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Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!

5304 views 16 replies Latest reply: March 31, 2020 at 8:08:19 PM

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Mar 14, 2020
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EwokLover message #1
Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 22, 2020 at 7:32:30 PM

I have been working on this for quite a while, but I really love this pattern and it is exciting to stitch. There are a lot of blends, which produce a very clean and smooth transition. My stitching on the hat is very lumpy, probably because this was one of my first projects. The finished design will be an Owl in a potion bottle with steam coming out of the top. The steam is all half cross stitching outlined in backstitching, but I find the half cross stitches hard to count, especially the ones in white. It is hard to see, but I have already started the white half cross stitches to the left. There will be more in other colors, which I hope will be easier to count. I started this on Halloween 2019, but I have not made a lot of progress for six moths as I tend to work on multiple projects at a time, a bad habit that I need to stop doing! I bought it from MilanaLoveStitch on Etsy. Anyway, this is a Work In Progress that I am very proud of, so I would like to show here.

Secoya
Star Wars and 60's music superfan, proud resident of San Francisco's West Of Twin Peaks district.

Look at that smile! (Photo guaranteed unretouched)

Member since:
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Posts: 4584

Stitchboard Admin message #2
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 23, 2020 at 11:11:16 AM (in response to EwokLover message #1)

Secoya,

It looks like we have similar tastes...I like this piece so far!

Your stitching on the hat doesn't look at all lumpy to me.

Ouch, white on white is as hard to see as working on dark cloth!

LOL, this is what I always do...I work on many projects at once. If I get bored, I put one down and pick up the other. Anyway, whatever your process is, there's nothing wrong with it.

Find what works for you and stick with it! If that means working on several projects at one time, there's nothing wrong with that!

Melanie (cat slave and Official Feline Can Opener) =^.^=
~~~~~
I'm a beading, knitting and crochet addict. If that means I'm admitting I have a problem, then I admit to nothing. Please refrain from helping me.

Member since:
Mar 14, 2020
Posts: 62

EwokLover message #3
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 23, 2020 at 1:09:19 PM (in response to Stitchboard Admin message #2)

Thanks you! It is hard to the lumpiness from far away, thank goodness. You can only see it when you look really close. Yes, white on white is VERY hard, especially because I have lots of trouble with half-cross stitches because they are hard to count, so white on white ones are almost as impossible as trying to get my dog to stop stealing food! Wink

And yes, I do get bored with projects, but currently I have five and I am not making much progress on any of them! I would like to have two at a time: one big one and one small one to work on when I get bored of the big one. Thank you for your kind words!

Secoya
Star Wars and 60's music superfan, proud resident of San Francisco's West Of Twin Peaks district.

Look at that smile! (Photo guaranteed unretouched)

Member since:
Jul 1, 2009
Posts: 4584

Stitchboard Admin message #4
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 24, 2020 at 5:53:55 AM (in response to EwokLover message #3)

Secoya,

You're so welcome!

If you can't see it except very close, I really wouldn't worry about it. Anyone who looks that close is rude! (As is anyone who flips your work over to see how neat the back is. I've had that happen...it was mean!) Anyway, when someone looks at it, they're going to see the overall picture. They're going to see the overall effect of the piece.

They won't care that an area is lumpy up close or a stitch is a bit wonky or whatever...LOL, they won't even see it!

White on white cross stitch, embroidery, anything like that is great if your eyesight is perfect...not so good if it's not. A strong light can help, but it certainly can't make it stand out like a dark color on white stands out.

I feel your pain!

I bet your dog is adorable stealing food!

Two projects is a good goal, maybe put a few on indefinitely hold as if they don't exist at all until you finish two that you choose as your goal pieces?

Member since:
Mar 14, 2020
Posts: 62

EwokLover message #5
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 24, 2020 at 12:47:05 PM (in response to Stitchboard Admin message #4)

Good ideas, thank you. My dog is very cute stealing food, until you have to clean up a huge mess! I have good eyesight but I still find it hard! I am doing the "2 active projects, 100 that can wait" idea. It does work! That is awful about someone flipping over your work. Actually, my grandma did and she said "here you can see all of the hard work that goes into it." That made me feel good. A lot of the time I worry about keeping the back neat, even though no one will really see it!

Secoya
Star Wars and 60's music superfan, proud resident of San Francisco's West Of Twin Peaks district.

Look at that smile! (Photo guaranteed unretouched)

Member since:
Jul 1, 2009
Posts: 4584

Stitchboard Admin message #6
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 25, 2020 at 7:53:24 AM (in response to EwokLover message #5)

Secoya,

Oh, yes, I'm familiar with the cleaning up the mess part! Except with a cat. Who knew that someone who weighs less than 20 pounds could make such big messes!

But she's my child and my love, so I'll deal with the messes.

I love that...2 active projects, 100 that can wait!

Awww, I love what your grandma said!

The person who flipped over my work was FAR less than charitable and made a snide comment about all of the ends.

After that, I became terribly obsessed with making the back look as good as the front. It really killed a lot of the joy of stitching that way.

It's why I do more beadweaving (though to be fair, I like something I can wear instead of just putting it up on a wall) than cross stitching...that rude woman can't ruin the joy for me, since she knows nothing about beadweaving! (Not that she's in my life, thank goodness. But I still think of her when I pick up cross stitch.)

That's the thing, right...nobody will really see the back! To get so persnickety that it has to look good on the back...who cares? I've seen celebrated prolific cross stitchers on TV who have said the back of their work looks terrible! If it's good enough for them, why should anyone else be obligated to stick to making it perfect?

Member since:
Mar 14, 2020
Posts: 62

EwokLover message #7
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 25, 2020 at 12:16:03 PM (in response to Stitchboard Admin message #6)

Thank you. I agree: cross-stitching is supposed to make you happy. No one can ruin that. I have tried to stop worrying about the back, and I am better than a few weeks ago about it.

Secoya
Star Wars and 60's music superfan, proud resident of San Francisco's West Of Twin Peaks district.

Look at that smile! (Photo guaranteed unretouched)

Member since:
Jul 1, 2009
Posts: 4584

Stitchboard Admin message #8
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 26, 2020 at 7:22:40 AM (in response to EwokLover message #7)

Secoya,

Glad to hear you've persevered and succeeded where I failed.

I absolutely wouldn't worry about the back. It gave me no pleasure at all to worry about what to do with my ends, how to start something perfectly and how well the back looked overall.

This reminds me of a woman I met many years ago at a cross stitch store. We were discussing using a laying tool to make stitches. If you've never heard of that...DO NOT THINK ABOUT IT! LOL. A laying tool is completely unnecessary. It is there for perfectionists who feel they have to have each stitch laying perfectly untwisted; if you're using two strands, for instance, a laying tool will place them side by side. (And though the type that goes on your finger is a wicked cool looking tool, with my luck I'd poke my eye out, so no, no, I will not even TOUCH one.) Meaning you take extra time to form EVERY bloody stitch so every strand is side by side. Um, no. No, no, a million times no.

And if you're familiar with the trick to start a double strand with no ends, the woman who used a laying tool for all of her cross stitch wouldn't entertain the thought of using this shortcut...and why?

Because the fibers would be "facing" in opposite directions on each perfectly laid out side by side cross stitch.

Not only did she do the top stitches that way...she did the same for the bottom stitches. Of course the bottom stitches would stick out like a sore thumb if only the top stitches were made with a laying tool.

Even I do not need to be that persnickety.

I'm still cringing.

Member since:
Mar 14, 2020
Posts: 62

EwokLover message #9
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 26, 2020 at 2:00:13 PM (in response to Stitchboard Admin message #8)

Oh my gosh! That is crazy! It must take forever! I would go insane. I use the loop method sometimes, I think it is very handy. Sometimes, with uneven stitches, I use the needle to rearrange them and make them less lumpy, but only when it is neccessary. I doubt I could tell the difference between a piece with the tool and without. No one looks close enough to be able to tell that the fibers are not "facing" in the same direction. Best of luck with those loose ends.

Secoya
Star Wars and 60's music superfan, proud resident of San Francisco's West Of Twin Peaks district.

Look at that smile! (Photo guaranteed unretouched)

Member since:
Jul 1, 2009
Posts: 4584

Stitchboard Admin message #10
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 27, 2020 at 7:46:02 AM (in response to EwokLover message #9)

Secoya,

It IS crazy!

I did some work once that required a laying tool (I used something I had hanging around, an embossing tool or something), but it wasn't a cross stitch project (some kind of embroidery) and it wasn't a major deal. That way, it looked nice. But I really didn't care in which direction the fibers faced

, eyeroll, so even when I used the loop method or just stripped the floss and put it together with another piece I didn't care which way the fibers were facing. That is just TOO nuts for me.

And you're right. When I think about things that (to me) have had glaring errors, I have to remember nobody else was ever going to see them. And with this, who would be insane enough to take a jeweler's loupe out of their bag and start examining the fibers closely?

Even when I made a store kit for a demo and stitched over 5 instead of over 4, not even the store noticed the mistake. And to me, that was far more glaring than fiber facing the "wrong" way.

There are just some things that in art are way too extreme. Even for making a one of a kind art piece, I can't imagine being that interested in details, every ply of floss has to have the fibers facing exactly the same way and laying side by side, as well!

Isn't art supposed to help one to keep one's sanity in insane circumstances, not help them to lose their mind? LOL.

Member since:
Mar 14, 2020
Posts: 62

EwokLover message #11
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 27, 2020 at 1:41:05 PM (in response to Stitchboard Admin message #10)

I agree.

Everyone who sees my early works is just so amazed by them that they have no idea that the stitches are not facing in the same direction! People who do not do a certain type of art do not know how it works and are amazed by it, and therefore do not really notice the mistakes, even huge ones. I agree that art should keep you sane (as it does for me) than make you go insane (as it did for my brother.).

Secoya
Star Wars and 60's music superfan, proud resident of San Francisco's West Of Twin Peaks district.

Look at that smile! (Photo guaranteed unretouched)

Member since:
Jul 1, 2009
Posts: 4584

Stitchboard Admin message #12
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 28, 2020 at 8:10:52 AM (in response to EwokLover message #11)

Secoya,

Exactly!

Really, all anyone is seeing when they look at your work is a gorgeous work of art.

And I'm sure an expert would overlook the same things as inexperienced stitchers do.

Nobody looks at a piece trying to find the errors. They want to see the finished art!

Oh, no, working on art messed with your poor brother?

It keeps me sane, for sure, so why mess with that good formula?

Member since:
Mar 14, 2020
Posts: 62

EwokLover message #13
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 28, 2020 at 2:42:42 PM (in response to Stitchboard Admin message #12)

Thank you. Everyone is creative in their own way... except when it comes to my brother. He can sort of knit and crochet, but you can tell he does not exactly enjoy it, poor thing. Art, even when done the wrong way, is beautiful and special.

Secoya
Star Wars and 60's music superfan, proud resident of San Francisco's West Of Twin Peaks district.

Look at that smile! (Photo guaranteed unretouched)

Member since:
Jul 1, 2009
Posts: 4584

Stitchboard Admin message #14
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 29, 2020 at 6:18:48 AM (in response to EwokLover message #13)

Secoya,

You're so right, art is beautiful and special...and as I always say, who's to say what's wrong? There are people who have discovered amazing techniques that never would have been discovered...had they not been completely wrong! LOL, it's a different way to think outside the box, right?

I'm sorry your brother doesn't enjoy knitting or crochet. Maybe he needs to find something else that he really, really likes? I know there are crafts that completely turn me off...and there's nothing wrong with them, I am just not talented in those areas and don't enjoy them. It would be no less than torture to me to go back to them instead of the things I love.

I would say to encourage him to try other things. Had I not been, well, sort of bullied about my cross stitch by that mean woman who turned my work over, I might not have found beadweaving...ack!

Your brother might enjoy sewing more...or lacemaking...beadweaving...spinning...needlepoint...thankfully, the list is endless!

Member since:
Mar 14, 2020
Posts: 62

EwokLover message #15
Re: Vigilant Potion by MilanaLoveStitch: I love how it looks so far!
March 29, 2020 at 12:07:55 PM (in response to Stitchboard Admin message #14)

I completely agree. One day he will fiind something that makes him happy. Thankfully, the list is endless!

Secoya
Star Wars and 60's music superfan, proud resident of San Francisco's West Of Twin Peaks district.

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