Still here and still stitching

It's been another minute since I last posted, so it took me a little while to put together what I've been working on again. It adds up, even when I feel like I'm not making much progress on anything.

My mom and son are still dealing with medical issues, but my dog's issues have been improving--yay! I started the August sheep from Amy Bruecken's Warm Wooly Welcomes during one of my mom's procedures:

I stuck with Cleo and was able to finish her up a few weeks ago:

I am not thrilled with the coverage of DMC 310 here; if I had it to do over, I would probably use three strands. It looks okay from a distance, but pretty thin closer up. Cleo makes the fourth finish of the original six Bewitching Pixies, so I'll be choosing between Ana and Luna when I decide to start another one.

I've made a small start on Nora Corbett's Arezzo 2014, which is a design she did for a show in Italy ten years ago. The chart is hand drawn and difficult to read, but a few years ago I sat down and entered it into a charting program, so it is much easier to work with now:

The balcony is charted in shades of brown, but I wanted to use this fabric (SMF Petals on Belfast) and I thought grays would look better with it; I'm pretty happy with how the changes turned out.

The last model I stitched for Heart in Hand has been released, which is Thankful Tiny Town:

Mine is the one finished as a drum on the cover. It is a really fun stitch, with the turkeys being my favorite part. I'm looking forward to stitching it for myself with the additional Frill included:

I did end up accepting a Mirabilia model from Wichelt, since it has a six-month deadline and that's at least twice as long as I need to stitch it, so that's my focus for now; I'm hoping to work on Arezzo maybe just a day or two each week, as well.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Cleo is taking shape

Things are still a bit crazy here, but I do have a small update on my stitching.

I've completed enough of Nora Corbett's Cleo to know that I'm happy with the fabric I chose for her. I was a little concerned that the greens might get lost a bit, but I think they will be fine, and I love the way the purples look:

She'll probably be my focus piece this week, though I did end up finishing July's sheep on the Amy Bruecken design:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Trying to stay afloat

My mom, son and dog have all had medical issues in the past several weeks, so between ER, hospital and rehab visits, doctor appointments and the vet I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water. Even stitching is not helping as much as it usually does; I've taken a hiatus (hopefully brief) from model stitching because the stress of stitching on a deadline when I didn't feel much like stitching at all was too much. I'd like to think better times are right around the corner, but realistically I know this is probably going to go on for some time.

It turns out that Warm Wooly Welcomes is a good piece to take to waiting rooms, as the small individual charts and ease of the subject matter make it easy to work on almost anywhere. It went with me to the ER two days in a row:

And then to the emergency vet about a week later:

Then it went with me to a day of stitching in Green Bay, celebrating my LNS owner's 30th anniversary; I got a lot done that day, and am almost done with July's sheep:

I've stitched a couple of models for Heart in Hand, one of which has just been released:

The other one is a new Tiny Town, which will probably come out soon since Cecilia has a pretty short turnaround time when I send a model back to her.

This past weekend I picked up Nora Corbett's Mari again and was able to finish it:

I did really enjoy working on Mari, and since I already had three more of the Bewitching Pixies kitted in the same floss box I decided to start another one, Cleo:

As with Mari, this one is being stitched on an opal Belfast Silkweaver solo, and I'm hoping it turns out as well as I picture it in my head.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Another wildlife rescue attempt

Eight years ago, I took a duckling that had been separated from the mother to a local bird sanctuary where they were able to rehome him/her with another family of ducks. A week ago this past Sunday I came across a baby bird who was in even worse shape; it looked like he (I'll go with "he", though I have no idea what sex he/she was--I couldn't even tell what kind of bird he was, he was so little!) had been blown from the nest and a parent had tried to help him, but a hawk must have gotten the parent because there were "parts" scattered on the curb where the baby lay. :( I saw him as we headed out with the dogs for their walk, and cried when I saw him moving and realized what I was seeing. I thought for sure that he was a goner, but when I left for my walk about an hour later, he was still there and still moving, so I couldn't leave him there again.

The bird sanctuary has closed, so I took him to a wildlife rehab center in Green Bay. I held him in my hand the whole way up there, trying to keep him warm, and I could feel him moving and hear him cheeping off and on while I drove, so I knew he hadn't died on the way. Before I handed him over, I took a picture; right before this photo he stretched his head up and opened his mouth to be fed, so I'm slightly hopeful that he can be saved:

I'm debating whether I should call to see if he made it, because I know it will just make me sad if he didn't, but at least he got a chance he wouldn't have had if I had left him there. I learned years ago not to watch nature documentaries because there's just too much carnage, but there wasn't any way to avoid this situation--sigh!

On the stitchy side of things, I spent last week on a Heart in Hand model that I need to mail back today. Now I'm back to Nora Corbett's Mari:

I originally thought that I might get her done in June, as I started her for a June Pixie SAL, but with the week off I'm thinking that's no longer possible; I guess time will tell.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

June Pixie SAL

I received another Friendstitch model the afternoon of my last post, so I put aside Warm Wooly Welcomes for a few days to get that stitched and sent back. I then returned to Welcomes and am now almost halfway finished:

I would have happily continued with this project, but a member of a Mirabilia FB group started a Nora Corbett June Pixie SAL and for some reason it just called to me. About 10 years ago, when the first set of Bewitching Pixies came out, I kitted up all six of them but have only stitched two so far:

Gigi:

And Emi:

So I located the box with the floss for the remaining four pixies and pulled out an old Silkweaver solo that I always thought would look good with one of these; looking at the floss and fabric I decided that Mari's colors meshed the best with the fabric, so that is the one I chose:

I didn't have a lot of stitching time this past weekend, but I did make a bit of progress on my new start:

It will be fun to see how much I can get done during June; the sheep are still calling to me, but I'm going to try to stick with Mari for at least the duration of the SAL.

We're still trying to determine what is going on with Murphy, as shortly after my last post the vet called and said that the test they had done the previous week showed that he didn't have Cushing's. Since then, we monitored his water intake for a three-day period and found that he is drinking more than he should be, which is obviously why he's peeing inappropriately (i.e. in the house). We are having more bloodwork done this afternoon, and if that doesn't show what they're looking for then the next step is an ultrasound. So, still up in the air, and not great because I feel stuck in the house, trying to take him out at least once an hour. More stitching time, I guess...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Silver Moon Tea is done

All the momentum I gathered at the retreat paid off and I was able to finish her up on May 8 after languishing in the WIP bin for 12 years:

I still have one gift certificate to my framer, so I'm hoping to take her over when the mood strikes and have her framed--not that I have any wall space left...! The fabric is 28ct opalescent Lugana Rosey Glow from Colours of the Outback (no longer in business); I normally prefer 32ct, but all those beads around the moon fit really well on the 28ct so I'm glad I used it here. One of these days I need to dive back into the WIP bin and see what other beauties I could pull out and actually finish.

The same day I finished SMT I pulled out Heart in Hand's More Any Town Tiny Town, framed it up, found my starting point and stitched one little cloud, but it doesn't show up very well in the photo:

I'm stitching it on PTP Demoiselle Belfast, and I'll be stitching the first Any Town Tiny Town on it, as well. The day after I started this one, I also started Amy Bruecken's 365 Days of Warm Wooly Welcomes, with the plan of alternating between the two pieces; however, I love Wooly Welcomes so much that I've been working solely on it for the past week and a half:

This one has quite a bit of back stitching, but it's fun watching it bring the designs to life:

This is being stitched on Fragrant Lilac Collection Belfast from Nicholas Flamel Design, using the recommended WDW flosses. It is such a fun stitch and has brightened my days over the last week or so. It looks like my Murphy has Cushing's disease, so it's not great; right now, we're waiting on some test results that I think will determine the dosage of medicine he'll be taking to try to treat some of the symptoms. Still pretty uncertain on the prognosis at this time, so I'm just trying to give him extra love (and treats) while we figure things out:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week, and Happy World Bee Day!

Came home sick from the retreat...

...ugh!! While I was driving home on the 28th I felt a little off but thought I might just be tired; by Monday I could tell I was actually sick and by Thursday it was pretty bad. I'm feeling better now but am still coughing quite a bit while it clears out. I had a bad feeling when I was in the elevator of the hotel and a little girl sneezed--I could picture those germs just going everywhere and wreaking havoc!

The retreat itself was a fun time; the stitching room was open from 10a-11p Thursday, 8a-11p Friday and Saturday and 8a-12p Sunday, which was a lot of stitching time to enjoy. I didn't do any stitching on Sunday, though, because I just wanted to get the drive over with at a reasonable time, get home and get my laundry done. I stopped at Stitchville on my way into town and found it was probably the best shop I've ever visited; it's a shame that it's closing, as I'm sure local stitchers will feel pretty bereft without it.

I wasn't particularly thrilled with the hotel that the retreat was held at, as it's right by the airport and there was no way to walk to any restaurants, or even any close drive-thru places. It was also too warm in the personal rooms; the AC hadn't been turned on yet, so the lowest temperature I could get my room to was 72F, and it wouldn't even stay at that, so I didn't sleep very well because I was just too warm. They're going to hold the retreat again next year, in May, so maybe the AC will be turned on by then--I'm not sure if I'll go again or not at this point, I'll have to think about it for a while.

I think my gift bags were well received; I ended up with an extra one because we only had five people at our table. Then Saturday morning a woman staying at the hotel came into the room to look at all of the stitching and really liked it, so I ended up giving her the extra bag and a needle so she would have everything she needed to try cross stitching for the first time--perhaps she's a convert by now!

I did get a lot of stitching done on Silver Moon Tea; this was about where she was when I left for the retreat:

And this is how she looked when I got home:

I stitched a couple of small models last week for the upcoming Friendstitch event in September, and then I went back to SMT, so as of last night she looks like this:

My dog Murphy is having a medical issue right now, so I'm not sure how much stitching time I'll have in the near future as the vet figures out what further tests are needed. I'm trying not to get ahead of myself and worry too much, but it's always hard when a pet is ailing. At this point in my life, I'm really feeling like I don't want dogs anymore because I'm just kind of tired of being needed too much from too many sides, so it's a difficult time.

The day I left for the retreat I got an email from Faye Riggsbee that my Tiny Towns were finished; these are the photos she attached:

Didn't she do an amazing job on these? The fabrics and the embellishments are perfect; I especially love the shell and starfish on the top of Seaside Tiny Town--so cute!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!