Always a good feeling...

...to add the last Qsnap extensions to a WIP, which is what I did on Saturday:

I finished the center medallion last week, which was fun to see come to life:

Once it was done, I couldn't resist setting the heart treasure in the center to see how it would look:

Turns out, I'm not very happy with it, for a few reasons: it doesn't fit in the space very well (it's squishing a bead and looks lopsided), the color is too yellow compared to the cream silks and the shape just doesn't seem right in a symmetrical opening. So, I went through my stash of treasures and found one that I like much better:

Better fit, more symmetrical, better color and it's a rose, which is perfect for a design called Rose Lights! 🌹 I might see if the heart can be used somewhere else in the design, but if not, I'm okay with not using it.

Here is my progress as of last night:

I'm going to focus on the border until it's done, then move on to the more fun part of filling in the center area. I was getting a bit worried about whether I was going to have enough of the gold beads used in the black border (and elsewhere), so I counted the remaining beads and found I have 88 left, 84 of which are needed to complete the border. I had to order more for other areas, so I'm hoping the dye lot isn't too different, but at least I have enough to complete the border, because a dye lot difference there would be harder to ignore.

I also want to mention that last Friday night I hit 1,000,000 page views on my blog:

Many thanks to everyone who takes the time to stop by, and for leaving encouraging comments; it's a wonderful feeling to belong to a community that shares my love of needlework. 🧵🪡💙

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!