R - Disney Alphabet Cross Stitch/IHSW


Are we getting close to done yet? How much further Papa Smurf? This has been the hardest challenge I've ever done...hope it turns out good in the end because I have caught up with myself and there is no advanced stitching done from here (unless I have a good week at work...yeah, and pigs fly).

But enough of this chit chat, yak yak, and flim flam (anyone get the Country Bears reference there?)...lets get on with the show!

"R" was another one of my "must haves". I've mentioned Disney movie generations before, but I think I need to give a bit of clarity. I call the originals, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, the first gens. Second gens include the first CGI animation like Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast (although the characters were still mostly hand-drawn, they were still computer painted and the backgrounds were all computer generated - some of the finest artwork in Disney animation history is the background cells for Sleeping Beauty...but I'll try not to go off on that subject again). Third gen is the post Pixar acquisition (I don't count the pre-Pixar purchase Pixars as Disney movies, because technically they are Pixar movies even if they partially funded them). Once Disney absorbed Pixar, they also started using a lot of Pixar's animation techniques on their own projects. This batch would include Tangled and The Wild (which may have bombed, but I really do like it - a heck of a lot more than Madagascar).

I am a Mandy Moore fan (there, I said it and I can honestly own it). It had been a long time since I had actually seen a Disney animated movie in the theater, but I knew that I wanted to see Tangled because she was in it and I was just going to have to force myself to get over the CGI animation. I fell in love with that movie instantly! They made a very visible effort to make the CG look hand-drawn and it showed. Instead of getting distracted from the CG and loosing the story, I ended up "tangled" in both. The story was amazing, the music is still some of my absolute favorite, and I found myself admiring the CG for the first time ever! It has become my ultimate #2 Disney movie and, even in Blu-Ray format, I love watching it (because the Blu-Ray really shows the crappy CG on older movies).

Granted, not every effort since has been good (The Princess and the Frog could have been excellent, but they focused too much on the wrong things which ended up taking away from the movie) and Brave (yes, I know it's technically a Pixar) had me grimacing more at the shotty backgrounds than paying attention to the movie...the first time I get a Scottish princess and they screwed it up!! I've seen Frozen and I like it, but I don't love it...it's still trying to grow on me and I still believe that Tangled is a far better movie.

I mentioned the problems I had with "P", and adding Flynn as my "F" choice gave me Pascal in chart form as well. I still planned to do Prince Phillip, but I wanted to find a way to fit Pascal in as well. I debated putting him on Flynn's head (where he would have fit nicely), but, in the end, I knew he belonged either on or beside my "R" choice. So I once again modified the chart, moving characters over, to make room for:

"R" is for Rapunzel (accompanied by her best friend Pascal - who I also had to reverse from the original pattern...I've turned into a pattern-altering diva!):
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It was also the International And Hermit Stitch Weekend and I brought home my Needle Club project to try to get through the pink. I came close (at least for the first row).
So here's where I left off:
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There is nothing for Friday because I had to frog out the entire pink section at the end. When I started the color on the left, it was the symbol '(' and I didn't notice that where I was stitching on the right was the symbol ')'. That's sometimes an issue when you have a project with so many colors, there are only so many symbols and you have to be careful what you're looking at. I only noticed it because the color seemed off to me, especially in the darkness of my house versus the bright lights of work.

I also discovered that, instead of the Monaco fabric I thought I was using, it is definitely lugana. It took me four hours to frog out that section and the entire time, because of the fragility of the fabric (which is why I prefer Monaco), I debated on just trashing it and starting all over. Lugana was not meant for errors. I'm just glad the restitching covered the fuzzed up fabric (there was no way I could have removed every single fragment of thread and the process did a number on the fabric itself). Oh well, I stuck with it, got it all out and started fresh on Saturday.

But anyway, here is Saturday's work:
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And Sunday's:
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Comments

Claudette497 said…
That was a whole lot of pink! Good for you powering through it!
kate n said…
Wow! You stitched loads. Even after frogging! I also love tangled, I like the music of Frozen but the story itself is lacking. If they could combine them that would be good. lol. Pascal looks pretty cute, youve done a good job.
Linda said…
I love Rapunzel and Pascal. Oh so cute. Absolutely amazing progress on pink.

Linda
Emma Louise said…
Love Rapunzel and Pascal! You've made great progress on the pink stitching.
Anonymous said…
Blog hopping on the 21st day of the #Challenge. You will be glad when you finish all the letters. Making new blogging friends is rewarding.
The Maiden said…
I swear by lugana for my more complicated, stitch heavy projects (Like HAEDs), but you are right, it is not forgiving. I have not heard of Manaco, but now I am going to look into it!
Cathy said…
I love the music from Tangled, but I've only seen the movie once. So right now, I'd have to say I like Frozen better. But I love the music equally.

Great job on Rapunzel and Pascal!
SoCal Debbie said…
Rapunzel looks so cute with her long blonde hair! You've made tons of progress on IHSW! So sorry you spent so much time frogging instead. Are you going to bring this one home every weekend?