Freebie alert

Sylvia of My Little SAL fame has gifted us with a very cute new freebie on her blog.

http://syku66.blogspot.com/

Scroll down to the Bunny Theif. Ain't he cute? Her finishing is FANTASTIC!

Weekend progress

I made steady forward motion with Cardinals Winter and Icy this weekend.


Icy was my Saturday project. I worked mostly on the border. Fear has a physical form, and it is the distance between those two blue boxes. It is exactly 102 stitches wide, and it's a creamy grey green. That, kind hearts, gentle readers, is terror. I was pretty sure it was going to be OK, since the other distances seemed to be OK, but you never know when you're bounding off into an expanse of white fabric whether it will end well, or you're gonna have to put it aside for a while.


Fortunately, it all matched up. Icy's Kingdom even has mountains now. And a distinct northern and eastern edge.


I worked yesterday, so yesterday was all about the Tweet.


I did have to do some frogging on Friday evening. The tree was off, the snowflakes were off and they needed fixed. Plus the floss for "Tweet" was too light in my opinion, on this fabric, and it was annoying me. I know myself well enough to know that I'd rather pick it out and put it in right than stare at it on the Christmas tree for the next 20 years, annoyed at it. I think it looks MUCH better now. I like the way everything looks together. The bunnies are the soft color they are here in the winter, and they go really well with the wintry blue (I think it's GAST Cornflower blue, but I'm not sure). I have been hesitant in the past to change colors from the charted ones, but this is improving my confidence.

Carol of Stitching Dreams also stitched this ornament. She and I think alike because she also customized her bunnies and her "tweet"; "Tweet" didn't stand out for her, either, so she made it a dark green, and her bunnies are darker to match the bunnies she sees. If you get a chance, head over to her blog to check out her cute finish!

I hope everyone had a good weekend. It rained all day yesterday. Cold and steady. Last night, I had to stop at the store on the way home from work because Left-brain, desperate for food on Saturday night in a house where all our meat is frozen, made us chocolate chip cookies for dinner. Before you commend him too hard, we did have spaghetti fixings, and . . . they were the ready to bake cookies. But I stopped to get him food because, well, a man shouldn't be learning to bake cookies in this manner. I got him a frozen pizza for tonight. It better be good because the box got wet, the wrapped pizza fell out and rolled all over the front yard, because my arms were full of other bags and my purse and I had to chase a pizza in the wind and rain. I don't think anything else fell out on the ground while I was running around, but it did snow last night. I couldn't believe it this morning. Hopefully, today will go better.

And the Winner Is . . .

We put the names in the white basket o' goodness at work today and chose . . .




Nastasha!

I'll be emailing you tomorrow to get your mailing info.

Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone else who entered. I will keep my eyes open if I see another one.

This week's progress

Friday is finally here, and I don't know about you, but I'm glad this week is over. March has truly come in like a lion, if not so much in weather, it's an emotional lion.

I did manage to get some work done on Icy. I know now that one strand of Marlitt would have given adequate coverage on my 28 count, but I've got so much done in two strands, I have to keep going. Fortunately, I ordered more from Sewandso in England. It's on its way, so I think I'll be OK on that.



He is so large that pictures that fit all the piece don't show the detail, and the "pretty" of this is in the detail.



I also worked on LHN's Cardinal's Winter. I am substituting some of the colors out so it coordinates better with a particular backing fabric I have, and also because I didn't have one of the CC it called for. I switched out Roasted Chestnut for Bunny Honey, and I think it works well with the cooler colors. I know the border is GAST, from one of those Loose Thread packs they used to sell. I had been holding onto those threads for a long time, but, as part of my general push this year to be a better steward of my many blessings in life, I decided it was time to use the threads, and not keep them in a bag, without purpose. I am not sure which color it is. I used another color blue for the word Tweet, but I think I'm going to frog that and use the border color.



It's stitched on silver sparkly aida from Charles Craft. I think it's turning out pretty well, all in all.

I hope everyone has a nice weekend. Hopefully, next week will be better than this.

My Spooky SAL for Lisa

I didn't post my progress on this yesterday, as I thought I would be able to. Here it is.




I got started pretty late, but I made a bit of progress. This is "No Scaredy Cats" by Waxing Moon. The cat is Gunmetal, not the color called for in the chart. I didn't have the color, and figured if he was a smoky black, not a black black, no one would really mind. It will help soften when I do the other kitty in Amber, so I am hoping it looks good.

Another reminder for my Betsy PIF. Remember, you have to leave a comment in the PIF post below to be entered. Good luck.

To honor Lisa . . .

So many expressions of shocked grief today on so many blogs. So many people who are so sad, so horrified at the loss of someone most of us only knew through her needlework designs. At times like this, I like to think that our lives are woven together in a design like a piece of cross stitch. We see only the back: the knots, the fumpy threads, the vague outlines of what will be the final design. Someone else sees the top of the design, sees the patterns in a clearer view, understands the harmony of the colors, and sees how the little xes all fit together to create beauty. And, while we have to accept that life is not always beautiful, seen from the back, in the end, it is as it was supposed to be, even with the fumps and knots.


I read on another blog that people are having a Spooky SAL in her memory tonight. We were supposed to spread the word, so I'm spreading it. Will you join me tonight in working on a Halloween piece (or a fall piece, if you're not a Halloweeny person)?

A horrible loss to the industry

I clicked on 123stitch this morning to hear the news that Primitive Needle designer Lisa Roswell has passed away. I have some of her charts and was looking forward to stitching them.

These are the threads where they discuss this.

http://www.123stitch.com/cgi-bin/BBS/bbs_forum_read_message.cgi?read=676864-000000.msg


http://www.123stitch.com/cgi-bin/BBS/bbs_forum_read_message.cgi?read=676893-000000.msg

Please join me in sending prayers to comfort her family in this horrible time.