Jordan is Complete!

To celebrate my International Hermit Stitching Weekend: Jordan is finally complete!!! I spent most of today working on her, and I even ignored friends who came over because I could see the end of the beading.  I just didn't want to put her down and have to wait to finish the beads tomorrow!


So, here she is: 66 hours of stitching and over 40 additional hours of beading.  Jordan is completely lovely!

 There is some serious bling on this fairy!

I had my youngest daughter, Jordan, come into my office to see "her" fairy. She could not believe that her Jordan Fairy was finally finished! 


Once I was done, I had to take pictures and get them uploaded. I just couldn't wait. After everything was cleaned up and put away, I happily relaxed.  I could not believe the amount of tension in my shoulders trying to get her done.  Whew!

Beading - Day 2

Normally, I don't mind beading, but I have discovered that beading on a Nora Corbett piece is quite maddening. I am using invisible thread which is difficult to maintain on the needle, but the pattern calls for a lot of dragging, so I don't want colored floss.

I know, I know - no one will see the back, but I would know and it would drive me insane knowing that it looked horrible.

Whew! This is a LOT of work. I'm getting a bit faster now that I have found a rhythm, but I cannot work at night on it or my eyes hurt.

She Has Wings!

Well, Jordan now has her wings.  It took me a while to understand how to attach the Mill Hill Crystals, but once I understood, everything went well.  I wanted to make sure that the crystals were in place before outlining the wings. 

I was very apprehensive about using Kreinik having read some horror stories on various stitching groups and blogs, but the one thing that I had heard over and over again was to use a thread conditioner with Kreinik to make it more pliable.  After attempting to thread the needle, I was very glad that I had purchased some Thread Heaven.

Once I had applied the Thread Heaven, the Kreinik was far easier to manipulate and wasn't tearing across my floss.  Whew! Thank goodness.  I had received some comments on my previous post which gave suggestions, and I'm happy I used them.

So, Jordan has wings now.  My daughter Jordan is very excited to see her Fairy coming to life!  


Now, it's on to the beading!! I will have to limit myself to beading during the daylight hours in order to utilize the YLI Invisibly Thread.  I cannot stand the eye strain from using it, but there is no way I want to drag colored threads across the back of the fabric to put the beads where they are called for.

J Fairy Backstitched

I did not have much time to stitch today, but I did manage to get the Fairy, herself, backstitched. Tomorrow, I hope to get the wings and antennae backstitched, but I've never used Kreinik before - so I'm a little worried. I started with the legs:

The her upper torso and face

And then the dress

I have been so happy to stitch her!! Jordan was so happy to see her Fairy the other day that she wrote me a letter to tell me how much she loves me because of what I do for her. the letter was written in yellow crayon, so you will have to click the picture to read it.  Needless to say, I am motivated to finish (like I wasn't already, but still....)

Talk about everything being "worth it" in the end.

Last Stitch!

Wow! I put in the last full stitch today!! I have gotten to the end of Jordan Fairy & my daughter, Jordan, is ecstatic about seeing this come to life. Tomorrow, I will start the back-stitching & hopefully, I will be able to start the beading.

This is my first Mira/Nora Corbett. I am very excited and pleased with myself!

Letter J Update

I've been working slowly but steadily on Jordan Fairy. There has been some frogging that was necessary, but I've been careful to ensure everything lined up perfectly.

There has been some frogging - which has always occurred when I thought everything was going smoothly.  I was tempted to try the skin over 1, but I just didn't have it in me to do so. I am sticking with the pattern for these, and I'll try the over 1 for skin another time.


Since I kept my butt on the couch most of the day, I got a LOT done! The picture above is where I left off after last night, and here is where I left off tonight:

She has been a real pleasure for me to stitch! I am so glad that I started over on Lugana rather than sticking with the linen.  The girls keep watching where I am on Jordan knowing that the each are going to get one.  


I thought about continuing on the Fairy herself, but I wanted to make sure the J was lined up and that I have enough to measure out if the rest of the fairy is going together as she should.  


So far, so good!

Jordan Fairy Progress

I have not had as much time as I wanted for stitching this week. I made some time for myself last night, and I think everything is coming along nicely.  I decided to work on the J more than the Fairy at this point, and it is going smoothly.  


Here was what I accomplished Friday night:

And here's what I accomplished by Saturday night:

Letter J Fairy

I have (re)started the Letter J by Nora Corbett. The Jordan fairy gave me trouble last time because I was using linen. It was the recommended linen and color, but working on linen drove me insane. I hated it, and it made working on her tedious.

Finally, I posted a question on a stitching forum on facebook, and everyone agreed that if I wasn't happy stitching her to offer her to someone else, and then work on fabric I liked.

Jocelyn Mattatall took Jordan, and I happily stitched some other projects. I needed to build back up the will to stitch Jordan. Added to that is the fact I really wanted to find the perfect fabric for Jordan not only because I want this to go as an heirloom piece to my daughter, also named Jordan, but because I wanted to use the same fabric for each of the letter fairies I stitch for each of my three daughters.

After a long deliberation, I decided to go with Stephanie Bishop's Spring Breeze 28 ct Lugana.  

At this point, I'm a bit worried because the wings are blending in with the fabric color, but the portion of the J is popping out. I am thoroughly enjoying this stitching now. I'm so happy with evenweave over linen!!