Tale of a Shooting Star…

Okay, I am ashamed to admit it, but I splurged on some stash after Thanksgiving. Silkweaver had a sale, I thought I needed some fabric and the rest is… well, infamy, really. Wait, I mean history. Yeah, that’s it. 😉 Anyway, it took a month to get to me, but I’ve really been wanting to get two of these colors, so I’m glad to have them in my hot little hands:

Top (L to R): Solo – 28 count linen; Solo – 28 count linen; Hocus Pocus (limited edition color) – 32 count lugana
Bottom (L to R): Scattered Leaves – 32 count linen; Witch’s Brew (limited edition color) – 32 count lugana; Iris Garden – 32 count linen

I could have sworn that one of the solos was supposed to be a blue, but it was so long ago that I don’t remember anymore and it’s pointless to try to argue. Everything but Scattered Leaves and Iris Garden was just for the heck of it anyway. I really have to start ignoring their sales (and I did successfully ignore their Christmas sale, due in large part to the fact that my previous order hadn’t arrived yet) unless I need a specific fabric for something.

At least I can slot this little slip-up into my 5 Finishes challenge and not feel so guilty about it.

I was going to try to slip in a couple of stitches last night on a UFO that I’ve pulled for the WIPocalypse, but I spent too much time running down what appears to be my only skein of DMC 501 for the UFO and then got stuck playing around with PCStitch, so I frittered away all of my spare time and forced myself to be a good girl and go to bed. Bummer. I’m hoping for stitching time tonight, but I’m also trying to balance out stitching with working towards goals that I want to accomplish this year. Speaking of which, I really need to write some of these things down…

Say hello to Nora Corbett’s The Sunflower Fairy:

Design published in Cross-Stitch & Needlework Magazine’s September 2009 issue.
Stitched on 32 count overdyed linen named Days Gone By from Silkweaver.
Used the beads and fibers called for, with a few exceptions:

1. Substituted Old Oak Tree by Crescent Colours for Valdani V4 Golden Brown
   (due to what I think was a mislabeling of my Valdani skein)
2. Substituted Kreinik #4 braid 221 for the wings
3. Substituted DMC 898 for the backstitching of the wings and antennae
4. Substituted DMC 948 for the skin, which I recharted to stitch over one

First up, I will showed the framed version of the Grandmother pieces that I stitched for Christmas:

For Terry’s grandmother:

For my step-grandmother:

Then, Belinda at Tor Rhuann Designs released her 2011 ornament design on Facebook on December 16th. I loved it so much that I immediately kitted up 3 versions of it and had completed all three the next day. 😆

All 3 versions are stitched on linen (the second one is a discontinued opalescent Silkweaver fabric) with Rainbow Gallery Hi-lights fibers.

Finally, today I finished the final version of Brittercup Designs’ Britty Christmas Puppy. This one is for Lily; I’ve already done one for Abby and a memorial one for Phoebe. I just need to make sure I finish them into ornaments before next Christmas. 😉

Next up, I need to get back to working on Nora Corbett’s The Sunflower Fairy. This is where I last left her a couple of weeks ago:

TUSAL = Totally Useless Stitch-a-long

You may have seen various stitching bloggers posting pictures of clear containers filled with myriad pretty colored bits of floss this year. I saw it, bought a clear glass bowl for my orts (instead of the small basket that I had been using) and started using it, but never actually signed up for the TUSAL and never posted any pictures of my ort bowl.

Next year will be different. I have officially signed up and I will empty my bowl at this end of this year (in just a couple of weeks – eek!) and make a fresh start.

I’m member number 220, so I doubt there’s anyone who follows this blog who is interested in this event who isn’t already a member, but just in case, I gave you a link at the top there. 🙂

So… busy… can’t… talk…

I stitched up an impromptu Christmas gift in 2 nights right after Thanksgiving. Then I decided to do it again and just finished the second iteration tonight.

I didn’t have any heart-shaped charms for the center, so I stitched a small Rhodes heart instead.

The design is from JBW Designs’ Sweet Nothing series, called Grandmother: A Special Love.

The first one I did was for Terry’s grandmother:

And the second one is for my step-grandmother, who will soon no longer technically be my step-grandmother (a story for another time – or not at all):

Thankfully, both of these lovely ladies love the color purple (as do I, if you couldn’t tell), so pulling supplies for each piece was easy. Each of the fabrics is an individual solo from Silkweaver and I love them both!

Both pieces are now framed and waiting to be wrapped up for Christmas.