Luis Royo's 'Uranos Drops'. Finished 13 Oct 2014

[rcperryls]

Looks fantastic!!! Love your updates!

Carole

[richardandtracy]

Thanks for all your comments, they are appreciated and encouraging.

I'm working on charting the backstitches at the moment, now that programming is complete, and will apply them once the main cross stitches are done. Just got to make sure there are enough without being too many - and it can be a hard judgement call, though I tend to prefer too few than too many.

Regards,

Richard.

[richardandtracy]

Another 2 weeks on, and have completed pages 1 & 2 of the plan since last time, and am starting on page 4. Only pages 4 & 6 to go.

Starting to get close to the end. At the end of pages 1 & 2 had completed 8669 stitches and was 83.6% the way through.


Regards,

Richard.

[NeedleAndFork]

Looking great! You're going to be done in no time at all!

[rcperryls]

Great progress! This is looking really good!

Carole

[richardandtracy]

I've completed all the cross stitching on this image now. Just got the back stitching to do.


I ran out of DMC 642 with 2 stitches to go, so substituted one of 647 and one of 640, and I'm not even sure where the correct stitches should go anymore. It appears parking, the way I did it, requires about 12% more thread than my charting program estimated. It may be worthwhile adding in a tickbox to indicate how the stitching is to be done and get a closer estimate as a result.

Now onto the back stitches. It's very hard to know when to stop tracing the main features of the high res image. The charting program I wrote allows you to see the back stitches overlaid on the chart image to get an idea of what they look like before you do them:

Hopefully it's not too much. Or too little.

Regards,

Richard.
Edited to remove photobucket images I can't replace

[Rose]

Nice work!!!!

[rcperryls]

for completing the cross stitch part. Looks great! I think that you will be able to tell once you start the back stitch if some of it isn't really needed and if parts of the chart that don't have the bs overlay need it. Going to look amazing with the bs though.

Carole

[karen4bells]

Congrats!!! It looks amazing!!

[richardandtracy]

Must admit, this took quite a bit longer than I expected. I was rather thinking I'd be finished by the end of August, maybe early September, but learning to do parking, the complexity of the colours, change of material from Aida, smaller stitch size (16 count) etc has all had an effect on the speed. Picture size 7.5" x 18.7" high (19 x 47.5 cm), 10394 stitches, 105 days, 98.99 stitches per day average, with maybe 50 stitches an hour average.
So, the original Luis Royo image:

The finished picture (I'm not a terribly good photographer & the weather this morning was foul, so the lighting wasn't great in our conservatory and I got a bit of flashback through the fabric from the glass by the figure's head):

The back stitch in the last week has been a problem, as I had to unpick the figure's nose and right arm outline. The nose and arm were originally too dark (DMC 938) and the nose in particular made her face look like that of a cat. Not that I have anything against cats... It's just that she isn't one.

The metallic (red, silver, magenta and blue) don't really show up in the photo. The red & magenta metallic are on her hair band jewel, arm & thigh jewels. The silver metallic thread is on the legging jewels, hair band outline, her tummy button chain and central sword handle grip. The blue metallic thread highlights the blue jewel dangling from her tummy button.

I don't think it needs an outline, or further outlining at the top of her waistband - but would appreciate comments if you think it needs more backstitching.

Phew... Feel quite please with it, but it has been a slog & I have learnt a huge amount. Would never have attempted something this complex without the inspiration from this forum - Thank you all.

Regards,

Richard.

[rcperryls]

Congratulations on an absolutely stunning piece of stitching!!!! It looks great to me and I wouldn't change or add a thing. I think you should be very proud of how beautiful it is, especially with how many new things you took on from the parking to the fabric.
The forum does have a way of pushing, I mean encouraging, us into trying new things. Well done!

Carole

[Allyn]

I really like the way this came out. You did a fantastic job.

[Rose]

Your work is beautiful!!!!! Well done!!!!!

[tiffstitch]

Outstanding finish! And I'm impressed with how you can keep track of your stitching. I never seem to manage that.

I don't think it needs an outline, or further outlining at the top of her waistband - but would appreciate comments if you think it needs more backstitching.

Do you think you'd want to add a few lines of backstitch to her hair/headpiece? It seems slightly faded to me compared to her front leg and the detailed backstitch there. However, it is excellent as is.

[richardandtracy]

Thank you all for your kind comments.

Tiffstitch:
Not sure about this. I think the browns in the cross stitch show the hair fairly well, but I'll think on it. The top knot tie is quite well defined in reality, but can't be seen well in the photo.

Regards,

Richard

[Nicola McKay]

Gorgeous finish. She is beautiful

[richardandtracy]

Gorgeous finish. She is beautiful

Thank you, very kind. Must admit I did think she was pretty spectacular when I saw the original image, and think much of that has got through to the final stitched picture.

Regards,

Richard.

[NeedleAndFork]

That's some good looking stitching there!!! I do agree with adding a little bit of backstitching to the hair.. mainly because by adding it to the front leg, it makes it pop more.. so the head fades backwards. Even a small amount of backstitch will balance it out and bring the face into focus again.

[richardandtracy]

Two people think it needs extra back stitching. Hmm. You have me wavering now.

I'll try some out in my charting program first. Fortunately I've not removed it from the rollers even though I've hand washed the picture (it's easier to dry it under tension to pull out creases when still stitched to the rollers).

Regards,

Richard.

[richardandtracy]

You could well be right. I have mocked it up, and shown below:
vs

Tiffstitch & NeedleandFork: You're right, it does look better with the hair done.

Regards,

Richard.