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!