Ambitious Blackwork Project #2 [PART 3]

I'm sorry that I'm triple posting today, but I really wanted to get this out of the way so that I can start posting the WIP for my next project!

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I am not entirely certain how long this has actually taken in terms of stitching hours from start to finish because I started it back in October and finished it just after Christmas. I did have a bit of a break from it for a while so I would say that there is maybe two or three weeks work here at most.

At one point I was worried that I might run out of silver thread, but thankfully it held out. I have also used beads on the design, which is not something you should try to do when you are tired and hungover because I was sewing them to the back of the work rather than the front…LOL!

Anyway, here it is…

 

I hope you like it, be sure to check it out on deviantART as well!!!

Ambitious Blackwork Project #2 [PART 2]

Here we go with Part 2...

The next difficult task for me with this design was getting the right fabric.

Because the lighthouse is red and white, the plan was stitch the design on a blue fabric. When I went to “Stitch and Craft 2009” I purchased some blue evenweave fabric which I thought would ideal, but when I came to start stitching with it, the blue was far too pale for the white threads to show up!!! Because I've used shading in this design I needed a fabric that would show up the white well enough to see the effect.

I thought a solution was at hand as I had some blue aida in my workbox. It was darker than the blue evenweave, but sadly when I went to test the white against it, again, it wasn’t right.

Very frustrating!

As I had no other blue, I had to trawl the internet to find the shade I wanted. In the end, I took a gamble with a shade called “cadet blue” that I bought from Sew and So. It turned out to be perfect!

So with the right threads and the right colour fabric, I could now start stitching.

Here are some of the various stages of the design:

Stay tuned, Part 3 is coming right up!!!

Ambitious Blackwork Project #2 [PART 1]

Those of you who’ve been following me for sometime now will recall back in August I started my first ambitious blackwork project, the Winged Triforce from the Legend of Zelda games.

This was a success, and the finished article went down very well over on deviantART.

Anyway, the astute amongst you will have remembered that I referred to another project that I was working on at the time, although I did not want to say too much about the second project because it was going to be a surprise for someone close.

Things have changed due to a family disagreement and as I can’t make my mind up who the lucky recipient will now be, I can share the project with you. Also, I finished stitching it last week so it’ll be going up on DA shortly! ^____^

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The subject matter for my second blackwork project was the Europa Point Lighthouse in Gibraltar. I wanted to stitch something as a reminder to two fabulous holidays I’d had there (and also as a thank you to my sister).

Believe it or not, the idea came to me in the middle of the night when I was going through the insomnia phase of my illness. Within half an hour I had visualised the image and even picked out the thread colours!

Frustrated that I may forget the design by the time I had slept, I had to get out bed and scribble the design down on paper before I forgot, this is what I drew:

Then obviously I had to find a reference image for the lighthouse.  My fiancé had certainly taken a lot of photos, but finding the right one took sometime.  Eventually, I chose this one, taken during our visit in May 2010:

 

I left out most of the background details of the photo as I wanted to focus just on the lighthouse. Before I could start to chart on the graph paper though I had to enlarge the image:

 

Then it was charted into Pattern Maker:
  

And with that done, the stitching can begin ...