The Celtic Cross Counted Cross Stitch - Part 10

*trumpets*

It's done! The stitching is done!

By the end of April 25, no less. 

I'm not *technically* done. Beyond ironing it flat, I also need to stitch it to horizontal poles to finish it. 

Still, the stitching is done!

The Celtic Cross Counted Cross Stitch - Part 9

The outline was completely done by Wednesday. The only thing left to do is the inner decoration.

Sadly, I do prefer working the outline to working the inner part. It's easier to do. Luckily the inner decoration doesn't take long nor does it use much thread. I'm almost out of thread.

The Celtic Cross Counted Cross Stitch - Part 8

One week left to go...

The Celtic Cross Counted Cross Stitch - Part 7

Some of the stitches are loose and I can't fix it easily. They don't look bad but it still annoys me. They also aren't that noticeable so I'm going to leave them alone unless they start coming out.

The Celtic Cross Counted Cross Stitch - Part 6

It's slow going with two weeks left...

The progress looks more impressive than it is.

I figure if I can finish both arms, the center part, and some of the top by Friday, then I'm in good shape.

The Celtic Cross Counted Cross Stitch - Part 5

After nearly six months, I'm back to work on this project.

This is what it looked like last October:

The left arm was over by one to the right and I didn't know where the mistake was. My near panic attack made me put the cross stitch down for six months.

But now I'm back! I found the mistake, removed most of the left arm and restitched everything.

I'll put the end date as... April 25? Two and a half weeks seems reasonable.

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Master Post

The Cypher Cross Stitch Master Post

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 1 - March 1, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 2 - March 2, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 3 - March 4, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 4 - March 10, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 5 - March 11, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 6 - March 12, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 7 - March 15, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 8 - March 17, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 9 - March 20, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 10 - March 24, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch Part 11 - March 26, 2014

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 11

Hark upon the gale, y'all.

This project was finished last night on Tuesday March 25, 2014, one day ahead of schedule. Of course, I originally thought I would finish this by March 8 - over two and a half weeks ago!

I still need to iron and frame it but that's not going to happen until May. As far as I'm concerned, the cross stitch is finished.

I'm taking the rest of the month off before restarting on the Celtic Cross Stitch.

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 10

~William and Mary, loved of old~

As of Saturday March 23, 'William' is finished! That leaves only the royal crown to complete before Wednesday. I got this.

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 9

"William" is half done and I'm over 3/4 finished.

Those top loops are difficult.

I hope to have the rest of the 'W' done by Sunday. 

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 8

BOOYAH. 'Mary" is complete as of 11:55 Sunday night. I made my deadline with minutes to spare.

Look how nice and symmetrical that is. It actually looks like the cypher.

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 7

Definite progress: the left side of "Mary" is done.

By Friday morning it looked like this:

And later that afternoon:

My goal is to have the right side of the "M" done by Sunday evening. 

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 6

Halfway there! I am conveniently ignoring the crown at the top until suddenly I can't.

It's starting to look like the actual cypher! This only took about a week and a half. Maybe? My new deadline is March 26th. That shouldn't be so hard, right? Right?

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 5

Almost half way done - I think there's only an hour and a half left to do on the bottom half.

I'm not sure why it looks crooked, even though the dimensions are correct. It's not just the frame.

I need to take better pictures - these shadows are annoying.

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 4

The first thing is that this is not 2/3's done. Obviously. My time estimates for cross stitching are never what I think they are. 

The left bottom loop took about an hour, for reference.

The funny part about this progress was that I noticed a minor mistake in the bottom ribbon and as I was thinking about how to fix it, I made another minor mistake. Why is this my life?

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 3

Small mistakes are indicators of larger problems.

I found out why I needed to add one stitch to the end of four rows a few days ago - the entire left side was right-shifted by one stitch. I was five hours past that mistake when I realized it but only one hour into the project when I did it, so what side should I undo?

It took two hours to pull out those stitches and another hour and a half to redo them.

That greenish color on the left? All gone

Then I had to put the stitches back in. The pattern has shifted to the right by one square but as long as the rows are correct, that doesn't matter.

1/4 done, two days later. I'm shooting for 2/3 completion by the end of the week, hopefully without any more major mistakes. It's better to take care of bugs early before they become a huge problem.

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 2

I worked for about two and half hours on this on Saturday and I'm not making as much progress as I would like. I think I can work faster than I truly can.

It didn't help that two hours in, I discovered four of the longer rows were off count by one stitch. I had a mini-heart attack until I discovered that I could add the missing stitch onto the end of four rows instead of undoing it all. Doing it a second time would have been worse than the first time. 

The Cypher Cross Stitch - Part 1

I know, I know. It's been five months since I last worked on the Celtic Cross and I'm starting a new project? Did I even finish anything last year? Well, no.

I keep meaning to work on the Celtic Cross but when I look at it at school, I say "Nope!" and when I bring it home on breaks, I always forget the pattern.

I have the pattern for this and the break to do it. I have until May to finish this, the Cross, and a prayer shawl. I'm hoping this gets me back into cross stitching.

My goal is to have this piece done by the time I go back to class.

The Celtic Cross Counted Cross Stitch: Missteps in Stitching

I'm not going to make my October 15 deadline because a) it's midterms week and everything is due and b) I messed up on a section and I don't know why.

That column is one space to the right of where it should be. I'm not quite sure where I missed up and I need a seam ripper to pull out what's already there.

A seam ripper I won't have for another two days. 

Looks like that deadline is moving to the end of October.

The Celtic Cross Counted Cross Stitch - Part 4

I said I would do it and I did: the base of the cross is done!

What I love most about this project is the visual progress. Even 15 minutes' work shows a new swirl or part of a ribbon. Every time I put down my needle, I'm proud of the work that I've done.

It's been time well spent.

My new goal is to have the rest done by October 15. With good time management skills, this should be completed on time.