SAL mania!

I have never been a big fan of SALs, as I tend to be a "moody" stitcher; that is, I work on whichever design I am in the mood to work on on any given day. But the three that I'm currently working on (and actually keeping up with, even more surprisingly!) have small enough parts that it is much easier to stay current; once I fall behind I tend to put the whole project away and forget about it.

The first one I started was Tempting Tangles' Welcome SAL, which has now released seven parts; the next part will take us to the halfway point:

The second one that called to me was Ship's Manor's Beautiful Sea SAL. I tried to resist this one, but after seeing the first couple of parts I caved in and signed up, and I'm glad I did because I really like it. It has now had five parts released:

The last one to join the line-up was Kitty & Me Designs' Never Ending Sampler SAL, which called to me because I love to play with colors and specialty stitches. This one is now up to six bands, with the next one coming out soon:

Pam Kellogg, who is offering this SAL for no charge, has a Go Fund Me page set up for her husband's cancer treatment. It would be nice if people who are enjoying the SAL could donate even $5 or $10 towards Scott's treatment. There are currently 216 members in the FB group, and this doesn't include those stitchers who aren't on FB; that would add up pretty quickly.

In other stitchy news, I finally started on my first Nora Corbett model this past Saturday, and made good progress over the weekend while watching season 2 of Poldark. I put off starting this for a few days after I was ready because I was actually kind of scared! I know it's silly, but I feel like my work is not going to be good enough for the designer who has been my absolute favorite for over 20 years. I feel better now that I have jumped in and started, and hopefully will get positive feedback when I send them in.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Oops, I did it again!

Started a new SAL, that is. Pam Kellogg of Kitty & Me Designs is offering a free SAL on her blog (the link to the Never Ending Sampler SAL can be found on the right side of my blog, under the Mirabilia slide show) and I couldn't resist it! She'll be releasing bands that are only about 6" across every few days until your piece gets to be about 18" long, then you start a new piece. I guess it will go until Pam gets tired of doing it!

Yesterday I finished up the model (yay!!), so I was able to get the first three bands stitched in the afternoon and evening. I'm using The Thread Gatherer's Silk'n Colors in a color called From Dawn To Dusk, on SW Tanzanite Belfast:

In the second band there are supposed to be either French Knots or beads at the bottom of the straight stitches in the diamond shapes, but I like it without, so I am caught up until Pam releases the next band in the next few days.

The next parts in the Welcome and Beautiful Seas SALs were released last Friday, so I'm going to get those stitched up before I start the next models. I also need to do some cleaning, get the Christmas tree up and do some shopping and wrapping, so stitching will slow down here for a bit.

As I mentioned, I've also been working on getting my craft room organized a bit better, and in that vein I have to share this bead storage system that I found out about in a Mira FB group. It's called the Tiny Container Bead Storage Tray, and it is awesome! I spent quite a while last week transferring my beads into it, until I ran out of room and had to order more. Each tray holds 78 containers, which snap shut firmly to prevent spillage:

The containers hold about three packages of the size 11 Mill Hill beads, and it comes with labels for the tops:

I might end up labeling the front of each box, but I'll try it for a while to see if I really need to do that.

You can also buy different sizes of containers that fit in the box, and they also have a tray that comes with some different sizes. I bought four from Joann.com, and then ordered three more through Amazon when I ran out of room. Here is a picture of the box, so you can Google them if you decide you might be interested in this type of storage:

I should be getting my Amazon order today, so I can finally finish getting my beads transferred; I always hate having to stop in the middle of a project!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!