Ah, spring in Wisconsin!

Contrary to my previous post, in which I didn't stitch as much as usual due to wonderful, springtime weather, this past week was more typical of a Wisconsin spring: cold, windy, rainy and even snowy a couple of days. Not so great for being outside, but terrific stitchy weather!

I spent all day this past Saturday down in my craft room with my kitties. Here's Gracie, sharing "her" table with me while we watch a marathon of "My Cat From Hell" episodes:

I hope she didn't pick up any bad habits!

I couldn't quite finish Day Nymph, but she's getting close:

A bit more of the Orange Blossom Valdani floss, then some Kreinik and the beads and she'll be done. I'm really happy with her dress; I wanted it to have the colors of a sunrise, and the silks I used had nice blends of pink, peach and orange. 

Another couple of days and the whole piece will be done:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Day is emerging

I must have a bit of spring fever, as I haven't been in the mood to stitch much lately. It's been so nice outside that I've been going for walks and working in the yard, which leaves me too tired to do much stitching.

However, I did get a bit more done on Day Nymph:

I'm hoping to finish the top wings in the next couple of days; I'm looking forward to seeing them with all the beads attached.

Here's the entire piece so far:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Night Nymph is finished!

I finished Night Nymph last Friday, and am really happy with how she turned out:

I'm even more excited to see the rest of my "vision" for these two come to life, as Day Nymph starts to make an appearance:

Here's a closer picture of Day:

The colors in her wings are even prettier than Night's, and I can't wait to get the wings stitched! I'm hoping I can get this piece finished before my trip to Italy, which is now in a bit less than a month.

I'm also excited because I finally obtained a kit that was "the one that got away" (I think most stitchers have at least one chart/kit that they really, REALLY want!). It is a kit by Vervaco, called Autumn Fairy, and it was a Herrschner's exclusive about 10 years ago. I finally found one, and I think she will be my next start:

Finally, I had a question from my last post that I thought I would answer here:

AnnieMarch 30, 2015 at 1:54 PM

"It is soo beautiful!! I can see that you have already added some beads? How is that working? When I read advice in magazines they always say to do them last..? I've just started using beads, but they still scare me, the little things...haha!"

Annie, I think the only rule to cross stitching should be that the top leg of every stitch should go in the same direction; everything else is fair game! I also used to do everything in a particular order: stitch with floss, then add any metallic threads, then back stitch, then add beads...now I just do what works for me. 

I start from the top of a design and work my way down, extending my QSnaps as the piece grows. On larger designs, the QSnaps can get pretty big by the end, and I wouldn't be able to go back and stitch comfortably on such a large frame. So, before I add extensions, I finish up each part as I go, including the beads. Honestly, I think you should do whatever works best for YOU--the stitchy police will never catch you! ;)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Progress!

Except for a bit of a cough, I'm back to normal, and I was able to make quite a bit of progress on Night Nymph this past week. On Friday I added the bling to the top portion:

My husband and son were out of town for the weekend, so I was able to get a lot done over the past couple of days; here she is as of last night:

I'm thinking I might be able to finish her up this week; I'm looking forward to starting Day Nymph below her and see my vision for these designs come to life.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Not a lot of stitching...

...to report on this week; my son brought a nasty flu home from school, and just as he and my husband were getting over it it knocked me for a loop! Yesterday afternoon was the first time I even felt like stitching since last Thursday.

Before I got sick I stitched up Just Nan's Snow Deer as a commissioned piece:

Then I started Mirabilia's Night Nymph, and got a wing done (except for the beads) before the worst of the flu hit me:

And here she is as of last night:

I was hoping to get to her dress by now, since I'm anxious to see if the colors I chose are going to "work", but I couldn't get that far. It might be a little while before I finish the other wing, as I'm still feeling a bit out-of-it; I feel a nap coming on in the not-so-distant future!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Charlotte is done!

I finished her up at about 10pm last Thursday, so I was able to spend the weekend at my mom's in total relaxation, without an almost-finish bugging me! Here she is, on Sugar Maple Fabrics Shimmering Nightshade linen:

And a close-up of the gorgeous embellishments in her hair:

I'm so pleased with how she turned out, on a fabric that seems to have been created just for her. Now to save up some money to have her framed! An added bonus is that she was on my original list of WIPs to be slain, so I'm now at the halfway mark on that.

I need to get some housework done now, and stitch up an ornament, and then I'll be starting another Mirabilia project. This is one that I've been thinking about for a while, and just needed the "right" fabric for it; well, Leslie at Under The Sea Fabrics created that fabric for me. It is called Darkness Falls, and I'm going to be stitching Day and Night Nymphs on it:

Night will be at the top right, in a green dress, with Day below, in a dress the color of a sunrise. I am really excited to see if I can bring my vision of this piece to life. :)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Not quite there yet...

...but getting close! I have a bit more of the chartreuse sash, then a swoop of teal ribbon and the last little bit of red dress and Charlotte will be finished. Here she is as of last night:

I am really hoping to finish her this week, as I'm going to visit my mom this weekend and it would bug me if she's not done by then! ;)

This past Saturday I drove up to my LNS to check put the new Market releases (I placed an order for three of them), then spent the rest of the day in my craft room with Charlotte and Katniss:

I was planning on starting Moon Flowers after finishing Charlotte, but I think I've changed my mind. I've been playing with an idea for a while, and I asked Leslie at Under the Sea Fabrics to create the fabric I envisioned; she came up with this amazing color called Darkness Falls:

It is just perfect for what I had in mind, which is to stitch...well, more on that in the next post! ;)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

A bit more progress

I didn't stitch as much as usual last week, so progress on Charlotte slowed down a bit. Here she is as of last night:

I was able to get more done on the weekend than I did last week; can you guess what movie I watched while stitching? ;)

I'm hoping to get more work on her done this week, and to finish within the next couple of weeks. Mirabilia Moon Flowers should be on the way to me soon, and I don't want to start it until Charlotte is complete.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Charlotte progress

In the midst of a frigid Wisconsin winter, it's been nice to work with the bright, cheerful colors in Charlotte, and I made pretty good progress this past week:

Hopefully, I'll be able to finish her up in the next couple of weeks. I was thinking of starting another Mirabilia after Charlotte, because I re-discovered a gorgeous piece of fabric in my stash, and it occurred to me that Cottage Garden Fairy would be perfect on it:

The fairy would fit pretty much in the inner circle on the fabric, and I think it would look like she's in the midst of a moonlit garden. The fabric is a hand-painted X-scape by Sugar Maple Fabrics (SMF); I think she used actual leaves and grass on the fabric, in the bright sun, to get the effect she did.

So I thought this would be my next start, but then a new Mirabilia came out, and now I think I want to start it:

It's called Moon Flowers, and I just love the rich colors in this one. I decided that this one is SMF-worthy, so I pulled a few pieces out for a floss toss:

I'm going to use the piece on the left, called Northern Myst, as it pulls the colors from the design and is opalescent, so it will look like a starry night sky. Now to finish up Charlotte, so I can start this one once I get the chart.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Home from the framer

Last Friday I got the call from my framer that my July fairy was ready to be picked up; I was there about 20 minutes later! Picking up a framed piece always feels like opening a gift on Christmas morning, and this one was no exception.

I chose a red, suede mat to complement the color of the dress, a neutral beige inner mat to bring in the ribbon colors, and a brushed gold frame to highlight the gold beads:

She's now proudly hanging in my "Mirabilia" bedroom, which is slowly running out of wall space!

Since it felt so good to finish one of the WIPs on my original list of those to be "slain", I pulled out another one from the list: Mirabilia's Charlotte. This one is being stitched on Sugar Maple Fabrics Shimmering Nightshade, and here is what she looked like when she disappeared into the Bucket o'WIPs a few years back:

Here she is as of last night, after a week of stitching:

I love that the fabric has the teal, chartreuse and red from the dress in it. I have one more piece of this gorgeous linen left in my stash, just waiting for the perfect design to come along.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!