A change of plans

I am very happy to say that after working in the yard for several hours each day last Wednesday through Saturday, the bushes are ready for winter! I might still trim some of the trees if the weather stays nice, but the worst part is over. There were four bushes that I didn't get around to last year when my mom's health failed, and one of those is a bush with the worst thorns I've ever felt, so I was really dreading that one. But my husband stepped up, bought a hedge trimmer and got it whipped into shape in a relatively short time--if he hadn't, it would have taken me most of a day to get it done, so that was a huge relief.

I am mostly done with one of the Nora Corbett models, but I'm waiting to hear back about a question so I couldn't work on it after last Tuesday. I hate to take it off the Qsnaps, which I need for the next one, so I decided to start the lab puppy ornament for my friend while I wait for a reply from Wichelt. I was going to stitch the one standing in the water here:

Then last week I went over to her house, and she was telling me that they have to keep their toilet paper on the bathroom counters because Pepper likes to paw the rolls all the way down to the cardboard; of course, I had to stitch the other design instead! I finished the stitching this morning:

Now I just need to finish it so it's ready for their Christmas tree this year, so I'll do that when the mood strikes--it's nice to have the stitching done because that's the part that takes the most time.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do next; I'll either work on Red for a couple of days while I wait for Wichelt to get back to me, or I'll cave and take the almost finished model off the Qsnaps and start the next one. Decisions, decisions...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Stitching in the Queen City

I arrived home from Charlotte a week ago yesterday, thoroughly exhausted after an amazing retreat. While I've enjoyed every retreat I've attended, there's something about the Mirabilia ones that just makes me feel like I'm among my "tribe". This year I shared a table with two friends that I sat with at the 2023 event, a new friend who I had met at that retreat and two people fairly new to Nora's designs, and it was a wonderful group!

I sat next to Julie, who I had met in 2023, and she and I share a bit of a twisted sense of humor so there was a lot of laughter. She was working on Geranium for the retreat SAL, and she had started from the bottom and worked her way up, so all she had left to do was the head and the flowers that the pixie is holding. She was talking to another attendee about it when I said, as a joke, "wouldn't it be funny if she was holding her head in her hands?". Not only did Julie think that was hilarious, she actually stitched it that way!

Nora got a huge kick out of it, as she loves zombies, and it generated a lot of laughter in the room. The 2025 retreat will always be linked with the deadheaded Geranium for me! 🤣

There were quite a few raffle items again this year, and I bought extra tickets because the proceeds go to a local animal shelter (not sure of the final total, but over $5000 was raised this year!). Julie was trying for two prizes, one of which was a complete set of Nora's Seven Seas Mermaids, so I put quite a few tickets in that box for her and won--yay! We both signed up for the Chatelaine retreat next July, so I'm really looking forward to seeing her there.

Nora created a design for the retreat, and there were three stitched versions of it:

The first one is as charted, the second has a skin conversion and the third is a complete color conversion; you can find the chart here (scroll down towards the bottom). We received the chart, the Waterlilies and the beads/treasures in our goody bags, along with some other great items:

The fabric wasn't in the bag, I bought it from Amy, one of the organizers who also has her own dyeing business, Oak Crown Studios. There was also a Mirabilia or Nora Corbett chart in every bag, but I forgot to get it out for the photo.

I did work on Red while I was there, but it probably wasn't the best project to take because the part I was working on required a lot of counting--at one point I thought I had made a mistake on the section I was working on, but it turned out the mistake had been made back in 2014! Here is where I started:

And where I stopped:

As I worked my way down the fabric, can you see what caught my eye (pun kind of intended...)? It was a creepy "IT" eye!

Now it's all I can see when I stitch in that area! 😅 I didn't get as much done as I had hoped, but I do plan to leave this one out, in the Qsnaps, and return to it when the current models are finished.

The organizers asked if I would do a short Q&A about being a model stitcher for Wichelt, which I did (even if I was terrified!), and, of course, Nora did a much longer Q&A and spent a lot of time going around to tables to sit and talk with everyone--our very own Queen of the Fairies!

Fortunately, my travel went much more smoothly this time, only one relatively short delay, but I did almost finish a small Mill Hill kit that had gone with me to Tulsa and both Charlotte events:

I finished adding the beads last week, so now it's time to pick another kit to put in my "go bag":

I should be able to finish one of the Nora Corbett models today or tomorrow, then I really need to get out in the yard and get it ready for the winter. There are a few bushes that I didn't get trimmed back last year, so I have to get them done this year. That'll probably take most of the rest of the week, which makes me dread this week, but I know it will feel good to get it done.

Hope everyone (else!) has a great stitchy week!

Two more sleeps...

...until I leave for the Mirabilia retreat in Charlotte. Although, I'll have to get up by 3am on Wednesday to make my 6am flight, so more like one and a half sleeps! 😅

I have my stitching bag pretty much ready to go, as well as a few pieces to take for the brag tables. I've never taken any for that purpose before, but since I'm taking Geranium, which was stitched as part of the retreat SAL, I thought I'd throw a few more in the bag as well. The only Mirabilia I don't currently have framed is Silver Moon Tea (which I'm hoping to send to Rensel Studio soon), but I found 27 Nora Corbett designs in the finishes bin, so I'm taking a few of those. I made a video of those finishes, which is posted on my Instagram if you're interested.

I did decide to take Red with me, which hasn't been worked on since a retreat in 2014 (where the heck does time go?!):

I'm hoping to make good progress this week, and my long-term goal is to keep her out when I get home and try to finish once the Nora Corbett models are done.

For table gifts this time I put together the threads for Portrait of Antique Vines, which was published in a little booklet for Mirabilia's 25th anniversary:

The only things missing are a pack of beads, a pack of treasures and a piece of fabric. I always stress about this part of retreats, but I hope this is seen as a decent offering. I actually stitched the model for the booklet:

And then stitched it again for myself with a color conversion:

I doubt I'll get much stitching done in the next couple of days, between cleaning and packing. I always obsess about packing so much before a trip that it's always a relief when I finally leave for the airport just so I can quit thinking about it! 🤣

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

A little bit of Heart in Hand

I received a HIH model from Cecilia last Wednesday, and I should have it done either tonight or tomorrow (after 40 years of stitching, I'm still horrible at estimating how long something will take to complete!). Cecilia included a couple of her newest releases in the package:

The pumpkin in Harvest Etchings was the last model I had stitched for her:

It was stitched over-2 on 20ct linen with WDW pearl cotton size 5 and finished into a pillow:

I have another HIH finish that I don't think I shared in the chaos that was last year; this was a little freebie from Cecilia's newsletter (you can sign up on her site) which I "fancied up" a bit by adding a border and using some brighter colors:

Now that I have a bit more confidence in my finishing skills, it would be the perfect time to make this into an ornament. Speaking of which, Cathy's finishing class was really hard on the first and second fingers on my right hand because of pushing needles through fabric so many times on so many ornaments--in the past few days they have actually started to peel, which is playing havoc with my stitching because the floss keeps getting caught on the rough areas!

Once I get the current model sent back, I plan to work on the Nora Corbett model for the next few days, then I need to figure out what stitching I'm going to take to the Mirabilia retreat next week. If I decide to take a new start, I'll want to work on it for a few days here at home first, so I would probably start it this weekend. However, I might dive into the WIP bin and see if I can rescue an oldie and possibly see it through to a finish this year--I definitely remember working on Mirabilia's Red at a retreat back in about 2013 (or 2015?), so I'm curious to see how far along she actually is.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Ornament parade

As promised, here are some closeup photos of the five Hands on Design ornaments from Cathy's class, the last of which I fully finished last Monday.

Light the Way:

Plaid Tidings:

A Vintage Rocker:

Sweets for Santa:

Hark How the Bells:

And the complete set:

Cathy has already said that she has plans for these ornaments, so if you like them, they should be available from her in the future.

This past Saturday my LNS had their annual craft rummage sale; people donate crafting items (mostly cross stitch, but some yarn and other items), then you take what you like and make a donation to a local no-kill animal shelter. I was able to get rid of a banker's box full of stash, and I only brought home a small pile of charts and magazines, so I'll call it a win!

The two magazines I picked up were old Cross Stitch & Needlework October issues from 1996 and 1998, with some really cute Halloween designs. The 1996 issue also had an ad for a free DMC chart, which I really like (even though I'm not a huge fan of Precious Moments):

Saturday evening, I sent the photo to DMC and asked if they still had it in their archives--I was surprised to receive a reply Sunday morning that they couldn't find it, but they attached a pdf of a different PM chart. By then, I had found it for sale on eBay, where the seller had kitted it with floss and Aida and was listing it for $30. I wasn't going to pay that for a free chart, but because it was free I decided to use the photos of the chart and the magazine photo to recreate it for my personal use with my cross stitch software.

I replied to DMC, thanking them for their help, and letting them know that the name of the chart was "May Your World be Trimmed with Joy" (which wasn't in the ad), in case knowing the name would help in a search of their archives. I then set about recreating the chart, which took most of the day yesterday, and ended up with a decent result. Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to another email from DMC with a pfd of the original chart attached! I could have saved myself most of a day if I had just waited one more day... 🤣

I'm expecting a small model from Heart in Hand this week, so I'll stitch that up quickly once it arrives and then get back to my Nora Corbett model. The Mirabilia retreat is rapidly approaching--I fly out on the 15th, so just over two weeks now; starting to get excited now.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Friendstitch 2025

The Friendstitch Winter Gathering took place this past Saturday and it was very enjoyable. The event is put together by Cecilia from Heart in Hand and Elizabeth and Marsha from Bent Creek, but unfortunately Cecilia was ill this year and couldn't make the trip from Ohio to Georgia to share the hosting duties. She was missed, but Elizabeth and Marsha did a great job. Teri and Tina from Shepherd's Bush were guests, and it was fun to get a walkthrough of their shop in Utah--makes me want to visit someday! They provided a chart to be stitched on a mesh bag, which I haven't tried yet, but that looks like it should be pretty easy and quick.

Here are a few photos from the event box (which I kept without peeking for a few weeks):

This bag is from a previous event, but we got a couple more buttons this year, to add to those that have come in two other boxes (if there were any before that I would have missed them, but I don't think there were):

I did the pre-stitching for this one, but I didn't try to do the finishing along with Mona Bost's video segment. We got everything we need to make an easel, which I am excited to try so I can add that skill to my somewhat limited (but lately rapidly expanding) finishing repertoire.

I stitched three of the models this year, including the two versions of the same design, Winter Gathering Hillsides, which the ladies named Bright Bluffs and Pastel Peaks. Here they are side-by-side:

Here is the framed model of Pastel Peaks:

I also stitched the framed model of Snow Folk, which is really cute. Here are my photo and a photo of the framed piece that Elizabeth sent:

They also showed Snow Folk stitched on blue linen and finished into a drum, which was adorable; if I stitch it for myself, that's probably the way I'll have it finished. If I stitch the Hillside, it'll definitely be with the bright palette, as I always prefer bright over muted.

Sadly, they announced that there won't be a Friendstitch next year, but they plan to be back in 2027. There is a LOT of work behind the scenes for these retreats that goes on for months, so I don't blame them for stepping back and taking a breath next year. Maybe that means 2027 will be even more awesome than usual, as they hit it totally refreshed!

Last Monday I did end up finishing the final Hands on Design ornament, but I think I'll wait to share close up photos of the finishes until next week, so I have something to post. I've made some progress on the first Nora Corbett model and it will be my focus for now, so I won't have any new stitching photos while I work on that.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

I got hands on with Hands on Design

Last Friday and Saturday I attended the Elves Ornament Workshop - The Holidays Take Shape with Cathy Habermann and I had a wonderful time. It was held at Primitive Gatherings quilt shop in Larsen, WI, and it was so nice to have an event like this only 20 minutes away from my house. Primitive Gatherings consists of two buildings--the storefront and a retreat center with rooms for out-of-town attendees, a kitchen that provides breakfast for those staying in the center and a homemade lunch for the class members and a beautiful, large space for the class. I took a few photos of the space, moving in a counterclockwise direction:

Towards the front of the room, Cathy had set up a small trunk show, with a lot of her designs that were finished as ornaments; she showed us how the shapes that we worked on at the class could be altered to make other shapes, using the same techniques that we learned. So fun to see all of these adorable designs all together like this:

We spent the first day learning how to lace the ornaments, based on the different shapes. Here's my workspace at the beginning of the day:

And here it is at the end:

That circle in the middle is the laced back for a bonus chart that we received right before we left for the day. I only worked on it for a couple of hours Friday night, so it took me most of the day yesterday to finish stitching it:

Saturday was spent assembling the ornaments and embellishing them; this was at the start of the day:

I was able to completely finish three of them during class, but it took me another couple of hours at home to get the rocking horse done. Here they are in all their glory:

I'll be assembling the last ornament later today, then I'll take some individual photos that I'll post next week. I feel like I really learned a lot by taking this class, and I'm excited to use my new skills going forward. I just need to try to finish at least one thing about once a month, so I don't forget everything!

I was also excited that Cathy had brought her newest releases, because I am absolutely in love with Murder in the Garden! It's finished like her Philanthropic Pumpkin (which I had her sign for me), and now that I've taken this class I feel like I might actually be able to get a decent result when I try to finish them:

I'm planning to start one of the Nora Corbett models tomorrow, which reminds me that I squeaked in a finish on her Indian Ocean Mermaid last Thursday night--yay! This was stitched on an orphan fabric by Ship's Manor, with a slightly darker skin tone than charted:

I was a bit torn when using the Distant Hills Waterlilies on the tail, as I wasn't a fan of the way the green and purple made streaky lines, so I ended up working it in small sections to eliminate the streaks. I kind of like the way it turned out, almost like water is flowing over it and being refracted into shimmers.

This coming Saturday is the online Friendstitch event, so I'll also be able to share the models I stitched for that next week--stay tuned!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!