#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.

#WIPWednesday

Last time, Thanksgiving Fairy looked like this:

And then #MirabiliaMonday happened and another thread or two was added.

And here she is for #WIPWednesday (I stitched another thread or two before crashing last night).

#WIPWednesday

A couple of weeks-ish ago, Terri suggested Mirabilia Mondays, and I was not going to take part initially, but then I figured that I could at least go ahead and add just one thread on Mondays to a Mirabilia (as I always seem to have at least two Mira WIPs at any given time).   In the name of laziness I'll cheat and give out my #MirabiliaMonday picture as #WIPWednesday

I also told myself that I'd work on Deco Spirits as that one-thread Mira... and so here's Thanksgiving Harvest Fairy.

Before

One Two threads at a time.  I actually managed another length last night, but didn't take a pic.

Christmas Ornaments by Nora Corbett

Well, I finished the piece I'd started over the "sick" weekend :)  Luckily I'm doing much better, even if not at 100% yet.

Someone posted a finished piece on a Facebook group and mentioned that it was from the 2012 Keepsake Cross-Stitch Calendar, but is now available through Herrschner's as a pdf download.

I thought I would just take a couple of hours to bead it this morning (I started at 9 or so?), but 12 hours later I'm finally done!   The beading on this was intense, but I think the beading also took a little longer, because I made sure the beads were good and secure since the beading on this is so heavy.

I really liked the picture I saw on Facebook, so I went with that idea on the fabric I had.  I  have a lot of grey(ish) fabric, so I did a floss toss and pulled the one I liked the best (some of them were too green or blue for what I wanted).   I think I ended up with a pewter lugana.  I'm pretty sure it's 28 count because the stitches were so huge (can you tell I don't keep all of my fabric as labelled as I should? haha!)

Anyway, it's been rainy and miserable all day here, and should be for a few days, so no awesome pictures, I'll probably update it later.

Here's the before with no beads/kreiniks - I actually stayed up late last night to finish it and considered WIPWednesday-ing it.

And the after! - I really couldn't get the shots I wanted - it's been rather dreary here all day, so pretty much just artificial lighting, slightly different shots show off the beads differently.

                

And a whole bunch of bonus shots (sans my initials, I had to ponder that for a bit).

         

                  

I'm pretty sure it's the last finish for the year, but at least this piece will stop screaming at me every time I see a posted finish. I can't wait to get it framed!