#TBT - Mirabilia Holiday Fairies

Way back in the day, when they first started coming out and were really hard to get a hold of, I started collecting (and stitching!) the Holiday Fairies by Nora Corbett (for Hoffman Distributing).  They were Limited Edition (I wonder if that's still true?  I see a number of them for sale new?).  These were kits that came with 32 Zweigart linen, Kreiniks, Crescent Colours threads, and any of the beads you would need.    Initially they seemed to sell out really fast, but I had a local needlework shop (Judy's Stitchery in Harlingen) that ordered them for me, so I managed to snag them all pretty easily.

I tried to stitch them in order of the holidays to start, but burnt out after the third one.

The first one I completed was also #1 in the collection - the Christmas Elf Fairy.   I do love the little Christmas tree that she was carrying.   The only issue I had with it (and I had this issue with all of the kits) is that the Bella Rosa thread used for the skin was super pink.   Because all of the kits came with full skeins of all needed colors, and I didn't need very much, I took the lightest of the skeins and tried to use that for all of the fairies.

I really also like the reds in the dress.  It's just so freakin' sweet.

I finished this one on December 10, 2006, nearly 10 years ago!

Miss Valentine Fairy is probably my least favorite, but I'm not much of a pink person, and I"m not a huge fan of her ratty looking skirt.  I do think it's cute how she's holding what I think of as a giant heart box of chocolates, but so much pink!

I finished her second on February 8, 2007

I love the Easter Fairy because of the adorable robin's egg blue actual egg she's holding.  I think this one is probably the twee-est of the whole series.

She was finished on April 28, 2007

And of course, I actually have already blogged about the others in the series I most recently finished:

• Halloween Fairy, July 28, 2014
• Miss New Year Fairy, October 13, 2014
• Thanksgiving Fairy February 14, 2016

I haven't decided how I want to finish them yet.  Because of their size, I think a simple frame would work, but flat folds would also work.  I'm a little worried about flat folding these, though, because they were a bit costly and I do really like them.   It'll eventually, maybe, end up as framing, but for now they live in a portfolio book, which I can leaf through to look at my finished and unframed pieces:

February WIPocalypse

Wow - Two WIPocalypses in a row, let's see if I can keep on my roll!

I have actually had a fair amount of progress, which makes me super happy.

First I finished Thansgiving Fairy by Mirabilia

Then I finished (Celtic) Ferret Knot

And now I'm working on WWKCD

Previously, I just had the letters done (chopped off above because of a fold in the fabric holding it in the Qsnaps).  

I'm working on one color at a time, I have done 2 and I have 3 left.  Huzzah!

I am working on the "easy" ones.  I have a lot of TWs and larger pieces, but I've learned that I can stitch on my downtime at work, and so I've been keeping that limited to "easier" pieces so I can put things down quickly.

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The Topic for this month is:
If you have any of your pieces on display in your home, which attracts the most plaudits.

Probably Luna Moth or my Letters from Nora - S, because they're both in the front hallway.   

If people are spending any significant time at our place (meaning that they're spending the night and will therefore be upstairs), then they see Story Teller, who would *probably* get the most love if he were on main-hallway-display ;)

This weekend we will be hosting a game day on Saturday, and on Sunday I'm hosting a tiny get together for some Craftivism - we'll be working on the 5.4 Million and Counting project, so that should be interesting.

I'm hoping to finish WWKCD this week, but of course, it will all depend on work.

TBT - Texas!

In "honor" of the upcoming Fourth holiday, I thought I would show off some older patriotic designs.   Because I lived in Texas for so long (long enough that everyone, including myself, considers me a Texan), we'll call these Texas pieces "patriotic."

Hey, if you've ever been in Texas, you'll understand.

These are by Lorraine Koester of Redbird Designs.  I really did like her stuff, and she even had a DMC(?) freebie for a while.  I'm not sure (I don't think?) she's still designing, but I hope I'm wrong.

The first is "Texas"   I did it on a light blue murano.   It actually hung in my favorite stitching shop in Houston (Stitchcraft) for a while.    I did it for that longhorn. I finished it on 5.25.2001

The second is "Texas Monthly Minis"  I went ahead and stitched it as a whole piece instead of individual ornaments (which is how I kept seeing it displayed).  I really like this monthly series and I think it's a lot of fun, and a nice take on the different seasons/holidays.   I think my favorite block is the Thanksgiving Turkey with its cowboy hat, though February was my favorite to stitch.  I would stitch one little block per month and officially finished it on January 7, 2007.   I think this was about the time variegated fibres really started taking off, and I think they worked well in this piece.

So there's another Throwback Thursday.   I'm looking forward to this long weekend (no more holiday work! YAY!)

Framing - part 1 (of 4!) - Luna Moth

I'm splitting up my framing post into 4, because it is a little pic heavy and I wanted to give appropriate weight to each one, because I adore them all :)

Recently I visited some friends, and they had a local framer they really like... So I packed up 5 pieces to take with with me, intending to frame 2, hoping to frame more, depending on the cost.

I ended up framing all 5!   Three of them were easy, obvious choices for me, but in the giant tub of "other pieces" I had to choose... And this is one of the ones I chose -
Luna Moth by Sandra Paradise from the March 2004 issue of Stitcher's World.

I loved the model in the photo, and had a fantastic (small) piece of sky blue evenweave and decided to go with that.  I fussed and complained, because the beads were giving me fits, but I finally finished it in September 1, 2008.    And it's absolutely gorgeous.  The piece is heavy as anything I've ever stitched, but it has a fantastic and beautiful sparkle that cannot be beat.

It was an utter bear to frame.  I wanted matting, and the colors in the Luna Moth presented a unique challenge to the framer.   I kind of hated the greenish linen mat he picked out, but in the end he was right.  Just as I was right to really want the purple mats underneath.  He definitely did a great job, and I love it.

The whole piece - the lighting is a bit off, but I couldn't get the gold of the frame and the green of the mat to play nicely with my camera phone or editing, and I'm too lazy to bust out the Lightroom for this today ;)

A Spotty Monster Dance!

I've been a slacker about my blogging. I didn't blog yesterday, almost missed today, and sadly, I actually have a notebook full of ideas, I just haven't bothered.

But if anything, I mostly finished my knobknocker! I just haven't finished it.

First CATS Happy Dance.

This is Candy Cane Snowflake by Just Nan! (yayyyyyyy). The super yay is that the chartpack came with enough striped beads (the ones that are hard to find, I have plenty of the others or good substitutes) to do the piece 2 more times! Can you say biscornu? Yeah, I thought you could.

This is the best picture I could get that didn't zap out the middle charm. I'm totally stealing Kari's idear, and getting a candycane button/charm for the middle for the biscornu, it'll be sweet (hah! I'm punny!).

Bat, Bats, everywhere!

I finished! It took almost an entire two skeins of Crescent Colours, but I got it done! And yes, I took the picture on the diagonal. Actually I took two pictures, but the color shows up better in this one. It's some sort of melony/orangy material, and I'm very very happy with it.

I was thinking that I'd like to get this one with a specialty matte cut. Something that goes around the bats that's neither square nor diagonal, nor circle. I'm not sure what yet. I also realized that I have Bavarian Christmas wreath that need to framed. If I get enough seasonal stuff that is the same approximate size, I think I'll just use a rotating spot on the wall and hang up a seasonal something.

Or I might finish it into a flat-fold... I can't decide what I want to do, but I want to display this sucker!!!

Look Ma! I have a mermaid!

I present to you: Emerald Mermaid by Mirabilia.
Stitched on DaVinci linen by Picture this Plus.

Another day, another happy dance...

You know, I thought I would get to have this happy dance on Thursday. At the latest.

That'll show me. I thought if I were ambitious, I could totally make it late on Wednesday. Fool that I am. But Thursday seemed pretty easy. That would leave me Friday to work on Fortunate Traveller. But then I didn't finish this yesterday. Then I thought "heh, by lunch! Easy!"

I mean, come on, doesn't that braid look SIMPLE. SIMPLE!!! I Tell you!!! Fool, that I am. You'd think, since I've been stitching for 15 years now I'd learn to gauge my time a little better.

You'd also think that after a week of vacation I'd get something done besides stitching. Maybe a little playstation or something. But no, here I stitch away. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy stitching. I just expected more.


But lo! A happy dance nonetheless!!

So I was in a TWRR last year, and I had done a border for it, but then I was afraid that the piece of fabric I had chosen was too small. Honestly, I don't know if it was, but I'm afraid to look now, It may have been, it may not have been, but I'm happy I did pick another piece. But I did have to restitch the border, which is way more devious than it looks. First, I stitched my band (the one at the bottom, which should have really been at the top, but meh), which is from Persian Floral. It's done in the muted colors, only there is a mistake in the magazine regarding the backstitching instructions and I didn't catch it until after I'd done the blue in the flowers, but I didn't feel like restitching them. It's done, and I'm over it. I then did the braid and tassels, which are from Christmas Wreath. And then I did the letters from Harvest Sampler. So all in all, there's a whole lotta elements from different TW's, and I am just thrilled with the piece. I'm very very happy with it and I'm so grateful to everyone who put all of their hard work and thoughts into it.


Even better, I'm down another WIsP. Pretty "soon" I really will be down to the 10 projects I'm aiming for, and won't that be awesome.

A Rockin' Happy Dance...

As is true to my premonitiony word, a newly hatched larval human form burst forth from my cousin's loins on the very day I was mentioning it.

Anyway, should I drown (although I doubt it with the lack of rain today), know it's due to my lack of ark building, because I felt the need to finish the birth sampler.

Here we go (and Dear Cousin has owned horses for years, is a huge horse person, and generally loves horses, so horse? Rather apropos):

I give you Dancer by Teresa Wentzler, with added words in the font from her Wedding Sampler. It's way bigger than I thought it would be (for some deranged reason), which means that it took longer than I thought it would take, but it was a lot faster than I thought it should take for a TW of that size. Make sense? Then you're crazy. Like me. HAHAH! TW did 6 Rocking horses, so Cousin can keep popping the babies out (though I doubt she'll have that many), also, because of the deranged amount of emphasis her husband is putting on the production of a male child, I'm totally going to stitch Sweetheart for any boys she has (top right corner)

Luna Moth happy dancing time...

I finally finished it!

I present to you:
Luna Moth by Sandra Paradise from the March 2004 issue of Stitcher's World.
Stitched on some manner of Kiwi Illusions fabric (very nice subtle wispy clouds on a bright summer's day). Click on the image if you want to see the full sized image stored.



And just for you, special blog readers - A look back at the stitching (I stitched and beaded it at the same time, which is unusual for me - I usually wait til the end, but this thing was so bead heavy, and then the nightmare that was the 2 strands of BF for backstitching surrounding and connecting the beads... yeesh, but worth it!).