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!

A Tiny Town model and a SAL update

Heart in Hand is releasing a new Tiny Town at Market, called Needleworker's Tiny Town:

I stitched this for Cecilia, to be finished into a drum which should be shown on the chart cover when it's released:

Faye Riggsbee did the drum finishing and posted a couple of photos on FB yesterday:

I can tell that this is the one I stitched because one of the tomatoes has a few lighter pink stitches at its bottom. 🍅

Last Tuesday I finished part 2 of Tiny Modernist's Poison Garden SAL; here it is before and after back stitching:

And the full piece so far:

The next part drops around March 15th, so I'll be working on the Mirabilia model until then. It's on the smaller side for a Mira, so I'm hoping it won't take more than six to eight weeks to stitch. I may not post for a bit while I work on it, but I'll be back when I have anything that I can share.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Last update on Rose Lights for a while

I received a Mirabilia model last Friday, so I'll be putting Rose Lights away for the next couple of months. I feel like I've made good progress in the 3.5 weeks I've been working on it, so I'm reasonably confident I can still have it done before July. Here is my progress up until last Thursday:

I started the model on Friday, but then I received part 2 of Tiny Modernist's Poison Garden SAL on Saturday so I decided to take a few days to get that stitched; it should be done today or tomorrow, then I'll focus on the model.

Thanks for the good thoughts for my Callie, they were much appreciated. It turns out she does have chronic renal failure, which is not curable. I have to administer subcutaneous fluids every day, which is extremely stressful to me as it means poking a needle in her back and trying to hold her still while squeezing the fluid bag long enough to get 100ml into her. It's easier when my husband is home, so he can hold her and I can work the bag, but really difficult to do by myself when he's traveling for work. I've switched her over to prescription food, which she went after pretty well for a few days, but now isn't very interested in. I don't yet know how long she'll be with us, but I'll do my best to keep her comfortable and wait for her to tell me when it's time to say goodbye.

So grateful that I have stitching to help me through the difficult times.

Rose Lights progress

I have been working industriously on Rose Lights for almost two weeks now, and am happy with the progress I've made:

All but one of the threads have been used, and I think they all look really good on the French Country linen.

I have made a small change in the black border to make it more symmetrical, since I realized when I got to the right side that a couple of the "sideways S" shapes had an extra stitch in them (circled in red):

It was the same on all four sides, but the longer I looked at it, the more it bothered me. It would have been more work trying to frog the two extra stitches, so I ended up adding a stitch to the rest and am much happier now.

Last night I spent about four and a half hours at the emergency vet (which is actually on the shorter side for a visit there) with my sweet Callie, who will be 17 this year:

It looks like she has a UTI, but there is also a concern about renal failure. I'll be following up with my usual vet in a couple of days; I'm hoping for the best but trying to prepare myself for bad news. While I waited last night I started a Mill Hill kit, Halloween, as it's always best to keep my hands and mind occupied in those situations:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

A SAL finish--yay!

I am very happy to say that Histoires de Moutons en Hiver is done!

More importantly, the rest of that last alphabet finally showed up in the final part--phew!! I really had so much fun with this design, but it also feels good to have it finished and to move on after having it on the go for two months. As soon as it was done last Wednesday, I took it off the Qsnaps and loaded up the fabric for Chatelaine's Rose Lights; here's my small start at the end of the first day:

And my progress as of last night:

After stitching all that black and off-white (two shades of it) in the border, it felt good to move on to some colors yesterday. I'm really happy with the fabric color so far, as I think it looks good both with the off-white and the black, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the colors look on it.

I did get a bit more done on You Were Hatched before I started Rose Lights:

I do want to continue to make progress on this, but right now I'm in the grips of "new start-itis" on Rose Lights and it's hard for me to switch my focus away from that. But if I need a break from that I can work on this one, or maybe I'll make myself take one day each week to work on it--I still have plenty of time to decide (for now!).

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Ending in sight

I am ready for the 14th and final part of Jardin Prive's Histoires de Moutons en Hiver--still hoping that the rest of that last alphabet is included!

This has been a really enjoyable stitch along, perfect for adding all kinds of little buttons (and jingle bells!) and a couple of black sheep, but I'm looking forward to having it finished later this week. Once it's off the Qsnaps, I'll be able to start Chatelaine's Rose Lights.

Once part 13 was done last week, I went back to work on Purrfect Christmas Santa and now he's finished:

The kitty is supposed to have a white tail, but the 18ct perforated paper I used only comes in white (the kit came with 14ct brown), so I gave him an orange tail instead. I recently stocked up on the 18ct paper, because I don't know if the perforated PVC that's replacing the paper is going to be offered in 18ct, though I sure hope it is. Here's a size comparison between two Santas of the same stitch count, one on 14ct and one on 18ct:

Once Santa was done, I started a new stitch along that I just saw last week, which is Tiny Modernist's Poison Garden:

There are six parts, releasing on the 15th of each month; the first part took me three days to stitch, so this should be really easy to keep up with. Here's part 1, before and after back stitching:

I'm using Dark Cobblestone Belfast, which is a great color; I wanted to order some more, but 123Stitch no longer has it on their site, so I don't know if it's been discontinued. I need to do a bit of searching to see if I can find some elsewhere, because it is a really nice, darker neutral color to have on hand.

That took me up until yesterday evening, then I needed something to work on while I watched the Bears lose (😭), so I made a small start on You Were Hatched on black Belfast:

I'm glad I picked a small Wentzler design, because between the confetti, the blends and the back stitching, I'm pretty sure trying to stitch a big one while also trying to get Rose Lights done (or mostly done) wouldn't have been a good idea!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!