Almost caught up

I had a low-key Thanksgiving here at home with my husband and son, which was very comforting. My mom passed away on the 27th last year, so Thursday was the final "first" that I had to get through. It wasn't as bad as some others have been, like Mother's Day or her birthday, and my hope is that going forward I can shake off a lot of the depression that has bogged me down at times this past year.

I spent the long weekend eating, watching football (go Bears!) and hockey (go Wild!) and stitching until my hands got tired--in other words, it was a really good weekend. I am about halfway done with part 6 of the Jardin Prive SAL, so I should get it finished today, in plenty of time for the release of part 7 on Wednesday. Here are the five completed parts:

And here's where I left it last night:

I'm stitching it on Zweigart Lavender Edinburgh, and I am making changes and additions as I go. I've added a few colors, including a gold metallic and white, gray and black Wisper, and I'm adding some JABCO buttons. Here are a few more photos:

I loved the snowman's heart-shaped hat, and it was the perfect spot for a little red heart button. ❤️

I'll be attending my first Jingle Ball this weekend, mostly because Cathy Habermann teased her Christmas Beetle chart a few days ago and I knew I didn't want to wait a year for its general release. It looks like a companion to her Ladybug Picnic and Botanical Bee, and I always love a good series!

And as long as I was "attending" this virtual retreat, I also signed up for Cathy's Stand Up for Santa finishing class:

I really liked this design when she shared it a while back, but it wasn't enough by itself to make me sign up for the Ball, but between the two designs I couldn't resist anymore. I obviously won't have the Santa stitched in time to actually participate in the finishing class, but Cathy's written instructions are so good that I know I'll be glad I added them to my "finishing" binder. I'm also curious about the Ball, so I'll try it out this year and see if it's something I would want to do again.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Another SAL? Sure!

I've been a member of Jardin Prive's FB group for several years, ever since I took part in her Au Fil des Nichoirs mystery SAL:

Her latest mystery SAL is called Histoires du Moutons en Hiver (Stories of Sheep in Winter) and I've been seeing people post their progress for a month. By the time they got to part 4, I couldn't resist anymore and I signed up for it, even though I certainly didn't need another project. Part 5 was released last Wednesday, with nine more parts to go that will be released every Wednesday, so it will take me a little while to get caught up, but since I started it last Thursday night I've finished part 1 and am making good progress on part 2:

I've added a few colors and switched some around, I'll be adding some embellishments, like the sheep's pom-pom, and I'm using Rainbow Gallery Wisper for the sheep so they'll be wooly:

Before I started this, I did finish the second model and am waiting to hear it's been approved, and I spent last Thursday finishing Pepper's ornament for my friend:

And here's the real Pepper in action:

For now, my plan is to keep working on Histoires; part 6 will come out in a couple of days and depending on how large it is I'm thinking I might be able to get caught up with the SAL before part 7 is released.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week, and wishing a wonderful Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! 🦃

A HAED SAL?!

I did a thing--I signed up for a HAED SAL for next year. While I am 99.99% certain I will not finish it in a year (or, perhaps, ever), the main reason I signed up is because if I can finish just one page, I will get a new Aimee Stewart chart at the end of the year. Aimee is my favorite HAED artist, so it just seemed like a fun way to get one of her charts. If I could finish six pages, I would get all 12 of the exclusive SAL charts, and if I finish the whole piece, I could also choose one of three exclusive charts (though none of these appeals to me, so I feel no pressure to finish). There are also free milestone charts for reaching participant goals of 1000, 2000, 3000 and 4000 by December 14; so far, we've already reached over 1000, so we will all get this chart:

Fairytale was my pick, as I just thought it was really pretty and looked like it would be easier to see progress and stay motivated to work on it:

It's nice that they show you the page layout, so you can see how much you'll have to do to reach the goals:

I went through my stash and found fabric and all but one of the floss colors, so it basically cost me nothing to kit up, which is a nice bonus!

So that's one goal already set for next year, to finish a minimum of one page--I think I can do it! 😅

I ended up getting a reply to my question about the Nora Corbett model late last week and was able to complete the first of two models on Friday, and I just received an approval this morning, so it's good to go. I've already made pretty good progress on the second one, so I should be able to finish it within the next couple of weeks if all goes well. I might try to do that before I work on finishing my friend's ornament, unless that suddenly appeals to me more.

I also forgot to share that I was able to buy a couple of Nora's concept paintings for her Seven Seas Mermaids at the Mirabilia retreat. While I have quite a few of her pieces, these are the first I've gotten that were turned into designs, so I was excited about that. The two I bought were North Pacific Mermaid (which should have been South Pacific Mermaid), for which I stitched the model:

And Indian Ocean Mermaid:

It's interesting to me that one design ended up almost the same as the original painting, and one ended up pretty different. I'm going to stitch North Pacific again for myself, then I'll be able to hang the paintings next to the stitched pieces, which I am looking forward to seeing.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

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!