Sugar Skull by Mill Hill - Fini!

Unfortunately, the Partner and I ran amok of a little norovirus this past weekend.
The upside was a lot of audiobook listening and a bit of stitching while I was burning the house down washing a whole lot of loads of laundry to make sure it didn't come back.  Luckily we have a three day norovirus policy at work, so at least I didn't use my PTO for it.

But I finished the Mill Hill Skull!   I would have finished it three days earlier if I'd found the posy button sooner.  It went missing in one of my bags and it took me a bit to find.  I was actually trying to order a new one when I finally ran across it (in my Freshwater Pearls project bag).

I stitched it on 28ct white lugana rather than the perforated paper that came in the kit.  I love the effect with all of the beads, I enjoyed doing it a lot less (haha).

Sugar Skull by Mill Hill, Finished 9 Apr 2018

There was definitely more than enough beads and threads for this kit.  I'll have to give it away because I don't want to waste (not enough to do it entirely a second time, but probably enough where it won't cost too much).

I started working on Deco Spirits, hopefully the Air block will be my next mini-finish before I move onto something else... or maybe onto the next block.  :D

Desert Sunrise, Sunrise II, and Sunset (a kind of TBT)

I didn't get a chance to show off my finished Desert Sunrise, because I finished it and handed it off for framing at Nick's.  I did get her back, and the sister pieces!

I bought the three Desert pieces from Fireside Originals at Ginger's Needlework in Austin when I lived there in the late 90s.   I finished the first one in 2001 on the recommended Feather Blue(?) 18 ct aida.  Years later I decided I wanted to do them on evenweave because I don't like the look of aida when it shows in the piece.   The problem is that I couldn't find a perfect match with the Feather Blue aida, and because I don't have an LNS, I ended up having a lot of different 36ct blueish greys - I stick to the 36ct because I really wanted all three pieces to be the same size. 

Nick is (of course) a genius and came up with this stunning framing combo.  I didn't even realize that mat cores came in some of these colors.  All of the black mats have different colored cores, and he matched as well as he could, and I think they came out great.  The rough country wood look to the frame is just perfect.  Even the OtherHalf really liked them.

I can't wait to figure out a place to hang all three of these beauties.   Arizona is one of the places I'd be happy to move back to.

This is Desert Sunrise, by Fireside Originals; Finished in 2001

Desert Sunrise II; Finished 2017

And my very favorite, finished this year; and part of the Year of WIPs :)
Desert Sunset; Finished 2018

So those are my three beauties.  I think I know where I'm going to hang them, but I'm still cogitating on whether I think it's a prominent enough spot, because I'm super proud of these.

Lavender Bouquet Biscornu

Finished!

I finished Lavender Bouquet Biscornu by Rainburst Embroidery (on etsy) this weekend.   I stitched the top on 28 cameo peach jobelan, and the back is antique white evenweave (of some flavor) from my stash.    I chose this biscornu for my 2016 orts because the partner and I went to the San Juan Islands for a vacation (and Seattle) and while we were there we went to Pelindaba Lavender.  It was a great vacation and I hope to go back sometime.

So I did the front:

I did the back (adding 2016 in the lavender colors):

And I finished her off:

Entertainingly enough, 2016 was a pretty prolific year in terms of stitching for me, and two of the finished pieces were from kits, which really jumped up the amount of orts (I put the leftover kit threads in there).   So I only used about half the orts to stuff the biscornu.  Sucker is as dense as a hockey puck, so I couldn't add more.  I'm thinking of working on my Vino block party sometime this year and using extra orts from 2016 and any others I can't quite fit (and maybe bits from the quilting/sewing I've been doing as well).  This is also the largest biscornu in the collection, so I know I didn't make her too small! 

2018 Year of WIPs

I'll be participating in the Year of WIPs by Soulful Stitching (Facebook group).  I saw a number of other bloggers posting about it, so I joined the group, too.   This seemed like a great idea, since I want to just finish out some projects, with only a few starts this year.

To be "eligible" (though I don't care about the prize, I'm just competitive ;) ), you have to list at least 15 WIPS. 
Since I didn't have 15, I went ahead and spent a few days starting everything that I would like to complete this year (although the clarifying post made it seem like I might not have had to, but that's OK).   There is a check in three times over the course of the year after the first (so the initial Jan 18, April 18, July 18, Oct 18, and the final check in on Dec 18).  Each piece will have up to 5 photos (initial plus the four check ins), hopefully there will be less from finishing earlier!

I've also created a page/tab with this information so I can keep everything updated there as we go along.  Should be fun!

1. Desert Sunset/Sunrise
2. Lavender Biscornu (2016) 
3. Blackwork Biscornu (2017)
4. Ink Spot #19: Brave New Year (2018)
5. Zenia
6. Epic RR
7. Hearts Across America - North Carolina
8. Fantasy Sampler
9. Freshwater Pearls
10. Deco Spirits
11. Book of Ink Circles
12. Mill Hill Sugar Skull (I totally forgot about this one until I found it in a bag, it'll fall under WIPocalypse, too!)
13. Celestial Dragon
14. Fortunate Traveler
15. Chinese Dragon

Here are the pictures, I'll add in the new after each as we go.

Desert Sunrise by Fireside Originals

Lavender Biscornu by Rainburst Embroidery

Blackwork Floral Biscornu by Sweetheart Tree

Inkspot #19 by Ink Circles

Zenia by Mirabilia/Nora Corbett

Epic RR, by me and friends

Hearts Across America - North Carolina

Fantasy Sampler by Teresa Wentzler

Freshwater Pearls by DMC

DecoSpirits by Mirabilia/Nora Corbett

Book of Ink Circles by Ink Circles

Mill Hill Sugar Sull

Celestial Dragon by Teresa Wentzler

Fortunate Traveler by Teresa Wentzler

Chinese Dragon by Pinn