A bit bogged down

Just realized that it's been a month since I last posted, but I just haven't been doing any stitching for myself so I haven't had anything to share. About a week ago I sent back a couple of Nora Corbett models and made a small start on one for Rosewood Manor, then three came in from Tempting Tangles; having four in the house is making me a bit tense, so I need to make some good progress on them before I go back to working on my own pieces.

On the plus side, I was reminded of the joys of model stitching when I recently got back The Garden Flowers from Karen at Rosewood Manor, in a gorgeous frame that really highlights the stitched border:

I'm going to take this to my framer to have glass added before I hang it, as well as some others I've received previously that still need glass; the problem will be finding wall space!

A few days later I received the chart for the last piece I stitched for her, Hello Moon!:

I think this would be so cute stitched up as a birth sampler, but I don't have anyone to stitch it for! Maybe someday...

There will be two new Nora Corbett designs released in a couple of days, and they might be ones I've stitched, so hopefully I'll be able to share those next week; otherwise it will probably be a while before I post again.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

It's finished!

Last week I finally finished the Vervaco mini SAL, and it turned out really cute:

I'm thinking about sending it to SewMuch2Luv to have a project bag made, but for now it'll go into the finishes bin while I think about it.

I was going to start Miss Ladybug as my new weekend project, but the chart won't arrive until today so I had to pick something else (at least for one weekend) and I chose Disney's Cinderella Castle:

I've had this kit for almost 20 years now and have almost started it a few times but have always backed away; it uses quite a bit of GlissenGloss blending filament and holographic thread and I was afraid they would be difficult to work with. While I've only used a small amount of each so far, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they are actually nice to work with.

I switched out the navy Aida that came with the kit for PTP Mystic Belfast. I would have done this anyway, as I like the look of linen more than Aida and prefer 16ct to 14ct for coverage (especially on dark fabrics) but there are also a ton of partial stitches in this that would be difficult to do neatly on Aida. I was able to complete Tinkerbell last night, so here she is before and after back stitching:

I probably won't get much stitching done this week (or weekend), as Lima Beads is having their annual Easter egg hunt on their site, and that will keep me busy as long as I want it to up until Easter.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

So close to being done

I am working on the final kitty in the Vervaco mini SAL design; he currently looks a bit like a ghost cat:

I was planning to cheat and finish this up today, but yesterday our washing machine died so today I need to go out and find a new one as well as go to the dreaded laundromat, so now I don't know if I'll have enough stitching time to finish.

The good news is that I did finish one model, which has since been approved, and I've made a decent start on the second one. I purposely did the one with more stitches first so that the second one would go faster, so I'm still hoping to have it done later this month or early in May. Then I have a pretty Rosewood Manor design to do which uses Sullivans floss, which I haven't used so far; I'm interested to see how it feels to work with.

I'm not sure yet what my weekend project will be, but I'm leaning towards Nora Corbett's Miss Ladybug, which I think is just so cute! She's also fairly small, so I could make good progress over a few weekends:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

I'm being good (but it's hard!)

For the past week or so I have really been feeling the urge to either make a new start (those Market goodies are calling to me!) or at least pull out a different WIP to work on, but I have resisted, which is absolutely new for me! I think it will take three more weekends to finish the Vervaco mini SAL, which currently looks like this:

Once it's finished I'll decide whether to pull out a WIP or make a new start to be my weekend project for a while.

I'm hoping to finish up the first of the two Nora Corbett models this week, so I will get to have a new start soon with the second one; it should go more quickly than the first one, as it has less stitching, so I'm hoping to be able to send them back by the end of next month.

Speaking of models, Mr. Darby's House (part of the Holiday Village series) was released n the 15th, so I can share a picture now:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

I cheated, but just a little

I worked on the Vervaco mini secret SAL this past weekend and almost finished the vase on the top shelf. It only needed a couple more hours of work to complete the greenery, so I cheated a bit and finished it this morning:

Those pink flowers were charted to be the same as the other batch of yellow ones, but I had some nice pinks in my floss box for another design so I decided to add a bit more color to this piece and I'm really happy with the result.

I actually would have finished this last night except that I spent a couple of hours on Saturday driving up to my LNS for a Nashville Market show. There were quite a few designs that caught my eye this time; I had already placed an order for several items, and then picked up just a few more at the shop. I love the Meow and Woof blocks by Hands on Design, so I pre-ordered those, and I like the Scary Apothecary series but I was really trying to resist them--until I got to the shop and saw them in person and just had to have them!

As I love Halloween stitching I also picked up new ones from Praiseworthy Stitches and Glendon Place; GP's Phantom Plantation is now my favorite of Cheryl's haunted houses so far:

Those cute little buttons are from Puntini Puntini; not sure what I'll use them for yet, but I know I'll find the perfect project at some point.

Also got a couple of Ink Circle charts that looked like they would be fun to play around with using various color combos, and a sweet little design by Blackberry Lane Designs:

Finally, I had pre-ordered a couple of the new PTP fabrics and they actually showed up that day, which was lucky. These are Demoiselle and Memory on Belfast and opal Belfast:

I can see Demoiselle becoming one of my new PTP favorites, as it would look good with a lot of Mirabilia designs, especially the fairies--I might have to dig Adia out one of these days...

As for my Enchanted Alphabet, I went with option #3. I almost chose the first one, with the deep purple mat, and even wrote the email with that choice, but the more I looked at it the more I thought it would draw too much attention towards the little girl and away from the letters. I think the third option will bring forth the letters a bit more, as it pulls the colors from them really nicely. Honestly, with Jill and Amber working on this I don't think there is any such thing as a bad choice.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Past the halfway point

Unbelievably, I am still sticking with my plan to work on the Vervaco mini SAL only on the weekends; it's been five weekends now, so that must be a record for me! I didn't post last Monday, but here is how it looked then, with the sleeping kitten complete and a vague outline of a third cat:

And as of last night, with another adorable kitty completed:

I'm thinking it will take another four weekends to finish, though if I'm fairly close to being done on a Sunday I might just keep going into the week to finish it.

Last month I took a day to clean up my craft room; my stitching table was slowly getting buried under a pile of finished pieces, WIPs in Qsnaps and patterns, floss boxes and rings of overdyed flosses for the various projects. One of the finishes was Enchanted Alphabet, which I ironed and then finally sent off to the amazing Jill Rensel for framing. I was so excited when Amber emailed with some choices for the frame and mats! Here are the options she sent, in the order they were in the email:

#1:

#2:

#3:

I was initially drawn to one of these, but as I was typing my reply to her email I started to change my mind, and ended up with a different choice. I'm curious what others would choose, so I'd love it if you would comment and let me know which one you would pick; I'll share my final choice next week.

So now the waiting starts to receive a photo when Jill and Amber are done with it, which probably won't be until sometime in May at the earliest (and more likely June) as they get so many pieces. They will be doing some painting on the mats, which I leave entirely up to them; all I told them was that as I stitched it I was thinking that it looked like the letters were flowers growing in her garden, so I'm excited to see what they come up with.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Sticking with the plan

Another week of work stitching and then a weekend for myself--can't believe I've stuck with it for two weeks now! I have definitely felt the urge to work on something else, both WIPs and new starts, but I am really going to try to finish the Vervaco mini SAL before moving on to another project. Here is where I ended up after this weekend:

Once I finish the sleeping kitten part 1 will be done. Part 3 arrived last Friday, so the whole design has now been released; Leonore, hopefully you received all three parts last Friday?

Since that is all of the stitching I can share for now, I thought I'd give an update on my little Murphy, since Marilyn was kind enough to inquire about him. He has definitely settled in and has become a much-loved part of our household; even the cats have gotten used to him! Here is Gracie sharing a patch of sun with him:

And Maxie sharing her couch:

The polar vortex went through our area, and that was hard for Murphy as he has a very short, wiry coat and his feet would start freezing after just a minute or two outside; he wasn't thrilled with the jacket I got for him, but he lets me put it on him anyway:

He spends most of his time warmly swaddled in the chair behind my stitching table:

It's been fun watching him grow more secure in our home and having more of his personality come out; I feel so lucky that we found him at the shelter, though it makes me sad knowing that there are so many wonderful animals out there that haven't found their forever homes yet.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!