Productive few days off....

Well, I should say Thursday since I did nothing but stitch Tuesday and Wednesday and then Thursday decided to finish the stitching already finished.  First I was thrilled to remember where "Candy Cane Wishes" was....after Christmas it's always a crap shoot finding everything I put somewhere so this was an accomplishment.  Anyway,

Stitched on 40 ct. Lakeside Linen's Vintage River Willow using WDW, GA, and CC fibers.  These 5" x  3 1/2"X 2"paper mache oval box projects are so much fun and they are also fast so that's a double winner for me.  The finishing is also one of the easiest as well.  I used Lambswool rick rack for finishing.  Great project!  Then I moved on the Hands on Design's latest, "A Year of Celebration"., January.  This was such a hot design I really didn't think about stitching it initially for the shop because there seemed to be no need.  It sells itself.  But....I wanted to come up with a different way to display this design.  The chart shows a clip board which you make for it...which is fine, but I wanted something other than a clipboard, so I had to stitch it to see what I'd come up with.  Sara was fine with the clip board but when I discussed with her my thoughts, we walked around the shop and she picked up the white washed hornbook we had for another project and because it's a little wider than some of the other hornbooks and it is white, which is perfect for January I was on board.  Because I wanted to be able to use it for all the designs in the chart pack, I decided to atttach a button on the hornbook which I would be able to hang the monthly pieces on.  Then Sara mentioned using a small spool and attaching a specialty item on it which would match the stitched piece.  This is my finished project...

It's hard to see but I glued a small magnet to the hornbook, and then attached a white sparkly snowflake to a spool which I glued a magnet to, glued a small metal disc the size of the magnet I attached to the hornbook , so+  I can change the spool out each month with a different charm or button on it.  Then when I finished stitching I just attached a thin ribbon to it for a hanger.  These designs are quick projects, one or two days.  I did have to get in my embellishment fix, so I attached 4 white beads as showballs above the snowman.  While the models are done on one fabric, Dirty Belfast linen, I thought it needed to have color since I was using a white hornbook, so I used Picture This Plus Helix and then used the colors shown on the chart.  I will also use different colors of linen to match design for the entire series.  Fun, fast project.  To back the design I used a piece of Weeks Dye Works wool.   Since I was on a roll with finishing, I decided to try the needlepoint wine bag.  Normally I don't finish needlepoint myself, but with this small thin design I couldn't figure out why I couldn't do it and decided there was nothing wrong with trying.  So this is what I discovered, I could do it and so here it is.  Siunce it's needlepoint it was a fast stitch, two days, (tent stitch basically) and at the bottom I did the green sea grass in a satin stitch and then I went to my bead supplies and found the turquoise starfish which matched the rest of the colors beautifully.  I did a twisted cord using the blue and lime green silks and voila...done!

So now I'm back to stitching and boy do I have a lot to choose from.  I've started on 20 count over 2, stitching Brenda Gervais' latest snowman,  "All Bundled Up", and at the sametime I'm stitching "Festive Fobs-Valentine Edition", by Heartstring Samplery, Plum Street's , "Heritage Sampler and Noah's Christmas Ark", A Just Nan piece and Erica Michael's silk gauze strawberry and to just add to the mass stitch, "Halloween March"  which is an adorable needlepoint canvas by Ashley Dillon, and this is definitely not an easy, fast stitch, but I take turns stitching on everything at once so it will eventually get done.  But this is what I'm busy with, what are you working on.  Many of you post your stitching on facebook, which I love to see.  Always interesting to see the difference fabrics, different fibers make on a piece and then the finishing I'm amazed with.  So many creative stitchers out there...keep it up because you spur those of us watching to up our game.  Love it!  Have a great weekend and if snow is in your future hope you get to stay home and stitch.