Wings, bling and bs!

I just put the last stitches into Faerie Winter Dream's dress, so now I just have to finish stitching the wings, add some backstitching and then attach all that glorious bling!

Depending on how much time I get this weekend, I'm hoping to have her finished by the early part of next week. This is actually the part of a project that is the most difficult for me to get through; I'm almost done, but not quite close enough to really push forward and finish. Hopefully I'll get through it, and get more excited once those big wings are done!

I'm starting to get used to the absence of Keishu and Mai Ling in my craft room, especially since my Maxie has taken pity on me and started to hang out with me quite a bit. She usually starts out by sitting on the ottoman next to me, asking to be petted:

After an appropriate amount of petting, she settles down for a rest:

And when she really wants to sleep, she heads for the drawer across from my stitching table, where she settles in for long, cozy naps:

It's impossible to be lonely with such a wonderful companion. ;)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Progress!

I have decided that I am going to finish "Faerie Winter Dream" before moving on to my next project, come what may! I have been working on her for a week, now, and am hoping that I can finish her in another week, or so:

Nora will be releasing three more seasonal faeries through Wichelt Imports, and I am already looking forward to stitching them. ;)

I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a wonderful day, filled with family and food. My mom joined us yesterday, and we remembered that at this time last year she still had a hole in her throat from where the trach tube had been. Now she has recovered completely, and is even moving back into her house for a few years. That means that I will be losing my two craft room companions, Mai Ling and Keishu, as they will now be going home with their "real mom". They are leaving tomorrow morning, and I know that I am going to cry, even though I'm so happy that they'll be going back to their own home. I guess I'll just have to plan on visiting them...uh, I mean, visiting my mom... often! ;D

Here are a couple pictures of them; in the first, they're in the chair behind my stitching chair, and in the second they are in the bed on the floor of my craft room:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Winter stitching

I guess it's the right time of year for winter stitching, although it was so nice outside today that I went out and trimmed back our butterfly bush for the winter. I need to get some more yard work done...and cleaning...and Thanksgiving is right around the corner...and... I'm getting tired already!

Friday morning I finished up the model for Karen, and got it in the mail. Now I have a very short window of "for me" stitching time, because Karen already has my next project ready to be mailed to me. So I decided to start Nora Corbett's "Faerie Winter Dream", which is in the Jan. 2013 issue of Cross Stitch & Needlework magazine. I chose a Silkweaver solo on opal Belfast to stitch her on, because I thought it looked very wintry and icy:

The pattern calls for two colors of Caron Wildflowers, but I'm using Waterlilies, instead, as I didn't like the thought of the texture difference. The beading on this piece is going to be gorgeous; I'm already looking forward to getting to that part!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, with lots of stitching time after the big meal!

Door County retreat

This weekend, Kendra, the owner of The Stitching Bee in Green Bay, hosted an awesome stitching retreat in Egg Harbor, WI. It was so much fun, and I spent so much time stitching, that I needed a 3-hour nap when I got home this afternoon, just to recover!

The dinners were yummy, and my room (really a mini-condo) was very comfortable. Also, free WiFi, so I could keep up with the boards on my down time! Here is a pic of the terrific goodie bag that Kendra put together:

We played "Name That Tune" for door prizes on Saturday night, with much fun had by all. :)  Next year will be the tenth anniversary of this retreat, so I'm already looking forward to that!

I also have to do a shout-out to Monica, who recognized me (or my blog, anyway) when she saw my Lizzie*Kate bonus pieces all stitched up; it was very fun to meet someone from the blogosphere. Also, to Donna, who I really enjoyed chatting with. :)

Since the piece that I'm stitching for Karen has gotten too large to travel with comfortably, I decided to take along my Mirabilia "Silver Moon Tea", and I was able to finish the entire moon!

Pre-retreat:

Post-retreat:

Now when I get back to stitching on her, I'll be able to fill in her body before I move on to more background!

For now, it's back to my model, which should be finished this week; it's always a nice feeling of accomplishment to put one of those in the mail. :)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!