And, here she is....

Finally, I now have my first finish of 2006... and here she is...

Celtic Winter
Lavender & Lace, c. 2005
Silkweaver 32 ct Blue Diamonds Reflections Lugana
Stitched 9/8/05 - 2/17/06

This was started as a SAL back in September, and somehow Katrina and I both managed to finish on the same day... pretty cool! So, now you have it, my first finish for the year - nice to get that out of the way! I loved working on her and will be stitching the other three seasons, just not right away - too many other things on my plate right now! I also really enjoyed that this was a SAL with so many stitchers, and each has been so wonderful! (I am sorry the photo is so small - Mike took the picture in high resolution, blogger wouldn't take it, I had to put it in Photobucket and size it down a bit to fit the blog... and it turned out so small.... but you can see a bigger pic here).

I have been asked what will replace Celtic Winter in my rotation... right now, it will be a good slot to get some more time in on Mermaids of the Deep Blue :-)

There is a new blog for us all to read now! Please check out Karen's Blog when you get a chance. Karen is a very dear friend of mine in Leura, NSW Australia. She owns and operates Dragonfly Dreams, an exceptional needlework shop which many of you already love!! Karen is a talented and very avid stitcher... check out her recent finish of Drawn Thread's An Open Heart, and her stunning start on Mirabilia's Stargazer!! Please say hi while you are there too! I have bragged so much to her lately about how wonderful this blogging community is, and I am certain she would love to meet you too! Thanks!

There are several of us now ready to start Houses of Hawk Run Hollow as a SAL... anyone can join us, if they want! But those who have expressed doing it right now are: Becky, Bea, Barbara and Karen - OK, get stitching ladies so I won't feel like I am too far ahead of you!! LOL

Hand-Dyed Fibers (aka Vikki Clayton) is sponsoring a new online mystery sampler - Sampler Cove's Bordeaux Mystery Sampler - and it is exclusive to Hand-Dyed Fibers. Here is the top section. I love it! I just signed up. Thought you might want to know about it :-)

Whew! Finally - the newest Cross Stitch Gold arrived today. I was really beginning to wonder about it. I received the last one really early last month... but all is OK now.... There is a really cute Venice themed chart in this one... I love it, but cannot figure out why the designer, Maria Diaz, opted to make the water in the canal brown?? That might hold me back from stitching this.... but I otherwise really love this - Bea, is the water in Venice brown? I thought it was quite blue... at least in the films I have seen it is...

Here is what I hope is a better picture of the Venice project... OK, time to see if I can fit in some time on Medieval Town Mandala now while we watch Saw II...
And, I did get a chance to do a little... will put a lot of effort into it this weekend and maybe finish Part 5 (oh, I hope so!!). I really like stitching the gold swirls :-)

Stitched on today: Celtic Winter (Happy Dance!!) and Medieval Town Mandala