An Enchanted Stitcher

What I love most about Chatelaine's designs are all the gorgeous colors she uses. I chose Snowman's Way Home , for the shades of blues and turquoises against the navy blue belfast linen. The design calls for 28ct., which I normally stitch on, and I've stitched on 32ct before, which is why I chose the Belfast to try something and get more used to working on 32ct. I'm not to fond of stitching on Dark colors of fabric, but I think my snowman turned out cute. Instead of using the DMC gold metallic thread, I used the Gold Treasure Braid I allready had, using only one thread. I tried two threads and it looked too bulky. I'm hoping to have this done tonight. I know the one side looks crooked, it needs a good ironing. Dont'cha just love the color of his cap and scarf.

Now I know WHY, Queen stitches are called, 'Royal' Pains in the Butt. By the time I had gotten the last half of them done, I found the trick to using the two threads the design calls for, without it looking too bulky. Which means I will need to frog the first half, and redo them, I'll wait to do that after I'm done with everything else.

Here's the progress I have gotten to so far. I had hoped to finish this by the end of Febuary, but I started quite a few more projects, but this will remain my focus piece.

One of my Febuary Finishing goals is this Quaker Heart, that I found from Piece Work magazine. I am using the Gentle Arts Sampler Thread in 'Cherry Wine', that it calls for, on 28ct. white lugana. The colors range for just what the colors suggest, from a bright cherry red, to a deep garnet wine color. Very pretty. I'm close to finishing the front part.

I'm feeling like I am making some good progress on this. It does stitch up really quick. For this band I still have the Queen Stitches to do and I'd like to finish up half the heart borders on each side, I'm hoping to finish the stitching minus the hardanger and the beading by the end of this month.

As soon as I recieved the chart of Patricia Andrle's Illuminated House Blessing, I started stitching on it right away. Here's my first progress pic after only 2 hours of stitching. The colors are beautiful.

For my son's teacher I wanted to make her something for Valentine's Day, and I came across this free design by Victoria Sampler, 'Love Bag'. I happened to have all the supplies allready. I used the DMC threads called for in the design, but I'd like to use some silks for the one I want to keep for myself. The gold sparklies don't show too good in the photo. They have such a pretty effect with the deep rose, and the white satin stitch in the bottom row, make a nice lacey effect. Then I stuffed in a couple DOVE Dark chocolates for her, and couldn't help but eat a couple myself.

Last night, I finished putting on the last bead. It is really stunning. My photo doesn't do it justice.

Now I am working on The 1st of the 12 Day ornaments from Teresa Wentzler. Another project I started is her Heart Sampler which is stiching along faster than I thought. I should have progress pics of both of them some time next week.

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