Recovering after retreats

It took a couple of weeks, but I'm rested from my almost-two-week-long adventure and getting back into my normal routine--so, a lot of stitching! 😄

I bought and kitted Heart in Hand's Wee Santa 2026 in Tulsa, and was able to finish it in the morning on the last day of the Chatelaine retreat:

He is stitched on Wichelt's French Country 32ct linen using the recommended threads. I'd like to work on fully finishing this in time for Christmas, but right now he's on top of the pile in my "finishes" bin.

I used the rest of the last day to work on Chatelaine's Mini Mystery Mandala 1, which I started back when it was a mystery in 2008. This is as far as I got back then:

To this day, I have no recollection of buying, kitting or starting this design, but 2008 was right around the time my son's issues started kicking into high gear; I'm sure there are a LOT of things that I don't remember for the space of a few years because I was just constantly in crisis mode.

I made decent progress at the retreat and got it to this point:

Then I worked on it more last week, and this is how it looks right now:

Back when I started this, I had fairly recently discovered hand dyed fabrics and especially loved opalescent linens; I think this one is probably a Silkweaver fabric, possibly Midnight Fantasy, but that's just an educated guess. If I were kitting this today I would have picked a different fabric, but several people at the retreat told me that they loved it with the design, so it was nice to get that positive feedback; maybe 2008 me wasn't just blinded by a love of sparkles!

I'll probably pull this one out again later this month and hopefully get it finished in September, but after I set it aside I went back to working on IMAKE's Aster Courtyard. I have fully completed the top border, including the beads, and it is turning out really well. The back stitching for the gate is kind of a nightmare, but it is worth the effort:

Now I need to decide if I'll continue the borders down next or start on the center portion. I'm leaning towards the center, partly because the thought of back stitching three more of those gates in the rest of the border is pretty daunting! 

IMAKE offered to send me one of their new little Halloween kits, and they ended up sending two, which was a pleasant surprise:

These come with everything you need to stitch them, as well as finishing kits with really pretty cording (a part of finishing that I haven't even attempted as of yet). I received the package last Friday and I spent the weekend working on Spider & Black Cat:

I did replace the kit fabric with my own, partly because I wanted to play with the color and partly because the kit fabric is cut a bit small for my taste--I like at least 3" borders on all sides because I use Qsnaps, and 3" gives me enough room to get the clamps on and tie on and off comfortably. The kit comes with fabric that has about 2" borders, and that just isn't enough for me. This fabric is large enough to stitch both designs, so I'll probably stitch them both first and then work on the finishing.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!