My big finish

Hi y'all,

Hope you have had a really fabulous January.  Personally, it has been the pits, to put it mildly.  However, stitching wise, it has been amazing.  I have a few smalls to show you next week, but I wanted to show you my big finish today.

It is called Swans and Shears Mystery SAL by Tempting Tangles Designs.  She is one of my favorite designers.  I changed the colors and used silk threads from Carrie's Creations Thread.  I sure do miss Carrie (she is no longer in business) but understand that things change.

I stitched it on 32ct off white Belfast that I coffee/tea dyed. I had to wash it and unfortunately the colors bled.  Luckily, everyone said it just looks like it was dyed that way.  I know eventually I will get over it, just not yet.  I worked on this on and off for at least a year so I am not getting rid of it. 

Thanks for letting me share my pride and joy with you.
Until Friday, Happy Stitching
Mary

Stitchmaynia Week 2 Progress

Good morning y'all.

Happy Tuesday! Hope you are all having a fabulous day with time to craft.  I have to go to Michael's today to pick up a larger frame for Darth Vader.  Yesterday, I spent a few hours pinning and lacing him and now he wont fit in the frame I bought.  Since he is already prepared and I don't want to undo all that work, I am just going to get a bigger frame with a mat.  I need to have it done by Friday because my sister and parents are coming up from Florida for my son, Bradley's graduation and Darth Vader is a gift for my sister and BIL, Kevin.  I want to make sure they can take it back home with them.

I had a wonderful Mother's Day and I hope you did too.  My 2 oldest sons Bradley and Blakley bought me some flowers and coffee.  I was surprised and delighted by the gesture.

I purchased a some stitching related things from my son Brentley and my precious dog, Hana from 123stitch! I plan on doing the Hardanger free SAL by Durene Jones on the Lakeside Needlecraft website here
Just look under free charts.  I also want to learn other types of hand embroidery so I found some things at Hobby Lobby.  To round out my purchases, I found some fabric for embroidery on Ebay and bought from floss from Mo's Sale on Facebook. 

So, lets get to some progress pictures.  I decided to work on the Swans and Shears SAL from Tempting Tangles Designs last week.  I have officially completed 7 out of 16 pages.  I decided to stop working on it since I am at a good stopping point.  I really enjoyed working on this. 

Before:

After:

Thank you so much for looking.  Have a great week!
Mary

November's Smalls SAL Challenge

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone is doing well.  For those of us who celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope you had a lovely time.  It was just the 5 of us, but it was nice just to hang out together for the weekend.

I have been pretty busy stitching, especially with winter about to set in.  I think autumn skipped us this year.  Oh well, it just means more time to get projects done.

I have finished 3 more bunnies out of the Mini Bunnies series by Handblessings Design.  They are so cute and I have really enjoyed working on these.  I still have half of November and February to do and then the whole year will be done.  Next year I plan on stitching A Year in Cupcakes by Durene Jones.  I am going to stitch them individually and will rotate them out in a frame.  I have January and February all kitted up and ready to go.

Anyway, here is Oct:

Dec:

and Jan:

I also FFO'd Think Winter by Lizzie Kate.  Thanks to Danielle from Stitcherista on Flosstube for the tutorial.  I loved how they turned out.  I am going to work on Think Spring next and finish it the same way.

I also wanted to show you some of the bigger projects I have been working on.
Mandala is about 2/3rd's done.

Darth Vader's head:

and Swans and Shears SAL:

Thanks to Heather at the Stitching Lotus hosting the smalls challenge.  It has been a ton of fun.

Thanks so much for looking,
Mary