From The Depths

As is usual with my bead cannibalism, I ran out of one bead for Cinderella. So I went by my LNS (yes the one I complain about) and while I was there picked up what I needed for Mediterranean Mermaid. It took 45 minutes to finish her off. Why did I put it off for so long?


She has so many beads! It's utterly ridiculous. I'd completely forgotten how blingy she is. I was continually catching the thread on the already stitched beads.

Here's a rather fuzzy shot of her tail.

This entire dark blue/green middle part of her tail is metallics and beads. There isn't a single DMC in here. It's so so shiny in person.

I know I made a few changes, but apparently didn't write anything down so I'm not sure exactly what they are. One thing I remember is that I used the same colour as the tiara for her shoulder strands. As charted, it called for something that wasn't used for anything else. Just those strands. And in the interest of frugality I decided that they could be silver like the tiara.

The freestanding beads that are close to her body are correctly placed. After that they're "approximate". I started from either end and by the time I got to the middle I was just eyeballing them to make sure the "bubbles" were in a smooth line. I had zero interest in counting that carefully, and I'm 100% confident in saying that I don't think anyone would be able to tell.

Because of all the beads it's actually a very 3d kind of finish. And because there's so little stitching, and all of it is in a thin line in the middle of the fabric, the whole thing is kind of heavy and floppy around a lot (and the fabric is a very drapey kind too).

I'd forgotten how much I loved this one. I'm so glad I managed to finish it off.

Title	Mediterranean Mermaid
Designer	Mirabilia
Start date	May 7, 2015
Finish date	Apr 28, 2016
Total time	54.25 hours
Fabric	32 ct summersky jobelan
Floss	Kreinik 001 instead of 019

Bring On The Beads

Thanks everyone for all the framing advice! Hopefully now I can get some things onto walls.


I've started adding the beads to Cinderella! Here she is with her top half done. I have the entirety of her skirt left.

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
It actually took me longer than anticipated to get the beading, because when I started backstitching I realized that I'd missed an entire part of her sleeve and dress. So I had to stitch that. Then when I was backstitching I realized her hand was posed awkwardly:


While it is possible to hold your hand like that (I tried it), it would not be how my hand would look when running away while wearing a giant poofy gown and holding my heaving bosom. So to speak. So I had to remodel it. My version is a bit crude and I feel like the hand is a bit too big, but I prefer it to how it's charted.

So Close

I don't think I've posted a full shot of Cinderella in a while, so here she is:


Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
I've just got the silver leaves on the flowers and the backstitch before I can start beading. I want to start beading now!

Fancy 'Do

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
So I managed to find a redhead conversion for a different Mirabilia and modified it a little for Cinderella. I'm quite happy with it.

Now I have a few more roses to finish and then random missed stitches and it's onto the beads!

And What About The Hair?

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
I finished off Cinderella's skin and was about to start her hair. The plan was to make her a redhead, and while the conversion I'm using doesn't come with red hair I thought I had another conversion for that. It turns out that "thought" is the keyword here, because that other conversion is only the dress too and not the hair.

So now I have to decide if I'm going to try and come up with a conversion myself (doubtful since I'm not very good at that sort of thing), google one (there has to be a conversion of a Mirabilia design with red hair, right?) or just give up and go with blonde.

More Colour

Taking a break from Venetian Opulence to stitch something I'm not sure I'm allowed to post a picture of. I'll have to check if it's ok.

This is what she looks like going back into the WIP pile.

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct Ivory

A Touch of Green

I stitched some more brown on Venetian Opulence and now am going to stitch a more colourful part. See that smidgen of green I've started.

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct Ivory

Venetian Brown

I was going to work on Cinderella but I decided I needed the brighter colours of Venetian Opulence.

And then of course I end up stitching the architecture, which is brown! She went from this:

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct Ivoryto this:

I'm hoping to finish at least the swirly thing this rotation.

(Almost) Done With The Dress

It's been a while since I posted a picture of Cinderella, so here she is in all her pink glory. I just got started on her skin, so I'm hoping to have all the stitching done by March and hopefully a finish by April. Fingers crossed!

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana

It's All Brown

I dug out Venetian Opulence, which hasn't been seen here since September when it looked like this:

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct IvoryIt now looks like this:

It's not much for a week's worth of stitching (barely halfway through a rotation). I'm blaming my inability to find an entertaining audiobook. Right now I'm trying to get through "The Traitor Baru Cormorant" which is interesting plotwise, but the narrator's voice is a bit too soothing and is putting me to sleep. Maybe I should listen to an old favourite again...

The State of The Dress

There really isn't much to post in the way of interesting pictures, since all I'm doing is plodding on with Cinderella's skirt.

Here's a truly terrible picture on the current situation.

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
I'm trying to pick next year's new start and right now it's a toss up between Joan Elliot's Fire Goddess and Teresa Wentzler's Peacock Tapestry. On one hand Fire Goddess is a lot less complicated and I'm likely to actually finish it. On the other hand Peacock Tapestry is something like a white whale for me, so it would be nice to stitch it...

Or maybe I'll wake up January 1st and start something completely different lol

Skirt Skirt Skirt

I'm on the quarter of the skirt. And then it's the bodice and Cindy herself. Cross my fingers my recent streak of plenty of time to stitch continues XD

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana

Pink Flowers

The conversion I'm using for Cinderella doesn't convert the flowers from the original. I thought about changing them so that they would stand out but it seemed like too much work lol

So I went ahead and stitched them. They're very sparkly and subtle. I like them. But they took so long to stitch. All the starts and stops, and Kreinik always takes longer to stitch. I was so used to the giant blocks of pink and white that it was an unpleasant shock.


Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana

The Endless Dress

Yes, I'm back with more Cinderella. I've decided to make a serious push to finishing this before the end of the year (except that I think I'm still waiting for some beads from when I ordered them at my LNS back in May(?). Mediterranean Mermaid has beads in that order as well. Every time I say I'll never order from her again, and every time I do it in the hope that it'll be different this time.)

Eyeballing it, I'd say I'm about done a third of the dress.

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana

Stitch From Stash - September

Month: September
Spent: $12.14
Carryover: 56.18

More DMC. I'm always surprised at how fast some of the colours get used and how others linger on forever. I think I've replaced maybe two out of all the 36xx, 37xx and 38xx series, whereas I go through multiple skeins of 898 and 3371 a month!

I finally reached Venetian Opulence's frame. I just realized that while there won't be any problems finishing off the bottom part, counting up to the top is going to be tricky. I just know I'm going to miscount the sides :(


Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
32 ct Ivory

So Much Brown

For something that's a giant purple dress with a red sash, Venetian Opulence sure has a lot of brown!

Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
25 ct Ivory Lugana
Putting this away to work on Boo Club, though. I can't believe it's almost September already!

Restraint. Willpower. Self-Control. What're Those?

After starting Boo Club yesterday I started something completely different today.

I have no one to blame but myself. Cinderella's pale pinks have been a little boring, so why not go for the bright rich colours of Venetian Opulence?


Venetian Opulence - Mirabilia
25 ct Ivory Lugana
Someone stop me. I'm afraid of what's going to happen this weekend!

So Close I Can Almost See The Finish

Mediterranean Mermaid is on break while I wait for beads.

I apparently used the giant white beads near the vase for a different project and there wasn't enough for this one. And one type of fancy bead is still on order at my LNS, so a couple of those things trailing from her side fins aren't stitched. I'm not happy because my needles were on fire (except for Trumpet I haven't put a needle to anything else since I started), and I don't want to stop. Oh well. C'est la vie.


Mediterranean Mermaid
32 ct Summersky Lugana
She is so ridiculously full of beads. Some of the beads flowing from the vase aren't in the exact right place because counting them is a nightmare. But hey, they look good and "flow" properly so I'm calling that part done :D

Hello Mermaid

Following my recent shopping blitz (not all of which has arrived yet), I started one of the things I kitted up.

This is Mediterranean Mermaid. She's actually pretty small. I was very surprised when I went to cut the fabric because I always had this idea in my head that all Mirabilia mermaids are huge, but she's only about the size of the Nora Corbett flower fairies.

Mediterranean Mermaid
32 ct Summersky Lugana
Looking at the chart her tail and fin are almost entirely Kreinik and beads. She's stitching up so fast (especially after Cindy's Dress) that I'm tempted to keep on working on her.

Never-ending Dress

I've been plodding along on Cindy's dress when I haven't been working on this month's Mill Hill. That's ready to be cut out, so hopefully I'll have that to show soon.

But until then, here's another fold in the never-ending dress:

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana