Happy Mother's Day!

 Hoping all the moms (and furbabies count!) have a wonderful day today. Sadly I am spending the day cleaning, but my sweet husband has offered to pick up Texas Roadhouse for dinner later so that will be my reward. We are scheduled to have new windows installed throughout our house over the next three days and I am really dreading it--the noise, the mess, the upset pets--and then the finisher will have to come and stain the new windows and I don't know how long that will take. And of course then I'll have to order new blinds and live without window coverings for the next month or so (I hope it's not longer than that!), so all in all I am a bit stressed right now and ready for the next week or so to be over!

I don't know how much stitching I'll be able to do for the next little while, but I was able to get caught up on both of the SALs I'm working on, and both are now halfway to completion. This time I did the Jardin Prive piece first:

And a couple of days ago I finished part 5 of the Serenita di Campagna design:

I'm a bit surprised I've kept up with these so far; I usually have good intentions but time gets away from me and once I fall behind it's just too easy for WIPs to disappear into the never ending pile. Hoping to stay with both of these all the way through.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week (even if I can't...)!

Time to get back to "work"

 I still haven't heard back from Wichelt about whether the model is approved or if changes need to be made and it's making me a bit nervous--the longer it goes the more I imagine extensive revisions being made! It might just be a matter of Nora being busy and the person I work with at Wichelt only being in the office one day a week; planning to send an inquiry today as the person is at work on Tuesdays, so hopefully they'll get back to me soon.

I spent the last week doing some cleaning around the house and working on a couple of CEC mittens. The first is Little Fan, which was a freebie which coordinates with the Dickens Mittens leaflets:

The second is a freebie called Cross My Heart Mitten (currently on the CEC site along with a second free mitten):

The next mitten I've kitted up is the 1 Good Egg Mitten, so it's ready to go when the urge strikes again. My goal was to stitch at least one mitten each month and so far I've done 11 in 7 months so I'm a bit ahead for now; I'll probably do the next one in May.

Yesterday I decided to dig out my last set of Qsnaps not already in use and start the Rosewood Manor model while I continue to wait to hear from Wichelt. I'll work on it for the next couple of weeks then plan to take a break when the two SALs have new parts released on May 1, so probably no new posts for a few weeks.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Up to date

 I am happy to say that I am once again caught up with the two SALs that I'm signed up for. It only took a couple of days to finish part 4 of the Serenita di Campagna design, and I've already completed the outlines for the next three parts as well (though I didn't take an updated picture of that portion):

Last night I finished part 2 of Au Fil des Nichoirs:

When I first saw this part I could have sworn the March birdhouse was a cactus with a cowboy hat roof, and the mask meant that it must represent the Lone Ranger, though I couldn't figure out what that had to do with March. I felt like an idiot when it was mentioned that it was a leprechaun hat, and the consensus is that the mask is for Mardi Gras--duh! Makes a lot more sense.

Still waiting to hear from Wichelt so I haven't started the Rosewood Manor piece as I don't want to take the Mirabilia off the Qsnaps yet; hoping to get an approval email tomorrow. For now I really need to get some housework done anyway, so I'm going to focus on that for a couple of days--blech!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

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!