Every Little Bit Counts....

Doing The Math.....

It Might not look like very much has been accomplished in my Mini Worlds this week Dear Readers, but I have been telling myself that every little bit Counts. And if there is anything that I have been doing a lot of lately, it is counting! The petit-point stitching requires very careful counting of nearly invisible threads.... to make sure the stitches are exactly where they need to be. I use a magnifier for this scale of stitching... it is 40 stitches to the inch and the finished stitching will be a little under 1.5 inches square, or 56 stitches by 58 stitches... a total of ....um....3248 stitches if I do it right and don't miss any! There are ten colors, and the vast majority of the threads are for the cream background.... because there is a lot of background needing to be filled in! I have made a start....

But it is really difficult to see!

It is the upper right hand corner.....

Here is a closer look.... maybe you can see now....

I have a long way to go.... 

but every stitch counts!

And Another project where it seems that not much

 has been done is the Lilac blossoms...

I left you last week with the first blossom still not quite finished... 

and I was counting the florets carefully

 so I would know how many were needed for each blossom....

Here is the first one finished!

And a closer view....

It has 48 florets, not counting the six "unopened" buds at the tip!

And I must admit that a RL lilac blossom

 probably has two or three times that amount.... 

but... I am willing to compromise!

And just to be sure I had counted correctly... 

and to continue on my self-appointed schedule

 of "one or two blossoms per weekend"..... 

I started right in on the next blossom!

Yes, this is 48 florets, most not yet painted, 

and the little unopened buds along the left hand edge of the baggie

 (it makes a great non-stick work surface

 when doing lots of tiny gluing and painting!)

I tried to time the process... 

and managed to make twelve florets in 30 minutes, roughly,

 not including the painting or assembling..... 

a much more time consuming part

 as it involves waiting for glue to dry!

(But who's counting, right?)

So while I was waiting for all that glue to dry,

 and not wanting to start another batch of florets

 because that might confuse my counting.... 

I decided to start the next step on the lilac shrubs instead.

 Which also involved a lot of gluing!

And counting.

 

You might remember me mentioning that each of the stems

 would need to have a "bud tip" added to the end of the stem....

 this is partly because the wire tips needed to be a bit camouflaged,

 and partly because the shrub needs to look like it has buds on the stems...

And it might have been easier to do this step

 before I attached all those branches to the stems! 

But I wasn't sure how many branches I would be needing

 or whether some of them would be cut back... 

and this is the Prototype shrub... I am learning as I go!

So Now I needed to add a blob of glue to the tip of all those stems.....

(which you can see in the above picture.)

Shall we count them? 

(So we can be sure we are getting it right on the Next one...

 and the next and the next one too?)

I counted.

There are for each "shrub" 6 main stems 

with a combined total of 29 secondary stems. 

And on those secondary stems there are

 a total of 48 "twigged branches"

which, once they are attached

 make a total of  96 twigged tips, 

for a total of 192 twigs....

Here is a close-up.... 

I know the blob doesn't really look much like a bud tip.... 

but I am going to add paint and "refine" them eventually! 

(The glue also serves to keep the wire covering from unraveling.)

It took a while... and I had to reach the glue in

 among all the stems which was awkward...

And no, I did not glue all the tips of the 192 twigs.... 

I decided to wait until after I had painted the shrub

 to determine if that was necessary!

What? You are going  to paint the shrub? I hear you say.

Yes, Dear Readers, that has been part of the plan all along,

 because as ideal as the texture of the paper stems appears to be...

 the green stems do not match and only the newest growth is green!

And to aid myself in determining the correct color

 I went out and pruned a couple of twigs from my own RL lilac bush.

 One is Old and nearly dead, and the other is a newer more vigorous twig...

 and here you can see them with a piece of the paper wire

 painted with a test color... yes it needs adjusting!

It is a very grayish brown, or brownish gray, 

with red overtones in the younger twig.

And it is really difficult to replicate....

 because it looks different in different light...

But you just have to jump in and see how it looks....

Here I have painted a part of the shrub, only the green stems so far....

and am trying to hold one of the twigs next to it for comparison...

 of course, it is a gloomy day and artificial light is not much help!

The RL twigs are on the left, in case you couldn't tell the difference!

And maybe we need to see how it looks in place...?

 

Only the branch on the left side has been painted.... 

and it reflects the light differently than the green cloth wire....

And with the two RL twigs next to it for comparison..... 

can you see the difference?

Well, I will probably paint and re-paint the stems

 every time I view them in a different light! 

But even this much painting took several hours....

 every side of every wire has to be covered!

(What was I thinking?)

And in case you (or I) need reminding.... 

there are three more shrubs in the wings....

They have all their main stems and

 almost all of their secondary stems...

 but none of their branches or twigs so far!

And as for the blossoms...

 did I finish the second blossom, I hear you ask?

Yes, I did!

 48 florets and six unopened bud tips.....!

Two blossoms in Two weeks!

And how many will I need.....?

Well, as I am sure some of you are aware, 

Lilacs bloom only for a blissful 10 or fifteen days every year.... 

so only One of the shrubs will require blossoms!

 (This fact is what got me started on the changeable garden plan...)

Even so, There are 29 secondary stems on the shrub.... 

and stems often have a pair of blossoms.... 

and  even if I argue that it is an old and sparsely flowering shrub.....

I don't imagine I will be happy with fewer than 29 blossoms....

Let's see... that is about 1392 florets!

Well, that's about the same number as the tiles I made

 for my Castle Great Hall Floor....!

(each one cut, baked painted, glazed, and aged before installing!)

 And that only took me a year or two 

(or was it three....?) But I got it done!

And we won't mention the possibility 

that more than twice that number

 will be needed in the end....

(Because, who's counting?)

So, you can see It really doesn't Look like

 much progress has been made Dear Readers, 

but I can assure you,

 I have been doing the Math, 

and Every little bit Counts!