Becca’s Cross Stitch

Sorry I haven’t written for so long, I have literally only been able to pick up my cross stitch once since term started at the beginning of September, which is very sad.  I’ve just been so busy and tired I have little time for anything but work.  However it is half term now so I have a week to recover, and hopefully at least a little stitching time.

My Woodland Enchantress has finally been framed so I wanted to share with you what it looks like hung on the wall.  I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out and I think the colours of the frame work well.

Yes, it is finally finished!!!  Eight months, around 40,000 stitches, an awful lot of backstitch, loads of french knots, some beads, and some cording later, and it is done.  I thought i would write a review of the kit to help anyone considering doing it make up their mind.  First of all, here is a finished picture:

And a close up of the head and shoulders area.  The yellow flowers in the hair are french knots, and you can also see some of the metallic backstitch and cording.

Review: Woodland Enchantress, Dimensions Gold Collection

This kit comes with everything you need to make the piece, including the beads, metallic thread, a beading needle and of course the normal threads, fabric and needle.  The pattern itself is fairly small, but the symbols are coloured so it is easier to read.  The threads come with a thread sorter, and are already divided into four bundles so they are very easy to sort into the correct colours and load onto the thread sorter if that’s what you want to do with them.  The cardboard thread sorter did last quite well, but some of the holes broke over time and the gold metallic thread was hopeless to try and keep on it.

The fabric is dove grey, 16 count aida, and is cut to the right size for the piece.  However it doesn’t leave much space around the edges, only a couple of inches on each side, which may make it a little more difficult to frame.  It didn’t fray too badly though, and i didn’t find i had to do anything to stop it fraying.

The instructions that come with the kit are fairly clear and tell you how to do all the different stitches needed.  The only real problem is that the list showing the thread colours and symbols is on the side of the chart, so it does make it a bit awkward when stitching when you are doing the part furthest away as you have to keep turning to the list.

The design uses full cross stitches for the enchantress herself, and half cross stitches for the background.  This gives quite a good effect, and does make the background quicker to stitch, although the half cross stitches use between three and five strands, so they can get a bit annoying.  The colours themselves are beautiful, and very varied, so you shouldn’t get too bored.  The major problem i had with this kit was that i ran out of the blue purple thread with quite a few stitches still to do.  I am quite a careful stitcher so i think Dimensions really need to supply more thread with the kit.  I also almost ran out of brown, i only had a couple of inches spare when i finished all the stitches.

A large part of this design is the extra touches that are done after the full and half cross stitches are complete.  There is a lot of backstitching, in various different colours, which does get very time consuming as it is not simply outlining the edge of shapes.  The gold metallic threads are supposed to be done with a technique called couching, but this seemed a lot more difficult and time consuming so i decided to do these sections with normal backstitch.

There are also a lot of french knots, but i quite enjoyed doing these, and they didn’t take too long.  The beads were very easy to sew on, and definitely improve the effect of the finished piece.  The cording was a little tricky to get in the right place, but not too bad.

Overall i would recommend this kit if you want a design which has something a bit different, and enjoy all those finishing details which make this piece really stand out.  However this kit is not one for a beginner, as some of the techniques used are a little difficult, and you do have to be very careful about how much thread you use.

After almost eight months, and around 40,000 stitches, all the full cross stitches and half cross stitch on my Woodland Enchantress are done.  I had a bit of a problem as i ran out of the blue purple thread supplied with the kit, with quite a lot of stitches still to do with it.  I couldn’t be bothered to wait for them to send me some more so i looked in my stash and found the nearest colour and just used that.  It’s slightly more blue, but you can’t tell when it’s in with the other stitches.  I wasn’t very happy about Dimensions not supplying enough thread though, as i am careful with the amount i use when i stitch, and i imagine some people could have a real problem.

Anyway, just all the backstitching, beads, french knots and cording to go!

Yep, all four corners are done, so it really is looking nearly finished now!  Just a bit more background, one more arm, the pole, and some odd little bits here and there.  And then of course all the backstitching, french knots, beads and cording, that might take me a while!!  But i’m working as much as possible on it now, because it’s looking so good and i can’t wait to see it finished.

I’ve been doing really well on my Woodland Enchantress cross stitch lately.  Unfortunately most of the background left is just three colours, but at least with larger blocks of colour it should be quicker to stitch.  I also get to do the fun part of her head and the rest of her hair.  At the moment i’m doing one thread of background then one thread of the woman, just to make it a bit more interesting.  I can’t wait to finish and am already planning my Heaven And Earth Design.

Yep that’s right, she now has an arm, and part of a hand.  I’m also still working away slowly on that background which seems neverending at the moment, and contains lots of annoying colours which require two strands of one colour and three strands of another colour.

I’ve put down Max’s Moon for a little bit, i’m going to try washing it so hopefully it won’t hurt my hands anymore.

But the good news is i’ve been back on the Woodland Enchantress, and made quite a bit of progress in the last couple of days.  I’ve been stitching several different areas of it since the last update.  I have done quite a bit more of the background, but got a bit bored with that part so moved onto finishing off her dress, and even got to do some of her hair!  It’s really coming together now, i can’t wait to do some more of her body, but i know i should do some more background first.

I’ve been a bit busy over the last few weeks so haven’t had as much time for stitching as i would have liked.  But here is my progress, i’ve finished the large tree in the corner, and some of the background trees there as well.  It’s nice to finally see three corners done, it makes it feel like i’m just finishing off now.  Most of this top part is just half cross stitches as it’s mostly background, and large blocks of colour which makes it quicker, but i do prefer the whole cross stitches.

I had a bit of a panic on my Woodland Enchantress cross stitch as i almost ran out of brown thread.  I only had a few centimetres of thread left when i finished all the stitches so it was a bit of a close thing and i’m worried i’m going to run out of other colours now.  Other than that it’s going really well, i’m doing the top left background now which is going quite quickly as it is mostly half cross stitches and has big patches of the same colours.

I’m now over half way through my Woodland Enchantress!  I’m really pleased with the progress i’ve made in the last couple of weeks, it’s looking so good.  I’ve been a bit busy the last couple of days because it was my birthday on Sunday, and i went to Thorpe Park yesterday which was great.  Although i enjoyed doing some stitching out in the garden at the weekend in the lovely weather.