Temperature Stitch Along

I've always liked the idea of stitching a daily temperature chart for a year's high temperatures, but I'd never found a format that I liked until Carolyn Manning released one last week. It's based on a granny square afghan, which means stitching 379 little squares (or diamonds, since they're tilted)--I'm about 1/25th of the way there!

I decided to use light purple linen and dark purple floss for the squares; living in Wisconsin means there will be quite a bit of white used for the lower temperatures and I wanted to provide some contrast. I also created my own motifs for each temperature range, so it will be fun watching this come to life next year.

I plan to work on the squares periodically when I need a break from the Tempting Tangles model I started last week, and which I hope to finish sometime around the end of the year. The current TT SAL is Quakers in Japan, which has had the first four parts released to date:

Mirabilia's MD169 was finished, accepted and sent back last week, after discovering one last error that meant pulling out one of the colors used in different areas and replacing it. That wouldn't have been quite so bad if I hadn't already beaded those areas as that made cutting the stitches trickier, but it's all in the past now and I am greatly relieved! MD172 arrived the next day, and as it has a lot fewer colors than the previous one it should stitch up more quickly; I'm hoping to be able to start it next January.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Orchid Party

Two new Nora Corbett designs were released last Friday, so I can share them now. They are part of a new series called Orchid Party, and the first is NC269 Imperial Lady D:

Followed by NC270 Miss Cymbi:

When I stitch these NC designs I usually try to do the largest one first so I can feel like I'm on the downhill side once it's done, so I started with Imperial Lady D. However, the skirt on Miss Cymbi felt pretty big while I worked on it, so it's almost a toss up as to which was actually more work!

Today will be a very happy day, as I should be able to finish the the current Mirabilia model and submit a picture for return approval; hopefully no changes will be needed and it can be on its way. I was so worried that I might not make the deadline and now it'll be done three weeks early--after 30 years of stitching you would think I could estimate time better, but I'm still horrible at it! There were a lot of mistakes in the chart, most of which occur when the graphic designer at Wichelt converts Nora's hand drawn chart to a computer-generated version--this one has a lot of colors/symbols, so maybe that caused more mistakes. Hopefully I caught all (or at least most) of them, as I'll be disappointed if any are found after printing; I guess I'll find out next April, after it's released!

Now I will be taking a few days to get my house in order and maybe do a little stitching just for fun, then it will be on to the final Tempting Tangles model.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Tempting Tangles to share

Last week two Tempting Tangles SALs came to an end so I can finally share pictures. The first is Moment of Time, which I actually stitched three years ago:

I think this one would be fun to do again using over-dyed threads (and maybe some beads) in a different colorway, but no idea when I'll have the time to do it!

The second design is Quakers in England, which is the third in Deb's "Quakers in..." series:

I loved working on all the little motifs in this one, and while the cottages were quite a bit of work they look amazing, so well worth the effort.

The first in this series was Quakers in Holland, which is currently unavailable; it will be released in full chart form next March. The second was France, which is still available for a short time more, then will be absent for a while until it comes out as a full chart. England has just been completed, and Japan is currently three parts into a SAL; I stitched that model as well, so I'll show some of that design as more parts are released. Scotland will be the next stop in the journey, and I'll be starting that one very soon. You can check out Deb's new shop for these and a lot more gorgeous designs. A word of advice: if you like any that are current or just-completed SALs you might want to get them now, as when they are released in full chart form later they will cost about twice as much.

I am very relieved to report that I am now confident that I will be able to finish the current Mirabilia model by the December 10 deadline. It is a big design, and I was really concerned that I hadn't set enough time aside, but I have made good progress in the past six weeks and the end is starting to appear so I am feeling much better.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!