Wednesday, April 27, 2011

WIP: Twilight Angel - Her Skirts Appear!

Spring is surely on its way, for Mr. Sun made a greatly appreciated appearance on not one but two days! And so, much happy stitching resulted, aided and abetted by his sunbeams :)

When we last left Twilight Angel, she looked like this:


And she has since had her overskirt finished, and her blue sash added:




As if that wasn't enough, she has also had her underskirt finished:



Next up for stitching is the wide blue band on the bottom of her underskirt, which echoes all the blues in her sash! I was very surprised with how fast the stitching of the underskirt came along, actually. I think that the larger sections of a single colour really helped to speed up my stitching, as the colours of the overskirt changed every few stitches.

Although the colouration of the underskirt is less subtle than the overskirt, I really do like the sunray effect of the yellows! One of the features that attracted me to this design is that Twilight Angel has colours of the day (yellows, white) as well as colours of the early evening (lavenders, light blues) and the darker hues of the night (navy blue). Most angel designs that I've seen tend either towards the very light or the very dark, and I like that Twilight Angel contains the many different hues that characterize the actual transition of day into night!

So I am quite happy with my progress, although I must confess that I had a difficult section with the very right of her underskirt. I had thought my stitching on target, until I went to put in the final colour and realized that I was out by one and a half stitches. And I further realized that I needed to take out the other four colours in that section to properly remedy the error! As tempted as I was to fudge it, I took the time to undo the mistake and redo the stitching and am much happier for it, though I was less than content at the time *rolls eyes*

Also, I surpassed a Personal Stitchy Record - I have worked with Twilight Angel for weeks and have yet to make the half cross-stitches into full stitches! And furthermore, I have actually added in more half cross-stitches and left them alone too! This is a first for me.

Time will tell how long my fortitude will last :)

Weather-wise, Twilight Angel may have to be put aside for a little while. The forecast here is for rain and more rain (and perhaps a few flurries, *ack!*) for the next few days, so I will likely be working on other projects instead. I've finished the blackwork on my Monarch Pincushion, and will be starting on the filling stitches sometime soon; hopefully, I'll have some pictures to share in the near future! I'm also looking forward on catching up on my e-mails and stitchy blogging news; and I do appreciate your continued patience.

Here's hoping that Mr. Sun will come out and shine on your stitching! ;)

7 comments:

Karen said...

Twilight Angel is coming right along. You've made some excellent progress!

There's hasn't been too much sunshine around here lately.... Lots of rain and general drearyness. I sure hope you don't get anymore snow.

I'm looking forward to seeing your pincushion!

Karyn said...

So beautiful so far!

CrazyStitcher said...

It's lovely to see the progress you have been making with Twilight Angel. It always amazes me how the addition of a few stitches can suddenly bring a design to life.

Well done for resisting the temptation to leave the half-stitches alone. You've got this far, so there's no turning back now. :) x

Wyrdbyrd said...

Your work is lovely. As is the pattern. Thanks for the inspiration.

Aurelia Eglantine said...

Wow! Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments :) Reading them has really helped to brighten up this dull and dreary day!

Karen: Thank you muchly for your kind words :) And we did get snow today, believe it or not. Thankfully, the freezing rain washed it all away *rolls eyes*. Such is Spring in Eastern Canada! Speaking of which, I really hope that Mr. Sun comes your way soon :)

Hopefully I'll be putting up some Pincushion pics in the near future! Thanks for your interest ;)

Karyn: I can say for certain that my Twilight Angel is very flattered that you think that she is beautiful, even in this half-finished state :) Thank you! I just hope that I can do her justice! I'm really looking forward to adding in all the sparkles and charms!

CrazyStitcher: Thank you very much for your lovely comment! I agree completely. It always amazes me to see how just a few stitches can change the whole look of a work, and I must say that before I started taking pictures of my progress for the blog, whatever pleasure I took from my progress was eclipsed totally by the finish. Now, with these photos, I find myself taking more happiness from the whole stitchy journey, which is really nice :)

Re: The half cross-stitches: I shall have to repeat your wise words to myself, in the hopes that I will come to believe them *rolls eyes* So far so good! ;)

Jeanne: What a delightful compliment! Thank you very much! I'm thrilled that you like my stitching and enjoy watching this work take shape :) I feel inspired every time I visit Byrd's Nest, and am very happy that I can return the favour, if only in a small way!

Rainy Day Crafter said...

Wow, Twilight Angel has come on so much! I'm loving what you've done so far and I love the yellow in the underskirt! Congrats on the half cross stitches by the way - stay strong, lol :)

Aurelia Eglantine said...

Thanks for your lovely comment Rainy Day! Sorry that the response is so late! I'm glad to hear that you like the underskirt! I really like all the yellow shading too :)

I honestly didn't realize that there was so much shading in the underskirt until I started stitching it, but am very happy with all the nice tone changes!

Don't worry - I'm still staying strong, LOL :)