Wednesday, July 25, 2012

7/25/12 Cinderella



This post is mainly going to be about removing the blue Clover marking lines from page one.  I was pretty worried that since they'd been on for over 15 months -- which is well beyond the recommended two weeks!-- that there would be staining issues.  Thankfully, with just some cold water, the marking lines disappeared within a matter of minutes!  The only issue I had is that it did leave a minor water stain around the edges of the design.  I believe this was either because I used regular bottled water instead of distilled water or perhaps there was some sort of stiffening agent on the fabric itself.  Either way, I'm not too concerned about it because the stain will be stitched over or covered with matting.

Here are some pictures of the process and results!

I placed the fabric in a clean 13x9 baking pan so that I would only have to wash the affected areas.

Before shot of the markings on the side as well as the ones you could visibly see under the stitching.
After only a few minutes in the cold water, all the markings were completely gone!
After drying.  You can see the waterstain around the design.
After going through this process, I've decided to give gridding using 4lb fishing line a try instead of the marking pen.  It took a few hours to grid page two, but overall I'm liking it so far.  It does take a little getting used to.  I did use the marking pen to label the squares since it makes referencing the chart much easier.
Page 2 gridded
Finally, here is a better picture of the progress so far on page two.  I've been taking a break the last few days because of a lingering headache, but hopefully I can get some more stitching done this week.  Happy stitching everyone!



Sunday, July 22, 2012

Cinderella mini update

I know I'm slacking on updates again. I figured since I'm about to head to bed I'd throw a quick one up here so you all can see where I am.

Page two has been gridded using 4lb fishing line. I did wash off the previous grid lines, but that process and results deserves it's own bigger post. 

This is approximately 1200 stitches into page two.  Buildings are taking shape and there is a TON of green.

More to come soon!


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

7/10/12 Cinderella (Page 1 completed!)


Thank you so much for the kind comments on yesterday's post.  I stuck with it yesterday since my stitching bug was still hanging around and managed to get page 1 finished!  Yay!!

Here is all of page 1:

Here is the back of page 1:

And here is the overall progress:

Now that the section I have gridded is completed, I'm left with a bit of a dilemma.  I really really want to wash those lines out since they've been on there so long, but I'm terrified of messing something up by washing it.  I am planning on gridding using fishing line for the next page instead of the pen so I can just pull it out as I go and won't run into this problem again.

Does anyone have any tips for easily removing these lines?  I know they will come off because some have faded away when I put a bit of water on certain sections that hadn't been stitched yet.  I'm not brave enough to do the whole delicate cycle in the wash so I'm guessing hand-washing would be my best bet.

I'm going to start the next page pretty soon.  I'm planning on doing the lower left page, then the lower right, saving the top right for last.  It's the page with Cinderella and the Prince so I want to save it for last!




Monday, July 9, 2012

Cinderella 7/9/12

Just another quick mobile update.  Only around 150 stitches left in page one (not counting the French knots).  Once page one is done I'll do a full picture if the entire page using my nice camera.


Monday, May 21, 2012

5/21/12 Cinderella

Hey everyone!  Sorry for the lack of updates. Life has been really crazy and it hasn't left much time for stitching unfortunately.  I do have some progress pics to share (now that I have blogger on my phone!) So I figured I'd go ahead and put them up. So, here ya go!

Sorry if the pics are wonky. Still figuring this mobile posting out!



Tuesday, January 31, 2012

January Look Back

After doing some more stitching tonight (and spending at least an hour unpicking a few mistakes), I remembered that it's time to do a Look Back!

It's been a few months so I had to dig back through the blog for the last look back photos, so here we go.

Here is the October progress picture (yikes... has it been that long?):

October 2011 - Look Back
And here is today's picture:

January 2012 - Look Back
January 2012 - Back of the project

January 2012 - Overall progress

We are going to be taking a trip -- to Disney of course -- starting on Saturday, so I don't know how much more stitching will get done between now and the following weekend.  I'm hoping to finish this page by at least the end of March so I can get started on the next page.

Oh!  I forgot to mention this... you may notice a red thread running down the right side of the project.  I purchased some fishing line today and I'm testing it out to see if I like using it to grid more than the marking pens.  So far I like it, but I haven't had to work around it too much so we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.  Right now it's just marking the end of the first page, but when I start the next one I'm going to try gridding out the whole page with it. 

Happy stitching everyone!


Thursday, January 26, 2012

1/26/12 Cinderella

I got LOTS of stitching done today!!  The section I worked on had so many pretty colors and I was really excited to see it take shape.


Isn't it pretty?  I love the colors.  The rainbow leads to the next page where the Fairy Godmother appears flying through the air. 

I have to say that the colors of this project are so much more vivid and beautiful than the picture on the package makes them appear.  When I look at what I've stitched and compare it to the cover picture there is really just no comparison.  The cover doesn't do it justice at all.  I'm wondering if this is the same for the other Thomas Kinkade kits.  Regardless, I'm very close to being done with page 1 of 4, which puts me just about halfway to my goal of completing 50% of this project by December.  I'm hoping to surpass that estimate and if it stitches as nicely as it did today then I just might do it.
Pin It

Sunday, January 22, 2012

1/22/12 Cinderella Update and TUSAL

Howdy everyone!

I've had quite a few good stitching evenings the past week or so.  The kids have actually behaved and (mostly) gone to bed when they are supposed to so it's given me the time I've craved.  Plus, I finished reading "Water for Elephants" and I'm just waiting for another library book on my hold list to come available so I've got a bit of extra down time.

Here is the latest progress pic for Cinderella:


I've been working on this top right section now for the past few days.  It is littered with confetti and tweeded metallics so it's really be slow going.  I wish the camera picked up all the sparkles because it is really looking gorgeous in person!  Maybe once I'm done with this quarter of the project I'll take a small video and see if I can pick up the shine there. 

Also, this is the very first year I'm participating in Daffycat's Totally Useless Stitch-a-long (TUSAL).  If you don't know what it is and want some more information (or want to join up!) you can head over to the information page by clicking the button on the top right of my blog. 

I'm a day early (the new moon is tomorrow) but I figured if I don't post it now then I'll totally forget about it.  Here is my January ORT jar:



I definitely should take some windex to it... it's looking a bit dusty!  So far only a few light colored threads and some sparklies in there, but I'm looking forward to adding some more color soon!


Thursday, January 12, 2012

1/12/11 -- Cinderella Update!

I'm back!!  No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth but, boy, some days it sure felt like it.  The holidays were a blur of friends, family, lights and all the good things that come with that time of the year.  With all the extra activities going on, finding time to stitch was nearly impossible. 

I'm happy to say that the other day I pulled everything out for Cinderella and slowly started working on it again.  There isn't a whole lot of progress to get excited about, but with a project of this size I'm going to say that a little work is most definitely better than none at all.



Most of the work I've done is in the top right corner.  This sky is MONSTROUS in size and can be quite boring to work on.  I'm going to power through it though... can't wait to get to some characters!

I hope you all are enjoying a fabulous New Year and that you stick to all your resolutions.  My list for this year includes reading through the Bible chronologically (so far, so good), getting at least halfway done with this particular cross stitch (meh... working on it) and saving $2000 (haven't even started!)

Have a great day!

Pin It