Off to the framer

Little House Needleworks - Little Women Virtues series: Reading
stitched on 28-ct. mystery fabric from stash
with some (minor) floss substitutions

I visited my parents last weekend, and since this was finished, I decided to give my mom's framer a try.  I wasn't crazy about his technique - he does use adhesive board, but he showed it to me, and it isn't the horrific stuff you can buy at the craft store, it is more a positioning tool than a permanent sticky. Since Mom offered to pay, and it isn't an heirloom sampler, anyway, I figured I'd go for it.  We picked a lavender mat and a whitewashed "cottage-y" frame...very cute, I think!  It will be another week or 2 before I can get it and show off.

Lately I've been working on a gift project (can't share yet!), and a little bit on my old Me Myself and I RR neighborhood.  It may be a while before I finish the whole thing, but I'd like to get the castle done soon.

I think I'm getting close!!  So much confetti gray...ugh.

Late to the WIPocalypse

...as usual....
I posted my latest progress on Fairy Tale Towne just a post or 2 ago, but here it is again -

I've also done a bit of work on Labyrinth over the past month.

I'm not terribly confident that I'll FINISH either of these pieces before the End of the World, but at the very least this has been giving me some inspiration to get them out of the WIP bin...

And here is the latest (almost finished!) update of LHN's "Reading."  While I'm not usually a stitcher of this "cute" style, I am enjoying this little design!  Hmmm, even though it wasn't a project I listed as part of my WIPocalypse, can I still count it if I finish it???  LOL

(Bah, the colors don't look at all right on that!  I guess I'll have to blame the quickie pic I took in the dark living room using my flash before leaving for work tonight.)

Update with pics

Here is my little "Reading" girl - so cute.  (Although the picture on the package - which is NOT a stitched model, just the computer-generated preview - makes the dress look more blue than mine appears.  I looked for some finished pics online, and found that this seems to be a result of the dyed floss batches.  I may look in my stash for a darker purple to use for the border, and/or an actual BLUE to use for the 2 little birds.)

And look what has reappeared!!  It is Fairy Tale Towne, my ambitious attempt at the Me, Myself and I round robin.  Obviously I am better at robins that involve some sort of group responsibility...LOL.  I'm still loving the idea of this little town, but I'm not thrilled with the 32-ct. fabric -- especially since there is so much confetti stitching in the patterns I've chosen so far.  All the grays in that castle are driving me mad!

The Queen has been too busy to beat the peasants

Look -- it is the return of Fairy Tale Towne! Although there hasn't been a lot of progress, and it looks as if the local dragon may have taken a bite out of the center of the castle...I've been working this the past night or 2, since finishing my reindeer ornament. I'm going to pop that in the mail tomorrow, so hopefully I can share a pic of the finished product soon! I also started another small project, Lizzie Kate's "Winter Wishes."

This weekend my parents are supposed to coming out with my NEW STOVE (!!!!!), so next week we'll be calling the contractor/handyman service we've decided to use. And hopefully after we get our taxes done we'll have a bit of free cash to replace the kitchen carpet (yuck-o) with some inexpensive vinyl. Happy Friday, all!

A wedding & a castle in the sky

So this past weekend was my sister's wedding. It was beautiful, and a lot of fun....even as a 7-months pregnant maid of honor!! Now, I gave my husband my camera and told him to "take some pictures." And this is the only one he took with ME in it.... LOL

Dad, Mom, me, Sis, and her new husband

He DID, however, take a lot of neat shots of the church, scenery, and other guests. Here is one of my favorites, a picture of one of the stained glass windows and a chandelier in the chapel.

Now, back to the stitching. After working on Labyrinth for a week or 2, I decided to get Fairy Tale Towne out again. Here is my progress on the castle -

And here is M-ort-icia with the the beginnings of this year's ort collection.

Back to work, peasants!

The latest progress on Fairy Tale Towne. The castle is progressing nicely, I think (although the Queen is still rather impatient!).There is a lot of confetti stitching in this. And I'm doing most of the backstitching as I go...otherwise I'd be lost for sure!

I'm putting the castle away for bit now, and getting back to baby projects - both the foxes and the little "country sprite" Christmas ornaments. I think I can whip one of the sprites together this weekend.

Oh, and I should be able to start the sampler I posted yesterday ASAP! I ordered my floss yesterday afternoon (around 2 pm, sshhhh, don't tell, I wasn't terribly busy after lunch), and they were shipped by 3pm! Wow, what super service! So hopefully I'll be doing a floss toss tomorrow or Saturday at the latest. And the I can dive into some yummy new silks....

One down

...8 squares to go! This morning the construction crew finished the first cottage in Fairy Tale Towne.
The king - or maybe it was the queen, I've heard she's rather bossy! - has decreed that the castle must go in next. Evidently it is a castle in the air, since it looks like the crew started with the roof.... LOL The bit that I've stitched there uses blending filament, and since I'm stitching on 32-ct. fabric, I opted to use 1 strand of DMC and one of filament. I hope the roof won't look "thin" on this side, since I typically use 2 strands of floss and the rest of the roof/castle doesn't use filament. I'm not too worried, though.

Well, she turned me into a newt.

That's the excuse I'm hearing from the workers in Fairy Tale Towne...either that or they've caught the plague. LOL But there IS a bit of progress to show. House #1 is almost finished!

I also started something new. This is Lavender Wings' "Lilacs," the piece I did a floss toss for almost a year ago. I'm stitching it using the recommended DMC colors, on a piece of 28-ct Jazlyn "Kereru" from Kiwi Illusions. I'm loving it so far!The fabric is a lovely blend of dusty green and purple - exactly what I see in my mind's eye when I think of the lilac bushes behind my childhood home.

Well, that's it for now. Thank you all for the warm wishes after my last post....although perhaps I should clarify a bit and say now that the surgery I had was a D & C, for (another) miscarriage. DH and I are working through a lot of confusing emotions right now, but we are doing ok. My doctors will be doing some bloodwork, in hopes of figuring out what is going on and why this keeps happening. At least they are pretty confident in telling me that it is *not* related to my diabetes. While I'm frustrated, at least I don't feel the need to blame myself for not taking care of myself properly.

Y.A.W.N.

Ugh, I've been sooooooo tired lately....not sure why. But the stitching has definitely been suffering! Not to worry, though, I've gotten a bit done. First, for Judith:

This is the second square I'm doing for Judith -- I posted the first (finished) a month or so ago. Judith's fabric is lovely! I hope the colors in this square show up okay, though. The April square has a lot of khaki/green in it that blends with the fabric. Judith, I should have this finished up by the end of January.

And my little Fairy Tale Towne.
Progress, slowly but surely!

Back to work tomorrow... *sigh*

Oh well, at least I got some stitching and relaxing in this past week! I do think I've gotten spoiled, though...I've spent my days sleeping in, doing laundry, experimenting in the kitchen (the baked ziti was yummy!), cleaning when I felt like it, watching movies I've seen a zillion times, and of course, stitching.

First, I started "Fairy Tale Towne," my project for the Me Myself &I RR/SAL.This first little house is from a Framecraft publication, designed by Cathy Bussi. It is one of the smaller houses in the piece, so it seemed like a good place to start! I'm using a piece of 32-ct. Wedgewood Blue Lugana for the town plot, and the finished size of the entire thing - not counting the yet-to-be--designed border - will be about 12 x 12 inches.

And then tonight I worked on "Moon and Stars" a bit. This piece just makes me smile...(Hmmm, for some reason my fabric looks a bit weird/dark.) But all the lettering is done, and I finished the house roof.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!

The layout for Fairy Tale Towne (my project for the Me Myself &I RR/SAL) is now complete!

I don't have any fancy cross stitch design software, and I MUST see things at the the same scale to make sure they fit properly....so I copied all of the patterns onto different graph paper to cut and play with. The final layout is 166 stitches high by 157 stitches wide. The "center" of the town is a Camelot Designs castle, and it is surrounded by 3 Elizabeth's Designs' cottages (in 3 of the four corners), 3 cottages by Cathy Bussi, 1 cottage from a sampler I found in an old issue of Cross Stitch & Country Crafts, and in the lower right corner is a knight on horseback (pondering his route to the castle, I'm sure!). Now I just need to find fabric and possibly put together a border of some kind. I hope this looks good stitched up....