dancing along...

Well I have to admit that this will be a very quick post. As you all know it was Sunday yesterday, that means Sunday SAL with Barbi, and working on Mary Margaret. I ended up staying up way too late last night, as I was soooo close to finishing Mary Margaret at bed time, that I just couldn't put her down until she was complete. She took a little longer than I thought, so like I said I was up very late last night. I'll tell you it was an interesting day today at work, going on only a few (very few) hours of sleep!

Here she is, in all her finished glory! I love the way she turned out, and I loved working on her, and staying up that late was so worth it.

One more girl to go, and the series is complete! Suzannah is up next! Not sure of the start date, but as soon as Barbi is done her Mary Margaret and is ready to go we can start. I'm looking forward to seeing how much progress Barbi made yesterday!

The rest of this week will more than likely be the Last Supper, but we'll see...

sunday sal, tusal, and ihsw...

Wow, everything seems to have come together for this weekend and Monday update, that I don't even know where to start!

Let's start with last week's progress on The Last Supper... I worked on that last week and did pretty good considering I didn't get to stitch every night like I normally do. I didn't bother taking them out of the q-snaps as it will be coming up for more stitching time soon enough.

The blue robe on the very left, where I ended, is actually part of the last apostle standing at the table, so I'm getting close to finsihing off all the good bits, after all that stitching is done, I'm left with all the fiddly bits - the skin with all its colour changes and fractionals, all the stuff on the table - more fractionals, and of course the ton and a half of backstitching! So much still to do, but I know it will be worth it in the end.

Next up... the start of the IHSW - international hermit and stitch weekend. Edith and I had a stitchy date on Saturday (sadly Barbi couldn't make it - hopefully next time) and I started a new project - the Birds of a Feather mystery SAL in three parts by With Thy Needle & Thread. Its not so much a mystery anymore as the SAL has been over for a while and I have all three parts of the pattern, but I have been wanting to stitch it since it came out. I finally sat down to start.

Here is my progress from Saturday's stitching session with Edith and some more that evening...

As I mentioned, since I have all three parts, I started in the middle instead of working it part by part, which works much better for me, as I have a hard time starting on projects from one of the corners...

I'm stitching it on 28ct natural peal linen, with the recommended threads. I'm a little weary as the thread pack that came with it is for 35ct, so I'm hoping I'll have enough thread...

I normally don't like stitching on linen, and I know you have all heard me say that many times before, but this fabric is one exception... it is more like an evenweave than a linen in that there really are no slubs in it and I love that about it! Plus the stitches lay so nicely on this fabric! I just have to get over the fact that its sort of itchy feeling... Anyways, this one is up to continue to work on this week.

Next progress picture... tusal... today is the new moon, and I thought I would try something different this year... here is my progress for this past month - from Dec. 24 till last night. I have to admit I've got quite a lot of stitching done in that time, including starting and finishing Mirabilia's Holly pixie, so my jar is quite full...

As you can see, I've have two jars pictured. My regular small one that I usually just keep squishing the threads down in, and a new bigger one... I thought this year I would keep my regular ort jar for the monthly progress pictures and the larger one would hold the whole year's progress of orts... we'll see how it works out...

Here is a picture of the two jars again, but this time I've already dumped this month's progress into the large jar...

Last but not least, it was our Sunday SAL with Barbi yesterday, so that meant Mary Margaret time...

Here she is after last night's stitching session...

I think I did pretty good. I've started the border, as well as filling in the bottom grass/dirt. I did make one change to the pattern, in that I changed the colour of the outline of the raccoon... The colour that the patten called for in its DMC conversion was DMC 730 which is a dark avocado green... I didn't want my raccoon being green, so I switched it out for black instead. Anyways, she is coming into the home stretch, and I'm pretty excited!

That's it for now, I didn't realize my post would be this long, so until next time happy stitching!

mary margaret...

Well it was Sunday yesterday and you all know what that means! Sunday SAL with Barbi!

I will admit, I didn't stitch solely on Mary Margaret yesterday, as you can see from yesterday's post I also had a happy dance. After Saturday night's stitching session, I only had some beading left to do on Holly - a good hour or two before actually finishing her, so I thought I would tackle that before starting to work on Mary Maragaret, so that is what I did. As you can see I did finish Holly, and I just love the way she turned out. I just love these Mirabilia pixies, even though this is only my second one that I've stitched, I see a lot more of them in my future! Good thing too, as I have a few in my stash just waiting to be stitched!

Now on to the reason we are here!

Though it seems like there isn't much left to do, trust me there is... that is an awful lot of ground/grass on the bottom there that still needs to be filled in, not to mention the other things and the border, but she is coming along, and each Sunday brings me closer to a happy dance!

This week, I'll be pulling out my Last Super again, and make a little more headway on that.

Don't forget that this weekend coming up is the IHSW - international hermit stitcher's weekend, and I am planning on stitching lots this time around! I have a stitchy date all set with Edith, and I'm planning on starting something new! Barbi was to join us but sadly she can't make it this time, but hopefully next stitchy date, it will be a threesome! :O)

Till next time happy stitching!!

mary margaret

I'm a little late, but I guess late is better than never! Here is my latest update on Mary Margaret! Not too much left to do, I'm so looking forward to a happy dance with her, as well as seeing Barbi's progress!

This week, its Holly's turn. We'll see how far I get, though I would like to see a happy dance with her in the near future as well!

a little mary margaret...

What a great way to start the new year - with a Sunday SAL with Barbi!

It was a very lazy day, being we were out fairly late the evening before, but I did manage to put a few stitches into Mary Margaret!

She is coming along nicely if I do say so myself. I've already put her away till next Sunday, and have pulled out Holly by Mirabilia, to continue working on her this week. I'm still on holidays so hopefully I will be able to get lots of good stitching time in!

just a quick update

Sunday was Mary Margaret day, or I should say our SAL with Barbi...

Here is my progress on her from that stitching session...

It is coming along quite nicely, though I will admit that next sunday I don't think I will be able to stitch on her as we have a very busy weekend coming up.

That's it for now, as it is fairly late here... until next time... Happy Stitching

mary margaret

Its been nice not having to post everyday but at the same time I'm missing it! I keep thinking of things I need to blog about and making a list to make sure I don't forget but I'm falling behind already!

Anyways... yesterday was our Sunday SAL with Barbi and I made a little progress on mine. But I have to admit I didn't get as much as I wanted to get done, as we had a very busy day and I didn't actually sit down to stitch until fairly late Sunday night.

I will also be getting the giveaway prizes into the mail soon, I just didn't get a chance to go to the post office today! Again I would like to thank everyone who played and congratulations to the winners!!

mary margaret...

Yesterday was our regular Sunday SAL with Barbi and here is my progress on Mary Margaret by Carriage House Samplings:

She is coming along nicely and I am enjoying every stitch... I did notice in the pattern that coming up on the tree is a heart with her initials stitched over one... looking at the model photo that came with the chart I'm not sure I like the way it looks so I may skip the over one stitching and just leave the hear blank.... we'll see next week when its time to work on her again!

Till then don't forget to enter my giveway - see my previous post, and happy stitching!

IHSW and Mary Margaret...

This weekend was the IHSW (international hermit and stitch weekend) and sadly I didn't get to much time in for stitching. I was only able to really sit down on Sunday for a little bit.

Since Sunday is also our SAL day with Barbi, I worked on Mary Margaret for both the IHSW and our SAL. Here is my progress from yesterday...

Not too much but she is coming along nicely. I am enjoying her a lot, she is a fun stitch. I will admit that this time her face didn't creep me out as much as she did last week, when I had to cover her up!

That's it for today... I'm off to stitch on my tulips! Also 9 more days of nablogpomo as well.

mary margaret and a little holiday cheer...

Yesterday was SAL day with Barbi, and if you read my post yesterday, you know that we were a bit busy over here playing (oops... I mean organizing) my threads that I didn't have too much time to stitch, so not much progress was made...

I will admit though stitching her face and her skin with ecru and her eyes, sort of gave her a creepy ghoulish look, at least to me... She has sort of that goth look about her, and her eyes seem snakish to me... I actually had to cover her face while I stitched that one leaf! Call me crazy but she creeped me out late last night while I was up alone stitching... But I still love her, and I do enjoy working on her...so that is a good thing!

Also, if you remember my post from Friday we had a snow fall warning for our city... well nothing happened... we got it today instead! We got the wind they said, and the blowing snow but thank goodness we didn't get too much of the white stuff, or at least not here in our end of the city where I live!

We got just enough to cover the roads and the rooftops of the houses. I know we'll lots more later, but for now this will do...

Hubby also managed to redo our Christmas lights on Friday, we had such lovely weather, so he replaced all of them and actually rehung them all. We keep our lights on the house all year long, and just change out the bulbs as they become worn out or broken. However, this past spring/summer we had a really nasty hail storm that did a lot of damage to the garden and the lights, not so much the house, thank goodness.... and becuase of that he placed them in a different spot, a little lower and more protected.

Anyways, we did a test lighting tonight and here is our house all dressed up and ready for the holidays! We won't be actually turning them on regularly each night till Dec. 6th.

progress on mary margaret...

Well its Monday... not too much else to say... I have been feeling under the weather so instead of complaining, I just show my progress from this Sunday's SAL with Barbi

mary margaret...

Just a quick drive by posting... yesterday was our Sunday sal with Barbi and here is my progress on Mary Margaret

Also a quick reminder that there is still time to enter my giveaway - see previous post. You have until midnight my time today to enter for your chance to win a hallween/fall ornament from me! Thank you to everyone who has entered so far!

a start, a finish and a gift...

Yesterday, Barbi and I started on our next girl for our Sunday SAL... Mary Margaret by Carriage House Samplings... here is my progress on her so far...

Not too much done, but considering I didn't have too much time to stitch, she progressed fairly well. Also considering that I've been working a lot on 28ct lately, changing to 32ct last night was strange... those darn holes were so small! it will take a little getting used to again, but all will be well.

Next up, is a finish for me! Happy dance time! I finished off my Batch of Pumpkins by Homespun Elegance... what a fun and quick stitch it turned out to be! Except for that darn kitty! I had to frog that thing 2 1/2 times last week, but I finally learned to count again, and got everything in order so I could continue. And as you can see continue I did! I had only a little bit left as of Saturday night, but I had a sick day today, so inbetween naps I managed to do a little stitching and finished those pumpkins right up!

I stitched it up using the recommended DMC threads - with one change - I changed the pumpkin colour to 780 instead of the 782 listed just becuase I had no 782 on hand... it is also stitched on 28ct praire grain joblean - a very nice fabric to stitch on, as well as a very nice colour. I think I may need to add some more of it to my stash as I only have a small piece left.

And last but definitely not least... my gift... I recieved a belated birthday gift from my niece. She made me a pin cushion. I just love it to pieces, and it now sits proudly by my stitchy spot already with some pins in it!

I also recieved the next part in the iStitch SAL over the weekend, so I'll probably pull that out and stitch that up next. After that is done, there is only one part left before a happy dance! Then for the rest of the week, I will most likely go back to working on the tulips as I really should get those done...