Peacock Band Sampler - bead time!

Sooo it's been a while since I posted about Peacock Band Sampler, but I've been focusing on it for a while and all the stitching is done! Now it just needs beads. Lots and lots of beads...

Here are the bottommost bands. Five are already 100% complete with beads!

And a little closeup to show some details. I especially love the swirl pattern in the second to last band, in the largest diamond shapes.

I also haven't rated any bands after the central one so I'll finish that up now. :)

Band 9 (light blue) - 5/10 rating - It's a thin band so not a lot of room to do much with it, but this one is pretty bland. The stitching is more sparse than in other thin bands (I'm sure it has a ton of beads) which makes it look kind of sad. But it was fast to stitch!

Band 10 (blue) - 4/10 rating - Also fast to stitch but very plain compared to other wide bands with only cross stitches and the satin stitched hearts. Not much wow to it.

Band 11 (teal, green-blue) - 7/10 rating - Another simple one but it feels more impactful with the denser stitching and strong colors. This was charted with two beads between each of the central rhodes stitches but it was waaay too much and looked tacky.

Band 12 (evergreen) - 8/10 rating - This looked pretty sparse until the beads were added, and then it was elevated to wow level. A bit too much cross stitching vs specialty stitching for my taste but I do think it looks pretty good now that it's complete. :)

Band 13 (medium green) - 1/10 rating - No. I absolutely hated this. First of all, it was charted with the outer stitches touching the inner ones, which made it blend into a formless blob. I separated the motifs by one thread and that helped a lot. The inner stitch is a horrible, densely packed, and tedious nightmare. It looks good up close (decent woven effect) but from a distance it's still a formless blob. At least the outer stitches aren't being dragged into the blob because of the change I made, though.

Band 14 (light green) - 10/10 rating - So happy to have this band I LOVED after a tough one! The swirly Jessica triangle diamonds are so beautiful, and the contrast between the cross stitch outlines and the specialty stitches is perfect. Some of the rhodes stitches were charted in the same color as the cross stitch but I chose to do all the specialty stitches in the darker color. The beads really make this one pop!

Band 15 (yellow) - 8/10 rating - Fun and satisfying! I reversed the light and dark colors for the sheaf stitches to get a more 'golden wheat' sort of effect. I also did the top legs of the rice stitches in two different colors to give the dark color more of a chance to get used in the band. Again, I like the dense look of this narrow band. It stands out more and makes the color feel strong. :)

So that's all! I'll be working my way back up the pattern and adding sooo many beads. And leaving some off if it's just too much. Those Jessica triangles in band 14 were supposed to have beads in the middle but I like the look of the uninterrupted thread swirl. And they're so soft to pet!

Peacock Band Sampler - getting close!

It's been a while since I took a photo of Peacock Band Sampler. The last update was the center band and the narrow one just below it. Since then, I've added three more and started a fourth. :)

These have been relatively easy going, especially compared to the Jessica stitch nightmare on the top half. The wide blue band with the satin stitch hearts was a little boring, and I'm not sure if I want to add the little partial heart nubs at the corners. I did one at the bottom right corner of the band but I still don't know if I like it. There's still a parked thread in case I decide to do it. :)

The narrow band under that went fast, and then the wide green one took... a while. Too long, honestly, with just under 2/3 done when I sat down to stitch today. I was determined to power through and get it done, and it took about 2.5 hours, but it's done! I had to substitute a different thread for the specialty stitches because the two greens were impossible to tell apart. They worked better on the top half band where they were paired, probably because the specialty stitches were bigger/denser.

There's a little start on the next band from when my attention started to wander last week. Well, now I can give this new one my full attention instead of using it to avoid the wide one!

Only three bands left, including this barely started one! :3 

endless Jessica band has an end???

It's finally over. The neverending band of Jessica stitches on Peacock Band Sampler has finally been defeated. I'm worn and bruised and my needle got bent but I WON.

So of course I had to keep working on it after finishing that band. Like a normal person. *eyeroll*

Well, I got pretty far on the central band and had a great time filling in the darkest purple. But when it was time to add the (looool) Jessica stitches around them, I got fed up...

Not because of the stitches, though! It's the thread that's driving me crazy now. I used HDF silk for the darkest purple (the kitted color was so dark it was pretty much black and looked awful) and now the lighter purple feels terrible in comparison. :( Every strand I used has ended up getting split around the eye of the needle, locking it in place (can't slide the needle toward the thread end) and then it breaks.

Several of the threads have a pink section in the middle, almost like they had gotten discolored by a drop of bleach. I've been avoiding those but used one by accident. The pink was pretty dark and blended in well, so I decided to keep using it. Of course, the thread ended up breaking at the pink part, and I wasn't putting any extra strain on it. It's almost like it crumbled instead of broke.

Luckily, the other colors in the kit have been okay so far, just a bit frizzy and prone to knotting. I've already reached the middle so I'll be reusing the previous colors in reverse order to finish the project. I just have to get past this unruly light purple first. But for now, this project will take a little break!

Oh, and I finally got a reasonably accurate picture of the fabric color.

I forgot that pulling back a little (or a lot) helps to cancel out my phone's automatic white balancing. The fabric is still more vibrant than this shows, but it's a lot closer than my other pictures!

Catstronaut - finish! (plus goals update)

Here's the Catstronaut in all its glory! I was able to adjust the colors pretty well this time, so this is actually accurate for once. The fabric is the perfect space background. :3

I only made one small change, and that was changing 553 to 552 in the purple yarn ball planet. 553 was too light, especially in the piece of unraveling yarn, but 552 looks perfect. I don't think changes would be needed on a lighter fabric (the model is on light blue) but my dark fabric made the lighter purple look too washed out, especially in comparison to 550 which is very dark.

~~~

And let's do goals since the month is almost over and I achieved them all. :3

January goals: all done! 

• frame my sister's birthday present and send it to her ON TIME
• one section of Jessica stitches on Peacock Band Sampler
• one section of central band fills on Peacock Band Sampler
• start a small (probably Catstronaut)
• 100% no buy of any stitching stuff 

February goals: (pretty much an exact copy of January)

• one section of Jessica stitches on Peacock Band Sampler
• one section of central band fills on Peacock Band Sampler
• start a small (TBD) one flower on Pennelate di Magia
• 100% no buy of any stitching stuff 

So here are the two spots I want to fill in:

If I end up doing more than planned (like I did this month) I'll be happy with that, but I won't push for more because the Jessica stitches can be very tedious. I don't want to get burned out like I did last year and put this project aside for months. Slow and steady!

Not sure what small I want to start yet. I have a lot of cute patterns from Etsy, but many of them are quite large. Catstronaut was one of the smallest out of the pile I purchased last year, easy enough to finish in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll spend a little time playing with fabric to see what feels interesting. :)

ETA: Wait, I just remembered that I started Pennelate di Magia by Renato Parolin a while back, didn't like the fabric, never blogged about it, and shoved it to the bottom of the WIP pile! There's nothing actually wrong with the fabric other than it being 28ct evenweave (I prefer 32ct linen) soooo... that's going to be my small for next month. One flower panel!

Picture next time because I don't seem to have any in my records. Hmm. Well, here is the model picture instead! I'm doing the color version:

Hard to see, I know, but they are beautiful in person!

Peacock Band Sampler update!

I've already reached my goal on Peacock Band Sampler for this month! Exceeded it, actually, by doing a full repeat of Jessica stitches instead of just filling one enclosed section.

 
Somehow the Jessica stitches were much less annoying than usual. Absence really makes the heart grow fonder, I guess. :p

I even felt like I could do MORE of them, but I held off to avoid getting burned out again.

And here's a closeup of the purple fill because it is SO NICE.

The darkest color was waaaay too dark (almost black! could barely tell it was meant to be purple) so I swapped it for a HDF silk from my stash. This had the added bonus of insanely good stitch definition. Seriously, zoom in on that picture, the lines are CRISP. The Fiberlicious silks in the kit are quite frizzy in comparison (which makes them tangle and knot constantly) but HDF is always so smooth.

I look forward to doing more of these eight pointed stars because they are sooo nice. But first it's time for a little break so I can start Catstronaut! I found a great dark navy blue to use for the background and even the dark colors pop on it, so it's ready to go. :) 

2026 goals (bonus January goals!)

Here we go again. Happy new year or whatever. 🎉

In an effort to retain what little remains of my sanity, let's set some goals for the year. As a bonus, I'll include my January goals here as well. In fact, let's start with those.

• frame my sister's birthday present and send it to her ON TIME
• one section of Jessica stitches on Peacock Band Sampler
• one section of central band fills on Peacock Band Sampler
• start a small (probably Catstronaut)
• 100% no buy of any stitching stuff 

Here's Peacock Band Sampler as it stands today. Well, almost? I already finished the light blue stitching between the satin stitch parts of the huge band, but I guess this picture is a tiny bit older than that. Anyway, I want to fill in the two areas circled in yellow.

And this is the Catstronaut. The light blue fabric is cute, but I wonder if it would look as good on darker fabric to give it more of an outer space vibe. I think the colors are light/vibrant enough to stand out on a dark blue but I might have to tweak a few things.

Alright, good stuff. Now for the year-long goals, mostly copied from last year.

• no large starts until one is finished
• start and finish as many small projects as I want
• sell all finished/destashed charts
• low buy of charts/materials

And more detailed goals for specific WIPs: 

• Amethyste Band Sampler: complete part 1 (of 3)
• Chinese Garden Mandala: complete one side
• Raven Queen: finish 
• Rosarium: complete center
• Peacock Band Sampler: finish Jessica and central bands, then as much of the rest as I like!
• Violet Patch Mandala: complete SE corner, E violet, redo some border colors

I think that's pretty good. Time to go make some Jessica stitches...