Pretty Little Things progress

This past weekend my husband and son were out of town, so I hunkered down in my craft room with season 2 of Once Upon a Time on DVD and stitched until my vision blurred! ;) One panel of my box is almost done (I'm planning on adding some bead swirls to fill in some of the open spaces, but the main pieces are stitched), and I've started on the second panel:

A couple of close-ups, to better show the bling:

I'm really enjoying stitching each design, as I get a sense of accomplishment each time I finish one, and I still get to look forward to seeing the whole piece completed.

On the non-stitchy front, I caught a couple of visitors to our butterfly bush this past week. The first is a hummingbird moth, and the second is pretty recognizable:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

My new project

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have started another project for myself, and I'm hoping to finish it before I get back to model stitching for Karen. Last year, I did some stitching on a project for Judy Odell, who does amazing finishing work on her pieces. The project is called Shelley's Jewelry Box, and here is the finished piece:

In return for doing this stitching for Judy, she will be doing the finishing on the box I stitch; this is very exciting to me, because my finishing skills leave much to be desired! So, I finally decided what I would like to stitch on my box--Nora Corbett's Pretty Little Things. Here is my start after a few days:

I'm looking forward to seeing this grow, as I'm just picking motifs as I stitch, depending on where they fit in the best. I'm also going through my stash of embellishments, looking for sparklies to enhance the finish!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Couldn't wait to share!

I just put the last beads onto Faerie Spring Fling, and this gorgeous girl is now finished!

I enjoyed working on this one so much, that I'm almost sorry to be done! I sorely wish that I could start on Faerie Summer Love right away, but I have another project that I really need to get started; more about that in my next post. :)

Thanks for letting me share my happy dance with you!

Getting my dancing shoes ready...

...as I should be able to finish up Faerie Spring Fling in the next few days! Here is the latest update:

This piece has been such a joy to stitch; the colors are so bright and cheerful and fun to work with! Now I am starting to look forward to stitching the next one in this series, Faerie Summer Love.

Stay tuned for a finish in the very near future, and have a great stitchy week!

Found my mojo!

I was finally able to finish the wings on Faerie Spring Fling this past weekend; for some reason, finishing the wings on a Nora Corbett/Mirabilia always feels like a big accomplishment, and this one was no different. Maybe that's why the stitching flowed so nicely for the remainder of the weekend! Here is where I left her last week:

And here she is as of last night:

I did play around with the wing colors a bit, and am pretty happy with how they turned out. All of the colors in this are just so pretty and nice to work with. If my mojo stays with me, I'm hoping to have this one finished within the next couple of weeks.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Working on wings

I think I might be enjoying this break from model stitching a bit too much, as I haven't even felt like working on my own project very much! I've been doing some housework, reading (a lot!), spending too much time on the computer and just generally lollygagging around!

However, I have made some progress on Faerie Spring Fling; here she is as of last night:

I'm playing with the colors in the wings, as I didn't really like the way they looked in the chart photo. I think I'll like them when I'm done, but it's always hard to tell until the last of the backstitching is done.

I really need to get to work on this one, because the third seasonal fairy, Faerie Summer Love, arrived yesterday. She is a beauty, and I will be starting her as soon as this one is done. I'd like to get them completed before the autumn fairy is released. I've already pulled the floss and picked a fabric for Summer, so I'm ready to go!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

A new start

This past Sunday I finally finished the Rosewood Manor model that I've been working on since February--woo hoo! It is so gorgeous that it was hard to send it off, but it's good to know that it will eventually end up back with me. :)

I celebrated by starting a new project that I've had waiting for the past month, Nora Corbett's Faerie Spring Fling:

This is the second in a series of four seasonal fairies; I've already finished Faerie Winter Dream, and I want to finish this one before the next one is released. The fabric is Sugared Ambrosia on Lugana, from Sugar Maple Fabric, and I love how spring-y it feels.

I'll leave you with a picture of Sabrina, looking very regal on her "throne" (aka my son's beanbag chair):

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Almost finished!

I am getting very close to finishing the model that I have been working on for the past four months; another week or so, and I will be doing a major happy dance! Yesterday, I put the final Qsnap extensions on, and here's a picture that shows the size of the piece (artfully covered with a beautiful piece of fabric by Sugar Maple Fabric that I was recently lucky enough to buy):

Those are my 4" Ginghers, to help show how big this piece is. Once this is done, I plan to ask Karen for a break from models for a while, so I can get back to stitching for fun. There are several new Nora Corbett/Mirabilia designs that I really want to stitch, without feeling guilty that I should be "working". ;)

Speaking of Nora, I recently bought another of her gorgeous oil paintings, which joins the roses painting I bought at the retreat:

I'll finish with a picture of poor, isolated Tailor, stuck in the basement for just four more days:

I'll be so glad when she can come back upstairs, and sleep with me again; I've had her since she was a kitten, and we've never slept apart for so long! 

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

More cat stitching

I have been making good progress on the model, and am really hoping to have a finish within the next three to four weeks. Unfortunately, this means that I still don't have any new stitching that I can show, except for one piece that I worked on for a while in the airports when I traveled to South Carolina. It is "Tribal Cat" from White Willow Stitching:

Stitched with, of course, black floss on a Silkweaver solo. 

Speaking of black cats, Tailor has been home for a week now, and seems to be doing well (although she's not pleased about being quarantined in the basement!). I'm taking her to our regular vet for some blood work on Monday, as she might have an underlying condition that will show up now that her thyroid should be going back to normal. Here's another picture of my sweet girl:

Speaking of sweet girls, my dog Chloe is usually sweet as can be, but the one thing she hates more than anything is having her nails clipped. My husband and I tried it once, and it was a disaster, so now we have our vet do it, and even he has to muzzle her in order to get it done. I took this picture the last time we had it done, because her snarl is just too cute!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy weekend!

Some more of my framed Mirabilias

Since I have spent my recent stitching time working on the model, I don't have any new stitching pictures to post, so I thought I'd share some pictures of my very girly guest room:

There are currently 13 framed finishes in the room, 15 in my craft room, and 6 others in different rooms. Someday I might need a bigger house, just to display all my Miras! ;)

On the furbaby front, Tailor was dropped off at the referral center yesterday for the radioactive iodine treatment, which has gone well so far. However, she hasn't eaten anything as she is very scared, and she needs to eat and drink in order to excrete enough of the iodine to come home. So, she probably won't come home tomorrow; I'm hoping for Thursday, instead. To keep her away from the other cats, she'll be spending the next several weeks in the basement, so hopefully I will get this model done during that time, as I'll be spending a lot of time down in my craft room with her.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!