Feasting Frenzy

About 1 week in now. The black was the last colour I did and it really defined a lot of the bird shapes. One element is completely done already: the seed ball in the bottom right.

Feasting Frenzy

Peacock is almost 1/4 done, and I've got a bunch more tail still to go, so I decided to start something else this weekend just to break it up. And so, I pulled Feasting Frenzy from the stash. These are the first three colours done and you can already see where a bunch of the birds are going to go. There is a LOT of backstitching in the background, so we'll see how long this one takes. It's only been two days so far, and it feels like I've gotten a lot done already.

Peacock

This piece is going to be 2 feet tall! Started on Monday, so this is officially 1 week of stitching. I'm stitching this one with the same instructions as the full-width parking, just reordered so that I do one strand at a time. It's faster and while still pretty good looking, not quite as neat as doing it in rows. But on 14 count, there's enough space between the stitches that that gets mitigated somewhat.

Kittens and Butterflies

 

42 needles on this one! This is, of course, pre- (most of the) backstitching...

... and here it is all done! A good amount of french knots, but nothing too obscene (not like the lighthouse at the very least!). I changed the number of strands from 2 to 1 for the french knots on the butterfly antennae and the eye highlights because two strands was just looking way too large.

I've already transcribed the piece I'm planning on doing next, but I'm going to have to upgrade my second analysis program to also be able to understand quarter stitches. Hopefully I'll be able to get the first stitches in that one before the end of the day.

Kittens and Butterflies

Another 20 rows down this week, got a second kitty face showing up there! Of course now all the interesting parts are done and it's a lot of brown kitty stitches and a little bit of greenery and flowers around the outside.

Kittens and Butterflies

One kitty face, and the top half of a second kitty face! Pretty sure there's only the three butterflies - I backstitched them all already, so they're all done.

Kittens and Butterflies

Already did the backstitching on the first two butterflies, since they were basically isolated colour-wise.

We've got the first set of kitty ears peaking out there!

Beacon at Rocky Point

59 needles on this one! That's actually a lot more than I thought before I went and counted them.

The backstitching is really important on this one, especially on the house. There're a lot of details on the house that don't show up without it.

And omg all the French knots! They were all supposed to be done with two strands. Which looks fine, except I'm pretty sure that the picture on the front of the kit was only done with one. I mean, my French knots are pretty tight, but the ones on the picture were even smaller. I did switch the seagull's eye from 2 strands down to 1 though, because it just looked derpy with a huge eye!

I have to figure out now what my next piece is going to be. I thought I might do the Mario map next, but I'm kind of wanting to do another smaller piece. I'm going to have to dig through my (extensive!) stash and see what piques my fancy!

Golden Retriever Puppies

Just haven't felt like taking pictures lately, but I have been stitching. This piece took almost exactly 4 weeks from start to finish.

Pre-backstitching:

And post:

It's not the most striking of differences on this one, but it obviously does add some dimension to it. Back to the lighthouse!

Beacon at Rocky Point

Done a bunch of stitching, just really didn't feel like taking any pictures last week.

Over half done with the lighthouse (and as you can see, the lighthouse itself is already stitched).

Beacon at Rocky Point

And we're off! No rest for the wicked, and all that.

It was feeling like I was doing a lot of big stitches lately, so I wanted to take on something a little bit smaller for the next piece. I'm liking the colours in the clouds, they're looking pretty good. All the half stitches in the sky are a little bit annoying to deal with with the stitching style I'm using, but at least they take half the time!

Herb Wreath

It is done!

Wow, that was a lot of backstitching. But I keep telling myself it was worth it!

While I really like the end result of this one, I feel like it would have been a lot more enjoyable had the pattern not been so horrible.

But it's done now! On to the next one (which I may have already started last weekend when I just didn't want to do anymore backstitching for a bit).

Herb Wreath

Took the wreath off the frame temporarily to get the very top and very bottom text rows (since the scroll frame would have been in the way) and figured I my as well get a picture while I had the whole thing available. I'll go back to filling in the words on the top half once I get it back on the frame, then finish off the bottom. Some of the gold-coloured branches go over top of other backstitching, so they really need to be the last ones done.

Herb Wreath

All the X's are done! I used 64 needles for this one. I'm so glad I didn't run out!

Speaking of running out, I almost ran out of another two colours (and definitely would have run out of the ones that I subbed in DMC for). This kit was really badly planned out. Unfortunately, the two colours that I almost ran out of are also used in backstitching, so they will also have DMC subbed in. But at least with the backstitching the colours don't need to match exactly (and having them a little darker is actually preferable). I'm going to be leaving all the lettering for last, since that's the part I'm looking forward to the most.

Herb Wreath

I know that the rows are getting shorter - they must be, the numbers say so - but it doesn't feel like it. The lighter pink flowers are all finished now, and there's only one of the darker pink and purple ones left. The top has a bunch of what look like bluebells which should be fun, but other than that it's basically just green and yellow left.

Herb Wreath

Well, only got 13 pages and 7 more rows done today... but the center is closed off! In theory, each row now is going to be less and less work. Except for the fact that I'm still adding needles and each row is almost 2 pages long. Logic says that it should happen eventually though.

I can't wait to get to the backstitched lettering on this one.

Herb Wreath

Another 10 rows done. And they were long rows. 19 pages worth of instructions for those 10 rows, and managed that all in one day. Feeling pretty accomplished about that!

I've almost closed off the inside of the wreath. If all goes well, I should hit that milestone today.

Herb Wreath

The frame has been officially scrolled. I'm pretty close to closing off the center of the wreath, might get to that point by next week!

I've also switched over from 3 of the kit flosses to DMC. There's definitely at least one more I'll have to do that with, but it's the light yellow in the bow, so obviously the bulk of those stitches are at the top of the piece. The last one I might just make with the kit floss if I'm stingy.

Herb Wreath

Well, this is the official halfway point! At least in terms of vertical-ness (didn't check stitch count, but should be close enough I figure). All three of the bow ends have been started now (I don't know how there's three, but there you go), as well as the last of the bees. Here's hoping I don't run out of any floss I haven't accounted for.

Herb Wreath

Well, we've got two of the bow ends started (though one is only a single stitch so far).

There is a problem though. I noticed that one of my colours was getting low, so I did some math and realized that the kit was woefully understocked in not one, but five different colours. I tried contacting Bucilla/Plaid but apparently the kit is 15(!) years out of print and they don't carry the colours anymore. So I picked up the closest DMC matches I could find.
I've already started using one of them. I've still got some of the kit floss left for that colour, but I wanted to keep each colour chunk coming from the same floss.