Wednesday, March 01, 2006

It's Chatelaine time... again!

It's that time again... first of the month and two new passwords from Martina Weber! Once again, Mystery IX appears to have the smallest part, so I started with that one tonight. I managed to finish one quarter of it today, as shown to the left here. The zig zag areas on the sides of the triangle gardens, as well as between each square, will feature petite royal blue bugle beads - neat, huh? I really love this one! And, to show how it looks with the rest of the mystery so far...

Martina is having us stitch the whole top row of buildings for Medieval Town Mandala this month... it's a bit to stitch, but I think it will be better than last month - not as repetitive as those four blue corners were!! LOL

February Goals:
1. Finish Part 5 of Medieval Town Mandala - yes
2. Finish Part 2 of Mystery IX - yes
3. Set up my Neighborhood RR fabric, stitch my square - set up fabric, square not complete as mailing date turned out to be 3/15/06
4. Continue Mermaid Heaven SAL with Jenn - yes
5. Continue 17th Century Irish Garden - yes, a tiny bit!
6. Continue Mermaids of the Deep Blue SAL - yes
7. Continue Houses of Hawk Run Hollow if Becky, Barbara and Bea are all ready - we are now SALing... - yes
8. Continue Celtic Winter SAL (hope to finish this month) - yes, with Happy Dance!!
9. Continue Garden Spot Sampler SAL with Jo - yes
10. Icing on the cake would be to find time for: Angel of Love no, Convent's Herbal Garden no, Girl with Cat no, Little Wings no and A Christmas Spirit no!!
***I did start the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler as my latest at work project...

March Goals:
1. Finish Part 6 of Medieval Town Mandala
2. Finish Part 3 of Mystery IX
3. Finish Part 2 of Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler
4. Continue Mermaids of the Deep Blue SAL
5. Continue Garden Spots Sampler SAL
6. Finish my square (Gardener's Cottage) on my Neighborhood RR and post off to Annemarie by 3/15/06
7. Start Sampler Cove's Bordeaux Sampler at work
8. Continue Houses of Hawk Run Hollow SAL

Q. What cross-stitch magazines or other publications (as opposed to
blogs) do you read on a regular basis? What do you like about them?
What do you not like? What would your perfect publication include?


A. Currently I subscribe to Just Cross Stitch (my favorite), Cross Stitch & Needlework, Cross Stitch Gold, The Gift of Stitching and Samplers & Antique Needlework Quarterly (awaiting my first issue of that one, actually). I also like to go to Barnes & Noble and check out some of the other UK magazines, like Quick & Easy, Mary Hickmott's New Stitches, The Cross Stitcher and Cross Stitch Collection. While there, I also check out Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch & Beading from Australia... My ideal publication would be devoid of cutesy designs - no cartoon characters or silly sayings. Mine would be filled with lovely samplers in all styles - French, German, Reproduction, Dutch. And it would feature popular designers too. Too much to hope for, apparently so!!! I feel lucky if any issue has at least one design in it that I would at least consider stitching... but often, that does not even happen!!

I love the new issue of The Gift of Stitching that came out today! Oh, and thank you to those of you who have subscribed to the magazine using the link at the top of my sidebar. Funds from your subscription will be donated directly to the National Alliance for Autism Research in a few months time... it takes a while to get the funds, but then - zip! Right off to NAAR!! I will tell you when it happens - I am so proud of you all for helping this wonderful organization!

Oh, and thank you to all of you who took time to give me some ideas on finding fabric for the Papillon Creations HUGE sampler! I was hoping to find a place that will give me a custom cut instead of buying a fat half... looks like Silkweaver does come closest.... But I suppose I could always use any left over fabric for one of the hundreds of other charts I've got lying around here, right?? Thank you, thank you!!

Oh, and another new DVD today: The Ice Harvest, which will be another fun one to watch this weekend while Mike is visiting a sick friend in NY. Well, if he goes.... he has been quite under the weather for a good two weeks now, and the doc told him today that he has acute bronchitis. Well, a few days of antibiotics and he should be quite cleared to drive out to NY... a quiet weekend for me, I am quite pleased!

Stitched on today: Mystery IX and Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler at work...(no pic today)

15 comments:

mainely stitching said...

Wooheee, you sure have done a good job with your stitching in February, Carol!!

Leslie aka zoeandcooper said...

Great job on your goals for February...Hopefully March will be another productive stitching month:) Keep up the good work!!

Anonymous said...

You'll love Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly. I have all the issues. They stopped publishing them for a number of years and started up again in Nov. 89. I'm currently working the Mary Oldfield 1806 one.

Sasha Farina said...

you're very good with your goals!

Anonymous said...

Firstly Get Better Soon Mike, I had it along with flu and sinusitis in October and only went to the doctor when I couldn't breathe when I climbed the stairs one day. A few days of antibiotics and I felt ok, but it took the rest of the year to get the energy back.

Back to Carol, your Mystery looks great, your needles really do smoke and I love the idea of the bugle beads, can't wait to see that part.

Svenja said...

I love watching your Mystery IX progress! I'm really curious what it will look like finished.

Kitty Couture said...

Your Mystery is looking great! And wow, you did so well on your Feb goals. :)

Anonymous said...

Mystery is coming along fine. Enjoy your quiet stitching weekend! Ann.

Shelleen said...

Mystery looks great!

Jenny said...

Your mystery looks wonderful! I like that she is doing a bit different shape with the triangles. :) Love having your updates to watch the mystery develop.

Erin said...

I too love watching your progress on Martina's charts....more than I dare to tackle right now, but so beautiful!

Oh, and I just subscribed to The Gift of Stitching yesterday...I think it was via your blog link....did you get credit for that? The Robert Frost verse in that sampler on the cover won me over... :)

Judith said...

Your did very good on your goals.
Mysterie IX looks great so far. I already saw a pic with the bugelbeads in place in one corner and boy that looks good.
I started stitching on MTM today and it goes fast. I like this part better than the 4 big corners.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I am SO impressed that you are able to keep up with two Chatelaines at once and still accomplish so much more stitching! I love watching your projects grow. :)

I hope that Mike feels better soon; I'm hearing that a lot of people are developing bronchitis. Very strange. I hope that you'll have a quiet stitching weekend all to yourself. ;)

Anne S said...

Holy cow, Batman!! You only just received the files and you've done one corner already - you're amazing! :D And your new car(s) look awesome ... is that how he got out of the dogbox? LOLOL. Hope you enjoy your weekend of stitching and solitary time - does wonders for recharging the soul every now and then :)

Dani - tkdchick said...

Carol I'm alwyas impressed with how much you get done in a day!!!