I believe I mentioned in my last post that I am having mixed emotions regarding the last page of My Monumental Monet project. I finished the 23rd page on April 16th, and began the final page two days later. The last day that I stitched was April 21st. Part of that was…”oh noes, what will I do once it’s finished?!?” and part…bad wrists, gardening, refinishing antique and vintage furniture, reading, and Warcraft.
Even though I’ve been neglecting MMMonet, it did receive some attention this weekend! A certain someone stopped by:
He demanded to see MMMonet, and I dutifully pulled the cover off so he could take a look.
He stared at it for ages, and I couldn’t tell from his face what he thought of it. He seems to be a man of few expressions. He finally began to speak, but he was speaking so quickly I didn’t catch all of what he was saying.
I did make out a few phrases: “…passable stitching…”, “work ethic needs improvement…”, and “so close to the end why do you not just complete it?”
Why not, indeed? I’m at 98.8% as of today. My new goal is to stitch a bit each day until the last stitch is in place.
Another page down! I was elated when I placed the last stitch. Yet, as I began prepping the final page, I was a bit sad as well. No more Monet pages to prepare for stitching. This project has been going on so long, I won’t know how to act once it is finally finished! Realistically, I know that I have other things to work on, but….this is My Monumental Monet. This project has been in my head since I saw the painting on display at The Met in September of 2013. Nearly 10 years ago. Eight years ago, I created the pattern and began stitching. Yes, I took a 4 year long break in the middle, but the project was always in the back of my mind. It may have been covered in cobwebs, but it was still there. And now I have possibly less than a week left of stitching. So…yeah. Mixed emotions.
The sky portion is complete. I have an area of just over two square inches of water left. EEEP!!
This page was started on April 5, 2023 and finished on April 16, 2023. MMMonet is 98% complete.
Twenty-third page: 62.48 hours (9 stitching days) Total stitching hours to date: 1837.37 Number of stitches on this page: roughly 5643 Total stitches completed thus far: roughly 158,580
I finished watching True Blood while stitching this page. I began watching BBC’s The Musketeers but put that one on hold in order to watch Richard Armitage in Obsession. I cannot say it is one of my favorite RA projects, but it was good to see him onscreen again.
So much water! I guess that’s to be expected, yeah? I’m pleased as punch to have another page completed. My hands are hurtin’, but I’m still stitchin’!! I’m glad to have streaming services on my phone so I can watch shows while I’m stabbing fabric. I’m part way through True Blood now (I didn’t ever watch it when it was current.) Any recommendations for what I should watch next?
This page was started on March 19, 2023 and finished on April 4, 2023.
Twenty-second page: 54.6 hours (8 stitching days) Total stitching hours to date: 1774.89 Number of stitches on this page: roughly 4680 Total stitches completed thus far: roughly 152,937
Less than 10,000 stitches to go!
I cannot wait until I can wash this piece and iron out all those wrinkles!!
The last full page is done!! I am so amazed…I don’t how to react! No more rock to stitch, just a teeny bit of sky and more water. The project is 91.7% complete. Unreal.
This page was started on February 26, 2023 and finished on March 18, 2023.
Twenty-first page: 84.99 hours (13 stitching days) Total stitching hours to date: 1720.29 Number of stitches on this page: roughly 7722 Total stitches completed thus far: roughly 148,257
This page was finished on Saturday, and in the past two days I’ve stitched a full quarter of the next page. Granted, it is a short page, but it still feels like I’m getting much accomplished. 🙂
Moving right along!!! This partial page was all water. I love all the colors! This page caught me unawares…at the bottom edge, there is a smear of reds, purples, and browns. This area is *just* above the frame and doesn’t usually catch my eye when I study the painting, but there it is!
This project is 86.8% complete! I’ve one full page left to do, and three partials. My hands are doing much better now and I’m making good time with my stitching. I’ve been watching/listening to the Outlander series while I’m stabbing the fabric and time just flies by!
This page was started on February 14, 2023 and finished on February 25, 2023.
Twentieth page: 49.74 hours (8 stitching days) Total stitching hours to date: 1635.30 Number of stitches on this page: roughly 4680 Total stitches completed thus far: roughly 140,535
Next up is the last full page, and I’m looking forward to finishing it. At one point, I never thought I would get this far!!
My hands are improving! Yay!! Since my last post, I was able to stitch enough to finish the page. Maybe 26 hours? Something like that. The page is done, and that’s what matters!
This page has more waves splashing up on rocks. It also has the last of the sun-kissed rock. All that is left is shadowed rock, a bit of sky and more & more water.
This page was started on October 20, 2022 and finished on February 13, 2023.
Nineteenth page: 78.83 hours (17 stitching days) Total stitching hours to date: 1585.56 Number of stitches on this page: roughly 7722 Total stitches completed thus far: roughly 135,855
Sorry for all the wrinkles! The one drawback (for me) of using QSnaps instead of scrolls: the extra fabric gets all bunched up on the sides in an effort to keep it out of the way. I’d like to try an Omanik Quantum frame, but I cannot justify the expense right now. Maybe someday.
I finished page 18 on October 6, 2022. Shortly thereafter, I found out we had company coming, so I took a short break from stitching in order to give the house a thorough cleaning. Then our youngest turned 17, and we threw him a party. 😀
I didn’t get back to stitching until the 22nd of October. I stitched some, but not every day. World of Warcraft released a new expansion in November, and by then I was experiencing pain in *both* thumbs and wrists. I dropped the stitching and played as much WoW as my hands would allow so I would be ready to raid come December.
I was able to raid by the start date, but my hands were in rough shape. I had to wear braces on both hands. By Christmas, I was barely able to hold my cell phone! I broke down and went to the doctor’s office. The nurse practitioner gave me something to reduce the swelling and relieve the pain, and I went back in just after New Years for shots in my wrists.
I’m doing much better now! I only play WoW 3 or 4 days a week (maybe 2-4 hours on each of those days) and in the past couple weeks I’ve actually been able to stitch. I can stitch for 1-2 hours each day, instead of the 6-10 hours I used to do, and I’m not stitching every day. But hey! At least I’m stitching!!
In early December, my stitching app had a huge update. Now we are not limited to seeing only one page at a time…we can see the whole chart at a glance! There were several other changes at the same time, but this is the one that had the most impact on me.
This is what we were restricted to previously: one full page of symbols (with the option to zoom in). It was a bit frustrating because the colors don’t simply stop because the page does…and if you stitch each row to the very edge, you run the risk of have a seam in your stitching. In order to keep this from happening, I would stitch all the way to the edge on some rows, and stop a bit short on others. When I stitched the adjoining page, I would fill in the spots I skipped. Kind of like a zipper, if you will. If you look at the above picture, you can see there are three grayed out columns on the left and three grayed out rows at the top. The grayed out symbols are an overlap from the bordering pages so you can align your new stitches properly (and fill in the blanks if necessary).
In this new picture, you actually see bits of four pages! This is part of Markup R-XP’s big update. In full chart mode, you can zoom in to see the symbols more clearly. The heavy dotted lines mark the page edges. You can see where I’ve left some stitches blank on the otherwise filled in areas. Now that I have the update, when I get near the right edge or bottom of the page, I can easily see which stitches are in both of the adjacent pages so I can stitch them together in order to create a seamless transition from page to page.
This picture is Full Chart Mode, zoomed out. Amazing, right? I love seeing how far I have come on this project. This was my progress as of December 8, 2022. Compare the above photo to the one below, which shows where I am as of February 6, 2023:
Not exactly an impressive change, but considering two months ago I could not hold a needle tight enough to stab fabric…
Cross stitch corner? No…it’s not in a corner. Nook? No…that’s not quite right. Hobby haven? Meh. Not for all my hobbies, just cross stitch. Stitching station it is, I guess!
We moved into a new (to us) house just about a year ago. It has a family room in addition to a living room! Happiness is me! It’s very open and has good light, so I commandeered a space to dedicate to cross stitching. It’s nothing fancy, but I am able to leave my kit set up so I don’t have to dig it out of a cabinet every time I want to stitch.
As you can see, I have a small shelf unit to store cross stitch supplies and a table to hold my current thread box and OttLite. My husband gifted me with a Lowery cross stitch stand which is a tremendous asset. Various ailments make it difficult for me to hold my QSnap frame like I used to, and that makes the stand essential. It sucks getting old!! The Lowery stand has a light bar and I have not only a daylight lamp attached to it, but a holder for my iPad.
It may look a bit chaotic, but everything is within reach, and I can sit comfortably. If I feel like “watching” a movie or listening to music while I stitch, I simply prop my phone up and let it play.
Something cool I’ve discovered since I’ve come back to stitching: grime guards! I used to wrap my QSnap frame with flannel to keep things clean, but grime guards are definitely the way to go. They cover the frames as well as all the fabric not currently in the frame.
They would be easy enough to make, I suppose, but I purchased mine from a shop on Etsy. My quilting room is not yet set up – it’s all boxes! Nowhere to set up my sewing machine. That’s a project I will tackle once MMMonet is complete. As the above picture shows, the end is in sight!! I hope I can keep my momentum going.
Another page of all water – it’s a good thing I don’t get sea sick!!!
This page was started on September 25, 2022 and finished on October 6, 2022.
Eighteenth page: 60.33 hours (10 stitching days) Total stitching hours to date: 1506.73 Number of stitches on this page: roughly 4680 Total stitches completed thus far: roughly 128,133
Sky, rock and sea – all in one page! No chance to get bored on this page. So many color changes to keep me on my toes 😃
Page 17 was started on September 11, 2022 and finished on September 24, 2022.
Fifteenth page: 90.15 hours (13 stitching days) Total stitching hours to date: 1446.40 Number of stitches on this page: roughly 7222 Total stitches completed thus far: roughly 123,453
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