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Beautiful already, so dramatic I remember all the way back when you'd just got the pattern for this, so it's great to see it appearing now. The coverage looks fine too, very vibrant colours.

Don't know how you are managing it though, as 18ct on black nearly killed me and involved endless frogging!

Louise

I remember thinking this pattern would be a masterpiece when finished.
Tiny detail on black.
It will look amazing and I'm glad I got to do my part.

Lovely progress, it looks so great on the black.

Oh wow, another gorgeous dragon design. Looks like a great start there.

Thanks, everyone - especially Mr XStitch!

Here is the flame completed (for this page, anyway). There is more above the cut-off for this page, mostly inside the dragon's mouth, and it's pretty much all the same shade, which is good, cos there was quite a lot of confetti in this part!



Sorry the pic is a bit out of focus - but, can you see the funny face in it? I'm going to alter the stitching on the inner edge of that 'smile': there are some free squares there I can fill with lighter thread to diminish the smiley mouth effect. I didn't notice it until I was photographing it, or I'd have done it already!

looks fantastic!! I do see what you mean about the smile and I think I'd do the same as what you are planning!! Great stitching!

He's looking great! I'd go nuts stitching that much on black!!

Looks really great!!

Thanks everyone! Actually, it's not as bad as bad as you'd think, stitching on black 24ct. I have my magnifier lamp (couldn't do without it!) and a white cloth on my lap with a separate lamp shining on it so I can see the tiny holes fairly clearly, and I only stitch this in daylight - usually, that is. Yesterday I stitched into the evening to get the flame finished - so my evening stitch 14ct Janlynn Elephant (which I can do while watching tv) didn't get a look in.

I'm starting to have second thoughts about stitching 1/1 on the dragon, though. The colours don't seem strong enough to me - the black that shows through the stitches dulls the colours. What do you think?
I don't intend frogging the flame, though. I might go over it - maybe! - with an added half cross, after I finish the dragon, but I'm considering doing the actual dragon 2/1.
Any thoughts?

That would bother me seeing the black coming through. In that case I would go 2/1 like you were thinking of doing. Good luck with it!

I personally always cant wait to begin stitching!!! It seems as though it takes forever to get everything organized and set up to begin stitching!

I guess I'm just not imaginative enough because I have no idea where this smiley face is...
Faith

Here we go...




Smile still showing, but hopefully not so obvious...

Aaaaaaaaanywayyyyy... I have started lower jaw and nose. You may not be able to see 'em, but there are teeth in the lower jaw. And the indentations in the upper edge of the mouth flame are the points of teeth. I can see I will have to do some backstitching to get 'em to show up, which isn't indicated in the design. But I expect I will manage, I have the picture to work from... I suspect there will be quite a lot of detail I will have to backstitch... sigh... I was hoping this would work like a HAED, but no such luck!

rattykate wrote:I personally always cant wait to begin stitching!!! It seems as though it takes forever to get everything organized and set up to begin stitching!

I agree! Once you have the pattern, you have to wait until you can afford the fabric, then another wait until you can afford to buy the thread... then the sorting and ordering of thread with symbol, and then - bobbins, stitchbows or little bags... ???

It's coming along great!!

Looking very nice! the flame does look much better now--can't see that smile much at all.

I see no smile but I do see lots of beautiful work!!!!!

Wow, this is looking amazing already! Can't wait for the next photo now!