One week from now...

...I will be in (or hopefully almost in) Cincinatti, Ohio for the Mirabilia retreat. After attending the first two events, I missed out last year, so I'm looking forward to seeing my Mira friends again.

I've made a start on one of the newest Nora Corbett releases, The Blossom Collector, so I can take it with me to work on during the retreat. The chart photo makes her look very pink, so I chose SMF Hummingbird Lugana to try to soften that pink up a bit; so far, so good:

Judy Odell of Just a Thought Needlework Design recently asked for some small stitched pieces to finish for a new technique that she was working on. I sent her my Monsterbubbles Twitter finish, and she sent it back to me like this:

How cute is that?! She has shared the pdf with the instructions in her FB group, Just a Thought Needlework Design.

Judy has also started selling a stretcher frame set (info can be found in the group), and I bought one from her almost as soon as she released them, as I have long been wondering how to handle the piece of fabric I need for the HAED I bought over four years ago. The design is Foxglove Ball, and the stitch count is 625 x 833; on 25ct fabric over-1 the fabric needs to be at least 31" x 39". I got the 36" rods from Judy, cut my fabric to 32" wide and loaded the whole yard length onto the frame:

It has great tension, and of course works perfectly with my JAT stand. I recently printed out the entire 129-page pattern (which has it's own binder!), and I've had the floss ready for years:

Now I just need  to work up the courage to actually start something that daunting! To paraphrase an old saying "The masterpiece of 520,625 stitches starts with a single stitch". If I worked on nothing but this project (as if!), and completed one page a month, I could have this done in 10 years...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Flitting about

We've had a few days of unseasonably warm temps here in Wisconsin, so I tried to get outside and do some yard work while it was nice; those first few days of spring-like weather are so liberating! As a result, I didn't have as much stitching time, which is okay because I'm having a hard time sticking with any particular project

I did make a start on the anniversary piece, which has a beautiful blue palette but is going to get pretty repetitive with the border:

I managed to get the stitching done on the next two birthstone designs, but don't have the beads to finish them. To save on shipping from Canada I'm waiting until a couple more are released, and the last time I ordered it took five weeks to get here, so I'm guessing it will be a while before I get back to these!

This past week I noticed that Mill Hill had released six new Laurel Burch kits, dogs this time, and I just had to order them. Of course, I already have the six cat kits, so I pulled one out and made a start on it; this one is called Feathered Friend:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Gypsy Queen is done!

I finished her up this past Tuesday, and I just love her so much! It has been quite a while since I stitched a full-sized Mirabilia without putting it aside for a time, and I'm glad I stuck with her and finished. My wonderful husband got me a gift certificate to my framer for Christmas, so I'll be taking her over soon!

After the finish I spent some time cleaning up my craft room (i.e. putting away new stash!), and trying to decide what to work on next. Over a year ago I purchased a chart for my 25th wedding anniversary, which is now in just under two months, so I guess I'd better get stitching if I want to have it done in time. It's Everlasting Love by Praiseworthy Stitches:

I also recently bought the next two birthstone charts from Shannon Christine Designs. These stitch up pretty quickly, so they'll be nice when I want a quick stitchy fix!

Before I get too deep into any design, I decided to work on my Florence canvas, using materials received during my trip to The Primitive Hare's stitching retreat in Italy last year. I'll probably do a bit more tweaking, but here is a general idea of what it will look like:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!