Work in Progress Wednesday - 8 Jan 2014

Is this a first, Sharon?  Is this the first time someone started a project with a view to staying in the Work in Progress Wednesdays loop, rather than using it to finish stalled stuff??=)

OK, I did want to do this one anyway as I needed a suitably impressive cross stitch piece to help me stand a chance of a prize in the 2014 Sheffield Fayre in late August and I've always wanted to do this piece (and another in the series, which I may work for the 2015 Fayre, who knows?).  Be that as it may, I love the motivation of having something to show in the WIPW line up, even though I don't suppose there'll be an official WIPW post to check in on for another week or so, but so this is what you'll be seeing most Wednesdays for the next few months.

Yes, I decided to work the light brown fur parts as if they were a rich red velvet (even if that isn't in keeping with the costume of the period!!) and I also plan to smoothen up the outlines, esp. of the skirt.

Here's the floss toss for the piece:

Above is the very first bit of the stitching!  The centre of the design is in the upper section of the skirt of the yellow underdress.   The photo below shows the state of play on 5 January with the stitches having reached up to the top of the yellow section and begun the descent of the right hand side.  There's also some of the lighter shade inserted.

Below is the very latest shot.  As you can see, I may be working on the yellow section for a few weeks yet.  Added to that, we're looking at a long term project that the magazine says will take three months to stitch and I'm assuming that means if the stitcher didn't have other projects on the go as well, so you can probably double that time for me as I'll be doing plenty of other pieces too with Needlequest.

Looks like I'm stitching a piece of Swiss cheese, doesn't it??=)  Cross stitch Emmenthal!!

Hope you've enjoyed the beginnings of this picture.  I'm enjoying stitching it, even though I've already had to re-stitch two bits...!!  (Teach me to stitch when I can't sleep....)

Text and images © Elizabeth Braun 2014