Seven Fractal - FINISHED!

Seven Fractal by Brown Moon Designs is finally finished!  This project has been in the works, off & on, for nearly 3 years. It was very tedious to work on.  I love it though!

Now I have to figure out what to do with it!!  Maybe a pillow?  

Seven Fractal, Progress #8

I'm pretty sure I can finish this next year!  Here is progress to date.  There are 4 more charts, but 2 of them are small.  It is nearly 3/4 done.  I don't think there's much of the blue stuff left so it will go a little faster.  She said hopefully!!

Seven Fractal, Progress #7

It's been awhile since I posted about this.  I work on it regularly, but not frequently.  Does that make sense?
I can only work on this if no one is around and the TV even has to be OFF.  Any tiny distraction and I make mistakes!  

Anyway, here is progress to date.  I have completed 1/4 of the bottom half.  I had hoped to finish it this year, but that's not going to happen!  Pretty sure I can finish it before the end of next year though (she said hopefully).

Seven Fractal, Progress #6

Finally, made it all the way across!  Eight pages finished, 8 to go, but the next 8 are smaller; this piece is a little more than half finished now.  (The center shows near the bottom.)  The bottom is similar to the top, so there is more of the yellow parts and they go quicker than the blue ones.  Still, I doubt it will get finished this year.

PS. I changed the header photo here on blog.  This is what I see out the breakfast nook window, the Spring/Summer version!  There is often a water skier on the lake. It's hard to get going in the morning and not just sit there and watch the birds and the skiers all day!

Seven Fractal, Progress #5

I have worked on this some lately.  I enjoy working on it, but it is large and a bit awkward.  I started this over a year ago, and thought it would take me a year.  Oops.
Well, two years maybe?  We'll see.  I think there are more "easy" areas coming up, which go faster.  When it changes color every stitch (like the blue areas), it is SLOW going.

Seven Fractal, Progress #4

Finally!  I'm all the way across the top of this huge, demanding project!  With the bit more on the left side, that puts it almost 1/3 done.  I had hoped to do this in one year, but I don't think that's going to happen!
Of course, it's not my only project LOL!

Seven Fractal, Progress #3

I made quite a bit of progress on the fractal last month.  Not as much as I'd hoped, but acceptable.  I had hoped to complete another page, but didn't quite make it.  This project is very tedious to stitch, especially the blue parts.  There are 4 shades of blue!

Seven Fractal, Progress #2

I have made considerable progress on this fractal.  I have now completed one page, and about half of the next.  I hope to finish that 2nd page this coming weekend.  I am wishing I had used a lighter brown around the edge.  But, there's NO WAY I'm going to take that out!  Lots of the yellow & gold threads are now on top of the brown, on the back.  As it is, I changed it from black to very dark brown.  I'm quite pleased with the way the blue stuff is turning out.  I am using Kreinik's Japan Gold (in place of the gold floss) within the blue areas.

Seven Fractal

You may be wondering what I'm working on besides all the tiny things I've shown you so far this year.  
Seven Fractal by Brownmoondesigns is one of them.  This design is by Stephen Mooney and has been in my To Do pile for at least 10 years!  I can no longer find this online, so I assume Mooney is no longer doing needlepoint designs.  

When I bought the pattern, I rushed right out and bought all the thread, made working copies of the charts and taped them altogether into one huge chart.  And there it sat!

When I finished Walking the Water's Edge, I decided to finally do this gorgeous fractal!
Well, since it has a color change about every other stitch (yikes!) I decided I would not start in the center (as recommended), but would start in the upper right corner, which is my basketweaving norm.  That didn't work out real well since this design is on 18x18 stretcher bars.  Much too large to reach the upper corner.  As you can see by the pic below, I didn't get very far with that.  
So then I had to figure out what to do!  I finally decided to start at the middle, but on the left side.  I am working the top section, but upside down and that puts it on my rignt.  I know, too complicated, but it's working for me.  Oh, and by the way, I am no longer working form the huge taped together charts!  That turned out to be too big to deal with also!  There are 16 pages of charts, but they are not all full pages.  I am getting close to finishing one page.

I am using the recommended colors, in DMC floss & pearl cotton.  I have changed one of the yellows to a Kreinik gold to give it a little sparkle.  I haven't used much of the Kreinik yet and it doesn't show up well in the photo anyway.  

I have made good progress, but it is tedious work and I can only work on it a couple of times, although long sessions, without needing to work on something simpler.  Hence the many tiny things!

I will post progress pix occasionally, but not often as visible progress is slow.

Fractal Finished

The fractal is finished!  I've been working on this off & on for a couple of years.  I adapted this design from a cross stitch pattern by Cross Stitch Collectibles.  I think it was a freebie, but I don't remember for sure :-)
I cut the colors from 79 to 46 by eliminating colors that were nearly indistinguishable from one another and by substituting an overdye for a bunch of the rust shades.  I also perked it up with a bunch of metallics.
I chopped this off at the bottom making it 8.5" long instead of 11".  The bottom 3" just looked kind of messy to me and I like it the way it turned out.
Now to get it framed!


Fractal Progress #4

I've made quite a bit of progress on the Fractal since the last time I posted!  Last night I completed another block of 10 rows all the way across.  It takes me 2 or 3 stitching sessions to do one of those blocks. 
I'm really pleased with the way this is turning out.  There are specks of metallic throughout, but they don't show up much in the photo.

Fractal Progress #3

I know it has been quite awhile (several months) since I showed you any progress on my fractal.  I haven't worked on it much until just recently, but it is now moved closer to the top of my WIPs pile and I've been stitching on it once in awhile.

I find that I can't work on it all the time as it is very intense keeping track of all these colors and "where am I?" !!  But I do enjoy working on it and it will get some more attention this week.

Happy Valentine's Day by the way!!

Fractal Progress #2

I've actually made more progress than I thought on my crazy Fractal project!  I've changed my attack some, trying to complete more or less 10 rows across before moving down.  It isn't exactly 10, but close enough.  This seems to give me better control over the counting and progress at least appears to be more rapid.  It's beginning to look kinda cool!

Fractal Progress #1

 Some of you may remember last summer when I "re-charted" this design (the pic on the right is the re-chart).  By doing so, I reduced the number of colors from 79 to 46, partly by eliminating colors that were practically identical and also by substituting an overdye for several colors.  I also added some metallics.  I spent a couple of weeks doing this and while I enjoyed the process, I doubt that I will ever do that again!

I finally started stitching it a couple of months ago.  I haven't posted about it before because it just takes forever to get anywhere!   Anyway, here is my progress so far:
Doesn't look like much does it?

I am stitching it on brown 18-count canvas with DMC floss (4-strands), one Threadworx overdyed floss, and Kreinik #12 metallics.  As slow going as it is with 46 colors, I can't even imagine what it would be like at 79.  I do enjoy the process though.  I wonder if I'll ever finish it?  I won't post about it often for obvious reasons!

Fractal 276 Bookmark

Now that I have finished several WIPs, I get to start new stuff!  Always so much fun!

First up is Fractal 276 Bookmark.  Sorry, that's what it is called.  I think this was one of the daily freebies from Cross Stitch Collectibles that I downloaded last summer.  I thought I would do it on 18-count canvas, in needlepoint.  It will be a little big for a bookmark, but a reasonable size for an experiment!  Finished size on 18 will be about 4.25" x 11".  These pictures show the original pattern.

Well it was designed with 79 colors of floss.  I decided it would be "fun" to try to cut this down.  The chart was only in symbols, no color.  So, being crazy, I copied it, one square at a time, into my charting program.  This took a couple of weeks.  Then I pulled all 79 colors of floss.  The charting program tells me how many stitches there are of each color.  So my first task was to delete any color with less than 20 stitches.  Right away that cuts it down quite a bit.  I would pull the to-be-deleted-color, find another color in the pattern that was almost the same and substitute.  Next I matched up colors that, when stitched, would show little, if any, difference, like black & dark navy.  I kept on like this till I was down to about 50 colors.  Then by using an overdye to substitute for several colors in the background, I ended up with a total of 46 colors.  The picture below is my revised chart.

Now I get to stitch this baby!  I am going to substitue #12 Kreinik Braid for quite a few of the colors in the light swirly part, I think.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm not sure how I will tackle this, I guess I'll just start in the upper right corner & go.  I'll keep you posted!

Sunset Sampler

Oops! Forgot to post yesterday. Well, this is Sunset Sampler which is a design I adapted from a fractal by Kerry Mitchell. I charted out all of the basic shapes, squares & rectangles, and then picked out colors and stitches as I stitched the piece. I used a lot of different stitches and threads. This piece won 3rd place at the ANG Seminar in Tucson, 2006, in the Professional Adaptation category. I had contacted Mr. Mitchell to get his permission to photograph the piece (it looks a lot like the original fractal) and not only did he give his permission, but he lives in Phoenix and drove to Tucson to see the exhibit! I had a drink with him and his girl friend. How cool is that!!!!

Fractal Diamonds

Fractal Diamonds is a piece I designed to go on a jewelry box. I have had this Sudberry House box for at least 20 years and never got around to stitching a top for it. I needed a jewelry box in the Vegas house. The design is based on a fractal I found on the internet called "Warped Tiles" by Dennis Magar.
I used a variety of Watercolors and Kreinik, all leftovers from other projects, except the offwhite for the background and border which I had to buy more of. The diamond shapes are Diamond Rhodes Stitches and small Diamond Leviathans, with a few Scotch variations in the center (I know there is a name for this, but I can't find it!). Then I used small Waffles for the border. It was fun to stitch as I kind of made it up as I went along, just looking at Magar's fractal from time to time. It makes a nice addition to our Master Bedroom.