This summer I finished another cross-stitch. Like the last one I posted about, this is also a Mirabilia Designs cross-stitch (from a pattern released in 2006), and is called The Stargazer. As you will see, it’s not a particularly colorful design (so many different blues!). But, I’m a sucker for star-themed images to start with, and I feel like this design has such an elegant balance, I just couldn’t resist it.

One thing I love about cross-stitches is how the image builds up one layer–one color–at a time. (When possible, I like to entirely complete one color before moving on to the next one, so I can check them off as I go and feel accomplished!) And the planning out of which color to do next, both to keep myself engaged, and for maximum efficiency, is one of the things I find fun about the process.

So, this time around I took a bunch of pictures as I went so that you can see the process, too. But, if that is not your cup of tea and you just want to see how it turned out, here’s the link to the finished-product.

I did get several colors in before I thought to start taking pictures. The first one is below. Couple points of note first:

• 1) I like to divide the pattern colors up into groups and then cycle through each group. The groups are usually by like colors and/or by like sections of the image, so this method means I get to change type of color more frequently and also all parts of the image sort of come into being at the same-ish rate.
• 2) I usually start with a color that appears across a lot of the pattern, has a wide extent, and appears at least a little bit near the center of the image. This lets me center the image and then do a lot of counting at the beginning for the pay-off of not needing to count as much or as far as I proceed on with later and later colors.
• 3) But this pattern didn’t have a color that met those criteria very well, and so, as you see, I instead started with just all of the colors that make up the coat before moving on to the rest.

In this first image below, therefore, I’ve already completed all of the coat colors (four, I think), and then have done at least one color each from all of the remaining groups, which I believe sorted into: hair (or near-hair), skin, front-of-dress, ruffles, and ribbons (also shadows). (The full set isn’t entirely balanced here, because the groups don’t conveniently sort into exactly the same number of colors each.)

Even with just that little bit, you already get a good sense of the balance of the image. But it’s amazing what one more round of colors will do (see next).

(Aside, please excuse how very rumpled most of these photos are. I am not patient enough to iron the canvass every time I want to take a picture of it, and while I’m working on it it is pretty much a rumpled mess. …And the arcs are hoop marks. I use an eight-inch hoop.)

Anyway, now the hair and ribbons are kinda-sorta visible, and the star has been started!

The next image has just one new color added, in the skirt ruffles. But that rich blue was so satisfying to add. The Mirabilia Designs cross-stitches tend to have a lot of rippling color gradients, and it’s so lovely to see the colors layering next to each other and making the whole thing work better and better.

(I tend to find cross-stiching very soothing, both in the tactile sewing aspect, and in the tactile-visual layering in of color.)

Onward, the next photo has a new color added from each of the groups, and now the image is really popping.

Zooming in you can see how the character is starting to look very real at this point (if a little creepy without the detailing for the eyes and hands done yet).

Next up, below, the ribbon colors are now nearly complete and starting to look like they’re flowing.

And now the front of the dress, with a subtle new pale blue.

Can you tell what color is next in the image below? …It’s in the hair–with a surprisingly noticeable effect on the feel of the image, even if it takes some flipping back-and-forth to figure out where it happened.

Next, below, the highlights have been added to the dress ruffles. Those highlight are actually straight white rather than another pale blue, and I saved it for nearer the end so that it wouldn’t get too smudged from lots of handling.

And then, next, the ribbons (and shadows) are now actually done. Like the hair, that suddenly adds more weight and depth to the image.

And at this point I took a quick break in the photos to show you something sneaky, now that I’m almost done with the thread colors: I actually stitched this cross-stitch twice, and at the point the above (and below) photos were taken, I’d finished the ribbon colors for one of them, but not yet the other.

(I stitched this cross-stitch twice because a) I’m a bit unhinged, and b) I like the pattern so well I wanted one for me and one for a friend of mine (who is also in astronomy).)

Next, the image below actually does have one new color added (there just was not much of it) in the darkest purple shadows of the front of the dress.

And then, finally, the darkest cobalt shadows of the dress ruffles. And that completes all of the main pattern colors to be stitched in cross-stitch.

Which means at last we can stitch the back-stitch details on the hands and face and see just how very lovely this design executes this character. So pretty.

Below is another picture of the same, just because, so pretty.

And (same again) the full design so far. This is everything the pattern covers that is to be stitched in thread, which I think looks very nice indeed. Next up will be the beads, which I’m always of two minds about, because they are very pretty, but I really like the effect of just the thread.

Never-the-less, onward! Here’s the first round of beads. The pearly seed beads are admittedly yummy (and star-like!) bedazzling the hem of her gown.

Then the coat gets some beaded swirls. I sometimes order the beads necessary to match these patterns, and sometimes just use the beads I’ve already got on hand. In this case, I think I actually had the bead asked for, the many-toned Millhill abalone seed beads.

Next, things started to get crazy. The next color of beads swirled off and away from the thread-stitched image, called for tiny-sized seed beads, and in a color I neither had nor particularly liked. So, I mixed up a proxy from several colors I did have in the tiny-bead size–something glittery.

The swirls kept going, of course. More beads. More beads.

And then even more sparkly beads were needed before the end, these last in a larger size. (Note, I’ve spared you all my moaning about how much of a pain it was to stitch different sized beads, across the whole image, and without a hoop! (because hoops and beads do not mix if the beads cover any appreciable swath of the image). Yet I persevered.)

And that is that. Here are my two beautiful prizes I got out of all that stitching. One for me and one for my friend. Ta Da!

Oh. One last photo for the curious. Here’s the back of one of those. (Which, honestly, looks extremely tidy, if I do say so myself.)

Happy dreaming!