Hot Off The Q-Snap!

Here's Why Hoard Gold? I just took her him off the q-snap. I love backstitching on Dragon Dreams patterns because it's so easy and the result adds so much clarity.


The chart calls for Anchor Marlitt threads, which are these awful slippery monstrosities. I stitched a giant chunk of the dragon while cursing every moment and then put him away for two years. Several satisfying hours of frogging later I started again with DMC. Since Jennifer has a standard palette that she reuses I felt pretty confident that I could come up with a good substitution.

Here it is, just in case (and in case I want to reuse it at some point lol):

Anchor	->	DMC
890	->	319
1030	->	320
1032	->	367
1058	->	368
1072	->	3371
1077	->	676

Title	Why Hoard Gold?
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	November 10, 2013
Finish date	December 22, 2013
Total time	36.75 hours
Fabric	28 ct White Jubilee
Floss	DMC conversion of my own

Getting Close

I was out of town recently so very little stitching for far too long. I did manage to finish all the cross stitch on WHG and started some very small projects that I'm having trouble taking photos of, so just WHG today. Hopefully I can finish it before the end of the year.

Accept Defeat & Start Over

I started Why Hoard Gold? in 2010 and haven't touched it since October 2010. Since then I've put about 15 minutes in, so I decided to finish it off as a break from all the greys and blues of Deco Spirits.
Ten minutes in I remembered why I put WHG away. It's stitched in Anchor Marlitt threads which are a slippery nightmare. I was determined to continue because I was half-way done the dragon and I didn't want to waste the effort or the thread. Another five minutes and I was ready to throw it right back into the depths of the WIPs drawer.

So I frogged the whole thing (which took a long time and a good lint roller). Then I dug up a different Dragon Dreams chart for a conversion. Since Jennifer tends to use the same general palette it was pretty easy.

Because the holes from the previous stitching were very pronounced (you can see it in the bit of body where I ran out of thread) I matched up the stitching so that they would fall in the same place. It wasn't difficult at all and I'm pleased I went the extra step.
And now I'm even further than I was before. I'm pretty sure I'll be done by next week. Sometimes it really is best to accept defeat and start over again.

Trio of Dragons

Another

Another finish!

Legends of the Dragons was my 2010 New Year start. It's now midway through 2012 and I've finally finished it! It's a three-parter with each dragon designed by a different designer. All three are now out of the business (although I believe Jennifer of DD still occasionally puts stuff out for retreats).
Magic by Dragon Dreams was the first one finished. I remember being very gung-ho at that point. I was going to stitch a dragon a month and finish the whole thing in 4 months. Ah, those were the days... I finished the border next. I was going to use an overdyed since I didn't want to tackle the border (it's all TW), but I never managed to find one I liked that was in my budget. So I eventually sucked it up and stitched it as charted. I'm glad I did that. And then it was Teresa's Wisdom. This is where I got stalled. I can't remember why, but I probably wasn't in the right mindset for a TW. That was a long hiatus. I didn't touch it during all of 2011. And then one day I just had to finish it. And the last one is Majesty by Black Swan Designs. Looking at my numbers this took the shortest time to stitch, which is surprising because I thought it would have been Magic. I was a bit nervous about the lettering because it's over one. The last time I had to stitch a small over one part in a larger design it didn't turn out too well. Too much puckering. But this turned out excellently. I owe everything to my Q-snap. And the fact that I stitched all the lettering over two days.

Title	Legends of the Dragons
Designers	Black Swan Designs, Dragon Dreams, TWDesignworks
Start date	January 1, 2010
Finish date	July 4, 2012
Total time	102.5 hours
Fabric	28 ct antique white lugana
Floss	As charted

No Biting

No Late Knight Snacking by Dragon Dreams is done. It's a bit ironic that I stitched this because I'm a major midnight snacker. Pretty much every night there's a cookie, a piece of cake or a handful of chips on the schedule.

Before the backstitch: After the backstitch: And my favourite part:

Title	No Late Knight Snacking
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	April 23, 2012
Finish date	June 20, 2012
Total time	16.75 hours
Fabric	18 ct white aida
Floss	As charted

Closer to the End

Jumaji June was excellent. Legends of Dragons went from this: To this:
But then I ran out of one of the Kreiniks, so it's on pause until I get to the LNS sometime next week.

Seeing Wisdom

This one's a blast from the past. My last post about Legends of Dragons is from back in 2010(!)
And now:

I was in the mood for a billion-and-one blends. I just zoomed through this and has a blast finishing it off.

Google Reader has been acting very strange lately. It doesn't load posts as they are posted. Instead at the end of a day I get all the posts from the previous day. It's very strange and I'm pretty sure that some blogs just don't show up on it any more...

A Christmas Dozen

I present the entire set of Christmyth freebies by Dragon Dreams.

I'm a tiny bit more partial to the unicorn, pegasus, phoenix, griffin and mermaid. Anyone have any favourites?

Quick Finishes

My new finish isn't my new start. No, it's my other new start. The first is No Late Knight Snacking. I'll get back to that soon and I should be done in maybe less than 10 hours. But I wanted an even quicker finish.

So, Christmyth Giant:

Title	Christmyth Giant
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	April 25, 2012
Finish date	April 26, 2012
Total time	3 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted

And because it was right next to the giant, I also finished off the Wyvern. A wyvern is different from a dragon in that it has two legs, whereas a dragon has four.

Title	Christmyth Pegasus
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 18, 2011
Finish date	April 25, 2012
Total time	2.75 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted

I'm actually going to go and backstitch the hippocampus after my coffee.

I've had some questions about Ganesha: He is available through PINN as a kit. There are several more religious charts as well. I believe that HAED also has a Ganesha chart, but I have not looked further into that.

Farewell to the Oldest

Lousy pictures ahoy!


I actually finished off my oldest WIP! Why was it a WIP?

*FLASHBACK IN FILM NOIR STYLE*
It was January of 2009. I had only recently discovered the online world of cross stitch. That's when they appeared. Four designs by Dragon Dreams. All gorgeous and they begged me to stitch them.

So that's what I did. I finished off all the DMC stitching and then I realized that each part had 2 Kreiniks each. This was in the early days. I didn't have any Kreiniks. I didn't want to buy so many for such few stitches. I decided to wait until I collected enough through buying them for other patterns.
*END OF FLASHBACK*

On a yen, I grabbed the dragons and checked my stash. While I still didn't have any of the required metallics I had enough relatively similar ones that I could fake it.
I realized the folly of going with a black fabric when I doing the backstitching. The dragons are almost fully outlined except you can't see that! Also, see that faint silver swirl in the water of the third dragon? That's the exact same colour as the blue in the belly of the second. Crazy how much the colours around it make it look so different.

Title	Generosity/Elemental Dragons: Earth, Air, Water, Fire
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	January 06, 2009
Finish date	April 08, 2012
Total time	63 hours
Fabric	28 ct black lugana
Floss	DMC as charted, 415 for the border
	Kreiniks 001, 003HL, 009, 015, 031, 684,

Two Horses and A Goat

First off I have to beg forgiveness for the ginormous close-ups. It's either this or a look at how close I'm positioning these. (The answer to that is too close!) Now onto the horses and goat.

Unicorn: a horse with a horn. Favourite of the medieval era.

Title	Christmyth Unicorn
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 16, 2011
Finish date	December 17, 2011
Total time	3.75 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted

Pegasus: originally the white winged horse who accompanied Bellerophon on his adventures and went on to become a constellation. Now used to refer to any winged horse. I left off the meteor(?) since I couldn't figure out how I would go about cutting around it since it's a free floating structure.

Title	Christmyth Pegasus
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 17, 2011
Finish date	December 18, 2011
Total time	4 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted

Satyr: originally the companions of the Greek gods Pan & Dionysus, they became part goat after the Romans absorbed and modified Greek mythos. I left off the free floating musical notes.

Title	Christmyth Satyr
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 18, 2011
Finish date	December 18, 2011
Total time	3 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted

Now it's onto the ones where I don't have all the DMC. The problem is that there's a lot of shading that's causing frustration. Also, I discovered that there are 12 of these, not thirteen. Apparently I need to head back to kindergarten.

Wreathed in Colour

A big thanks to the lovely ladies for yesterday's advice!

I actually finished this a few days ago but the camera wasn't at hand.
I am not looking forward to cutting all these fiddly shapes out!

Title	Christmyth Fairy
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 10, 2011
Finish date	December 14, 2011
Total time	4 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	DMC 319 instead of 890
	Kreinik 101 instead of 100

Spelt In So Many Ways

Whether you want to call it a griffin, a griffon, or a gryphon, this half eagle, half lion is still very cute.

Apologies to folks getting a little tired of this series, but I plan on continuing as long as the interest holds. Meaning, similar posts for the foreseeable future.

Title	Christmyth Griffon
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 9, 2011
Finish date	December 10, 2011
Total time	4.25 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted

Come On Baby, Light My Fire

I did all the cross stitching on Sunday. Then it took me almost a week to do the backstitch. I blame the winter, which results in a cold house (regardless of the furnace), which results in a cold stitching spot and cold fingers. I'm been trying to hold off on using the portable heater already (only -20s now, I want to wait until it gets to -30), but I think it's time I just went ahead and used it.


I couldn't figure out what was making this Christmassy when I looked at the chart. Some of the others are obvious (carols, stocking etc). Even after I stitched it up I couldn't figure out what a giant gem had to do with Christmas. In fact, this post was actually asking about it. But I just realized that the phoenix is carrying a star! Better late than never ;)

Title	Christmyth Phoenix
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 3, 2011
Finish date	December 9, 2011
Total time	4 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	Kreinik 28 instead of 202. All else as charted

Here Be Dragons

One Christmyth Dragon, actually. One in a series of thirteen freebies by Dragon Dreams.


I can tell that the dragon is twisting around and carrying mistletoe, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how it's twisting.

The Kreinik coverage is atrocious but I don't feel like frogging it and stitching in two strands, so it will have to suffice. This is my first time with perforated paper and other than being awkward to hold, I have no issues. I probably will be a wreck when it comes to cutting, specially since this is such an irregular shapes, but that's for much later.

Now I'm off to work on the phoenix.

Title	Christmyth Dragon
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	December 3, 2011
Finish date	December 3, 2011
Total time	3.25 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted. Backstitch in 310

Ponderous Ponderings

Rebekah very generously RAK'd me with "No Late Knight Snacking" a few weeks ago. This is such a cute chart (like all Dragon Dreams) and I can't say enough how much I love this new addition to my stash!


Ages and ages ago Nancy held a giveaway where everyone was a winner. Fast forward to last week(?) where I received these two lovelies in the mail! I just love the one with the birds.


My brief bit of stitching mojo has faded again. This is somewhat worrisome since I have two UFORR pieces that haven't seen a stitch. One's due to go out at the end of the month. That's still two weeks, but the way my stitching's been going?

This hasn't stopped me from planning a few more projects...As of now I have the following fully kitted and ready to start:
Egyptian Sampler - TWDesignworks
Deco Spirits - Mirabilia
Lily of the Valley - Nora Corbett
Cinderella - Mirabilia
Celtic Autumn - Lavender and Lace
Cirque des Triangles - Ink Circles
Cirque des Carreaux - Ink Circles

And when the charts arrive I'll have "Sweeping Cobwebs" by Prairie Schooler and "September's Sapphire Fairy" by Mirabilia ready to go as well.

Anyone up for a SAL? A semi-serious one with a prize for the winner? We can try to mutually inspire each other. Any of the kitted ones (except Celtic Autumn) or if we've got a WIP in common? I need some sort of boot to prod me...

Red Dragon

So I eventually solved my mini slump with most of the suggestions offered. I took a short break. I bought some stash. I started two smalls.

I just finished off Dragon Dreams' newest freebie Compassion. I think I'll also stitch up Hope and hang them together.

As always, before backstitching:

And after:

Title	Compassion
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	March 28, 2011
Finish date	April 2, 2011
Total time	10.75 hours
Fabric	32 ct White lugana
Floss	As charted, except that I switched the Kreinik to #28

Epilogue

I'll admit it: I read a ton of fantasy. From Tolkien to the Dragonlance series, to The Wheel of Time, to The Sword of Truth to Songs of Fire and Ice to ... well you get the picture.

I'm a sucker for traditional stories of knights in shining armour and pointy eared elves.

And I've always, always had a soft spot for the Big Bad. I think it's the vast amount of power and arrogance.


The whole package is just a wonderful escape from reality.

And the before backstitch picture?


I did something a bit different with this design: I tried to stitch colour by colour. (Tried, since I'd occasionally miss a few stitches and had to go back.) But on the whole I was rather successful. So enjoy the show about adding one colour can sometimes make a big difference and sometimes can barely be visible.

Title	The Runekeeper Saga
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	June 10, 2010
Finish date	March 13, 2011
Total time	80.5 hours
Fabric	28 ct White lugana
Floss	As charted
Changes	All the squares now have the same border

Secretive Progress

It's been six months since I posted a picture of The Runekeeper Saga, and according to that post, I had a few stitches done.

Today I present everything but the backstitch:


The Rune Keeper Saga
28 ct Antique White LuganaI will confess that I took photos after every colour (except when I had to go back because I missed a couple of stitches) but never posted them. And I really have no explanation. I ... just didn't.

Since I've been on a roll, I'm going to stick with this, so hang around for 12 (hopefully) days showing the awesome power of backstitch!

Green Dragon

Why Hoard Gold? as of right now. Taking a break from it this weekend to work on Rebekah's RR.


Why Hoard Gold?
28 ct white lugana
A big thanks to all the suggestions last post.