More Blue Jeans and Daisies

I drove up to The Stitching Bee this past Saturday to pick up part 2 of Blue Jeans and Daisies, as I'm getting closer to the point where I'll need it. (I also picked up the fourth house in Santa's Village, but we won't talk about that, since I only have one house finished!) This is coming along pretty nicely, considering I can only work on it one day a week:

I've also been fooling around with a conversion to create a St. Patrick's Day fairy from one of Nora Corbett's Holiday Fairies. I played with some colored pencils on a chart, and I think I've got a pretty good start. Sometime soon I'll have to pull some threads and work out color gradients. :)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Winter may never end!

I am definitely feeling the effects of a long winter, as even stitching isn't bringing me the joy that it usually does. Yesterday, we got another few inches of snow, and today the temperature is 14F with the wind chill making it feel like -6F; yikes!

One bright spot was the stitchy mail that arrived yesterday:

It was enough to brighten my spirits for an afternoon, at least!

I haven't been stitching as much as I should, even on the model I'm working on. Monique, you asked if I could share pictures; unfortunately, I can't. Most of the Rosewood Manor designs that I stitch are still a few months away from being published, so no pictures are allowed. As it is now, I have returned three pieces that still haven't been released, so they should be out pretty soon.

I managed to get a bit more done on Blue Jeans and Daisies, which is another bright spot in this dreary winter, as the colors are so pretty and cheerful:

Plus, the Mirabilia Minions Retreat is, as of today, one month away. Now that's something to look forward to!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week! 

My stitchy "helper"

The model I'm currently working on is going to be pretty big when finished (by the time I get to the end, my Qsnaps will be 23"x23"), so I pulled out my portable, large table to use while working on it. Apparently, Sabrina took this as an invitation to share my work space:

This was a bit of a problem, as Sabrina is a 13 lb., very fluffy cat; she did an admirable job of covering most of the chart! There was only one thing to do--lure her away with a toy:

After playing for a while, she decided to go get a drink and a nibble; problem solved!

I did manage to get a bit more done on Blue Jeans and Daisies, as well:

Part 2 has been released, and it is just as pretty as the first part, so I am glad I decided to stitch this. :)

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Just another specialty thread

A bit of back story: I have been a cat mom of one or more cats ever since 1997, and about five years ago I started keeping any shed whiskers that I find in the house. And I happen to know that I am not alone in this, as it has been discussed on the 123Stitch message board; some of us cat people REALLY love our cats! ;D Can you guess where I'm going with this?

I've always thought that someday I would stitch some kind of pet design that would just cry out for the use of real whiskers, and yesterday, that design finally arrived! I received Just Nan's Honey Bunny in the mail, and it is such a cute little design that I decided to stitch it up quickly. I stitched it last night, and finished it today. While I was working on it, I kept thinking about how I would stitch/attach the called-for whiskers, and then it hit me--kitty whiskers!

Luckily, I no longer just have black cats, so I am starting to get a good supply of white whiskers as well as black. (Ooh, maybe I'll stitch up a black bunny, too!) Anyway, here are the whiskers I used:

And here is my little bunny:

The whiskers were perfect, as the large end is stiff enough to just slide in the fabric. Unfortunately, I had to crop them a bit, so they're not as curly as they should be, but I love it anyway. I have been giggling to myself all day just thinking about using them. :)

I hope it makes you smile, as well!

P.S. No kitties were harmed in the making of this piece; I only collect naturally shed whiskers! ;D

A bit of progress...

...on Blue Jeans and Daisies, as I spent some time with it yesterday:

I did change up the house a bit; the door and window frames were supposed to be the same brown as the roof, but that just seemed too dark to me. I mean, if someone really chose to paint their house pink, do you think they would chose brown for the trim? ;D I am really enjoying working on this one, with it's bright, pretty colors, but away it goes for the week.

I also "cheated" a bit, and took another day to stitch up a name tag for the Mirabilia Minions Retreat this April. As I may have mentioned a time or two, I adore bling, so the only non-sparkly materials I used were the fabric and the thread for the name:

Now I just need to figure out how to finish it into a name tag; this could be interesting! Good thing I still have more than a month to work on it.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week, and found lots of goodies from the Nashville trade show!