2014 New Cross Stitch Start

Welcome 2014! During the holiday season I barely picked up a cross stitch project to work on, I was far too busy with family. I then ended up going to visit friends in the next town over for New Years and ended up going to The Band Perry concert (amazing might I add! Had awesome seats as well)

The Band Perry, We Are Pioneers World Tour 2014

As soon as I arrived home I picked up a project I was itching to start. My New Years Cross Stitch Start was Mirabila's "Ella, The Frog Princess". For Christmas I got 4 Mira patterns, and Ella was one of them along with all of the supplies to work on her.

Ella, Shakespeare Fairies, Adia, Buttercup

This is my progress after two days:

Mirabilia's Ella, The Frog Princess

I hope you all had amazing holidays, and that you were spoiled with love and cross stitch supplies. I look forward to seeing everyone's new projects for 2014.

Canada's 2013 Christmas Stamps

I was shocked to see that Canada's 2013 Christmas stamps were cross stitch related! Or as they said embroidery but that's close enough. Normally I don't collect stamps but these seemed like a no brainer :)

6 Pages Done on Cinderella!

YAY!! I just finished the sixth page of my Heaven and Earth Design Cinderella! I wanted to have the six pages completed before the new year. I was stitching gong ho on this piece and averaging 800 stitches a day until I hit a wall with 100 stitches left. I just finished it up tonight :)

Again this is a HAED. Artwork is by Ruth Sanderson and it is stitched on 18 count aida. I have 34,200 stitches so far in it and not at the half way point just yet.

I have been working on other projects, but alas, I cannot show them yet because they are secret. Hope everyone is stitching lovely Christmas items too! Tonight I am going to finish one more ornament for an ornament exchange so it can be sewn together in the morning and sent off on Thursday. Happy Holidays everyone from your northern Canadian friend! :)

Free 2013 Christmas Ornament

Here is a Christmas Ornament cross stitch pattern I have designed for all of you. It uses the leaf satin stitch some of you used in the September Free SAL. Use your imagination and choose your own colours! Make it fun and personal! The red dots can be either petite beads or French knots.

Free 2013 Christmas Ornament. For Personal Use Only.

This pattern would be perfect for a quick ornament to stitch as a gift. You could also stitch it on a linen bag or make it into a Christmas card!

Christmas Elegance Day #6

After almost a week of stitching I have come this far:

It is stitching up fairly quickly and I am happy to say I am nearing the half way point on this. Every day of stitching this I am falling in love with it more and more. I really can't wait to start putting the beads onto it, it is going to sparkle so much!

Christmas Project 2013 Day #2

This time around I have decided to keep track of exactly how many days it will take me to stitch this piece, unless of course I get distracted again which is a huge possibility after the latest Mirabilia release "Ella, Princess and the Frog" yesterday. It is already in my shopping cart but thankfully it will take a week or two to get here so plenty of time to finish this up.

Christmas Elegance by Mirabilia Day #2

I was actually pretty pleased with the colours. Originally I thought the dress would be more of a blue green but it has turned out to be more emerald in colour which I am loving even more! The colours seem more blended than in the model photo but I guess that's what happens when 20 years have passed since it was released and dye lots have changed. I am going to change majority of the beads to be petites, I prefer working with petites, and may add a few crystals in some areas. We shall see!

Christmas Project 2013

Every year I try to pick one new Christmas cross stitching project. This doesn't necessarily mean I will finish it for that year (or ever) but I like the feeling I get working on the project leading up to my favorite time of the year.

This year's project is Christmas Elegance by Mirabilia. Instead of using the suggested blue fabric I opted to go for an opalescent purple fabric. I picked purple because I find when it snows in the evening right before nightfall there is a purple ambiance all around. It is truly a beautiful sight of the serine purple and fresh falling snow.

Christmas Elegance by Mirabilia Floss Toss

 The fabric is 32 count Zweigart Lugana in the colour Dragon's Desire. In some lighting it looks like a pastel purple and in other lighting it looks like a greyish purple.

Here is my progress so far after one day:

Day 1 progress on Christmas Elegance by Mirabilia

 I am loving this project. Nora Corbett has some amazing patterns out there and I hope to get around to stitching all of the ones I love sometime in my life time.