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!

Needle Nook Book

Judy Odell of Just A Thought Needlework Designs will be presenting a class at Nashville Market later this month, with instructions on how to make her Needle Nook Book (I love that name, it's so fun to say!). Here's a picture of the class piece:

And the inside:

To show the versatility of the finishing, she put together a couple more Nook Books to show at Nashville; this is one, which is a great design for it (I think this was a freebie from Cherrywood Design Studio):

And here is MINE, which I will be receiving after Market! The design is "Purr Like You Mean It" by Designs by Lisa:

I'm not sure of the distribution of this one; I think that shops that attend Market can take the class, and then will be able to host a class/sell the instructions. I'm sure more information will be available after Market.

Here at home, after finishing my July fairy I stitched up this pretty little piece for my friend Donna:

I'm actually at a bit of a loss as to what I want to work on next. I have so many WIPs I could pull out, but then I get the urge to start something new...such a difficult dilemma!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

July's Amethyst Fairy is now a Ruby Fairy

I finished her last night around 9pm, and I'm so pleased to finally have her done:

As near as I can tell right now, I started her either at the end of December 2005 or the beginning of January 2006, then put her away in the Bucket o'WIPs later in January 2006. Nine years in the Bucket, and all she needed was a few weeks of work!

If I had it to do over, there are a couple of changes I would make, but all in all I'm happy with the conversion. Sometime this week I'll try to add a page to my blog with the changes I made.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!