I'm getting dizzy!

Well, not dizzy but I did feel a bit cross-eyed as I worked on the temperature SAL from Friday afternoon until last night. Of course, part of the problem is that the 1.5X readers that I use are not as helpful as they used to be, especially on the 36ct fabric, so I guess I need to go up to 2.0X soon. But it was worth a bit of struggle as I now know that I can finish it this week. Here it is as of last night, with most of the second skein of floss used:

Luckily I had something pretty to look at while I stitched, as I was able to nab one of Claybykim's sweet little Christmas dragon needle minders:

And of course I had my wonderful little stitching buddy Murphy, who kept me company all weekend while my guys were gone:

To those who celebrates it I hope you have a very Merry Christmas, and to everyone a wonderful 2020 (with lots of stitching time)!

Dreaming of diamonds

Actually, I didn't dream about them but I thought I would after spending the weekend working on the Carolyn Manning Daily Temperature SAL! Last night I finished the first skein of purple, so it looks like the outlines will require at least three skeins:

I'm not sure if I'll have the outlines done before the first of the year, but this coming weekend my guys are headed out of town so I'll get all the chores done this week and then see how much I can get done over the weekend. I'd like to start the year with a complete outline, so I might have to cheat a bit and use some time during the week after Christmas...

For now it's back to Quakers in Scotland, which is now more than half finished. If you've seen any of Deb's "Quakers in..." designs you'll know that the top portion is a series of motifs and the bottom is a scene (or scenes) from the country; I've finished the motifs and am ready to start the scenes. The scenic portion might have more stitches all told, but should stitch up a bit more quickly because there are fewer color changes in small areas. I had hoped to have it done by the end of the year, but it will most likely go into early January.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Always a relief...

...when you work a border first and get to the joining point to find it meets as it should, which is what happened this weekend. I spent Saturday working on the temperature SAL and completed the outer edges, so now there's less chance of error as I fill it in:

It looks a bit wonky because the linen is kind of flimsy, but hopefully it will look even when finished. The linen is 36ct from Weeks Dye Works, and it just isn't as nice as the Zweigart linen I usually use; it's not as strong so it doesn't seem to support the tension of the stitches very well.

Leonore asked about how the squares will be filled--as designed there are 27 different motifs that can be used, ranging from a temperature of -30F to 100+F (each motif covers a range of 5F). I plan on doing just the high temperature for each day, but I have seen people talking about splitting the squares in half to do high and low temps, so really you can do it however you like. Splitting it into two just sounds like too much work to me; I'll be lucky if I can keep up just doing one temperature per day!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Temperature Stitch Along

I've always liked the idea of stitching a daily temperature chart for a year's high temperatures, but I'd never found a format that I liked until Carolyn Manning released one last week. It's based on a granny square afghan, which means stitching 379 little squares (or diamonds, since they're tilted)--I'm about 1/25th of the way there!

I decided to use light purple linen and dark purple floss for the squares; living in Wisconsin means there will be quite a bit of white used for the lower temperatures and I wanted to provide some contrast. I also created my own motifs for each temperature range, so it will be fun watching this come to life next year.

I plan to work on the squares periodically when I need a break from the Tempting Tangles model I started last week, and which I hope to finish sometime around the end of the year. The current TT SAL is Quakers in Japan, which has had the first four parts released to date:

Mirabilia's MD169 was finished, accepted and sent back last week, after discovering one last error that meant pulling out one of the colors used in different areas and replacing it. That wouldn't have been quite so bad if I hadn't already beaded those areas as that made cutting the stitches trickier, but it's all in the past now and I am greatly relieved! MD172 arrived the next day, and as it has a lot fewer colors than the previous one it should stitch up more quickly; I'm hoping to be able to start it next January.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Orchid Party

Two new Nora Corbett designs were released last Friday, so I can share them now. They are part of a new series called Orchid Party, and the first is NC269 Imperial Lady D:

Followed by NC270 Miss Cymbi:

When I stitch these NC designs I usually try to do the largest one first so I can feel like I'm on the downhill side once it's done, so I started with Imperial Lady D. However, the skirt on Miss Cymbi felt pretty big while I worked on it, so it's almost a toss up as to which was actually more work!

Today will be a very happy day, as I should be able to finish the the current Mirabilia model and submit a picture for return approval; hopefully no changes will be needed and it can be on its way. I was so worried that I might not make the deadline and now it'll be done three weeks early--after 30 years of stitching you would think I could estimate time better, but I'm still horrible at it! There were a lot of mistakes in the chart, most of which occur when the graphic designer at Wichelt converts Nora's hand drawn chart to a computer-generated version--this one has a lot of colors/symbols, so maybe that caused more mistakes. Hopefully I caught all (or at least most) of them, as I'll be disappointed if any are found after printing; I guess I'll find out next April, after it's released!

Now I will be taking a few days to get my house in order and maybe do a little stitching just for fun, then it will be on to the final Tempting Tangles model.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Tempting Tangles to share

Last week two Tempting Tangles SALs came to an end so I can finally share pictures. The first is Moment of Time, which I actually stitched three years ago:

I think this one would be fun to do again using over-dyed threads (and maybe some beads) in a different colorway, but no idea when I'll have the time to do it!

The second design is Quakers in England, which is the third in Deb's "Quakers in..." series:

I loved working on all the little motifs in this one, and while the cottages were quite a bit of work they look amazing, so well worth the effort.

The first in this series was Quakers in Holland, which is currently unavailable; it will be released in full chart form next March. The second was France, which is still available for a short time more, then will be absent for a while until it comes out as a full chart. England has just been completed, and Japan is currently three parts into a SAL; I stitched that model as well, so I'll show some of that design as more parts are released. Scotland will be the next stop in the journey, and I'll be starting that one very soon. You can check out Deb's new shop for these and a lot more gorgeous designs. A word of advice: if you like any that are current or just-completed SALs you might want to get them now, as when they are released in full chart form later they will cost about twice as much.

I am very relieved to report that I am now confident that I will be able to finish the current Mirabilia model by the December 10 deadline. It is a big design, and I was really concerned that I hadn't set enough time aside, but I have made good progress in the past six weeks and the end is starting to appear so I am feeling much better.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

For Marilyn

A little while back I received a comment from Marilyn that I needed to share some recent pictures of Murphy, so this post is for her! I even found a fleece blanket for him that has dogs on it, instead of the one with cats on it that he's been using for the past year:

Unfortunately Murphy's love of people food combined with our pleasure in making him happy by giving it to him led to some rotundity, so he is currently on a diet and is about 20% of the way to his goal weight. I think the diet is as hard on us as it is on him!

On the stitching front the only thing I can share is a small start I made on Just Nan's Bumble & Hoot Needle Book; I spent about 2.5 hours at the auto service shop, and was able to complete the border:

Very soon two of the Tempting Tangles SALs will end, so I'll be able to share the pictures of the completed pieces, and maybe two Nora Corbett designs if they are released in November.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Finished before Halloween

The third and final part of the Lizzie*Kate Frightful Mystery Sampler was released just under a month ago, but I put off working on it until I finished the Rosewood Manor model that was my focus for the month of September. I finally sent that on its way in early October, so I took a few days to finish Frightful and I am really pleased with how it turned out:

I used the optional embellishment pack for this design, but also added some more beads and the little ghost button at the bottom; there was supposed to be a stitched acorn in that area, but the ghost felt like a better fit for a Halloween piece. Now I just need to work up the ambition to take this over to my framer, but since it won't be done in time for Halloween this year I'm not feeling particularly motivated!

Once again it will probably be some time before I have anything I can share here as I have a Mirabilia model that is due in early December (with another one being sent to me in early November), the last of three Tempting Tangles models to stitch after that and another Rosewood Manor already here to get in the queue...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

SPOILER!! Lizzie*Kate Frightful parts 1 & 2 completed

Part 2 of the Frightful Mystery Sampler arrived last Tuesday, so I couldn't resist stitching it right away! The fabric is PTP Cauldron Belfast, and while the floss colors are similar to what is called for for the most part, I am taking a few liberties so this isn't exactly what the design will look like if stitched as charted:

Now it's back to "work" until the third and final part is released mid-September; I might even be able to have this framed in time for Halloween...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Miss Honey Bee

Back when I received the models for Miss Honey Bee and Miss Queen Bee my first thought was how cute they would look on Berkshire Hive fabric by Fabric Flair. I ordered a fat quarter (which is enough for both designs) and put it aside, and I was able to start Miss Honey Bee for myself as soon as I received the chart, so here she is completed:

I love how she turned out, and look forward to stitching Miss Queen Bee when I get some more time.

Last night I finished a Tempting Tangles "Quakers In..." model, so now I'm going to work on one for Rosewood Manor that I hope to finish within six to eight weeks; then I have a Mirabilia that's due in December, so I guess I have the rest of my stitching year pretty much mapped out--yikes! I think part 2 of Lizzie*Kate's Frightful will arrive today, so I'll probably work on that a bit every few days.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

SPOILER!! Lizzie*Kate Frightful Mystery Sampler part 1 finished

Don't scroll down if you want it to remain a mystery! I'm putting the picture from 123Stitch here so the picture of the finished piece doesn't show up on any thumbnails of this post:

I was really excited that L*K would have a new Halloween mystery design this year, so I ordered it as soon as it hit 123Stitch, and started it right away when it arrived last Monday. I chose Cauldron Belfast from Picture This Plus for the fabric, and I'm using threads from stash that are fairly close to the recommended floss. I did add a purple floss and a couple of DMC variegated threads to the mix, changed some color placement around and added some extra beads, so this isn't exactly what the design will look like if stitched as charted:

Really looking forward to part 2 now!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

I can finally share

Two new Nora Corbett designs were released today, and are part of the Intriguing Insects series. This is Miss Queen Bee:

And Miss Honey Bee:

I'm looking forward to stitching them for myself at some point, to join Miss Moth and Miss Dragonfly, and the other two insects that I haven't stitched yet, Miss Ladybug and Miss Beetle. But for now it's back to "work"...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Made a new start

I took a break from model stitching this past Friday through Sunday to make a new start that was calling to me. I got a great piece of fabric from Ship's Manor that reminded me of a sea with underwater plants, so I went through Nora Corbett's mermaids until I found one that had colors that I thought went well with the fabric and decided on Luce Mia. I even had her kitted up already, so that meant it was even harder to resist starting her! So far just her face and hair are done, but the other colors still to come are a light green and aquas:

I also wanted to share a funny scene from the movie The Moon Spinners that I watched last week. As a stitcher it's always fun to see needlework or references to it in movies that I watch while I stitch (and it happens quite often since I like to watch adaptations of Jane Austen's novels!), but this one was particularly fun because it was two of the "bad guys" discussing it:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Miss Dragonfly is finished

I went back to Miss Dragonfly last Friday, and was able to finish her up yesterday morning. The black thread is Rainbow Gallery Wisper, which takes quite a bit longer to work with than regular floss (it's fuzzy, which means you have to use short lengths and pull through the fabric slowly as it tends to knot easily), but it does give a nice effect, especially for an insect-inspired design:

I am happy that I was able to finish her, as last week a Mirabilia model landed on my doorstep, so now I can use the Q snap that Miss Dragonfly was on to start that. I think I'm going to try alternating between the Rosewood Manor piece and the Mirabilia on a weekly basis for a while, then slip in one of the Tempting Tangles designs and see how much progress I can make that way. Regardless, I won't have much stitching I can share here for a while, though I think the Nora Corbett releases for July might be ones I've stitched, so hopefully I'll have a post then.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

One down, three to go

Last week I finished the first of three models for Tempting Tangles, Quakers in England. It is currently a SAL on Facebook, where the first five parts have been released. Here are those parts:

This is the third in Deb's "Quakers in..." series. The Holland SAL has finished (but the chart is still available) and France is ongoing on FB right now; all three can be found in Deb's Etsy shop. There are two more countries in the works, Japan and Scotland, and I wouldn't be surprised to see more!

Once England was finished I started on a Rosewood Manor model right away, but this past weekend I was just really missing stitching for myself as I hadn't done so for over a month, so I spent some time on Nora Corbett's Miss Dragonfly. Here is where I left her as of last February:

And as of this morning (I wanted to finish those wings!):

Now that the wings and skin are done (with all those partial stitches to give them clean lines) the rest should go pretty quickly; I'm hoping that I might be able to complete her next weekend. For now it's back to "work"...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Enchanted Alphabet is framed and almost home!

Last Tuesday I received an email from Amber at Rensel Studio that my Enchanted Alphabet was finished, and I am so pleased with their framing:

It is due to be delivered sometime today, and I can't wait to see it in person! I don't yet know where I'm going to hang it, but I have two more of Marilyn's designs that I stitched over 20 years ago (Morning Song and The Bride), and I think I might try to hang them as a grouping. The two older ones were stitched when I was still fairly new to cross stitch, so they are on Aida (as I hadn't made the move to linen/Lugana), and the fabric colors are pretty close to what the patterns called for, as I hadn't even discovered hand-dyed fabrics back then. My stitches also look a lot better than they did in those earlier pieces, so it'll almost be like a record of my journey as a stitcher to have them all together.

The Nora Corbett designs that were released on the 15th weren't ones that I had stitched, but one of them (Lily Pad Sprite) is one that I did do some frogging and re-stitching on. Nora had decided to make some changes after the piece had already been returned; here is what it looked like when I received it:

And after the changes had been made (mostly to one shoulder and the back stitching on the face):

The other one in this new series of Pond Pixies is Pond Lily:

I really like both of these, especially Pond Lily, and I'm looking forward to stitching them (and seeing more in the series!).

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!