Happy Wednesday everyone!

Well after months of sparse stitching, I think I am finally FULLY back on the stitching train! All I can say it's about time. Between house building and constantly fighting the tendinitis in my wrist (which made stitching fairly painful after an extended stint in the stitching chair...) stitching has not really been a priority. Luckily, after a couple of months rest it seems that my wrist is finally getting back to normal... and the guys are currently roofing in the house - you will not see ME on that roof - so that means more time in the evenings than I've had in months!!!

I guess you could consider this as a mini-finish:

I've gone as far as I can until I get some more dark brown floss from 123stitch. I think I may have ran out of the required floss partly because I stitched on a higher count fabric than the model. Either way it was still agonizing to run out as I'm seriously one motif (a bird), the rest of the boarder around the word Nantucket, and a couple of finishing stitches away from putting this one in the 'Done' pile. 

OHHHHH WELLL!

So I moved onto my next (mini) project.

This is the 'North Pole Post Office' which is number three in the Santa's Village series by Country Cottage Needleworks. I'm stitching them all separately as I have vision of what I'm going to do with them in my new house... since there's 12 in the series that means I'm going to have to find 12 identical frames (GOOD LUCK WITH THAT haha). The best thing about this stitch is that it's fairly quick and you can see it come together in a flash. Very rewarding :)

I've also been thinking ahead to my next stitch... Santa's Magic. Not sure if I'll stitch this as a gift yet or keep it for myself. I guess it'll all depend on how easy the stitch is... however, since it's a Mirabilia I'm guessing it'll be fairly complicated. But I'm up for the challenge :)

There is one thing that is bothering me however with this chart - I've now sized it up several times... - and that is Santa's sleeve is empty of stitches for the most part, allowing you to tie in the colour of the linen with the overall design of the cross stitch. PROBLEM: the recommended fabric is called Desert Sand (which remarkable I have managed to find online) but it's yellow... very yellow. There are a few stitches you can see that complement the yellow fabric to shade in the said sleeve I was talking about earlier in the model picture. I don't like the fabric simply put. I can't imagine stitching on something so yellow and having it stand the test of time and still look good years from now. But how do I change the fabric colour so that I can alter the sleeve colours and still match Santa's hat????? What a conundrum! Please feel free to leave some suggestions because I don't think I can possibly decide what I can do without some input!

Model pic

Until next time!!!

Melissa