Thursday 18 April 2019

Parrot On Parade - finished!

Hi all!

Yes, I'm so excited and you did read that correctly, Mr Scruffy is finished! He was determined there was no way he was going to be taken off my frames so I had to face the oh so dreadful task of having to continue him until he was completed! Talk about suffering for your art!!

Here's where I left him at the 40 hour mark:


And now all finished:

Parrot On Parade by Bothy Threads
Stitched on 16ct Sand Dune over-dyed aida by sewitall.com 2 over 1
Stitch count 113 wide by 137 high
Started - 13th January 2019
Finished - 10th April 2019
Total stitching time - 51 hours 10 minutes


The remainder of the stitching took just under ten hours, so with only the backstitching remaining I plodded on, deciding it wasn't really worth posting about him at 50 hours when there was so little left to do.

I'm sure it will come as no surprise when I tell you I genuinely loved every stitch that went into him, so much so that I would definitely stitch him all over again! He's just so full of character and the colours were absolutely gorgeous to work with.

I mentioned when I started this project that I don't normally use the threads provided in kits. However, since Bothy threads don't use DMC, and colour matching their threads did not yield particularly accurate results, I did in this case.

I was impressed with the threads in general but, more than that, I was very impressed with the amount provided. I may have used 16ct instead of the 14ct aida they supplied but, even so, look at how much is left!



And for the statisticians among us, here's a fun visual representation of the percentage of each thread actually used:



I think the graph speaks for itself, showing that I used less 50% or less of 14/17 threads. Swap over to 18ct and there would be more than enough to stitch him a second time with the remainder. Very generous indeed!

From my online framing store I've already found a frame which suits him perfectly but am not going to order it quite yet - the store offers free postage when a certain amount is spent and although I have three frames in my basket I haven't quite reached that limit. Once Hogwarts is finished, though, I will have enough so I can guarantee there will be a framing spree towards the end of the year.

So, for now, Mr Scruffy goes into my Box Of Shame and my attention will turn back to Hogwarts In A Bottle. I hardly stitched on it at all last month so it's definitely time to make amends! Agreed?

Take care,
Rachel x

PS I'm a bit behind with reading blogs and replying to comments; bear with me, I haven't forgotten you!

11 comments:

sweetmiaomiao said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
sweetmiaomiao said...

Complimenti è bellissimo, Allegro vivace colori brillanti.
Una fortuna che i filati sono avanzati piuttosto che rischiare di non averne abbastanza

Linda said...

Congrats on the gorgeous finish Rachel. He looks so real.

Linda

Sandy In Montana said...

He is just adorable. Very nice stitching. Hugs, Sandy

Faith... said...

Oh Rachel, I LOVE him!! He looks amazing and so realistic. He looks fantastic and I can't wait to see the frame you are putting him in! Congrats on the excellent finish Rachel!

That is a lot of thread you have left over which is amazing in itself. I don't normally use kit floss either one reason is the fear of running out though it seems as though Bothy has over compensated for that which is great to know!

Cathy said...

Congratulations on the lovely finish! I thought it was a much larger piece so I was surprised to hear it was finished. Have fun with Hogwarts. I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

Katie said...

How adorable!! So glad he demanded to be finished up. Beautiful! Congrats!!

deb said...

Woohoo - congrats on your finish! Mr Scruffy looks fantastic!

Leonore Winterer said...

Oh wow, you just flew through this one! Makes me hopeful that the ones I have stashed won't take forever either once I get to them. He looks great, and I can see why you didn't want to put him down, the colours are amazing!
I really enjoy Bothy kits, they are so generous and of good quality as well.

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Congratulations on the Happy Dance for Mr Scruffy! He looks great.

Loads of thread left too.

Astrids dragon said...

Mr. Scruffy looks precious, what a cutie. I hope you get him framed soon so you can see him all the time!