Stitching - Continued

[annuin]

Tuesday night I finished part 3 of my St. Petersburg chart.

Time consuming with all the backstitching on the wrought iron gates, but it's taking shape nicely.

Once again the pictures don't necessarily show everything quite true to colour, being that they were taken with the camera flash and indoor halogen lighting, rather than natural light. It's washing out the colours somewhat, unfortunately.



And one with more detail, you can see the Algerian eyelets and (two-tone) Rice stitches here in the part 2 I stitched:

Comments

[passercul.livejournal.com]

I'm curious; how big exactly is the finished piece going to be? I'm presuming you can't resize it yourself, either, but then again I don't know the first thing about cross-stitch.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Finished it should be close to 26 x 26 inches (about 65 x 65 cm).

What you see in the picture is about 8.5 x 8.5 inches (21.5 x 21.5 cm).

So yes, it will be quite large when completed (411 x 411 stitches). There will also be a fairly incredible amount of detail as well. Once I get to part 5 or so, that's when the buildings begin.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the only "resizing" that you can really do is changing the thread count of the fabric. This is on 32 count (32 threads per inch), as recommended by the designer. I wouldn't dare try a higher thread count either, besides being even harder there will be beads and crystals, and they won't fit as well because the spaces left open for them would be too tight.

Quite a few people in the online class are doing it on 28 count fabric, which will make their total design size somewhat larger (though not by *loads*). It's a bit easier to work on because there's less thread density per inch.

[passercul.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow! 26" square. That's... huge. How are you going to display it? Or is it going to be a gift?

And beads and crystals! Dear me. Well, I'm sure it'll turn out beautifully. :)

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

No, this is no gift. It's really way too expensive for me to want to gift it. And that's besides the fact that after so many hours of work on it, I doubt I'd wish to part from it.

I'll likely have it framed and hang it on the wall somewhere.

The big and expensive projects are purely selfish ones, for me to hang on my walls ;)

[deinera.livejournal.com]

That is so beautiful! It's going to be so unbelievable when it's finished. :)

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)

[missingkeys.livejournal.com]

That's amazing. The only thing I know about cross stitch is that it's bloody hard to do it on dark fabric, but other than that it's just wow. :) How big is it? The pictures make it look huge.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

The fabric I'm doing it on is a medium blue I guess, so not too dark. That said, I have a project waiting in the wings on black ;) I have a good standing halogen reading lamp next to the couch, so I can highlight my work area quite well, which makes a huge difference. I also refuse to be intimidated by dark fabric ;) It may be a little harder, but with good lighting it should be workable.

The part that you can see now is about 8.5 x 8.5 inches, so roughly 21.5 x 21.5cm. Finished it'll be close to 26 x 26 inches (65 x 65 cm), so definitely more huge than it is now ;)

The nice thing about the online class and having the pattern broken down into 12 monthly installments is that it's less overwhelming when you're working it in sections, rather than looking at the entire design and wondering where the hell to start. I think you'd be much more likely to keep up with working on it that way... plus if you finish relatively quickly, you have the rest of the month to do other things so as not to get bored or burnt out.

[missingkeys.livejournal.com]

That sounds incredible. :)

My mother was the one working on black - well, my grandmother tried one too but it didn't work out so well. They both have lights and mirrors and wee cross stitch lap stands, but while mum's tiger-on-black turned out amazing my grandmother only has one eye and poor sight in that one to boot.

I'm pants at craft, but it does look very nifty.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

I'm pants at craft, but it does look very nifty.

Well, the upside to this is that you don't have to come up with anything yourself, so no creativity required, just time and effort ;)

It's a bit like painting by numbers I guess, lol.

[crescentmuse.livejournal.com]

Beautiful!!!

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Thanks :)