The first RR has arrived :-) & Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I am back at it again with Medieval Town Mandala. It seemed to take forever tonight to finish the large central building, what with all of its little details, but I did get it done! I am hoping the rest of it will now move along smoother. One thing that did not help tonight is that Martina's diagrams for the Jessica stitches on the large building were hard to read. Even blowing up the image on the pdf file to an enormous size did not help. Rather, it just became further distorted. But, I was able to figure it out after some rotating of the chart and figuring out the rhythm of the stitch... no biggie.

And, the big news of the day today is that Su's RR arrived safely from the UK today. It is the first for me to receive in the rotation. Her stitching is just lovely! I am already thinking of what house and details I will be stitching for her. I have not yet heard that mine has arrived at Annemarie's house in Holland yet - but it did go by Global Priority Mail back on Tuesday... so... really it should be there any second. I am dying to hear that it is safe on the other side of the ocean...
My silks arrived today for American Quaker Sampler SAL, and here are three floss tosses... I am strongly leaning towards one of them, but would love your input - This first one is Silkweaver Sandcastle 40 ct Newcastle linen (so much darker than the Sandcastle on Belfast that I am using for the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler).

Here is Lakeside Linen's Meadow Rue 40 ct linen. This is gorgeous fabric, but I fear that the Cardamom silk, third from the right (I think) just fades in too easily on this fabric.... reminds me too much of how easily this same color is fading in on my Garden Spot Sampler....

And, for my third try... here is the silk on a Silkweaver Solo, 40 ct Newcastle linen. This solo turned out to be a bit rosier than I had thought it was, and I am not sure I care for how the Rust silk (near the center) looks on this fabric... But anyhow... I can be swayed, if you want, please let me know which one you like?? (***I have decided to go with the Sandcastle... the responses I got from you all were interesting! I do think all three fabrics would work well. Thanks for your input and advice!!)

I hope that everyone brought out their inner Irish today and had a great St. Patrick's Day! Mike and I celebrated in odd fashion with enchiladas at Shorty's... Oh well, had the craving :-)

Oh.... and another highlight today - I went to Colonial Needleworks this afternoon, as I needed three skeins of Crescent Colours floss... while there I also picked up another of the Blackbird Designs houses that I adore, one of Prairie Schooler's new treats and some Weeks Dye Works and GAST for the Blackbird Designs house... I guess it is time to put up a new stash report this weekend. And, Sue, the owner, is much better this week - she has a bit of her voice back now :-)

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler at work, and Medieval Town Mandala