The Halloween Fairy is Done!

Yes, that's right. The Halloween Fairy is DONE. 

Halloween Fairy, designed by Nora Corbett

Soon, I hope to find the perfect frame and add this gorgeous gal to the Wall o' Halloween Stitchery.

I haven't even taken her out of the q-snaps yet. Here she is, lounging on the floor near a basket of unfolded laundry.

I like to keep it real around here, people. ;)

This gal didn't come without issues. As you may recall (scroll to the bottom), I ran out of floss for one of the wings when I was close to being done. A visit to my local needlework store didn't solve my problem, as I'd hoped, for even though they had the correct color, it wasn't really correct. Since this project was stitched with hand dyed floss, the new color I picked up was from a different dye lot and looked NOTHING like the one that had come with the kit.  It was much lighter and had very little variegation.

Anger and panic ensued. Was my whole project ruined? Even though I had tried tea-dyeing the new floss, it wasn't right. What was I going to do?!? 

That's where Tracy, aka besomom, comes in.

Tracy, a fellow blogger (House of Hodgepodge--go check it out!) and super talented stitcher, read of my woes and graciously offered to send me the leftover floss from her kit. (Did your kit come with 2 skeins, Tracy? I forgot to ask how you had so much leftover while I didn't have enough.) "Hopefully it will be what you need," she wrote to me. And guess what? It was PERFECT. 

Tracy is an angel, people. She saved my project. :)

Here, take a look at this:

That's the new floss I bought, and the one Tracy sent me. "Do you see how different these are?" I asked my husband as I compared the two skeins. "Isn't is crazy how different they are?" 

"I dunno, they look the same to me," was his reply. 

"The same?? No, no, no. They are different. Very different!" How he didn't see that is beyond me, though I am pretty sure he didn't really look at the skeins. The TV was on, and you know how that goes. ;)

Anyway, it doesn't matter anymore, because the project is done. The skein Tracy sent me was a great match, and I am so grateful to her. 

How 'bout a few more pics of the fairy, hmmmmm?

I love the beaded wand. I love all the beads, really.

 The beading went quickly, as there really weren't that many to attach. I love the way they form a fringe near the bottom of the dress. And they sparkle so nicely when the light hits them.

One thing I should tell you about this is that I deviated ever-so-slightly from the pattern. The fairy's skin color was supposed to be Crescent Colour's Bella Rosa, but it was just way too pink. I changed it to DMC 948, which worked out quite nicely. My little fairy is very pale, just like me. I don't tan whatsoever, boo. Even if I burn, I don't fade into a nice tan like some people do, I go from red back to pale. But I digress. I did end up using the Bella Rosa for this project, but only to attach the beads. The stitching instructions didn't specify what I should use (in fact, there was no mention of the beads at all in the instructions), so I had to wing it. It turned out well, I think, and you can hardly see the thread where the beads are attached. I can only assume that's the way it was supposed to be done.

Now that she's done, I kinda miss working on her, despite the fact that I have so many other awesome things I want to stitch (and am currently stitching). Does anyone else ever feel like that after completing a large/involved project?