Enjoying Rose Lights...

...especially now that both dragonflies are done--those wings were intense!

The center medallion also has a lot of back stitching, though I think it will be easier to keep track of it there than it was in those wings. I've extended my Qsnaps and completed the border within the framed area, so now it's on to more of the center portion:

Still easily on track to finish this before the retreat in July. 🤞🏻

I did complete part 3 of Tiny Modernist's Poison Garden SAL last Monday, which is also a fun stitch and makes for a nice little break once a month:

It's halfway done now, with the next part dropping mid-April; I'll have to see if I can fill in the rest of the framed portion of Rose Lights by then.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

A pretty little finish

It took me a day longer to finish IMAKE's Courtyard Pearl Mini than I had thought it would, for two reasons; first, doing 108 eyelets took far longer than it seems like it should, and second, the beading also took longer than I estimated. The eyelets consist of 16 stitches, or the equivalent of eight cross stitches, which means that they took about as long to complete as doing 864 cross stitches, i.e. most of my stitching day last Monday. Here it is after all the cross and specialty stitches were completed:

I started beading on Tuesday, thinking that it would take a day, but it ended up taking two. I did go through each bead twice, so I suppose that's why it took twice as long as I estimated; with Mill Hill beads I just go through once, but cylindrical beads look better to me when they're oriented either vertically or horizontally as opposed to being slanted. So, I ended up finishing last Wednesday evening and I am really pleased with the finish:

Here's a side-by-side with the original model:

I did sub out one of the kit threads, switched to black Cashel and ended up using different beads for the outer border, but otherwise I used the materials from the kit. This is a small design, just about 4" x 4" on 28ct over-2, but it is really packed with detail and bling. I am already toying with the idea of stitching it again in a different colorway, though not for a while.

Last Thursday I started working on part 3 of Tiny Modernist's Poison Garden SAL, which is now ready for the back stitching:

I'll get it done later today, then I'll probably pull out my Rose Lights WIP and try to get back into the mood for it. I'd like to stitch Hands on Design's Night Light, but the Chatelaine retreat starts exactly four months from today so I'd be better off making more progress on Rose Lights now.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

I'm back

It turns out that the Mirabilia model I thought might take six to eight weeks to stitch only took three, so it's been mostly done since last Monday. I sent a question about five stitches a couple of weeks ago, so it won't be officially done until I get a reply and then hopefully approval from Nora. 🤞🏻

While I wait, I decided to pull out Hands on Design's Christmas Beetle and design a back for it so I could do the final finishing. A few days later I had a finish:

It joins Ladybug Picnic and Botanical Bee:

I just received the chart for the fourth bug in the series, Night Light, and I have it kitted up and ready to go:

I probably won't start it right away, but I might design a back for it now so I can stitch both parts at the same time when I'm ready to work on it.

In a bit of good timing, since I had just finished the model, I received a free kit from IMAKE, who contacted me through Instagram and offered to send me one. I'll confess that I had never heard of them, but it turns out they design mandalas in a style similar to Chatelaine designs, in both mini and full-sized versions. I chose their Mini Courtyard Pearl kit:

The kit arrived on Saturday and was very neatly packaged. It contains everything you need to stitch it: charts, fabric, threads, beads/crystals, beading thread and both tapestry and beading needles:

While it did come with a piece of fabric, I decided to use black Cashel instead, as I thought the colors would glow on it:

It's always difficult to get the colors to show accurately on black fabric in photos, but IRL they show up better than this progress photo shows:

I did switch out one of the threads from the kit; it was a silk perle that just seemed too thick and twisty, and I didn't like the way those stitches looked. I replaced it with three strands of a Caron Waterlilies and am much happier with it (it's the lightest color that forms the inner part in the photo). 

I should be able to finish this today or tomorrow, then I'll probably work on part 3 of Tiny Modernist's Poison Garden SAL, which was released on Saturday. We've gotten about 20" of snow since Saturday and are still under a blizzard warning, so I guess I'll just have to hunker down in my craft room to ride it out. ❄️🥶

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!