Red Geisha - Day 39/40

She is done! Couple of mistakes here and there, but I have been assured that they don't make it look bad, so I didn't go back to redo. Especially since they were in the metallic backstitching, and I did not really want to try and keep the metallic thread in place for 2 backstitches.

She still needs a wash and iron, but that's for another day :)

Next project was supposed to be the Mario map, but I may need to order different Aida; the stuff I ended up buying wasn't the best quality. I'm going to try and stretch it in the frame. If that doesn't work, I'm going to try dying my own black. If that doesn't work, I'm going to have to order some 18ct black online. If I can't use the stuff I bought, I'm going to start on the epic pokemon gen I stitch, and do the Mario map afterward.

Red Geisha - Day 36/37/38

So when I said I was going to get her done before Thursday, I of course meant not including the backstitching. And metallic. And beads.

Of course.

She has a face at least now though!

You can kind of make out the metallic patterns in her hair. They're just criss-crossing diagonal lines. Instead of doing short backstitches only crossing one stitch, I did the lines unbroken top to bottom, then tried to weave them together... I had much better success with that with the ones on the top of her head rather than the ones on the side. I still have to put up with the metallics with some more backstitching on her purple bow (it circles the black dots), and of course the diamonds on the gold under-robe.

Other than that, it's just all the dark gray outlines and the beads! You can see on her left sleeve, I've already started some of the outlines.

Red Geisha - Day 35

Going to push for a finish this 'weekend'; no work until Thursday, so it's definitely feasible.

Red Geisha - Day 33/34

Background flowers just have their gold centres left to go.

I've started the parasol section by parking. I'm not sure if I'm going to go with two strands of metallic for the metallic stitches (like the pattern says), or one strand of metallic with one strand of the gold or dk. gold floss. I'm already pushing really hard to get the coverage I've got; I'm not looking forward to the thinner metallic thread.

Red Geisha - Day 31/32

That black line there looks pretty out of place... that's the outline of the parasol. That section will be 100% filled in with stitches, but that's all that's left of her (other than the flowers in the background).

Speaking of flowers in the background, I decided I could take on a bunch of them tonight, so I tackled a bunch of the purple bits. The gold centers shouldn't be quite as bad, since I can just fill inside the purple stitches.

The scroll frame didn't really work well when I was right at the top of the piece; there wasn't really anything holding it in the rod. I tried taping it down, but that didn't work so well. So I cut a separate piece of cloth wide enough to wrap around the rod a couple times, sewed the top of aida to that (to lengthen it), and it worked wonderfully. Once I start on the backstitching/beads/metallic, I'll do the same thing to the bottom of the piece too probably. It takes a bit of time to set up, but it makes using the scroll frame really easy.

Red Geisha - Day 29/30

I got a new toy this weekend. It doesn't hold the cloth quite as taut as the Q-snap, but it's much easier to change the section I'm working on, and I can see the entire width all at once which is really nice.

Her right sleeve is complete! Right hand, head, parasol, and background flowers are all that's left now!

Red Geisha - Day 28

Well, considering how much I got done this evening, I think I'm well set up to get that second sleeve done this weekend. The end is in sight!

Red Geisha - Day 27

And that's her collar done. 

The empty space on the left side is where her right hand will be, and the oddly-placed black spot is the bottom of the parasol's handle. It looks like it's outlined in white because it's got a bunch of quarter stitches... in theory that should disappear when I do the backstitch outlines.

Red Geisha - Day 26

She's got... I guess... a shoulder? Her collar's pretty low, so I think that might just be more arm (and chest too, obviously). Planning on working across the collar/chest sections, then I'm hoping to get her right sleeve done this weekend.

Red Geisha - Day 24/25

Flowers on the first sleeve are done! I can't believe they took me two evenings to get done. 

Part of that was puppy class on Monday, and an appointment tonight, but also I got the floss in the mail when I got home from work today that I assumed had been lost! The last I checked, the tracking was showing that it hadn't left China, and I'd gotten a refund since it was past the shipping window. When I saw the package, I kind of assumed that it was the second set I'd ordered and was slightly disappointed since that was supposed to come with needles. But when I started going through the colours, it was the lost order! And I ended up getting an extra two skeins of 310 Black, so 202 skeins for $40.00 (except, for $0.00 because of the refund).
So this means that I've the floss for the Super Mario Map (already separated into a bag with the aida), and in theory for the Epic Pokemon piece too ('in theory' because I didn't actually separate it out, but I ordered it to complete the two of them, so *crossed fingers*).