Cinderella - Final look before framing

So here are some of the closeups of the beautiful Cinderella that I ever finished. Yes I did it. Love the pic so much that I can't turn my eyes from seeing these pics. The piece is getting ready for final finishing - framing at the Nick's frame shop. Thanks Tracy for the tips that you have given which made my life much easier in picking up the frame. Hope it looks as I see it. :)

Gifted this beautiful princess to my dearest sister (who has no interest in cross stitching but admires beautiful hand made works)

Mirabilia Cinderella  May 2011 to Dec 2011

A closeup of the castle......

A closeup of the beautiful princess

Nani posing with the beautiful princess........

My 2012 stitching goals

Yeah....for the first time I am "planning" to have some stitching goals........

1. Finish the beading work for Mirabilia Sleeping Beaty..... (Yeah this project was started in 2006 and still pending).

2. Mirabilia Spring Queen - Saw some finished work on Mirabilia groups on Facebook and am immediately attracted to this fairy. Vibrant colors....lots of beading a very eye pleasing design......

3. Ellen Maurer - Bunny Baby - A pleasant surprise for my dear sis who is going to have her baby soon (Already started the project but am not happy with the 3 strands. I think I will redo it again with a 2 strand).

4. Lavendar and Lace Isabella's garden - my first L&L project. 

Just ordered my new stash for these projects from 123-stitch. I wish all my readers a very Happy New Year and  Happy Stitching...... :)

Highlights of 2011

Started remembering what are the the big events or occasions or accomplishments happened in the Year 2011. So here they are -

1. Resigned from my job after working for a company for almost 10 years. (March)
2. Heard the good news that my sis is expecting her first baby who is due in March 2012. (July)
3. Dream come true Vacation - Disney Land Florida (Sep)
4. 20 month intense learning experience finally comes to a happy ending with a tag - Duke MBA graduate added to my profile (Dec)
5. First Mirabilia project - Cinderalla - Completed and sent for framing (May to Dec)
6. Nani's excitment seeing his two presents - Lego Firetruck and Lego Airplane gifted by Santa alias Pinni & Babai.

I will jot down my new year resolutions in my next post. :)

Happy Stitching.........

On top of the world

Hurray today I am officially done with my Duke MBA.........One of the most challenging period in my life.....Can't wait to get to a normal life.

Happy dancing and happy stitching.......... :) 

Time to relax

Well finally sailed through the stressful moments with happy results.

Got my final exams due in a week from now. Once they are done, I should be a free bird and should be back to my very normal life.....Hurray can't wait for completion of my course and tag myself as "DUKE MBA GRADUATE"

Happy Stitching........

Crazy crazy and Crazy

Off late, things are going extremely crazy. Putting all my effort in one thing for which I have no control and now getting too worried(I think I am worried even more than what I should have) whether I will get through this phase successfully. All this is leading to extremely stressful moments. And am unable to concentrate on any thing - including stitching.

If any of you of readers have good tips to release stress levels, I appreciate if you can share them through comments.

Happy Halloween - Trick or treat bags

So here are the cute little baskets that we made for my little one and his friends. Had lot of fun making them.....especially my little is super happy that he could share it with his friends and teachers.... :)

Here are a few of them.......

Happy Halloween....... and Happy Stitching. 

Origami basket

Inspired by some of the paper art posted by Nitya, I tried a small basket. The tutorial that I followed can be found here - Origami basket. So here it is.....I know Nitya might not even see this. But if she reads this post, Thank you for posting such wonderful pieces.

Immediately my 4 yr old son said that he wanted to give the Halloween treats in such basket to his friends.....Probably put some Halloween stickers on all 4 sides of the basket to represent the theme. Seems a very good idea. So here is the basket after the makeover by my son.

So got to do some shopping for Origami papers for the gifts.

Happy cross stictching........

Creative Art - A god's gift

I love to browse through some of the foods blogs (espeically from India - being an Indian) and recently I have come across a very good food blog from Nitya. Nitya's creative art was just awesome.......Take a look at some of the art work she has created at the site Nitya's art.

Such inspiring blogs is what inspires me a lot.....Have fun watching some of the beautiful postings.

Happy stitching.......

Crazy days ahead

Well......off late it has been real crazy. With exams and active job search going on in parallel, hardly get any time for Cinderella.

Hoping to a much smoother days soon.

Happy Stitching.......

Cinderella - further update

So I thought beading work takes longer....but surprisingly the work for this project is not that heavy. Still the piece looks so awesome. I think I am 80% done on beading. With some more beads to be stitched near the princess hair bun and near her foot. Once this is complete, all I will be left with is to finish the border.

The castle looks stunning(though it might NOT be reflecting its beauty in the picture....bad photographer).

Here is a closer look at the princess.......Isn't she looking gorgeous........

Finally couple of stitches closed to completion.

Happy stitching.................. 

Cinderella - Beading work in progress

Started working on the Cinderalla project after a break of couple of weeks. Thought I will work on beading to see how it comes out. For a change, I did the beading on the castle as well and that looks so beautiful. Wow.....the more I do beading, the more awesome the project looks. Can't wait to see the finished project. Hope it will be complete in another couple of weeks. So here is the update that I have so far.....

Happy Stitching.............

A Reservation - ready to occupy its place

Finally the last 3 weeks of hectic school schedule has come to an end. Missed my house and my family so much while I was away at school.

So here is the finished piece of the reservation. Very happy to see the outcome.

Now need to restart my Cinderella project. 

Disney Vacation - Most memorable experience

Questioning myself - Did I really a week long in Disney World? 

Truly an awesome experience. As everybody says - Age is no barrier for enjoyment in Disney whether you are 1 year old or 101 years old. It is the child inside you who takes over once you are in Disney. 

Wish I can spend some more days but the reality is that we have to come back to the real life sooner or later. 

And the reality that I am tied up neck deep in my readings and my stitching projects are starring at me to get completed..........phew.......What should I do? Think think think.......... 

Happy Stitching.........

Bunny Baby - Ready to take off......

So finally I got all the stash needed for my EMC - Bunny Baby project. I liked the bunny patters from EMC so much that I might do couple of more in the future.

So here is my new take off project.......

Going to DisneyWorld for a week long vacation this weekend. Probably might carry this small kit and try to do some of the stitching while I get time.....

Oh BTW, did I ever say that, with the blog world, I gain a lot of momentum to work on my unfinished projects. And it is so nice to some of the eye pleasing pieces from the fellow bloggers.....It really is a God's gift to have such creativity and skill. So here are my applauses to all my stitching blogger friends.... :)

Happy Stitching.

Janlynn - A Reservation

Well "A Reservation" was completed last year but never got to get the framing done. Finally this piece is off to Hobby Lobby to get the final finishing. This is the first framing that I am getting done in US and to my surprise it really is quite costly here. I got a quote for 45$ for a double matting regular frame. :(

So here is the piece that went for finishing...... :)

I wondering how much will it be costing for two huge projects that I am doing - Mirabilia Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.......

I have couple of small projects that I will doing......So planning to experiment on framing with one of pieces. Here is the link from where I am planning to get the basic instructions on framing.

Happy Stitching......till next posting.......

Am I addicted to cross stitch

I am wondering whether I got(or getting) addicted to cross stitch in the recent past......Probably spending atleast 10 hrs per day working on the Cinderella. But I am happy it is moving along smooth. So here is the progress so far from my previous update.......

I hate to see some of the threads being short by couple of stitches.....Now again one of the Keirnik threads is short. Probably this time, I will finish what ever I can and order all the missing threads at once.

I hope I can finish the project before I go on with my intense 20 days assignment by mid next month.

Happy stitching...... 

Bunny Baby - new project to take off

I have ordered some missing threads for Cinderella from 123stitch.....And the delivery was pretty fast. The package has arrived yesterday. In addition I also bought Bunny baby pattern and fabric. (16 count Aida). Thanks Tracy for letting me know about this site (I was confused with abcstitch which seems little pricey)

I need to gather the required threads for this one . Probably might do some shopping in Hobby Lobby for this project. I am planning to complete this for a very special occasion for a very special person of mine. Since the pattern is no so complex when compared to Cinderalla project that I am working on, I should finish it in couple of days. Probably will starting working on it over the weekend.

Will post the Cinderella update soon....going on pretty smooth. :)

Happy stitching. 

More update

So I am really concentrating on finishing Cinderalla as fast as I can.....Here is some more update on the project. I am happy that it is going along smooth so far.....

Happy Stitching......

Further update on Cinderella

So have been stitching quite regularly on this project for the past few days. And here is the update on the project. Though the project seems dense, it is NOT that difficult to stitch since the design is simple so far on her dress. I am happy that the project is moving fast but somehow, the colors look pale to me. Hope to see a much colorful product once I have the beading and the kerneik thread work also done. 

I realized that I made a mistake while doing the border.The top left corner where I should be using the Kerneik thread, I used the DMC thread and the look is NOT that bright. So have been thinking whether should I remove the DMC thread and do it with the proper color or should I continue doing the same mistake for the rest of the three corners.

Happy stitching......

Cinderella Update

OK.....I have been bit lazy in doing any thing. And obviously my cross stitching also took a back seat. Ok I have small update of the Cinderalla project that I am doing. 

I thought I finishing the castle and the beading above the castle but unfortunatley I ran out of one of the threads. Well that is the least I want to be but I guess there is no other go. So I started off doing the border line and so far so good. :) 

Looking at the progress of the project, I felt it is going to take for ever. And I was doubting whether I am stitching fast enough. So I googled for the average number of cross stitches that an average stitcher can do and it seems the range is around 150 stitches per hour. And I was doing close to 160 stitches when there are minimal colors and when the pattern is very easy(something like straight borders). So definitely not that bad. But when I get into the complicated pattern, it is ranging only between 50 - 75 stitches per hour. 

Now cinderella project has got 271 * 246 = 66,666 stitches. So at max speed of 150 stitches, it takes close to 445 hours and at min speed of 75 stitches, it takes 890 hours. Stitching at an average of 3 hrs per day, it take any where from 5 - 10 months......Phew.....I doubt I have that much patience and persistence to do a project for that long. Especially when I do Kreinik metallic threads or the Mill hill beads my interest levels drop drastically. Though they add the real beauty to the project, I feel it hard to work with them.   

My original plan is to complete the project by Sep 2011. But now based on these calculations I strongly doubt whether I can even finish half of the project. But I am sure if the project is not completed by Sep, then I don't see an end date for completing the project.Though my expectations are very high (rocketing thru the roof) I will still target to complete the project by Sep.  

 Happy Stitching.........

Mirabilia - Cinderella - curtain raised

Well after a hectic week, I am fresh and all ready to start my second Mirabilia project - Cinderella. Today I sorted out all the required stash, ordered them and started some stitches. If I don't do little bit of cross stitching, then I am afraid I might lose interest just the beading on Sleeping Beauty. Oh...I never realized how intense it is to do beading. I guess it is NOT my favorite work (atleast for now).  Will soon post a pic of the WIP on Cinderella.....

Happy stitching......

Got a busy week ahead

Well...I started working on the beading work but realized that it is much more intense then the regular cross stitching that I was used to do. With a busy week ahead, I guess I will have to put my sleeping beauty aside for couple of days. 

Just a short update.....from stiching. Inspired by some of the tutorials on finishing the pieces, got some stash. Am eager to do some finishing on my own and will have to see how the outcome will be..... :)

Oh BTW, today I was very successful in including almost 6 different vegetables in my son's dinner. Making him eat the vegetables in his diet is a big challenge for me. Fortunately the sweet corn vegetable soup turned the magic on.....

Signing off for now.....(at least for couple of days).

Mirabilia - Sleeping Beauty

It was back in 2006 that suddenly my thoughts turned towards cross-stitching(my hidden hobby). Kudos to blogspot.com that provided a channel for fellow bloggers to share they master pieces. Some of these pieces were so beautiful that I was immediately inspired to do some cross-stiching. Bought quite a few kits(not sure of the company names) from Ebay. Two such huge projects that I bought were Mirabilia designs - Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella way back in 2006 without realizing how big the projects were nor how long it takes to complete. 

Back in June 2006, started off  working on the Sleeping Beauty. Was working on and off on this project till May 2007 or so. And then days became quite busy with my son's arrival that there is no time for my hobbies.......So here is where I left off by May 2007 on Sleeping Beauty.....

 

Below pic shows the bottom right portion of the unfinished work.

It was only in April 2011(yep exactly after 4 years) that I restarted this unfinished piece.......As I  write this post, here is the picture that is close to completed  piece. Was so excited to see the piece come this far. My first ever big piece that I have worked upon........Truely enjoyed the peice and glad the way it came out.

Unfortunately I ran out of thread for two colors.....so there is 15 min work pending on the bottom right corner near the flowers).

Will be working on beading and with that the piece should be ready to be framed. Eager to see the finished piece.......

Happy Stitching......

My cross-stitch world

Welcomes you...... :) Being a working mom for the last couple of years, life has been quite busy. Now that I have got some free time, I decided to kick start my hobby and record some of my progresses along the way. Even though I love cross-stitch, I would say, I am still an infant when compared to some of the fellow bloggers works on cross stitch. Hope this will inspire me to do some of the projects that I bought way back in 2006 but never got to work on them. I do have some completed projects that are awaiting for the final finishing. But I never did any needle-work finishing till date and am bit hesitant to try any with my completed projects as I am afraid I might ruin them. Probably will do some googling and see if I can find some tutorials that I can help me to do the finishing. That's it for now.

Will post some of the completed ones and also the one that are WIP soon...... :)