Tuffet Progress

As previously mentioned, I am on hiatus from quilting until the end of September when I move into a permanent apartment.  In the meantime I am working on an incredibly detailed (18 ct) needlepoint tuffet.  It was custom-made and is going to be completely awesome when I (very eventually) finish it.

The eight canvases that need to be completed

Working on this needlepoint has been surprisingly satisfying.  Because each object/fish/piece of coral is so small, I am constantly moving onto something new and not getting bored.  The colors are incredibly bright and fun, and I have the opportunity to incorporate lots of metallics.

The largest difficulties have been my crippling fear of trying to stitch such incredibly detailed painted creatures, and the extreme difficulty of determining the very subtle shading differences in the piece.  Below are a series of before/after pics on the parts of the needlepoint that I have completed so far.

The current canvas I am working on, in full

The first fish I stitched, before and after.  The oranges and yellows are metallic.

The lower left corner (before)

starfish stitched

sand stitched as well

A very intimidating fish.  Look at the detail!

base coat of stitches

The final (ish) version.  I am still unhappy with the choppiness of the black along his back and how angry his eye turned out to be.

So that is current status of my needlepoint.  More updates as more fish are completed!

Quitting

I don't think I've ever quit a project before, but I'm quitting one now.  I've had this parrot needlepoint for five years and have been working on it pretty much that entire time.  It started well but then I decided to add in sparkly thread, which it turns out is tedious and difficult and to sew with.  Then once I finally slogged through most of the sparkly stuff I needed to work on background plants, which I wanted to do in unconventional stitches.

The screwy part is above the center right.  It's supposed to be two shades of green but they're too similar in shading to each other.

For a long time I did nothing because I was paralyzed by indecision, and I've been unhappy with the stitch I did end up with.  Then yesterday I worked a ton and then realized at the end that the colors I was using weren't correct and I basically would need to rip out all the stitching.  So that's it.  If a project isn't fun then there's not really a reason for me to be doing it.  So I will set the parrots aside for the foreseeable future and instead start on my lovely fish tuffet, which I am *actually* excited about working on.