Goal reached and a new (old) goal

I almost realized my goal of having both Miss Apple Blossom and Miss Cherry Blossom finished before the next two designs in the series were released on the 15th, as I was able to complete Miss Cherry Blossom on the 17th:

I'm now waiting for the two new releases to reach me, which are Misses Blackberry and Blueberry. I'm hopeful that they will work on the same fabric used for the first two, which is Zweigart's green/white leaves Belfast:

After Cherry Blossom was done, I decided to pull out Teresa Wentzler's You Were Hatched, which I started back in January and did just a little bit of work on before switching to a Chatelaine I wanted to have done before the Chatelaine retreat this past July:

The Wentzler-themed Queen City Stitch Retreat starts three weeks from this Thursday, so I figured it was time to get this out and see if I could finish it before then. After three days with plenty of stitching time, I'm pretty sure I can have it done later this week:

Definitely glad I chose a small one to do; there are five shades of blues used in this piece, and all five are made up of blends, which seems just a tad excessive--can't imagine how many blends are used in one of her big ones!😄

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Small change in plans

I was on track to finish Miss Cherry Blossom before the 15th, but a couple of things have made that look less likely. The first was part 4 of Frosted Pumpkin's Welcome to the Circus being released last Thursday, which I completed on Saturday:

The second was a Heart in Hand model that arrived Saturday afternoon. That will probably take me most of the rest of the week to finish, then hopefully I can get back to Miss Cherry Blossom. I have all of the white and lightest pink in her skirt done, and I'm hoping that filling in the rest of the colors should go relatively quickly:

I wanted to have her done by the 15th in case the next two designs in this series are released that day, but I wouldn't even receive the charts until close to two weeks after that date, so I should still have plenty of time to finish this one first.

In other news, we had an extremely close call with disaster last week, when half of one of our 24-year-old trees came down during an early morning storm. Somehow, it managed to avoid our house, except for one little branch that just kissed a gutter:

I thought that wind had brought it down, but it looks like it was actually a lightning strike:

We're having it assessed in a couple of days; I was hoping that we might be able to save the remaining half, but that seems unlikely if it was a lightning strike. It's really sad to lose a tree that we planted when we first moved into our home, but I'm so thankful that it didn't hit our house!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Full steam ahead

I started Nora Corbett's Miss Cherry Blossom just over a week ago, and I would say I'm past the halfway point right now, so well on track to finish before the 15th. I ended up adding the beads to the top area once the wings were done, so now I have sparkles to enjoy as I work on the skirt:

I realized that I never shared photos of the two Nora Cobett models I stitched that were released in July (the day I left for my big adventure, so no surprise it slipped my mind!). They are from the Caribbean Collection, St. Thomas (on the left) and Belize:

I haven't had any Mirabilia/Nora Corbett models for a few months now; the last one I stitched should be the December Mirabilia release.

For now, it's back to Miss Cherry Blossom--might even have her finished before next Monday. 🤞🏻

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

A finish 18 years in the making!

I am ecstatic to report that I was able to finish Chatelaine's Mini Mandala Mystery 1 yesterday! I started it back when it was a mystery SAL in 2008, and this is as far as I got before it disappeared into the WIP bin:

I pulled it back out last month to take to the Chatelaine retreat, and last week I decided that it was finally time to work on it until it was done!

I've rewarded myself with a new start, Nora Corbett's Miss Cherry Blossom:

I've already stitched Miss Apple Blossom, and I feel like there's a good chance that the September releases will be the next two in this series, so I'm going to see if I can get this finished before the 15th.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Feeling accomplished

This past Saturday I did the final finishing on the two IMAKE kits (Spider & Black Cat and Golden Pumpkin) that I received the previous Saturday; each one took just three days to stitch, then one day to finish both, so in one week I got two adorable finishes:

These kits came with really cute charms/embellishments and they included finishing supplies. I did use the backing boards provided, but chose my own fabrics and trims, and I'm really happy with the results. I still don't really enjoy the finishing process, but getting good results makes it worth the effort. There are two more kits in this set of Halloween designs, so I'm hoping they'll offer to send the other two in the future...🤞🏻

Yesterday I pulled out Chatelaine's Mini Mandala Mystery 1, which I'm thinking I could finish either this week or next:

This is as big as it gets; I have a few more regular stitches to do in the outer border, then specialty stitches and the remaining beads and crystals and I can finally have a finish 18 years in the making!

I forgot to share part 3 of Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery's Welcome to the Circus last week, which is Pancake the Panda:

I am firmly in the "clowns are creepy" camp, so I was relieved that they were able to make this clown cute! 🤡

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Recovering after retreats

It took a couple of weeks, but I'm rested from my almost-two-week-long adventure and getting back into my normal routine--so, a lot of stitching! 😄

I bought and kitted Heart in Hand's Wee Santa 2026 in Tulsa, and was able to finish it in the morning on the last day of the Chatelaine retreat:

He is stitched on Wichelt's French Country 32ct linen using the recommended threads. I'd like to work on fully finishing this in time for Christmas, but right now he's on top of the pile in my "finishes" bin.

I used the rest of the last day to work on Chatelaine's Mini Mystery Mandala 1, which I started back when it was a mystery in 2008. This is as far as I got back then:

To this day, I have no recollection of buying, kitting or starting this design, but 2008 was right around the time my son's issues started kicking into high gear; I'm sure there are a LOT of things that I don't remember for the space of a few years because I was just constantly in crisis mode.

I made decent progress at the retreat and got it to this point:

Then I worked on it more last week, and this is how it looks right now:

Back when I started this, I had fairly recently discovered hand dyed fabrics and especially loved opalescent linens; I think this one is probably a Silkweaver fabric, possibly Midnight Fantasy, but that's just an educated guess. If I were kitting this today I would have picked a different fabric, but several people at the retreat told me that they loved it with the design, so it was nice to get that positive feedback; maybe 2008 me wasn't just blinded by a love of sparkles!

I'll probably pull this one out again later this month and hopefully get it finished in September, but after I set it aside I went back to working on IMAKE's Aster Courtyard. I have fully completed the top border, including the beads, and it is turning out really well. The back stitching for the gate is kind of a nightmare, but it is worth the effort:

Now I need to decide if I'll continue the borders down next or start on the center portion. I'm leaning towards the center, partly because the thought of back stitching three more of those gates in the rest of the border is pretty daunting! 

IMAKE offered to send me one of their new little Halloween kits, and they ended up sending two, which was a pleasant surprise:

These come with everything you need to stitch them, as well as finishing kits with really pretty cording (a part of finishing that I haven't even attempted as of yet). I received the package last Friday and I spent the weekend working on Spider & Black Cat:

I did replace the kit fabric with my own, partly because I wanted to play with the color and partly because the kit fabric is cut a bit small for my taste--I like at least 3" borders on all sides because I use Qsnaps, and 3" gives me enough room to get the clamps on and tie on and off comfortably. The kit comes with fabric that has about 2" borders, and that just isn't enough for me. This fabric is large enough to stitch both designs, so I'll probably stitch them both first and then work on the finishing.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!