Finishing a notorious legend.... Red Lady Pirate

Taking a clip from Wikipedia, the Red Lady Pirate (Veronica) circa 1500-1534 was one of the most cunning pirates of the sixteenth century who never revealed her identity. She commonly disguised herself as a singer or an entertainer to be brought on ships and once the crew ever advance on her or leave her by herself she would take her disguise off having a top, pants and her weapons underneath. She would then immediately kill all aboard the ship and sail to sea.

There is something about Nora Corbett's "The Red Lady Pirate" that captivated me from the start.  I just always loved her.  I bought a piece of Sunny Dyes Pacific Sunset fabric a full year ago knowing that it was the perfect fabric for her.  But I never really got her in line for my to do list.  I was given the choice to kit any pattern from Hawkins Hobbies, and I chose Red Lady - but I still didn't put her in my rotation.  After awhile I knew I wanted to stitch her - but I had to finish this, that and the other.  Finally with encouragement from Facebook friends I decided to start her.

I enjoyed every minute of stitching this project.  I can say that about very few. There was no "crappy spots" or screw ups.  She just flowed.

The Red Lady Pirate is a goddess of the sea.  She is dripping in jewels and beads. She is lavishly cool, cunning and beautiful.  I would say, my favorite stitch to date.  Her skin is stitched 2 threads over 1.  The water and mountains are variegated silk called Waterlilies. She is covered in treasures and beads. A pure masterpiece.

Many of my projects will take residence in my closet unframed. I was so inspired to get her framed that two days after my finish I went to Michaels and found an amazing frame.  I did frame this myself. At the same time I got frames for Bliss Fairy and Christmas Flourishes. I framed those too. Happy New Year to me!

 

I really should watermark these photos.  I have had pictures from this blogged stolen before - cute right? Someone goes on Facebook and uses my stitched piece as their profile picture and claims it as their own.  Little did they know that pattern had a pretty obvious screw up so I know it was mine.  I ousted her - for all the good that did.  But for now - I leave my photos as they are and hopefully they will inspire someone to someday stitch these Nora beauties too!

A Blissful Finish

She is done. She is finally done. I had a bit of a hard time finishing her wings - my fault - went a bit off pattern, which always turns out harder to correct than you think it should.  I am happy to share with you... My Bliss Fairy!

She is on beautiful 28 count jazlyn Summer Sky by Crafty Kitten. I made a few changes to the original pattern:

I gave her an opened eye and changed the arc of her eyebrow. I also changed the blue beads - they called for Magnifica Sky Blues - but I used a glass seeds - I will check on the colour and update it here. 

Although not evident here I added glisten gloss to her wings blended with the lightest colour yellow. This design, surprisingly has no Kreinik!

I also left out the anthers (thank you google) on the flowers. I stitched them all and when I took a step back I found them very distracting to the overall design. I unpicked them all! 

Overall I love this design. I'm very happy with the way she turned out. I love her colours and she brought me peace in a tumultuous time. On the day I finished her we officially decided to take our house off the market. My husband was offered a full time permanent job in the city we work now - so that takes away that pressure and stress! I am thankful that it all worked out. I believe it was divine intervention that the house didn't sell after all. 

Disciplined Diva? Maybe not....

I like to pride myself on being a disciplined diva - what does that mean? It means I like to have one project at a time and finish it before I start another. I find as my stitching evolves I have moved away from that a bit.  I seem to prefer having one main project and some side tracks. 

I have been working away at Bliss and honestly - the wings got a tad tedious - the colours aren't very vibrant - don't get me wrong -they are beautiful and soft - but the colours weren't inspiring me to stitch.  Regardless - I'm so close to finishing those wings - here is where I left her. 

Thursday night I decided to play with my fabric and patterns.... we do that sometimes, don't we? I have been drawn to the idea of stitching some of Nora's Pixies. I really love Lavender pixie and I had this piece of fabric screaming 'Pick me! Pick me!' - so I started her.  I decided to dedicate the weekend to stitching my heart out on Lavender. It was just flowing - flying off the page and onto my fabric - I now decided that I will see her through to a finish but suspect I will be done before this weekend - I know sounds fast but hubby worked two night shifts this week and I stitching like a mad woman when he is away for the night.

She is stitched on Sugar Maple Fabric's Impressionism (out of business sorry girls) - it is a beautiful fabric. I will say I have a piece of Crafty Kitten's Evening Sky and I find they are quite similar if you are looking for this effect. I have decided this is for my daughter Chelsea. Chelsea is five and she loves purple. After I am done this I am going to do one for my eight year old, Kailee as well.  I haven't stitched anything for my daughters before - although I guess in many ways they are all for my daughters.

Another fun thing! I got accepted into another Round Robin! Its with the Yuku group: The Worldwide Round Robins. This one is slated to start January 2013 - it is a "big box" Mirabilia Round Robin. The boxes are for 5000 stitches opposed to the one I am doing now, which is 2500. This will allow us to do some bigger designs. Look - I know its more than 6 months away - but I have started planning my Round Robin - how can I not? I have decided to do the them "Roses" and I have chosen the patterns: Ashley's Roses, Rose of Sharon, Rose Arbour and Lady of the Mist. Here is a mock up of what I envision so far.... total work in progress here.....the border in the middle is taken from Mirabilia's Garden Muses, just repeated.

I hope to finish Lavender this weekend and get back into stitching Bliss. I know once I get past those wings we will love each other again! 

Blissfully unaware.....

Don't you love how cross stitching can just take it all away?  I have been absolutely indulging in my Bliss Fairy. Today I put a few stitches in her at lunch time - in my car - I just needed to close off the world for awhile.  There is an article on Facebook circulating how stitching is equated with stress relief - hmmm... stitchers already know this.  I am looking forward to this week coming to an end.  I have another open house on Saturday and I'm going to take my daughters to see Puss in Boots at the Community Centre. My husband is working Saturday night so I have planned to "meet up" online with some of my stitchy friends for a Google+ hangout.  Yes, stitching is great - but having stitching friends is better!



Mirabilia's Bliss Fairy stitched on Crafty Kitten 28 ct Summer Sky evenweave.



Life is Bliss!

Another week has flown by and I have been working away at my Bliss Fairy.  I love her so much. I'm just really enjoying her - sometimes you really connect with a project and this is one of them.  I am quite surprised really because I have always found her beautiful but I never had her on my "to do" list. She just quietly called to me and I listened to her little whisper. 

Let me say, I am surprised at how large she is.  I always thought of her as a little fairy - but she is quite big.  With that said, she is a smooth and easy stitch - well after confetti hair - she is a smooth and easy stitch.  I have had a few comments on her big ole feet - but having size 10 feet makes me appreciate this big footed fairy. 

Once again a shout out to Crafty Kitten  for this Summer Sky 28 count Jazlyn.  Its much more baby blue/sky blue than my photo shows. 

And where is Cleo you ask.... I haven't finished her! I know - isn't that shameful!?! I put in another 2 sittings of beading over the weekend - about 2 hours and I'm not done! Its crazy how much beading this mermaid has.  I really could finish it probably in one more sitting but seeing as I'm so loving Bliss right now its hard to turn to another project.  That is why I must stay a disciplined diva and finish all projects before a new start.

On a non stitching note, things are going ok with the moving plans. I talked to my boss and it looks like I can get a transfer - huge relief! Also my husband got a great lead on a job and I think we will know within two weeks if that is accepted.  Now we just need the house to sell.  There has only been two showings. Its seems the market is cold right now.  We just have to wait it out for awhile because there isn't much else we can do.  We have discussed dropping the price, but where there is no one out buying its kind of shooting yourself in the foot - it is priced right - we just need to hold out and be more patient!

Thanks to everyone who reads this blog and comments - it is a true source of happiness for me!

A new start - Bliss Fairy

Yes, I did it. I started Bliss Fairy. I'm not quite done with Cleo (Meditereanean Mermaid) she just needs some more beads - so photo coming soon!  My opportunities to stitch this week have been "stolen" moments amongst busy times.  I knew I was going to get to stitch on my lunch hours in the library and also my Tuesday night outing to the local bookstore/coffee shop - both not good beading places so there is my justification for the new start. I normally insist on a finish before a start but if I had of done that there would have been no way for me to stitch this week - and let's face it - my sanity requires it.

Here is my current progress on "Bliss".

She is being stitched on 28 count Jazlyn on Summer Sky by Crafty Kitten (xoxo).  The photo looks grey - but its a beautful soft summer blue - I will get some better shots as I stitch more.  

Anyone familiar with this design will notice I changed her eye and eyebrow.  I always felt that for someone called the "Bliss Fairy" she looked pained - almost heart broken.  So I gave her a wide open eye and a soft eyebrow curve.  I adopted this eye by looking at other Mira's that I thought had pretty faces - it's a combination of Villa Mirabilia and Cottage Garden Fairy and Jocelyn Mattatall!

Original Bliss Fairy - photo from http://www.mirabilia.com/

So my goal for this weekend is finish Cleo and post a new gallery of her for you. I also want to get a lot more done on Bliss.  I'm feeling really connected to her and I realized that I haven't done a Mira Fairy for five projects - the last one was Adia.  So I'm due!