WIP Wednesdays - Winter's Maiden + White Rabbits + Unpacking = ???

Right then. I got some more work done on Winter's Maiden since lasted I wrote, and I've nearly got an entire section from left to right finished on her. The shading's weird, but I'm going with it anyway.






Late afternoon sunshine is not my friend.

I spent most of yesterday on a final push to get everything tidied away - I've got my room all unpacked and put away at last! I still don't have a dresser or anything similar, so I'm living partially out of a suitcase (one year after moving), but it's a great improvement! I kept two boxes, and I've repacked a bunch of books that weren't fitting on my shelves. I cherry-picked them as best I could so nothing I read frequently or am planning to read got put away, but it isn't as though they're far away - just to the closet!

There was a quick run to the thread store for more white to get my Valentine's Heart completed. I got three more white, came home, did a big clean/organize/pack away on my room and found eight more white!!! Argh!! XD At least I know I have enough now, enough to keep me in stock for several more projects! I hope to be able to add the completed Valentine heart to my new page [Finished Projects, up at the top under the header!] by the weekend. But more on that Friday. (:

As part of my unpacking & organizing, I collected together all my cross stitching projects in one location at last. I had no idea I had that many cross stitch books, either. All stacked together in one chair, they reach from the seat to the top of the back. Whew. All my projects fit nicely in one bag when folded correctly, though I noticed I'm still short of at least one project. It's of the July Larkspurs on the Maurer-Stroh website (also linked in the Free Patterns list to the right), but in black and white, and it's been missing ever since I located the pattern. XD

And look what I found!

I finished this some years back for a friend who was (and still is) really into Alice In Wonderland. Animated, modern live action, you name it, she loves it. So I stitched up this piece, but I never 'finished' it - never made it up into anything. It's just laying there, waiting to be made into something. Like a pillow. I had originally intended for it to be a long decorative pillow for her bed, but it's never happened. Something to do this week!!

I was a little puzzled by the pattern itself. As we all know, the White Rabbit is, well, white. But the book that has the pattern for this well-known rabbit has him in completely different colours. Say hello to The Vanessa-Ann Collection "Holidays In Cross Stitch." If you ever find a stitching/handicrafts section in a book store or library sales, you're more than likely to find one of these knocking about. I've got several years, about five of them, and each of them does different holidays. Sure, each contains the major holidays like a Christmas section and New Year's, but they also have pieces for lesser known 'holidays' such as: The 150th Anniversary of Bowling, Mother Goose Day, pieces for April Fool's Day, one to celebrate peaches (you know, the fruit), the first day of school, Friendship Day, Snow White's 50th anniversary (the Disney film, not the original story itself), National Adopt-A-Cat Month, Wildlife Week, and National Home Decorating Month, to name but a very few. Each and every pattern is marked by the dated colours and patterns chosen, as well as by the items chosen to surround a displayed finished piece. But with a few colour changes in thread, and perhaps cloth in the making up of some works, you get some pretty nice things out of an old book.

My White Rabbit pattern came from the 1990 book, which celebrates Lewis Carroll's birthday on January 27th. Since he's the author of the topsy-turvy Wonderland, he gets the White Rabbit himself. That's where it's weird. There is not a single thing coloured the way the Rabbit appears in the animated film, and since the movie came out in 1951, there's been plenty of time to see and catch on to the image of the rabbit most will be familiar with.

Remember him?

Instead, you get this guy:

See what I mean about dated?

He's brown. The Brown Rabbit. Not only that, he's wearing a blue coat, green pants, white waistcoat, and red necktie, not to mention no glasses in sight. Refer to the picture above, straight from the film. Red coat, blue pants, dark purple necktie, brown/gold waistcoat, and a set of glasses. As well as being decidedly white. He's not being racist, he can't help being an albino bunny. See the pink eyes? Another thing that this pattern decides to overlook.

Luckily, we had the video tape in the house when I decided to stitch this piece, and so I grabbed the case and looked at the ol' rabbit, and picked my colours accordingly. To replace his glasses, though you can't see it well, I outlined his eye in pale blue rather than the proper outline colour, to hint at those little glasses he wears in the film. I also changed the flower colours - not the purple, but the brown leafy bits. I used a paler, brighter green than they did for the vines, and then chose a bright yellow for the leaves themselves. I think it brightens the whole piece, and it definitely makes me think of Wonderland!

Would you like to take a stitch yourself? I'm posting the pattern here, since these books are pretty hard to find yourself, unless, like I said before, you happen to find them one day in a used book store or want to order them online. If there's any problem with this, I'll take them down. Hope you have fun stitching! ~x~