Thursday, March 8, 2012

Year of the Dragon

Just after I finished my Stitcherhood piece, I picked up an older WIP in need of a bit of love to finally come to a finish. I thought it most appropriate to stitch and finish in this Year of the Dragon. The design is Red Dragon Bookmark by Dracolair. I have never in my entire life stitched something so small with so many fractional stitches. Honestly, it makes me feel like stitching a Mirabilia or something with big blocks of the same color! Hahaha!

It is stitched on 32ct Golden Harvest belfast by Silkweavers. I subbed DMC light effects of the same number for DMC 321. Never again will I use that fiber. Completely vile (shreds horribly, rubs rough patches in the needle eye, and is generally stiff and yucky). However, I am pleased with the effect of the added sparkle. Dragon scales should sparkle. :D Best part is that I've killed another WIP! I'm really trying to be better about finishing things.

Getting a good photo was a challenge I failed, sorry. Some day I am going to learn how to make good photos of my needlework. I wish I knew the secret. The fibers look pretty true to color, but the fabric is actually a golden brown rather than the white/pale blue that it appears to be on my monitor.

red dragon bookmark 022812

I will finish him as an ornament rather than bookmark. Since I only read my Kindle and not paper books these days, he'll see more use that way.

Since finishing Red Dragon, I've been working on Egypt's third pyramid. Hoping to finish it tonight. Um, it looks pretty much like the other two, but I'll likely take a photo anyway in an effort to attempt photographing my yellow fabric as actually yellow.

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful finish! I like the idea of finishing it into an ornament rather than a bookmark. I am always afraid to use my stitched pretties as bookmarks since I tend to lose most of my bookmarks before I even finish a book.

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  2. Nice job on your sparkly dragon, sorry to hear the fiber was such a pain to work with!

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  3. Bookmark? What's that? :)

    Your dragon is very pretty, and definitely sparkly! I understand about the fibers, though - I've never used that particular kind before, but I hate any kind of metallic fiber.

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  4. Great finish, congrats! I can see that this design is deceivingly intricate :-)

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  5. He's beautiful, though I hear ya about the Light Effects; it's gorgeous stuff when done, but an even bigger PITA that Kreinik -anything :( Please post the finish-finish!

    I did TW's freebie Stretch on - get this - 22ct aida. Of course, back in my young & dumb days, I only used quilting sharps, so splitting the threads for the zillion 1/4 stitches wasn't that hard :) But then, I did several TWs on aida, before I'd ever heard of/seen evenweave of any kind. I'd guess my hands were much tougher back then :) I "feel" much wiser now! LOL

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