November was a busy month around here between teaching, taking two workshops and getting ready for the holidays. I stitched several small ornament gifts for some friends and family members and now I get to go back to my stitching. I worked on Joan Elliott’s Autumn Fairy and finally finished stitching those enormous wings. I felt like I was swallowed in green thread for awhile, but they are all stitched now. I started the backstitching on them and promised myself I would do a thread of wing backstitch in between colors in the bottom part of her skirt.
I finished all of the other backstitching on the first two pages of the pattern (the top half) and all that is needed there besides the wing backstitching is the beads. I am going to wait and do the beading last, so the beads do not get squished under my q-snap. I began the front of the bottom of her dress today and once the dress is done I will do the leaves, ribbons and apples that are left. I might just get another finish before the year is up on my 15, lol. That would put me at half done for my goals, which is way better than I anticipated with the size of the pieces, plus alternating between them and my HAEDs.
Here is Autumn Fairy now! As you can see, I’ve outlined the wings, it is the inner backstitching for the wing veins that I need to finish for the top to be all done except for beads. J
I am looking forward to the New Year. I’ve joined several stitch-a-longs for next year and hope I haven’t bitten off more than I can chew, so to speak. Lol.
The first one I’m extremely excited about is for the HAED Bulletin Board. I will be doing a Spangler design called The Literate Dragon.
For a HAED it is relatively small at only 4 pages, but with those books and Starry Night in the background, I’m thinking it will be full of confetti. This is one I hope to finish within the year. The first page won’t be sent until around Jan. 4, 2013, so I have had time to get my floss and fabric together for him.
For one of my Facebook groups I am doing another Spangler design, but this one is definitely a big project. The pattern is 98 pages! I am doing Spangler’s Trick or Treat. I love Halloween and Spangler’s houses and dragons, so this was a must for me when I saw it.
Another HAED I am doing in a SAL for the New Year is my first Josephine Wall design. I have chosen Snow Queen as my pattern and can’t wait to get started on her.
I just love the beautiful colors of the Northern Lights in this one against the white of the snow. There is a lot of metallic thread in this one, so it will be really sparkly when finished. That is unless I decide to swap out the 032 Kreinik for DMC B5200. I will make that decision when I get there.
Another New Year’s start I committed to is a Nora Corbett design from her Pixie collection. I will be doing Bluebell. I was planning to do it anyway for my youngest daughter. She loves the color blue. Sometime during the year I will be doing Waterlily for her older sister as a companion piece to this one.
I’m also planning a March Start of a Mystic Stitch design for their Facebook group, but I haven’t decided on which design I will be doing yet.
Phew! Looking at those I wonder what I got myself into when I know I will be working on my two Anderson’s I already have going and my Frodo and Galadriel that is for me! I think I would be bored if I just did one at a time, but it can be a little overwhelming getting my stuff organized.
Those are my plans for next year. I’ve joined the Cross Stitch Crazy 2013 group, but I am not sure if I am officially going to be trying to finish 15 again, since I didn’t make it past half that on this year’s challenge. The smart person would carry over the ones she didn’t finish for 2012 and not add more. Not me! I’m carrying those wips over and can’t help but pick out more new ones I want to start and finish next year.
Happy Stitching!
Diana
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Tangled Skeins in Time 