Almost broke my dog

So it turns out my string of "breaks" wasn't quite over, as last Wednesday my Murphy decided to chew through the cord on my (lit) lamp and electrocute himself! I came in from my walk and found a big mess on the floor (since he lost control of his bodily functions), and only after I cleaned it up and tried to put a new bulb in the lamp did I realize that the cord was chewed through and that was why the lamp wasn't working. A few hours and $200 later we were back home from the emergency animal hospital with a pain reliever for his tongue and instructions to monitor his breathing for the next two days, as the shock can cause fluid to build up in his lungs. I'm very happy to say that he has been fine, and I'm so grateful that he made it through relatively unscathed--it could have been so much worse!

Needless to say I didn't get much stitching done for a couple of days, but by Saturday I was able to get caught up on two current SALs. This is part 10 of Cecilia Votta's seasonal SAL:

Part 21 of Tempting Tangles Dragon's Blood Mandala was nice and small:

The next charts in the Amy Bruecken SAL probably won't get here until the end of this week at the earliest, so for now I'll continue with the Mirabilia model, which is starting to take shape nicely now.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Gearing up for more SAL parts

Last week I finished up Heart in Hand's Halloween Tiny Town and Halloween Frill, adding the Frill to the Town:

This is probably my favorite Tiny Town so far, though someday I might stitch it again with some more colors added in. I was hoping to get this sent to the finisher to be made into a drum, along with Blooming Tiny Town, but apparently this is her big Christmas-finishing season so she said to get in touch with her in November--kind of bummed about that.

Once that was done I stitched part 20 of Dragon's Blood Mandala:

I was planning to use the top row of the chart to finish the bottom row but my time is probably better spent on the model for now, so I'll just continue to stitch each of the last five parts as they are released.

In preparation for the release of the final three charts in the Amy Bruecken A Little Batty SAL I spent a day stitching the bottom checkerboard base, so I'm ready as soon as the charts arrive:

I've spent a few days on the model now, and plan to continue with that until later this week, when there will be another part of the Cecilia Votta SAL released on Wednesday, Dragon's Blood on Thursday and A Little Batty probably either late this week or sometime next week.

I did see in a newsletter yesterday that a model I stitched for Rosewood Manor last year is going to be released soon, called Dreaming of Poppies:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Only a small "break" last week

I'm very happy that the part I bought on eBay did the trick and my car window is operational again--yay! And only one minor breakdown last week when a light fixture broke; after going to all three big hardware stores here in town and not finding a replacement I found one online and a couple of days later all was well again--for now! I'm at five now, so if things go in threes I'm still due for one more...

Last Tuesday I finished up the HOD Costume Party SAL, which turned out to be a very cute design:

This also came with four little costumed characters to be stitched on perforated paper, but those will have to wait for now, and I have no idea when I'll get around to doing the finishing on this--when I do maybe I'll do the Cookie Exchange finishing as well!

I intended to get back to the model after this was finished, with a day or two to get caught up with the Dragon's Blood SAL but then Heart in Hand's Halloween Tiny Town arrived in the mail Tuesday evening and I couldn't resist starting it. I've been working on it since last Wednesday, and didn't even get to the Dragon's Blood release yet because I love this one so much. I was thinking of adding some purple floss to the design, but decided to stitch it on purple fabric instead and I'm really liking the combination; here it is as of last night:

Cecilia designed a complimentary Halloween Frill that could be stitched alone or added to the town, so of course I had to get that as well and started that part last night. The chart called for Onyx for the windowpanes but the model shows Snowball so I asked Cecilia about it, and she said she changed from Onyx to Snowball but forgot to change the chart. Since the house is already white, I decided I liked the black windowpanes better to add a bit more visual interest. I'm hoping to get this done this week, as well as Dragon's Blood, then get back to work (for sure this time!).

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

When things start breaking...

...they go in waves--I can now add a laptop and a car power window regulator and motor to the list of casualties. My wonderful husband got me a new laptop for my birthday, so that was an easy fix (aside from the two days spent making sure I had all my files either on a flash drive or my new laptop!), but the car window problem not so much; the car is 32 years old now, and the car place couldn't find a replacement part so I ended up having to buy one from a seller on eBay--not the most confidence-inspiring situation! The part came last week and I have an appointment set for tomorrow for the shop to install it, so fingers crossed it actually works.

Things almost always go well in the craft room, though, where I've been working on Hands on Design Costume Party SAL; the third and final part dropped this morning so I'm hoping to get it stitched up today. Here are the first two parts, released on 9/1 and 9/3:

I bought the suggested fabric for this, but I had this piece of Silkweaver's Halloween Haunting on Wexford linen that went really well with the colors so I decided to use it instead. The finishing instructions will be released in a couple of days, but as I still haven't done the finishing on the HOD Cookie Exchange that came out at the end of last year I'm thinking it will be a while before I get around to finishing this one!

In between the parts of this SAL I've been working on Nora's Rogue Dragon, which now has a face:

I'm going to put this away for now, as I plan to spend at least the next two weeks on the model--well, except for maybe a day to stitch part 20 of the Dragon's Blood Mandala when it comes out this Thursday; I finished part 19 last week:

I hope those who celebrate it are having a relaxing Labor Day long weekend, and to everyone a great stitchy week!

Since it's not "too big"...

I received the new model last Monday and was relieved to find that it wasn't especially enormous--my imagination is almost always worse than the reality when it comes to expectations! Before I started i,t I finished the latest installment of C. Votta's SAL, so that's caught up until 9/21 now:

After that was finished I started the model and worked on it for a few days, but then Nora Corbett had to go and release a design for her Patreon subscribers and I was lost! She just joined about a month ago, so I'm not sure what kind of content she'll create going forward but she designed a dragon as a thank you to her supporters there. The chart she shared is hand drawn, as all of her charts start out, so to make it easier to work from I spent a couple of days with my Hobbyware software making a computer-generated version; as a side benefit I get an image of what the final design will look like (not exact, but close enough):

Of course, once all the charting work was done I just had to reward myself with a start on it, since that's the fun part! I might work on it for another day or two, then I plan to stitch the part of Dragon's Blood Mandala that was released last Thursday and then get back to the model. Although, Hands on Design has a Costume Party SAL that starts this Thursday, and the new Halloween Tiny Town should be here soon...my head is going to explode with all the possibilities!

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

While digging out the printer...

I am happy to say that the fix for our dishwasher last Monday was relatively quick (though not all that inexpensive for being quick!), and I got a great deal on a printer that afternoon so I am in a much better frame of mind today. The new printer is wireless, so now I don't have to connect a cable every time I want to print out a chart--love new-fangled technology! 

However, I did have to spend some time digging the old printer out from beneath a pile of WIPs, and I came across Just Nan's 12 Days of Christmas WhimZi. According to my blog I stitched the first block last December, so it's been in the pile for a while now; seeing it again made me want to take a break from larger projects and work on it for a few days. Yesterday I finished Day 5:

I'm stitching them on a piece of Tattersall linen; I like the way it's coming out, though I'm still playing with the idea of adding a border around them to fill out the squares a bit more. For now, I'm putting it away again, but I look forward to getting past the halfway point the next time I work on it.

Also yesterday I received the ninth part of the Cecilia Votta SAL, and have made a start on it:

It's the final part of the summer scene, which I should finish today; it's good timing because also today I should be receiving "a very large Mirabilia" from Wichelt, so that will be my focus for at least a few weeks. I'm a bit apprehensive about that description, as I'm not sure what they consider to be a large Mirabilia--hoping to satisfy my curiosity soon.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

At least stitching never fails me...

I'm sitting here waiting for someone to come work on the dishwasher that broke down at the end of last month (supposedly they'll be here sometime between 8-12), and while I'm waiting I'm trying to get my printer running again after the paper feed stopped working yesterday (and it's still not working after following the cleaning instructions, so I guess it's time for a new printer), so I am not in the best of moods this morning. Luckily, I have stitching to keep me sane, so it's time to think about that for a while!

Last Friday I finished Blackbird Designs Sunflower House, using the recommended materials:

I'm going to put the chart away for now, but someday I might stitch this again with some adjusted colors (especially in the border) just to see what it would look like. I dropped off six pieces at my framer about three weeks ago, so maybe when those get done I'll take this one over. It's funny because I have a pretty large amount of gift certificates built up for my framer (my husband loves giving them to me because it's a no-brainer gift), but during the lockdowns I couldn't do anything with them. And now I can get over there, but I have so many stitched pieces waiting that I get overwhelmed with choosing some to have done and I end up putting it off for another day!

After that was done I pulled out Dragon's Blood Mandala to stitch part 18, which was released last Thursday:

I'm getting anxious to finish this one, so once I've stitched the next couple of parts I might try stitching the bottom row by using the first five parts of the chart. If it gets too complicated I'll wait, but it would save about 10 more weeks of waiting for those last five parts if I could make it work, so definitely worth a try.

For now I'm going to go wash the printer ink off my hands and then figure out if I feel like working on Vintage Simplicity yet, or if something else is calling to me...

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Sunflower House is built

Even though I spent the better part of two days last week cleaning and running errands, I was still able to make good progress on Sunflower House. I just put the last stitches in the house itself this morning:

If all goes well I should be able to finish this in another week or so. It's actually been a bit strange to have no SAL parts to work on for over a week, though I'll be getting one this Thursday so I suppose that might affect when Sunflower House gets done--we'll see how this week goes.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Plans change

I had the best of intentions to get back to my Simplicity Vintage piece once I got caught up on current SALs, but I just received a chart for a design I've wanted to stitch for a while now so last night I made a(nother!) new start. The chart is Sunflower House by Blackbird Designs, and I just fell in love with the design and colors; here is my very small start:

I bought it with the threads and fabric on eBay, and while the fabric wasn't labeled I'm assuming it's the recommended color even though it looks much darker than in the chart photo. Of course, the photos are often misleading, and the floss colors look amazing with this fabric so I'm going to use it and assume it's correct!

I started it after I stitched the next part in the Dragon's Blood Mandala SAL, which now has 17 of 25 parts completed:

And before Dragon's Blood I finished up Heart in Hand's Doodles: Halloween, which was a fun little stitch:

I need to get some cleaning done this week so stitching time will suffer, but I'm hoping to make decent progress on Sunflower House, so tune in next week to find out.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Getting Batty-er!

Last Monday the next two charts in Amy Bruecken's A Little Batty SAL arrived and I spent most of the week getting them stitched up:

It's such a fun design to work on that the stitching goes quickly and now I have to wait another two months for the final three charts to be released. If they go as quickly as these did I should still have time to get them done before Halloween.

On Thursday part 8 of Cecilia Votta's seasonal SAL came out, so after I finished Batty that afternoon I spent that evening and Friday getting caught up:

Then I should have gone back to Simplicity Vintage but I got distracted by the news that Heart in Hand will be releasing a new Tiny Town at the Needlework Expo next month, and it's the Halloween Tiny Town! Cecilia showed a sneak peek on a live stream she did with Fat Quarter Shop, and I absolutely love the design:

Since I was so excited but obviously couldn't stitch it yet I did the next best thing and started HIH's Doodles: Halloween which I had picked up at my LNS about a week ago:

I'm going to take two (or three) more days to get this done and then get back to work on the Simplicity kit--although I just remembered that the next part of the Dragon's Blood SAL will be released on Thursday so I'll probably do that first...

Also on the live stream they mentioned that Cecilia did a small free chart for the shop, which can be found here; it's a cute little Christmas ornament that would stitch up very quickly (you can actually see it in the screenshot from the live stream).

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!