Provence Market

So I want to try to remember to take a picture every time I finish a row and then make a gif out of all the pics once I'm done to show the piece being finished... but since I finished 10 ROWS today, I didn't think it would be a good idea to post all 10 pictures, especially since some of them didn't really show much difference. So, please find enclosed update pics as of row 13, 16, and 20.

31 files down, 1650 stitches. 258 files to go.

Provence Market

10 rows are now officially complete! Row 9 only had two paths, so it didn't take long at all.

If you know that those are people in the middle top there, you can make them out now. And the bunches of flowers in the top corners are pretty well defined.

21 more files down, 1496 stitches. 289 files to go. For some reason it doesn't feel like I got a lot done today, probably because of the number of files, but there were quite a few big ones in there this time.

Provence Market

I made it to row 6! I wasn't sure if I'd be completing the first 10 rows this weekend. Signs point to yes :)

Completed another 31 files today, 1691 stitches. 310 files to go. Which means this section is over 1/4 done. It really doesn't look it, but I guess I'll trust the numbers.

Provence Market

Row one took just over four days to get to the end (just finished up the last couple of colours tonight). Row two is already done! It really goes much faster when a bunch of the colours are already completed!

Got 19 files done (again), 479 stitches. 341 files to go!

Provence Market

Well, I hit the right side of that top row, but it's not quite finished yet: 8 more empty stitches in four (I think) colours. Then... I get to start the second row! Woooo!

There were only two long paths today, which is why the stitch count is so low but the file count is so high. It feels like I'm not going to have any more black for a while.

I was looking at the pattern, and it looks like there isn't any backstitching that straddles the two pages, and it's all single-strand-one-colour. I may just do the backstitching for this page at the end of the page to break it up instead of doing it all at once at the end.

That's 19 more files down (585 stitches). 360 files to go!

Provence Market

Only did three files tonight, but in my defense they were each over 240 stitches! All that green and black in the upper right. The next file is only one stitch, but I decided that it's bed time and I can start with that tomorrow. 

Zoomed out, you can almost see that this is going to be a picture!

Also, just in case it wasn't mentioned before, this is just the bottom half of the piece. There's this much work to do a second time for the top half! I may work on Elegance in between to break it up a bit, depends on how long this half takes and how good it looks.

Provence Market

Well, we have an update on Provence Market. The new stuff is the result of about half a day of work (yesterday) plus a full day of work (today was a stat!). I couldn't decide between working on this one or Elegance, so this was the first one I found when I went looking through my WIP box.

The dark colours on the left look like they're from a different pattern than the softer brown on the right. I assure you, I didn't start two different patterns on the same cloth: they do go together eventually!

I changed my analysis algorithm slightly and reran this pattern. I ran it with a chunk separation of 7 stitches, then separated each chunk into its own file instead of including all of the same colour in one file. Then I took any chunks that were greater than an arbitrary threshold (I chose 250 stitches), and divided them evenly until they were in chunks < 250 stitches and put each of those chunks into a separate file. Then I ordered the files by the stitch in each chunk farthest to the top then farthest to the left. I ended up with 420 separate files! This style should make it harder to miscount stitches since I won't be jumping so far, and make the picture fill in a bit nicer as I go instead of jumping all over the place and only really resolving on those last few colours.

It might be hard to tell, but the very first line is completely filled in on the left side of the piece to just over halfway across. That first line is going to take the longest to fill in since it was completely blank when I started, plus the part in the middle was a lot of small sections because it's the bottom half of the people in the background and their shirts are all different colours. I completed the first 38 files, about 2700 stitches.

That big mass of brown that I'd already done previously is included in the generated files though, so once I start hitting those files that's an extra 2400 stitches that are already done and I don't have to worry about!

The Guardian

Before backstitching...

And after! It is finally done! It's still wet (I rinsed it to wash the marking pen out), but I'm not going to be able to iron it until I can find my iron! I also need to have a go at it with some actual cleaning solution, since it's got stains on the left and top from being neglected for so long. Next I'm going to be working on either Provence Market, or Elegance... not sure which, I'll probably leave it right down to the wire which one I'll pick up next.

Have some close ups (for some reason the castle just didn't want to come into focus properly)!

The Guardian

It's hard to tell, but there are 1600 extra stitches on the second picture compared to the first one. There were three colours that were half stitches, but then they're crossed with one strand of white. So I went and did all three of the base colour half stitches, then combined them and ran them through the algorithm so I could do all the white crosses in one go. The first picture is from before the white crosses, and the second is from after.

Three colours left, just under 3k stitches!

The Guardian

Only sky colours left now! Except for a little bit of blue/purple in the wings and tail, the dragon's done, and the castle's done, and the grass and cliffs and heather's done. 

There are 7 symbols left, and one of them's a big one. And three of the symbols I have to do twice: they're half stitches, that are then crossed with a strand of white. At least the big one I don't have to do twice!

The Guardian

14 colours left! The end is in sight!

The bulk of the blue and green on the underside of the front wing is filled in, and it looks pretty good. With the shading you can already see the feathers, but of course there will be backstitching. Like, a LOT of backstitching in the area.

The Guardian

Huh, only 19 colours left. Apparently I got through more than it felt like. 

I can't wait for this one to be done, not because I'm not liking it (though it's not really my favourite colour palette I admit), but because the stitch direction is backward to my normal, and I'd like to be back to doing everything in the same direction!

The Guardian

Just finished one of the 1k+ colours today, there were only two left after the border. The dragon's really starting to come together now, since a lot of the gold colours have been getting done. The back wing's defined pretty well now too, though it's still pretty holey. 

The sky's going to be fun once I get there, there's just big swaths of the same colour: out of the seven colours with the most stitches, six are sky colours. I'm looking forward to it!

27 colours left to go, or 9482 stitches!

Blow Bubbles

I've been working on this one at work on my lunch breaks, which is why there haven't been any WIP pictures. I'm pretty pleased with the cross stitches, not so much the backstitching on the letters. But it's not like it was that much work.

There were a LOT of French knots, but I actually think they came out pretty good. The worst part about them (and the backstitching) is anchoring the thread on the back. I'm not going to lie, there's more than one knot on the back of the piece.