No need for words

Colourful plans and a finish

First of all, yes, I am very happy to report that I have my first finish of the year, and it is a big one: I have put the last stitches in the Lady of the Thread! Hurray! She is every bit as stunning as I thought she would be.

Finished and ready to be framed

This is what the working copy of the chart looks like now.

By the way, the chart is available for sale or trade. :)

Second: I started planning my next project. One more finish and I will be kitting up Rose of Sharon.

I'm not sure I like the colour of her dress though, so I started to look for alternatives on the net and found some pretty impressive projects. Some are on blogs and some are on the Mirabilia stitchers BB, but I wanna wait for the stitchers' permission to post the images before I display them all. Until then, here is one of the versions stitched by Anka, who graciously agreed to share this photo of her amazing stitching. She had not only changed the colour of the dress and the flowers, but stitched the column completely.

Ankaa's Rose of Sharon

Almost mid-month April WIPocalypse report

March had been a pretty hectic month and a particularly unlucky one for our family, so I am glad it is over. Here's hoping it will never surface again. Not only were most of us really sick last month, my baby was also bit by a dog very badly. I will never ever get her screams of pain out of my head for as long as I live. Never. Ever. It's been almost a month since it happened, but I wasn't ready to talk about it until I could see it healing. She was bit on her thigh and most of the minor bruises are almost gone, but two big holes where the dog's fangs have pierced the skin are still healing and will take at least another month before they are closed. For now, we change bandages several times a day to make sure the wound gets some air too. My girl still refuses to look at it. It seems the horror of being injured is multiplied by the disturbing sight.

And now for the regularly scheduled stitchy news. 

January WIPocalypse report

I spent most of my stitchy time working on my BAP items and starting the Crazy January projects. Here are my big progress photos and I will add my CRC scans later today.

Victorian Elegance by Dimensions Gold

Lady of the Thread by Lavender and Lace

Little Wings by Lavender and Lace

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 Holidays!

Just dropping in to say hello to all my dear friends, fellow bloggers and cross stitch addicts anonymous all around the world! I wish you all a joyful holiday season regardless of what holiday you are celebrating! I am all packed to leave for my hometown so I can hug my daughter again. I'll leave you until next week with a collage on my progress with Lady of the Thread, a recent photo of me, and one of my favourite videos of all time. This song makes me smile every time!
Loads of hugs for all,
:-*

U.F.O. no more

I made pretty good progress on the Permin kit but none on my Christmas sampler. My printer is out of ink, so I can't print the rest of the chart, and I cannot afford a cartridge right now. So I just had to stitch something else. i looked through my UFO pile and picked Lady of the Thread by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum.

From Work In Progress

I started working on it quite some time ago but at the time it was too difficult for me to stitch on black aida. But now I am more experienced and I made great progress in surprisingly short time.  Unfortunately, as I neared the edge of her skirt, I realized that my inexperience shows on my measuring skills too, or in this case, the lack of them. I have about an inch of material left on the bottom of the fabric. Which means another tough case for the framer!

Well, still better than Ice Angel. With her, I'm not even sure if the design will fit on the fabric at all. It's a sad thought, because I've been working on her for how long, three years now? Shows you how important it is to do your math properly when doing the inch to centimeters conversion.