Bits of progress and a finish too!

My attention has been kind of scattered this week -- very busy with school, so I don't have big chunks of time to stitch. That tends to make me project hop!

First up, is my newest project Birds of a Feather by Nancy's Needle. I am really loving working on this piece, and the progress attests to that. I've managed to finish the inner octagon already!

I can't bring myself to work on Cirque des Carreaux again quite yet, so I pulled out another piece that is a simple, mindless stitch - Rules for Life by Kincavel Krosses. I think I made some great progress on this piece too. (Maybe doing a quick rotation is the way to go for me ... who knows?)

And finally, I started and finished the April design for the Song of the Weather hardanger SAL hosted by Mabel Figworthy's Fancies.

And the first pillowfront for my nieces is fully stitched. Now I just need to find the time, fabric, and motivation to make the actual pillow.

March was a Nightmare!

So I've been trying to keep up with the Song of the Weather hardanger SAL over at Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. Over a week ago, I put my fabric onto my new 12" millenium frame and away I went. It started out okay ...

(See the pretty new squissors I got? They are wonderful for snips in close quarters!)

However, once I got past the cutting and wrapping, I encountered the basque knots (the outer double border). Well, I couldn't get them right to save my life! I cut them out 3 times before I finally got them done. They aren't that pretty, but they're done. I hope I never have to stitch another one.

The French knots went smoothly (thank goodness) and they look nice and plump done in a perle #5. I think this design has all of my least favourite stitches -- basque knot, Queen's stitch and wrapped bars.

I did the first two designs with my fabric on a q-snap and now that I've put it on the millenium frame, the fabric doesn't seem to be behaving the same way. Not sure whether it's a result of the extra tension or the crappy stitching I did.

Back to Drama Queen for a bit I think. I've been missing it!