Maybe I can catch up

 Friday evening I pulled out the SAL from Serenita di Campagna with the intention of at least finishing days 2 though 5 since they are pretty small designs. Not only did I get them done but I made a good start on the first block and am now thinking that I could get it done either today or early tomorrow, so I think I will keep it out and finish it. The next part will be released on March 1st, so there won't be anything to work on next weekend anyway. Here it is as of last night:

I'm using the recommended floss but also adding in some metallics and beads and switching a few colors around. I really don't do much Christmas stitching but there was just something about this one that appealed to me, plus the fun of each part being revealed over time.

My Princess Elliana arrived safely home from Rensel Studio so I was able to take a couple of pictures of the painting on the mat, which pulls from the lace in the dress and the flowers:

Now I need to move some things around to find a place to hang her--she's huge!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Two new SALs

 I recently signed up for a couple of SALs, one of which has already had a couple of parts released and one that has just the border so far. Saturday I started the one from Jardin Prive called Au fil des Nichoirs, which is going to have six parts released at the first of every month starting in March and ending in August. I received the border last week and stitched it on Saturday:

It calls for a brown DMC for the border but I switched it out for a variegated Silk'n Colors that contains several of the colors used in the design; hopefully it'll end up looking okay. Here is a preview from the designer:

I'm looking forward to receiving part 1 in a couple of weeks, though I don't know yet if I'll be able to keep up with the parts as they are released. For anyone interested the info can be found here.

The second SAL is from Cecilia Votta, who now designs under the company name of Serenita di Campagna. Her SAL is an advent design which has had the border and the first five days released so far. This is my progress from yesterday:

I'm almost positive I won't be able to get caught up and then keep up with this one, so I'll just work on it once in a while when the mood strikes. Here is the designer's photo of the piece so far:

Anyone looking for this SAL should go to the designer's FB page and find her contact info there.

That was my weekend off from "work" stitching, and now I can get back to it refreshed and ready to make a lot of progress.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Princess Elliana is on her way home

 Last Monday afternoon I received the long-awaited email from Amber at Rensel Studio that my Princess Elliana framing was finished, and I am thrilled with how she turned out:

I love the painted lace and roses on the mat that were pulled from the dress and am looking forward to seeing them close up when it arrives; they do such amazing work! I mailed this one in at the end of July, so the whole process took just over six months, but it is well worth the wait.

I finished the stitching on Winter Bear last Wednesday and then spent a few hours on Thursday adding the beads and treasures--doing those bead swirls on opal Lugana was not very enjoyable, but the result makes me very happy:

A Mirabilia model arrived last Monday, so I started that Thursday afternoon and have made good progress so far. The blog will probably be quiet for a few weeks while I concentrate on that, but I'll probably either start Winter Hare or a CEC mitten design for a small break later this month.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Where does the time go?!

 Last Tuesday I was deciding what to work on in between models and I pulled out Joan Elliott's Fairy of the Wind. It doesn't seem like that long since I started her, but I looked in my photos to see the last update and it was in December 2018--I never would have thought it had been more than two years! This is what she looked like right before she disappeared into the WIP black hole:

And here she is as of last Friday:

Not sure when I'll get to her again, but at least quite a bit of the top portion is complete.

Friday afternoon the Holiday in the Forest charts arrived and I immediately pulled the threads, picked a a fabric and dove right in. I decided to do Winter Bear first because he has less background and should stitch up more quickly then the hare so I have a better chance of finishing before the next model arrives. Here he is as of last night (fabric is an opal Lugana Silkweaver solo):

I did look over the Winter Hare chart and noticed a couple of errors: the L symbol in the chart is not listed in the key--it should be Kreinik #4 9294. The circle with a dot in the center symbol next to Kreinik 9294 in the key should be the Kreinik #4 027. I also saw that the Caron Waterlilies 045 is only used for 24 stitches in the rabbit's sweater. If you don't already have that floss and don't want to spend $6.50+ for a skein for 24 stitches then there is a good DMC substitute:

I'm looking forward to stitching the rabbit, but for now it's back to work on the bear; hoping to finish him tomorrow or Wednesday.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!