About half way down

I am working on the pumpkin face, first step and have about half of it stitched.

It is a finish!

All of the interlacing is done and I attached my old thread winder.  Ready to be framed!

On to the fun stuff!

I finished all of the rest of the Smrynas!  I am now starting to fill in the wings.  I have done Jessicas in three different colors of Kreinik #8 with a few more of those to do on each wing.

Lots!

So the stem is in place, the leaf on the right is done and I have started step one of the oranges in the pumpkin!

Maltese Crosses

All of the Maltese Crosses are in place and I am doing the interlacing on each of them.

Almost there!

I am still busy doing the + sign on the Smyrna's but am almost done with them!

All the beads!

All of the face cutouts are beaded!  Whew!

The last of the patterns

I finished the last of the pattern darning rows and have started the final steps of the design.

Meandering

I am working the top cross by following the paths of the previous cross stitches.  Just meandering back and forth to cover all the white.

Right side cutouts

I am working on the cutouts on the right side.  Lots and lots of beads!

Pattern darning

I completed the hearts darning and have started the diamond pattern.

Starting the crosses

All of the cross stitches are in place and I am now going over the Smynras with the + portion in Kreinik #8 093.  The pattern says to use the thread of your choice.  This one will complement the rest of the colors I have chosen.

It is the eyes

The eyes are beaded and I am working down the nose.

Two more

The next two pattern rows are done!  I have started the next set which is going

to be a series of darning patterns.

Wings

I am adding the inside cross stitches that create the designs in the wings.

More beads

I am working on the face in the black beads.  This is going to take a while!

Two more bands

I added two more rows.  One is the rice stitch and the other is a plaited stitch.

Filling in

I am adding the cross stitches in the wings.  Remember when all the cross stitches are in place, I will be going over the top of them to change them to Smyrna crosses.

Final border and beads

I have the gold border in place and have started beading the cut outs on the face.

The next bands

I have added two more bands.  One with the Threadworx floss and the bottom one is Soie Perlee Blanc.

Around the outside

I had started to fill in the right wing and decided it might be a good idea to go all the way around the left side first.  If the wings did not meet, I wanted to be able to find any mistakes before I was too far along!  I did find one mistake and had to redo a couple of stitches, but now I can fill it in!   Note to self:  count and double count!

Background!

The black background is finished!  Hope you can see it as it is all sparkly!

Overall

I changed to white Congress cloth instead of tan that is called for.  I also switched to Threadworx floss in 1133 and Perle 81133.  The top two patterns are complete and I have started the third pattern.

Antique Thread Winder Sampler

I have also framed up Antique Thread winder Sampler by Loretta Spears.  I am changing colors on this one too so stay tuned.

Part of the wing.

I have started on Madam Butterfly.  The chart on the right shows I have worked around the outside outline, marking off each set of stitches as I go.  She recommends doing the cross stitch portion of the Smyrna cross stitch all the way around the entire chart and then coming back and doing the + over the top of the base stitches after they are all in place.  I am doing the cross stitch portion with the recommended #5 Perle Cotton.  This is some serious counting!

The chart called for black canvas but as you can see I chose to use gray instead.

Madam Butterfly

I have also put this piece on stretcher bars.  Madam Butterfly is a counted design by Jean Hilton.  I am going to work the design on a light blue canvas but keep the colors the same, at least that is the plan for now.