successes, failures & new starts

I suppose I'll start with the successes since it'll make me seem

more, uh, successful. To begin with, I managed to finish my dragon, who will now take up residence in my "finished but unfinished" drawer (which is kinda full) until October when he will be framed for my friend's birthday.

And since every finish deserves (at least) one start, I dug into my recently acquired stash pile for this goodie by one of my new

favorite designers, Stacy Nash. Despite my somewhat limited sewing skills I am going to attempt a scissors pouch with this one, picture to be posted later if everyone promises not to laugh. I need to improve my finish skills since I signed up for the LHN exchange which Kathy K. mentioned on her blog.

Of course, since this was a quick stitch, I had to start something

else (I can justify ignoring my WIPs since these are small pieces and don't really count). This is Sibley Hall by The Goode Huswife, another one of my favorites. I went on a Goode Huswife buying spree a few years ago so I figured I might as well actually stitch some of the charts (I know, novel concept...).

Last but not least, here is a picture of the adorable ornie I received in an exchange for the ILCS Yahoo group, done by Debbie B. It is much cuter than my lousy picture shows.

On to the failures. Here is the first, the Brooke Nolan angel from

Just Cross Stitch. I took this along with me to work on in the car while waiting to pick up the kiddies from school, but forgot the pattern, and decided to trim around her for something to do...well, I overtrimmed. No room now for her little hand on the one side. I am sure there is a solution for this problem but I don't know what it is right now, so she's going in the WAL (worry about later) drawer.

And this is my final failure (at least in the cross-stitch realm) of the week

--my first attempt at a homemade fabric dye. I'm not sure if the picture shows how neon-y yellow it is. I found a recipe on the web for a turmeric dye, which did NOT mention how very bright the yellow would be; I tried to tone it down a bit with tea, then coffee, and ended up throwing in a little bit of just about everything in the kitchen. Quite a witches' brew and a lovely smell too, believe me. I guess it might be usable for a Halloween piece, or I might develop a taste for neon colors, who knows.

I guess that's it for a while. Thanks all for the lovely comments.

on the bandwagon

Well I am finally on the Mary Wigham bandwagon. Barely on, as you can see, but still on. I decided just to grab colors I liked and ended up will a very fall-like palate. Hope it turns out OK. When I showed this project to DD, her reaction was "well if you can do something that big, why can't you start Hawk Run Hollow?" She was with me when I picked up HRH (Village of) last year and really liked the pattern, but I have had many excused why I can't do something that large. So I guess maybe when I finish this

BAP, whenever that may be, HRH will be my next BAP. Anyone want to do it with me? I feel as though I need moral support so it doesn't turn into a UFO...

I am determined to get at least two WIPs out of the way this month, since fall is coming and there are pumpkins to be stitched. I put in a few days' hard labor on my pixie/fairy/whatever she is supposed to be and she looks more like a pixie/fairy and less like a green and white blob.

This was my first Nora Corbett pattern and I can say without fear of contradiction, my last! It is pretty and I am sure it will be nice when it's done, but--backstitching and fractional stitches and beading, oh my! All the things I hate. After this I will run happily back to my quakers and such.

I also made a little bit of progress on my Spirit of America angel, who will be finished I think as more of a colonial lady as I am not doing the wings.

The only recent "new" project was an Christmas ornament for an exchange which I have been fussing over and hopefully will not be late, as it is being mailed a day later than anticipated.

This I started last winter as an ornie for one of the kids' teachers but I ran out of time/energy and never finished it. I was quite proud (and somewhat amazed) that I was able to find not only the unfinished ornie, but the pattern and floss after seven months. Hopefully the recipient will like it.

That's about all for this week. Hope everyone is well and getting lots of stitchy time. Comments appreciated as always!