Christmas in July...

...is finally here! Every year on July 25th, Picture This Plus has a Christmas in July sale, and I usually end up buying a few pieces even though I don't NEED more fabric. This year they limited it to their fabrics only, and it still took them 14 weeks to get everything dyed and shipped; they sell a LOT of fabric during the sale!

They are very upfront about the wait time, however, and the fabrics are worth the wait. This year I got pieces of Crystal Chrysalis, Crystal Arctic, Nocturne and two pieces of Mystic that I plan to use with a couple of Thea Gouverneur's city designs:

I've been trying to decide which finished piece I want to take to the framer, as I still have part of my birthday gift certificate left. While going through my pile, I came across Chatelaine's Mini Mandala Circle 2, which I stitched a few years ago. I have a picture of it in the sidebar of my blog, and as I was looking at it about a year ago I realized that I made a mistake! I've remembered it ever since, so a couple of days ago I pulled it out, dug through my stash to find the chart and finally fixed the error.

Because the mistake caught my eye so easily (though apparently not at the time I stitched it!), I thought I would have a contest here: the first person who can spot the error and comment with its location will win a small prize (yet to be determined). You can either leave your email with your answer, or check back later to see if you won and I will post my email for the winner to contact me. Ready, set, search!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

ETA: Well, that didn't take long at all; sharp-eyed Dima spotted the mistake. I was missing two stitches in the lower right side; the needle in the picture points to the fixed area:

Now that you know where to look, I'll bet your eye will immediately be drawn to the mistake in the first picture; I know mine always is! Now I just need to take a good picture and replace the "faulty" one on my blog.

This is going to take a while...

...the model I'm currently stitching for Rosewood Manor, that is. Not only is it large, but it's being done on 40ct linen, which is starting to get hard for me to see. Oh, and a good part of it is over-one thread on the 40ct; woo hoo!

I've tried to wear reading glasses, which help a lot, but I can't stand the feel of glasses on my face; I end up with a major headache from scrunching my nose up against the glasses. Then I tried a magnifier, which also works well, except that the piece looks kind of wavy under the magnifier and I end up feeling almost seasick after a while.

I've been working on this for over three weeks, and I'm probably only about a third of the way finished. However, I will soldier on and get it done, and it will be gorgeous and well worth the effort!

Speaking of Rosewood Manor, Karen Kluba, the designer, has a daughter who was in a horrible accident this past August; she nearly died, and has a very long road to recovery ahead of her. Karen has designed a special chart in honor of her daughter, called Crazy Socks:

Sales of the chart will help the family with expenses related to the accident and therapy, as well as a school fund for Rachel's sons. I bought mine last week; you can find information about the chart here.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!