Pulled out an old UFO

I have gone as far as I can go on my ornament til I get a beading needle, so pulled out my long-time UFO, Elegance of the Orient by Dimensions Gold Collection. I started it, umm, 7 years ago, and it's been languishing, mostly because I found it so intimidating after I had been working on it for 7 months. So I put it away and started something else. At least this proves I am consistent in that my changing projects isn't new.

I have no clue what was intimidating me. I was stitching pretty happily at lunch today, thinking, "Wow, this isn't that hard. I can do this." And yet, the only reason the poor little lady has a head (which is a recent addition) was that I was kinda bothered by the fact I had a headless geisha girl as a WIP. But it doesn't look that hard and I think I can get this finished soon.

But I am impressed with the fact that I was 24 when I did this. The back looks terrible, but all my backs back then were awful. It wasn't til I model stitched that I got that under control. But the front is pretty complicated. I haven't stitched much like this since then, other than the Stoney Creeks. But this is a good indication that I've progressed that I could handle those Stoneys, and they have reciprocated by making this a possible finish now, not just a kitted up chart.

The only reason I can think of as a valid explanation for why this took so long is the hideously awful metallics that came in the kit. They look cheap. My now-practiced eye feels that. They were stiff and not easy to work with. They were a pain. They are coming out. I think I can do better with braid from my LNS. It would look richer.

So we'll see how it progresses. It shouldn't really take that long. There isn't a huge amount of color changing in it, at least not anymore. Just the backstitch. I am saving that all for the end, because I have a system I follow now, that I wasn't doing back in. I start from the parts that are furthest away and outline those first, then work dimensionally forward. But I do see people's points when they complain about how little space they leave on the sides. I guess it makes sense to not put a lot of extra fabric on the sides to keep the cost down, and that really becomes the framer's problem, but some of these kits, especially if you are overseas, can be kinda costly, so it would be nice if they gave you more fabric.

I don't know,people complain about kits and how shoddy they are. I have to say, I don't remember ever having a crappy kit. At least not a commercial one--I had a crappy Lorri Birmingham kits about 4 years ago. BTW, Ms Birmingham, I am still waiting to hear from you re the issue I had with the floss in that one. The charts been done for 4 years, but I am still hopeful you will reply, LOL. I guess time will tell on these other kits.