Stitching

As much as I thought I was excited to start row 2 on Alice and the B's, actually working on it changed my mind a bit because it's a bit boring right now (I tend to find dark colors boring). I finished the row last time:
alice051
And only made it here by Thursday night (and again, there are three different colors in there, but I'll be danged if I can tell it unless I'm right on top of it):
alice055

By Friday I was ready for a change and I decided to screw my idea of finishing the Once Sampler before starting the Disney Castles. These are kits I bought off of eBay so many moons ago, the paper of the patterns have started yellowing. I've had a bit of experience with old kits and the fabric not holding up (re the great "Mickey Ear Hole" on Mickey and Friends), so I had already purchased my new favorite, opalescent 18ct Aida, to go with these when I decided to pull them out of my stash. I also rescanned the pattern in an attempt to clean them up enough to make them more readable, but I really should have gone with my original idea of just re-charting the whole thing to begin with (more on this later). All the supplies, new and old, have been sitting on my kitchen table for weeks as well, just waiting.

Friday night I kitted them both up, scrolled the material, gridded them, and I started on Sleeping Beauty Castle first (in anticipation of Disneyland).
SBC00
I didn't get much work done Friday after all the bobbin-winding (it takes FOREVER to bobbinate, even if there isn't a lot of thread):
SBC01
I spent most of Saturday doing something I haven't done in a long time, cleaning my house, so I got yet another late start. Plus, I ended up having to frog several areas. As much as I love these patterns, they are quite possibly the hardest patterns I've ever tried to read partly due to crappy copy quality and partly due to the bad charting overall. I really should have just re-charted them. I didn't know at the time I purchased these they weren't real kits, but rather homemade ones. The seller assured me it was the original patterns and only the supplies were new, but I seriously doubt it. I purchased these a long time ago, when eBay was young and I didn't know what to look for, now I do. I can tell you that people still sell these on eBay and they are all fakes...they have been out of print for many years. Alas, it's all I have to work with, so with all the complications, this is as far as I got Saturday night:
SBC02
I got to stitch all day Sunday, but again, I ended up frogging more areas, some I had even frogged before...I tell ya, this pattern is a bloody nightmare! But anyhoo, I got here by quitting time Sunday:
SBC03
I'm really having a love/hate relationship with this. I love the fabric. Plus, the flow of the pattern (when I'm actually able to figure it out) makes for very clean stitching, quite possibly some of the cleanest I've ever done (frogging be damned). But, and it's a big but, the colors are so off from the sample picture, they're almost ugly. I read Beaver Gray before it dawned on me, oh crap, beaver gray. It's this ugly greenish-gray color that's SOOOO not a Disney Castle color. Also, I looked at the original fabric before I ordered the 18ct, and I was pretty sure it was 18ct too, but apparently not because my picture is almost half the size it should be. If I'm trying to be positive though, I do prefer 18ct and I don't really have the wall space to hang two 11x14 pictures anyway. And I'm having so much fun stitching this (again, when there is no issue with the pattern being nasty), that I keep hoping the other colors are going to pull the green out of the gray.

Despite my random ranting and ravings over the pattern, Bam spent most of the weekend enjoying his freshly washed bed:
DSC05669
Tomorrow begins another work week and I'll get caught up on weekend Disney movie watching tomorrow.

Comments

kate n said…
Hey it looks good even if your patience has been tested and it looks like (if there were no pattern issues) that it would stitch up quick. You could always frame them together - but you do need more wall space :D
Tiffstitch said…
Yikes, I'm sorry to hear that awesome castle is causing you so many difficulties. I'm really impressed with your progress with all the frogging. I wonder if you can adjust one of the other colours to make the Beaver Grey appear less green? Do a floss toss and see how it looks?
Linda said…
Your stitching speed still amazes me Keiley. The castle looks great and I like the colors. I think I have that kit. If I do, I bought it at Disneyland years and years ago.

Linda
Maddie Can Fly said…
Depending on the age of that kit, DMC changed the dye lot on most of the grey colors. That could be why it's so far off from the printed picture
Heather said…
The colors you're stitching actually look more true to the castle colors IMHO. The pinks in the top should help to offset some of the green though.
Unknown said…
Super impressed by your stitching speed, even with all your frogging!
Joysze said…
I hate stitching dark colors too. The coverage is never good enough IMO and I spend way too much time fiddling for max coverage, ugh. Doh and double doh on the chart problems for the castle.... it's looking really great though, so GOOOOOO, Kelley!! :D
Justine said…
You're making great progress on Alice and the Bs even if you're not too inspired at the moment. Good idea to swap to the castles. I think the greys/greens will look fine once you get to the blues and pinks higher up.
Miamina said…
You are flying through this! Great work! It's hard to know what the colours will look like until you've stitched some of the other colours, I hope that it all works out.
Alyssa F said…
Sorry to hear you're having such problems. I love the design though, so if you hadn't mentioned they were out of print, I would rush right out and try to find these myself. Great progress!