Wednesday, December 11, 2013

stealth finish!

Of course, when I'm supposed to be doing one thing (focusing on my HAED for a challenge group I'm in), that just makes me want to do something else.

So I did.  Here's Autumn Arbor from The Drawn Thread.  Started Monday night, finished about an hour ago.  Yes, I'm crazy.  I'd say this was about 15 hours total of stitching.



Sorry, the pictures are worse than usual!  It's gloomy around here so I had to use the flash, but that always washes out the colors.  There is a gorgeous finish in another blog (by Bine) but she definitely used some different threads for hers.  I'm kinda jealous! :)

Unfortunately, this project was rather disappointing for me.  I got the kit from The Drawn Thread and there is not enough silk included to finish the project.  If you look closely at my picture, you might be able to see that the dark green vines and leaves on the pumpkins at the top isn't the same as the green in the borders.  These areas are supposed to match but it was impossible to conserve the thread enough to make it through the entire design.  Close calls on the yellow and brown as well. :(

The worry about "will I have enough?" really spoiled the enjoyment of this stitch for me.  I spent all my stitching time today trying to plan efficient thread paths instead of just stitching.  I am not a wasteful stitcher and I didn't have to frog any major mistakes.  There is no excuse for a kit to be put together so cheaply.

Other disappointments are the beads (they are more like flat little donuts than seed beads in shape), the chart itself (four charting errors!), and the quality of one of the Gloriana silks.  One of the colors was constantly tangling (we are talking HUGE knots here) and had a rough feel to the thread.  Attempts to untangle it caused the silk to fray and break!  I was ready to fling my qsnap across the room at a few points!

Oh well.  At least it's done!  It looks nice even though it caused a lot of whining.

8 comments:

  1. Definitely worth all your hard work. How do you manage to stitch so fast?

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    1. I think I'm a relatively fast stitcher, but I normally wouldn't finish something this size so fast. :) I was pushing myself to see how quickly I could finish this, just for fun.

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  2. With all those problems and you still finished it!Congrats!AriadnefromGreece!

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  3. Despite the problems well done on getting it finished - another one off the list!

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    1. Too bad the list never ends because SOMEONE keeps adding more stuff to the end! Oh wait, that's ME. XD

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  4. It came out beautifully, but it's sad to hear about the kit and the chart. This is on my wishlist; I think I might give it a pass now. Might be worth passing on your feedback to The Drawn Thread?

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  5. Looks beautiful despite all the problems you had with it. Congratulations on such a pretty finish and for sticking with it!

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