Beauties of many kinds

First of all, thanks for all the nice words, whether in group/private mail or a blog comment. A fellow crafts blogger pointed me to the Blogging Without Obligation "movement" and you can find the logo on the right. The click will take you to the original post where it all started.

I also have Deepest Love back at home. Isn't she lovely in that beautiful frame? Fits her perfectly. It was by far the most expensive framing job, but it's for my mom's birthday, so what the heck.

I found some long forgotten WIPs as well. This one is called something like Butterfly on Bramble and it's a DMC kit. I started about two years ago, put ten stitches in it and put it aside. I found it last week and decided to make it my next project. Nice progress in two days, right?

I have finished a mini Lanarte kit that I just cannot find right now. Who knew that things can get lost for good in a 25 m2 apartment? It had a blue china teapot and a bunch of flowers on it. I think it is no longer on sale. I finished a pink teacup too, it was a magazine freebie, but it is also lost in the mess vortex. One day it will pop up on the middle of my dinner table when I least expect it, I just know it.

One finish I can show you is also a Lanarte kit I stitched almost a year ago. Only the backstitch was missing. At the time I got fed up with all the subtle, pale colours, but stumbling upon it last week, I decided to finish that project too. Here it is.

I started filling the gaps on my Dimensions tiger too, plus made some progress on Lady of the Thread as well. Not sure if I shared these progress photos before, but hey, I'm in a good mood and wanna show off my craft! So here they are:

 As far as non-stitching beauties are concerned: well, it's spring and the garden is finally in bloom! The tulip bulbs I purchased last year were the best buy ever! Look at these amazing colours! A dozen tulips to my daughter's delight. The loveliest flowers I have seen in a while. My girl is spending most of her time outside. Is she a diva in those sunglasses or what?

Happy dancing in the sea

Great news! Although I have a sore throat again and my computer died a minor death which kept me from the internet for over a week, I am happy as a little girl! All that time home with no WoW and FarmVille to keep me occupied I finally found the courage to thread my beading needle and finish Deepest Love!

I owe a big thank you to the stitching communities I belong to, as well as all the lovely people who left comments on my last post about this project. Without your encouraging words, who knows when I would have finished this magnificent piece. Your support helped me more than you know. And you were right, once I set my mind to do it, it was way easier than I thought it would be. During the beading I kept thinking "this is so simple and so brilliant, why on Earth didn't I do this before?"

So she was washed, dried, beaded and now I will be ironing lightly before she's taken to the framer. As you can see, I didn't add the charms. I placed them on the fabric and decided I like her more without them. Those three things seem like overkill. She is majestic as she is.

Deepest fears

I am making such a great progress on Cuddling Cat I really surprised myself. Usually I would tinker with a design of this size for months. But now it seems I will finish it withing three weeks. Don't get me wrong, I am very delighted at this turn of events, but as a firm believer in logic and reason, I wanted to know what triggered this change of heart in me.

I think I got it now. I do all these relatively small projects to postpone the end of a big one. Deepest Love by Mirabilia. I have been working on this mermaid since early 2006. Right now I only need to add a few missing stitches (lips, etc) and the backstitch, and then add the beads. I must admit, I am kinda scared of the beading. Never done it before. After devoting three years of my life to work on this piece, I don't wanna ruin it with inadequate bead work.

I'm a little afraid to wash it too. I always tried to store it properly and always wash my hands before stitching, but three years is three years, and I was petrified to see how dirty the middle part is, you know, where I started to add my stitches. It even comes through in the photos and scans I have made of it.

Finally, I just don't think I can let go of this project yet. Does it sound silly to you? It's like a closing of an era. Maybe it's because of my upcoming divorce. I'm just not ready for so many changes in my life. Living alone, being single officially, probably a new job AND not having DL in my WIP stash is too much to take.