Finished!

 In My Daughter's Eyes

Custom Chart from  personal photo

stitched with DMC on 18 ct aida

After almost 4 1/2 years, I finished the photo of my daughter and I this past week. I really wanted to have it done before the Wee Man gets here, so I pulled it out Labor Day weekend and it's been my focus. I am quite proud of this finish. Not only because it is pretty, but it was also a lot of work (although when I look at how large it is, compared to how long it took, I shake my head). I just think when I started it, back in July 2012, it was a little beyond my skillset at the time. Finishing Santa's Pets earlier this year gave me the confidence to know I could finish this. Now, maybe, I can work on some of my other full-coverage pieces without getting so intimidated. But, I am happy that this was one of the 5 projects on my list that I determined I had to finish before starting Noah's Sub. The others were Soul Music by Dimensions, Sleepy Hollow by Cricket Collection, Santa's Pets, and the year of floss tags by Needle's Content. It seemed like a lot to ask of myself last summer, but, out of them, only the Needle's Content remains to be done, and I have 4 of those stitched already.  So, it's possible that Noah's Sub will get started next year, but later, probably. Heck, getting two large projects done in one year is impressive!

I thought I would rotate Little Wings back in and make that my weekday stitch, but I adopted a UFO from stitching group, a Precious Moments baby blanket, that would be nice to have for Wee Man, so that is going to be my weekday stitch. It shouldn't take too long, and it will be nice for him. The already-completed stitching is beautiful, so I am trying to match it.

I am also trying to follow the Keeping Christmas challenge, to stitch an ornament a week. It has not been easy--somehow I find myself wanting to do more involved ornaments. I have been working on Mitten Mitten, a freebie from Cricket Collection from 2009, it has taken about 3 weeks of weekends. Ooops! I am stitching it in Sullivan's floss. I have used that floss before, but I am still up in the air about it. Part of me really likes the colors--this ornament is very cheerful and luscious--and I like the way it feels. It doesn't feel like regular cotton floss, more like linen, and it just feels very crisp and nice, maybe a little fluffier than regular DMC or Anchor. But they don't have all the colors DMC has. Maybe if I ordered it from them, or bought at an LNS, but I got mine at Hancock, and, considering no one seems to use it for anything, every time I went in there, the floss bins were a horrible mess and they were missing colors. Even if it had the number on the bin. I wish my LNS would carry it, because I do like it for designs with minimal shading. As it is, I am being creative with this finish. But it will be personal! Do you all use Sullivans? Do you like it?