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!