedding 14 years ago. Better late than never, right? In a way, I'm actually glad it's taken me this long to stitch this, because if I had stitched it all those years ago, I probably would have stitched it exactly like the picture. The model is beautiful, which is why I chose it, but at this point in my stitching life, I'm much happier with customizing things. For this project, I've made the following changes:
*fabric is 28 ct. Valor, from Picture This Plus
*DMC #12 Perle Cotton 712 changed to blanc
*DMC 712 changed to blanc
*DMC 3731 changed to 777
*pale rose gold beads changed to silver
*cream pearl beads changed to pearl
*champagne beads changed to ice
When I chose the green fabric instead of the antique white used for the model, I also swapped the ivory/cream colors for white/pearl and swapped the gold for silver. I wanted a snowy/icy look, and I wanted the snowflake motifs to stand out more on the green fabric. Also... breaking news... I'm obsessed with green fabric. (Long-time readers nod sagely.)
So here's what I've got so far!
I am happy, happy, HAPPY with this so far. And I couldn't wait until next week to share. Hope your beginning-of-the-year stitching is going just as well!
Happy Stitching!
