Sunday, January 31, 2016

12 Dragonlets of Christmas: Sixteenth Post - Framed

Here's an oldie.  It was finished in September of 2013.  I'm almost positive I framed it not too long after that.  However, I just recently hung it on my wall.  It was sitting wrapped up because I wasn't sure where I was going to put it.  It actually replaced a different picture, and the other picture found a new home.  I know it's Christmas, but I just don't want it to be hidden for ¾ of the year.


And finally another long overdue post done.  I have a few more in the wings.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Mini Artists Galleries - Leonardo Da Vinci: First Post - Completed


Let's try a post a day the rest of the month, all two days!  I'm going crazy here!

Okay, I got a little crazy on this post, sorry. ;D  I knew I was going to which is why it took me so long to blog about it.

This was a piece I found on CloudsFactory's website.  My sister loves Leonardo Da Vinci and I found this fun little piece.  I showed it to her to make sure she'd like it, since it is kind of cartoony.  Of course between the two of us we had to mess around with it a little bit.  To the right is the original design.  My sister though it might look nice with the wording surrounded by Leonardo and his works.  So it took a bit of playing around, but I finally came up with something that I thought looked good.  But I won't show it to you now, you'll either have to read to the end, or scroll down to the end.

I decided to use one of my favorite fabrics for this 28ct. Legacy Cashel Linen by Picture this Plus, since, again, it's a parchment like color.

First off, was the wording.  I was actually driving home from work, ready to stitch this as soon as I got home, when I came up with an idea.  Leonardo was famous for trying to keep his works secret, one way that he attempted to do so was by writing mirrored.  I found a little information about that here if you're interested.  So I thought it would be cool to stitch the writing backwards.  However, it was a big leap so I consulted my sister to find out her thoughts and she thought it was a great idea, so I did it.
 Here is it mirrored, or unmirrored, so you can read it:

The next thing I stitched was Leonardo himself.

First off I did the three sketches at the same time, which were surprisingly close in color to the fabric I chose.  The titles are links that lead to webpages about the images.
Aerial Screw Self Portrait Vitruvian Man
First Color
Remainder of Cross Stitches
Back Stitched
"Framed"

Next, the paintings, again the titles go to pages to learn more about them, if you're so inclined.
Lady with an Ermine The Last Supper Mona Lisa
Some Colors
Rest of Colors
"Framed"

I did change the color on the frames for these.  It was supposed to be the golden yellow that you can see in the clothing of the fourth figure from the right in The Last Supper.  I changed it to Kreinik #4 braid, Vintage Gold.

And finally, all together:

It's now in the process of being framed, so hopefully I'll get that posted faster than some of my other pictures.

Project Stats:
Pattern: Mini Artists Galleries - Leonardo Da Vinci
Pattern by: CloudsFactory
Started Stitching: December 3, 2015
Finished Stitching: December 9, 2015
Fabric: 28ct. Legacy Cashel Linen
Floss: DMC 2 over 1, Kreinik 1 over 1
Percentage: 100% complete
Stitches: 2,866 out of 2,866

Friday, January 29, 2016

Dragon Game: Third Post - Framed

Hi all, I know, I went dark again.  Between Christmas and my nephew's birthday, I had two cakes to make, one for his family birthday on Christmas Eve and the other with his friends last weekend, I've been rather busy.

But I have been stitching too.  I finished a piece for my sister that is in the process of being framed, I need to blog about that one.  I'm almost done with one for my mother, I just have to do back stitching, belch.  I did another challenge from the HAED FB page, so that was another start... oops. ;D

Anyway, the real purpose of this post is to show Dragon Game framed, and here it is:
I'd forgotten to mention that I'd altered it very slightly.  On the left hand side there was a leash of sorts coming out from behind his wing.  Without it being attached to anything else it looked odd, so I left it out.

Now I'm going to work on a few more posts that I really need to do.  Framed pieces that have been framed for over a year, Items I've started and quite a few I also finished but was too interested in moving on to the next thing instead of posting... I'm such a bad blogger.  I'll catch up eventually.