Still stitching like crazy

I still have no models in the house and I am still really enjoying it--I don't remember the last time I had over a month to just work on whatever struck my fancy! It might be a bit difficult to buckle down once I get more "work" in, but I am ready anytime now.

I finished Madame Chantilly's Cats in the Rain a couple of weeks ago, stitched on a Silkweaver solo Belfast linen and personalized to look more like me and some of my cats:

Once that was done the urge hit to stitch another block on my colorized version of Black'd Skie, which I finished about a week ago. This piece is right at the halfway point now:

A project that I've had in mind for several years has been Just Nan's 12 Days of Christmas WhimZi, which has the 12 designs in a size meant for her WhimZi frames (which are no longer sold but I bought when they were available). While looking for a fabric for another project the other day I came across my stash of Tattersall linen and thought how fun it would be to use it for the 12 Days:

I've now stitched the first day (except for the metallic used to outline the purple number box) and it fits pretty well in the square:

I'm toying with the idea of adding a border of metallic thread and/or beads between the stitching and the fabric border but I'll think about that after I have a few more squares stitched. I would still like to do these individually as well, to hang on the tree, but I think they'll be really pretty together like this. There is a lot of fun detail in these, which is amazing considering they're only 29x29 stitches.

Finally, last Thursday part 7 of The Rooky Wood SAL was released; I thought I had finished it last night but then realized that I had forgotten the crescent moon cut-outs on the shutters so after a few minutes of work this morning it's now done (except for a few areas I'll do when the adjoining parts come out):

There was a snippet of the house when this mystery SAL was announced and it's what made me want to stitch it; it has not disappointed as I think it's adorable and am looking forward to seeing the whole house completed in parts 10 and 11 (I'm assuming a bit there...).

Not sure what I'm going to work on today; I could start Day 2 of the Just Nan design, I have a couple of Mirabilia's that I'd like to start sometime, I have Heart in Hand's Patriotic Tiny Town ready to go as well or I could start another square of Black'd Skie--too many choices, never enough time...

Wishing everyone all the best in the New Year!

The Snow Maiden

Mirabilia MD179 The Snow Maiden was released today so I can finally share pictures of this icy beauty:

 

I love the description from the Mirabilia site: "Her name is Snegurocka. For many years, there have been plays and music written from this Russian fairy tale about a girl made out of snow."

Not sure if Snegurocka is a misprint, but when I Googled I got results for Snegurochka. I've never heard of her but I like the story, even if it's kind of sad (the one where she gets a warm heart and then melts...).

Fun fact: when I stitched her she was called Snow Storm Queen.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

The easy part is done

The Hands on Design Cookie Exchange SAL started last Wednesday with part 1, followed by part 2 on Friday and part 3 yesterday, and I managed to get all of the parts stitched on the day they were released:

 

I did make a few very minor changes, including using a Rhodes stitch for the holly berries instead of the Smyrna stitch that was called for; it made for nice, rounded berries:

So that's the easy part complete--now we get the finishing instructions tomorrow and that's the part that I'm not very good at! I'm hoping it'll be simple enough for me to do a decent job on as it would be nice to add this to my decorations when I get them out later this week.

On the days between installments I finally got around to starting Madame Chantilly's Cats in the Rain, which I am changing up a bit:

There are nine cats in this design, and while I've never had that many at one time I did have eight in my house for several months back in 2011/2012 when my mom lived with us for a while and brought her four cats. Here's a picture taken at feeding time (otherwise they would never be this close together!) of all but one of the kitties:

This week I need to get some cleaning done and then get the Christmas tree up and decorations out so stitching time will be curtailed, but I'm hoping to get Cats in the Rain finished by the end of next week. That would work out well if I end up getting a model from Wichelt in the next couple of weeks; I have really enjoyed having some time solely for my own stitching, and now am getting ready to get back to "work" feeling refreshed.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Going stitch crazy!

Well, I might not be able to stitch all of the things but I'm sure having fun trying! I'll start with Heart in Hand's Christmas Tiny Town, which I finished on 11/18:

It's hard to get a good picture of the entire piece because it's pretty wide, so here are a couple photos of smaller sections that show the fabric color better (PTP Dwarf Cashel):

I did use the recommended threads for this, though I made a few minor changes within the design, including "lighting" all of the windows instead of leaving some dark--for some reason I have to have them lit up. I will definitely be getting Patriotic Tiny Town when I place my next order at 123Stitch, and am looking forward to stitching it as well.

As soon as this one was done I pulled out a Lizzie*Kate chart that I had gotten about a year or so ago. It's in the November 2014 issue of Cross Stitch Crazy (I found one on eBay but the digital version is also available) and I just fell in love with it when someone posted their finish in the L*K FB group and immediately had to find the magazine; actually starting and stitching it took a bit longer but it's done now! It's called Christmas Sampler, and it's on PTP Crystal Heroic Lugana:

That was finished on the 23rd, and I wanted to start Cats in the Rain but I had a Covid booster that day and felt kind of off on the 24th so I didn't stitch at all. I still felt a bit under the weather on Thanksgiving so my sweet husband did most of the cooking and I was able to do some work on The Rooky Wood part 5 which was released that day, and then finished it on the 26th:

On the 24th Belinda of Blue Ribbon Designs posted a freebie on her blog which I thought was really cute, so instead of starting Cats in the Rain I pulled some threads and fabric and started My Frosty Friend on the 27th, finishing it yesterday:

Since Belinda had pointed out that it complemented her ornament from the 2020 JCS Christmas Ornaments issue I decided to stitch that next, since I already had fabric and threads at the ready; this is Rejoicing Reindeer, finished just this morning:

These were both stitched mainly with Silk'n Colors from The Thread Gatherer in what has become my favorite combination of Christmas colors, which are SNC280 Kringle's Coat, SNC230 Forest Berries (especially love how this looks in "Christmas" in the finished ornament) and SNC181 Golden Pines. I had stitched an ornament with them four years ago, and when I went through my stash to look for colors for the BRD ornament they still called to me more than any other colors:

So NOW I think I'll start Cats in the Rain and work on it tonight and tomorrow, then on Wednesday we are supposed to receive part 1 of The Cookie Exchange SAL by Hands on Design and I will be working on that. No clue what it's going to look like, but I am ready to go:

I bought that embellishment pack five years ago because the little cookie cutters were just too cute; now I'm hoping this is the year I finally have a reason to use them!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

I want to stitch all of the things!

I am currently feeling almost giddy with stitchy choices as I sent a model back last Friday and now should have at least a month with no models in the house--so exciting! The first thing I did was get caught up on the Rooky Wood SAL, which had part 4 released last Thursday:

Saturday I took a ride up to my LNS in Green Bay, The Stitching Bee, and came home with some goodies. I've been looking at Heart in Hand's Christmas Tiny Town for a while now, and as Kendra had it in the shop I finally bought it; as an added bonus she even had all of the over-dyed threads in stock. So that evening I picked a fabric and made a start on it; this is where I left off last night:

I'm already thinking I'll get the Patriotic Tiny Town, and the designer has said there will be more in the series so I will be watching for those in the future. Sometimes a simple design like this where you can have small finishes within a larger piece is just so fun to work on.

Another design that I had on my wish list for quite a while was Madame Chantilly's Cats in the Rain. I leave things on my list for a while and then once in a while I go through and either delete or buy some of the items--this one made the "buy" cut. I'm thinking I will start it after I finish the Christmas town, so it is ready to go; I'm changing the yellow coat to pink and the blue umbrella to purple as those colors seem to go a little better with the fabric I chose (the little kitty needle minder was another find at my LNS):

I'm going to change some of the kitties colors a bit, and I was going to make the girl's hair a lighter brown like mine used to be but then I thought I'll make her hair white like mine is now (I'm "only" 54, but my hair turned white in my forties so I've learned to embrace it by now!). Hoping to start this one later this week.

After these I might try to get another block done on Black'd Skie, and I'd also like to get another CEC mitten stitched up soon. It's been a while on these now so I still have a spring-themed one kitted up, even though I'm more in the mood for Christmas now. Speaking of Cross Eyed Cricket and Christmas, there is a cute Christmas freebie now available on her site--another one I'd like to stitch! I can already feel my free time slowly slipping away...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Mira Mervember

A few years ago in the Mira, Mira on the Wall group on FB someone came up with an event called Mervember SAL, which basically meant that you started a Mirabilia or Nora Corbett mermaid design on November 1 and tried to complete it by October 31 of the following year. I was asked about it by a member recently and after determining that there was interest in doing it again I created an event for it in the group. However, events can now only be set up for a maximum of two weeks and of course most of these mermaids are going to take much longer than that to complete so I ended up creating a new group for the SAL that can run for a year. It's up and running now and people have started posting their starts/WIPs, so please feel free to come over and check it out.

I have at least one of the larger mermaids started (several years ago now) but I decided to stick with one or two of the smaller Nora Corbett designs--they both call for the same flosses, so as long as I've pulled the materials for one I figured I might as well stitch both. These are the two I plan to do, and now I just need to figure out which one to put on this orphan fabric from Ship's Manor:

I need to get some cleaning done today but I'm hoping to make a start and at least stitch for two or three hours tonight.

Last week I was hoping that the second block of Black'd Skie would be done on Wednesday but it actually took until Friday night to complete:

I then spent a couple of days getting caught up on part 3 of The Rooky Wood:

The house (?) in this part is what drew me to the design in the first place so now I'm really looking forward to parts 6 and 7, which should have the main part of it included. Deb's designs are always so nice to stitch, and relatively easy to stay caught up with because each part usually only takes two or three days to complete.

Last night I spent a few hours on the new Rosewood Manor model, which is only about 10" x 5" so I won't even have to add extensions to my Qsnap for it--makes for a nice change from the big ones once in a while.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week, and happy Mervember!

A little bit of stitching

I am very happy to say that I completed the Mirabilia model last Friday night; I have submitted photos and now just have to cross my fingers and hope for no revisions. It's always a bit disheartening when you have to make changes, even though it's only because Nora wants her designs to appear their best--but I still hope it gets approved as is!

I've had less stitching time for the past few weeks as I've been trying to do two or three hours of yard work most days to get the landscaping ready for winter. Happily I can probably finish what's left in a day or two, so by the end of this week I should be ready to burrow in for the winter. This past weekend I spent some time on the second block in Black'd Skie and was able to get the outline done and part of the interior:

I'm hoping I can get the block done in the next few days, before part 3 of The Rooky Wood is released on Thursday. This is the first two parts, minus some bits that call for a new thread that I'll start when adjoining parts are revealed:

Once part 3 is finished I'll probably make a start on the Rosewood Manor model waiting in the wings. It's on the smaller side so I'm hoping it stitches up fairly quickly and I can have a bit of free time around Christmas, though even after 35 years of stitching I'm still horrible at estimating how long a project will take to complete.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Can't believe I actually did it!

 I'm not sure I've ever actually completed a larger SAL on schedule, so my mind is blown that I somehow did two this year! The first was the Jardin Prive piece and the second is this design by Cecilia Votta, which I just finished yesterday:

I even started this one a month or two late but most of the blocks were small and stitched up quickly so I was able to catch up early on and stay on track. The final block was fairly involved and took just over a week to finish:

I was looking forward to being done with SALs for a while but then I just had to start The Rooky Wood by Tempting Tangles which will go until next June, so let's see if I can do it again!

Karen Kluba of Rosewood Manor had posted a bunch of pictures on FB of her room at the Needlework Galleria a couple of weeks ago and one picture in particular caught my eye:

The part that really drew me in was the alphabet on the large framed piece behind the main display--isn't it pretty? I had never noticed it before so I started looking through all of Karen's designs and finally found it on Parchment Tapestry:

I've seen this design before but the flower panels always drew my eye in and I just never noticed that pretty alphabet at the bottom. Karen kindly offered to send the chart to me and it arrived last week; I've ordered the WDW floss and when that has arrived I'd like to work on this once in a while as time permits. Of course the alphabet is at the bottom so it will probably be a long time before I actually get to stitch that part, but it will give me something to look forward to in the coming months.

Now it's back to work on the model, and the next part of Rooky Wood that will be released on Thursday. Must stitch faster...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

A new SAL, and an older one

 I was looking forward to having both of the SALs I worked on this year finished this month as I have a lot of other projects I'd like to start or work on when I take some time for my own stitching, but then a new SAL from Tempting Tangles came out and it really appealed to me so I decided to dive in and see if I can keep up with a new one. This one is called Rooky Wood Mystery SAL and this is the teaser photo that drew me in:

The first part was released last Thursday and new parts will come out every two weeks for 20 weeks, so it will finish next June (if I'm still hanging in there, which is iffy); information about it can be found here. I bought the Dinky Dyes silks for this one and stitched the first part (except for a few bits I'll do when adjoining parts are released) on one of the fabrics I bought from Nicholas Flamel Design on Etsy:

I finished that on Friday and then spent the weekend working on the final part of the Cecilia Votta Advent SAL that came out October 1; it's a larger block than the others so it will take a few more days to complete:

Once this piece is finished it's back to the model for a big push to the finish--it's about 75-80% complete so it should definitely be done by the end of the month. Of course, I already have a Rosewood Manor model waiting to be started...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Couldn't resist the spell of Black'd Skie

 I really meant to focus on a model until October but the pull of playing with the colors on Black'd Skie was too great, so I gave in and spent an enjoyable weekend watching the first block come to life. The chart calls for a lot of muted greens but I like more visual interest so I'm using greens that are a bit more vivid and bringing in some other colors as well. It's difficult to get a true picture from the chart photo but this is how it is charted:

And this is how my finished block looks:

I've always loved coloring, only now I do it with threads instead of crayons and markers. I'm going to try to be good and get "work" stitching done, but I might not be able to resist pulling this one out and starting the second block when the weekend rolls around again.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

This and that

 For the past month most of my stitching has been on a model but I have taken a few days here and there to work on a variety of other projects. Last month I stitched up a new Cross Eyed Cricket freebie (currently available from shops that are on an auto ship program) called Delft Windmill Mitten:

My "mitten-a-month" goal has taken a bit of a hit as of late but since I stitched quite a few right away I'm exactly on target as I've now stitched 12 since last October.

Also last month a spent a couple of days starting Mirabilia's Botanical Garden for myself. I had a beautiful piece of fabric from Crossed Wing Collection called Over the Rainbow which I thought would look really pretty with the design:

Unfortunately the base linen is just too flimsy and it's 28ct so between those two facts I can't get my stitches to look nice at all. I was really torn because I love the colors but the bad-looking stitches are just too much for me so I've decided to start over on a new fabric that was my second choice when I went through my stash (my favorite, Belfast linen, in a color called Storm Clouds from HLC Fabrics):

I haven't started it again yet because I was a bit deflated from having to start over, but I will when the mood strikes.

Speaking of fabrics, Cheryl at Glendon Place had the people at Crossed Wing Collection create a new color for one of her new designs and it is fabulous! It's called BANG!!! and it looks like a starry night sky:

The base linen for this one is Zweigart's Cashel, so it will stitch up very nicely. I think it would look amazing with Mirabilia's Fairy Moon or Stargazer (those are the two that immediately came to mind but I'm sure there are others); I ended up ordering another piece just to have it on hand.

On the first of the month the penultimate part of the Cecilia Votta SAL was released and it stitched up very quickly:

I can't believe I actually kept up with this through most of the year, and I'm really looking forward to finishing it next month. I'm thinking Santa will be in the last box, but time will tell...

Finally, I recently discovered a new-ish fabric dyer on Etsy, NicholasFlamelDesign, who has some wonderful colors on 32/36/40ct linens. I bought the Bronte Sisters Collection and the taupe/gray piece made me think of The Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie, so last Friday I pulled out the chart and went stash diving to find some Silk'n Colors to use in place of the recommended threads. This is what I came up with (though I added some more over the weekend):

I spent the long weekend working on it and this is what it looks like so far:

I would have made more progress but most of Sunday's stitching had to be frogged--ugh! It turns out that three of the diamonds in that top border are spaced differently than the rest, but when I stitched it I had them all spaced the same; that meant that I ended up being three columns short, so when I went down and started the first box it was in the wrong place. I've made corrections now but I lost several hours worth of work in the process. It doesn't happen very often but it's very annoying when it does!!

Now I need to get back to work, hopefully until the last part of Cecilia's SAL comes out, so probably no updates for a bit. I'm thinking I can reach the halfway point on the model this week, and it's always nice to be on the "downhill" side.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!