White Winter Woodland

I am working on White Winter Woodland by Blue Ribbon Designs lately. It is being stitched with the recommended threads on Picture This Plus Spice 32 count linen, which is kind of dark, but I find myself growing more and more fond of it.

Hide and Seek

Another finish, although a little late since I wanted to finish it by Thanksgiving. This is Hide and Seek by Diane Graebner.

Brownbird Sampler

I finished Brownbird Sampler by Bent Creek. Now I have two of the seasons completed, Winter and Spring.

Dull November in January

I have been stitching on the November Sampler by Prairie Schooler. It is going pretty fast, now that I am actually working on it. Here is an updated picture:

I am also getting back to stitching on my HAED projects, doing a little each day on Fairy Village. So far, I have only stitched very dark upon incredibly dark upon black, so there is not much to show, but as soon as there is, I'll post an update here and on the HAED SAL blog.

As for the traditional New Year goals, I want to keep it incredibly simple, as I am incredibly busy...busier than I have ever been in my life. So here it goes:

1. I want to finish two WIPs/UFOs that I have had for six months or more.

2. I want to read 50 books for the 2010 Reading Challenge.

3. I want to eat more vegetables. :-).

4. I want to adopt a dog from the St. Bernard Rescue Foundation of Texas.

That's about it. We'll see how it goes.

Still Stitching

I thought I would try to update this blog before the year ends. Here are some pictures of the some of my WIPS....at least the ones I have been working on most recently.

Prairie Schooler ornament from the 2008 Christmas Ornaments special issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine.

Here is my WIP of Prairie Schooler's November. This is not such a great picture. The colors are richer and the fabric darker. I'll try to get a better picture next time.

And then here is Lizzie Kate's Christmas Flip-Its. I have 2 blocks left, and I have ordered the pattern for them. I am just waiting for it to arrive to finish this one.

Well, that is all for now. Happy New Year everyone!

Summer Snapperland Finished

This morning I put in the last stitches on Summer Snapperland by Bent Creek, finishing that last block on the left. The crabs and the seahorses are my favorite parts of this design.

So here is a picture of the whole Snapperland at last. I made some color changes to fabric and threads. This is stitched on Zweigart 32 ct. natural linen and I exchanged GAST Blue Jay for the GAST Brethren Blue, and DMC 783 for the GAST Mustard Seed. I also made the little grassy bushes with GAST Dried Thyme instead of GAST Old Hickory because I wanted greener plants.

I have the patterns, including the free chart for the border design for the Autumn Snapperland, so I'll be getting to that one eventually.

I also finished the next section of the Lizzie Kate Christmas Double-Flip Its, so that makes 8 down and four more to go.

It is getting more and more difficult to get a good picture of the entire project, but here it is.

Happy stitching everyone!

Around the World

I spent a lot of time surfing stitching blogs last night, and there were so many beautiful projects out there, I decided that it was time for another Around the World post.

First stop is in Spain (I think?), region or town unknown, to El Blog de Estrella where you can see her stunningly beautiful finish of Plight of Fancy by Long Dog Samplers. It is quite a different thing to see a stitched finish of a Long Dog instead of the computerized images on their designs. The colors on this one are so vivid and bright, and the photography is superb as well.

Next we travel on to Italy and stop at il mercoledi to gaze at Mariangela's three lovely finishes. She has finished My Quaker Garden and When This You See, both by Blackbird Designs, and a red monochrome design by Dany. It always amazes me to see how popular Blackbird Designs are all over the world. They show up everywhere.

A short hop over the Alps into France and we'll dash to des fils defilent in Paris to look at Ktia's unique and gorgeous finish of the Mary Wigham Reproduction Sampler in blues and tans. I have seen many different SALS for this one...French, Spanish, German and even Russian. I really like this blue and tan version.

Now across the ocean sea we travel, to the city of Montreal in Canada to a blog in Russian called My Workbasket to look at a gorgeous tea cozy that Amaryllis (I think...awkwardly sounding out the Russian letters) made from the new Tea Party design by Victoria Sampler. She even changed the saying to Russian. I love it!

Well, that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed the short tour.