Incoherent Scribblings

Presenting… “Passing Admirers!”

It has been a little over 12 hours since I attached the last bead to “Passing Admirers” and I am still happy dancing all over the house! I can scarcely believe it, but after 14 months and 158 hours of stitching, I am finally finished with my first “large” project… and it looks GREAT! When I finally went to bed last night, I laid awake for at least half an hour with a big grin on my face.

And now, for story behind the finish…

Over the weekend I mostly worked on the backstitching for “Passing Admirers” and was planning on working on the “Model ‘A’” yesterday. However, before I picked up the “Model ‘A’”, I stole a quick look at “Passing Admirers” and I could see the finish line. I couldn’t resist: I knew I could finish it, so I decided to do so.

While most of the 8 hours that I spent finishing “Passing Admirers” yesterday were backstitching hours, I also took the opportunity to fix a few things that had been bothering me.

First I repaired a couple of confetti areas that I hadn’t really been happy with for a while. I wasn’t content with these particular spots because when I first started “Passing Admirers” I wasn’t yet using the loop-method when starting my floss and the confetti stitches had been secured with knots. I have since learned that using the loop-method I can secure confetti stitches much neater and without knots, so I took the opportunity to redo those stitches. It didn’t take too long and I am much happier with those areas now.

While backstitching, I also noticed a half a dozen stitches where I had forgotten to finish my cross stitches, (I am still asking myself how that happened) so I fixed those stitches too.

Finally all that was left were a bunch of French knots, some long stitches, a half a dozen lazy daisies, and about a dozen beads. The French knots and long stitches were a piece of cake, but I sure did have problems with the lazy daisies! It probably took me close to an hour to do six of them.

I saved the beads for last and when I finally came to them I was a little nervous because I had never added beads to anything before. I wasn’t really sure how to go about it, but ended up adding them with two strands of floss that matched the color of the bead and securing them with a half cross stitch. I am not sure if that is the “right” way to do it, but it seemed to work. However, next time I add beads I will probably try and do it with invisible quilting thread. (I would have done that last night, but I currently don’t have any invisible quilting thread.)

So there you have it: I am finally done with my darling and I can’t wait to get it framed so that I can hang it in its place of honor in the living room!