A small finish

 Last week I finished the model I was working on and am now waiting to hear if it is approved to send back. It's always a bit of a tense time because Nora sometimes decides to make changes and I really don't like having to rip out stitches and redo, so fingers crossed it gets the green light!

I have received the next parts for the Jardin Prive and Campagna di Serenita SALs and will be stitching those this week before I start a new Rosewood Manor model. I spent the weekend on Cross Eyed Cricket's Lone Pine Mitten (leaflet 227) and finished it yesterday:

I had kitted this one up back in January when we were in the middle of winter and I didn't really enjoy working on it now that the weather has been so nice here for the past few days, so I've already picked out a much more spring-like mitten to do when the mood next strikes.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

SAL satisfaction

 While I've been waiting for some answers to questions about the Mirabilia model I decided to work on the two SALs that had parts released on March 1. Employees at Wichelt are rotating in and out of the office due to COVID so it has actually been over a week and I'm still waiting, but happily I was able to finish the current parts of both SALs. 

I stitched part 1 of Au Fil des Nichoirs first, making a few minor changes:

I finished that on Saturday and then spent the rest of the weekend working on days 6-9 of Cecilia Votta's design:

I also finished the border for the next section, and part of the border for the section after that:

Now I'm basking in the glow of completion and ready to make a bunch of progress on the model between now and May 1--I might even be pretty close to a finish by then.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Maybe I can catch up

 Friday evening I pulled out the SAL from Serenita di Campagna with the intention of at least finishing days 2 though 5 since they are pretty small designs. Not only did I get them done but I made a good start on the first block and am now thinking that I could get it done either today or early tomorrow, so I think I will keep it out and finish it. The next part will be released on March 1st, so there won't be anything to work on next weekend anyway. Here it is as of last night:

I'm using the recommended floss but also adding in some metallics and beads and switching a few colors around. I really don't do much Christmas stitching but there was just something about this one that appealed to me, plus the fun of each part being revealed over time.

My Princess Elliana arrived safely home from Rensel Studio so I was able to take a couple of pictures of the painting on the mat, which pulls from the lace in the dress and the flowers:

Now I need to move some things around to find a place to hang her--she's huge!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Two new SALs

 I recently signed up for a couple of SALs, one of which has already had a couple of parts released and one that has just the border so far. Saturday I started the one from Jardin Prive called Au fil des Nichoirs, which is going to have six parts released at the first of every month starting in March and ending in August. I received the border last week and stitched it on Saturday:

It calls for a brown DMC for the border but I switched it out for a variegated Silk'n Colors that contains several of the colors used in the design; hopefully it'll end up looking okay. Here is a preview from the designer:

I'm looking forward to receiving part 1 in a couple of weeks, though I don't know yet if I'll be able to keep up with the parts as they are released. For anyone interested the info can be found here.

The second SAL is from Cecilia Votta, who now designs under the company name of Serenita di Campagna. Her SAL is an advent design which has had the border and the first five days released so far. This is my progress from yesterday:

I'm almost positive I won't be able to get caught up and then keep up with this one, so I'll just work on it once in a while when the mood strikes. Here is the designer's photo of the piece so far:

Anyone looking for this SAL should go to the designer's FB page and find her contact info there.

That was my weekend off from "work" stitching, and now I can get back to it refreshed and ready to make a lot of progress.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Princess Elliana is on her way home

 Last Monday afternoon I received the long-awaited email from Amber at Rensel Studio that my Princess Elliana framing was finished, and I am thrilled with how she turned out:

I love the painted lace and roses on the mat that were pulled from the dress and am looking forward to seeing them close up when it arrives; they do such amazing work! I mailed this one in at the end of July, so the whole process took just over six months, but it is well worth the wait.

I finished the stitching on Winter Bear last Wednesday and then spent a few hours on Thursday adding the beads and treasures--doing those bead swirls on opal Lugana was not very enjoyable, but the result makes me very happy:

A Mirabilia model arrived last Monday, so I started that Thursday afternoon and have made good progress so far. The blog will probably be quiet for a few weeks while I concentrate on that, but I'll probably either start Winter Hare or a CEC mitten design for a small break later this month.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Where does the time go?!

 Last Tuesday I was deciding what to work on in between models and I pulled out Joan Elliott's Fairy of the Wind. It doesn't seem like that long since I started her, but I looked in my photos to see the last update and it was in December 2018--I never would have thought it had been more than two years! This is what she looked like right before she disappeared into the WIP black hole:

And here she is as of last Friday:

Not sure when I'll get to her again, but at least quite a bit of the top portion is complete.

Friday afternoon the Holiday in the Forest charts arrived and I immediately pulled the threads, picked a a fabric and dove right in. I decided to do Winter Bear first because he has less background and should stitch up more quickly then the hare so I have a better chance of finishing before the next model arrives. Here he is as of last night (fabric is an opal Lugana Silkweaver solo):

I did look over the Winter Hare chart and noticed a couple of errors: the L symbol in the chart is not listed in the key--it should be Kreinik #4 9294. The circle with a dot in the center symbol next to Kreinik 9294 in the key should be the Kreinik #4 027. I also saw that the Caron Waterlilies 045 is only used for 24 stitches in the rabbit's sweater. If you don't already have that floss and don't want to spend $6.50+ for a skein for 24 stitches then there is a good DMC substitute:

I'm looking forward to stitching the rabbit, but for now it's back to work on the bear; hoping to finish him tomorrow or Wednesday.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Holiday in the Forest

 Two new designs in Nora Corbett's Holiday in the Forest series were released this month and I like them even more than the first two. They are Winter Bear and Winter Hare, and I think they are just as cute as can be:

Before the charts arrived I decided to quickly stitch Winter Nest so I would be caught up with the releases; I stitched it on a Silkweaver Belfast solo in four days:

It joins Winter Owl in the finish pile:

Nora said that there were going to be six in the series but one didn't work out so there are currently five. She did ask if people wanted more and several people said that they did so I really hope she designs some more because I think this is such a fun series.

Last Friday the floss I needed to complete my CEC Mermaid Mittens arrived so they are now done as well:

I've now finished eight mittens since last October, and already have my next one picked out and ready to go when the urge strikes.

Today I think I'll be able to finish the current Rosewood Manor model. Sadly, Karen recently traveled to the UK to see her daughter Rachel, who suffered a traumatic brain injury about five years ago and who was going to enter hospice care. Rachel passed away on the 20th, with her husband and sons, sister and mom and dad all there. She leaves a big hole in all of their lives.

I heard from Wichelt over the weekend and they are going to send a model at the end of this week. Sounds like it's a big one, so that will probably keep me pretty busy for the next few months. It's always exciting when the package arrives and I get my first glimpse of the design.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Still in the grip of mitten fever

 Back in November I placed an order with Needlecraft Corner and one of the free charts that was supposed to come with the order was a new Cross Eyed Cricket mitten called The Great Pumpkin. Then the shop owner fell and broke her leg so everything came to a halt for several weeks while she had surgery and started the recovery process. When my order finally shipped in December it arrived without the mitten chart, so Drema kindly sent it out to me. After almost three weeks it finally arrived last week and I was so excited that I stitched it right away:

I have loved black cats since 1997 when I took in a stray cat that showed up at our house, and have had at least one ever since then until this past March when our sweet Maxie passed away. I have tons of black cat patterns; this one is a particular favorite because it looks just like my beloved Tailor:

Last week I also obtained a chart from the CEC designer of an old freebie called Mermaid Mitten, and it was so cute that I then had to stitch it right away. I am missing one silk floss that I had to order so it's not quite done, but here it is so far:

While I like the colors in the Silk'n Colors used for the background I think they were a bit too dark for the little mermaids, who got kind of washed out. So nothing for it except to stitch it again, this time with a lighter SNC for the background!

I am much happier with the second version, and now just have to wait patiently for the floss to arrive so I can finish both of them. I wanted to stitch at least one mitten each month this year and so far I have three in January so I am way ahead of schedule!

Yesterday I was ending a thread on the back of the piece and my needle minder was so strong that it made my needle levitate, which just struck me as a fun image:

Last week I also emptied out the two ort jars on my stitching table into a fillable lamp that I bought a few years ago:

It will be interesting to see how many years worth of thread clippings I can fit in this lamp.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Happy New Year!

 2020 was a strange year, that's for sure! Having tactile sensory issues I never thought I could get used to wearing a mask, but now I've reached a point where I don't know when I'll feel comfortable being around other people without one. I look forward to a time when enough people have been vaccinated that the risk of getting the virus becomes low and we can feel a bit more "normal".

I have to say that as an introvert the past year was not that much different for me except for the mask wearing. I am completely content at home with my family, pets and stitching, so I rarely go out except to get groceries or run other essential errands. Now that my son is out of school and doesn't need rides anymore I often go a week or more without even starting my car. My husband usually travels a lot for work but was home for months this year, so we got to see what it will be like when he retires in a year or two--good thing we still like each other after 30 years (in May) of marriage!

I have had fun the past few weeks stitching on little things just for fun. The first was the design I had started in my last post, Mirabilia Designs Doves of Peace (found in the 1999 CS&N Keepsake Calendar), which I finished on Christmas:

Then I spent a few days stitching the design I was originally planning on when I found the calendar; this is Nora Corbett's Christmas Ornaments (originally in the 2012 CS&N Keepsake Calendar, now available as a download from Herrschner's):

It's a small design; the stitching took a couple of days and then another day for the beading, which I love!

Once that one was done I pulled out a Lizzie*Kate chart that I recently bought called Cold Noses. This is a shop exclusive at The Silver Needle; it was originally released at a retreat in the summer of 2018 and was just recently released to everyone. I've wanted to stitch it since I saw it over two and a half years ago, so now I have!

I did add the purple floss as well as a few others and rearranged some of the called for colors and am very happy with the result. It also comes with a couple of smaller designs with the penguins that I will stitch at some point. L*K also has a new release at 123Stitch called Tiny Tidings XXIII which is basically the same design with a few color and other minor changes. I just think the penguins are so cute, especially with their little button noses!

I then spent a few days finishing the temperature SAL I've been working on since December 2019. I made a header and a chart key, which took a few days to chart and stitch, and just finished it yesterday:

No idea what I'll do with it now, but I am glad that I finally stitched a temperature chart. I thought it would be hard to get out of the habit of checking the previous day's temperature first thing in the morning, but it's been a few days now and I don't really miss it at all.

I finished it pretty late in the afternoon so I didn't feel like taking the tree down afterwards (I'll do it today--ugh!); I decided to make a small start on the latest Rosewood Manor model instead. It's a fairly small one and has really pretty colors and I think I will enjoy working on it, so that's my plan for the next few weeks.

Hope everyone has a safe, healthy and stitchy New Year!

Can't believe Christmas is almost here!

Towards the end of November I "got serious" about the Rosewood Manor model that I was working on and was able to get it finished a week ago yesterday. I sent it back last Monday and it arrived safely in Florida, and now I already have another RM model! It's a fairly small one, though, and Karen is fine with me starting it later in the spring so if I get a Mirabilia model in the next month or so I'll work on that first.

After doing a bunch of housework, putting the Christmas tree up and wrapping presents I rewarded myself with another mitten from Cross Eyed Cricket. This one was a freebie called Cup of Cocoa Mitten, and it is stitched on Silkweaver's Days Gone By Belfast:

After the mitten was finished I was going to start a design called Christmas Ornaments by Nora Corbett which was in the 2012 CS&N Keepsake Calendar. I knew I had kitted it up quite a while ago, but I had to search out where I had stashed it. While looking for it I came across another of Nora's designs in the 1999 calendar called Doves of Peace. I had the calendar where I keep all of Nora's designs but I honestly don't remember when I got it or even knowing that the design existed! So I decided to start it instead of the one I originally meant to start:

As an aside, Christmas Ornaments and several other designs by Nora that have appeared in books, magazines and calendars over the years can be bought as downloads from Herrschner's. I have all of the original publications, and so far I've finished five of the seven designs--just need to stitch Christmas Ornaments and Holly Cherub. Here are the five I've stitched:

Victorian Christmas Eve:

Peace Doves Ornament:

Halloween Fairy:

Sunflower Fairy:

And Snow Queen:

I am happy to say that the temperature SAL is nearing the end. I'm hoping I left enough fabric at the bottom to stitch a chart key...

For those who celebrate it I wish you a very Merry (and safe and healthy!) Christmas, and hopefully a much better year in 2021!