So long April, it's been fun!

I feel like I was just saying goodbye to March a week ago! I guess I've been a bit busy with both jobs and stuff outside of stitching. I have still stitched a lot though.

Hope everyone is doing fine and getting to stitch to their hearts content! I have two big finishes, progress, new stash, and plans for Maynia on FB. Picture heavy:)

First order of business is Carol's question about my sighting of a Cardinal. Carol, I do believe that was the first time for me. I see plenty of blue jays around here. Come to find out that Cardinals are found throughout Arizona, even in the desert areas. They're the same North American Cardinals found in other places, like Pennsylvania. What a surprise.

Finishes! I finished Christmas Carol Sampler by the Primitive Hare and Midnight Ride from a JCS Halloween special issue! First, here's Midnight Ride..

The actual color of the fabric is below the row of buildings. It's 32ct Echo by PTP. Talk about a hairy fabric! I wonder if the dyeing process makes it like that. I do have 3 cats and try to keep up on the vacuuming and lint rolling the furniture or maybe it was using so much black floss that I noticed it more. Who knows but I'm glad it's finished! I took the latest skeins of Moonglow and Mascara down to the nitty gritty, to the N and those last three fence things at the right. I refused to buy anymore floss for this! I ended up using substitute flosses for the last remaining bits. Ignore that weird reddish area in the middle. Here's another pic of this..

Next finish is Christmas Carol Sampler and I just love it! 

It's a biggie, for me anyway. 12" x 13". I think it's bigger than Jack's Bash. This is another design that needs more than 1 skein of some of the overdye floss. I left out the wording that goes above the bottom border. It says Tiny Tim Crachit Ebeneezer Scrooge The Christmas Carol Charles Dickens. I figure people who are familiar with the movies would know what the saying is from and who the two people are. Instead I lowered some of the snow down and filled the area with snowflakes. I tried to stitch Christmas Carol in that area with curly q's but it wasn't looking very good. So I went with snowflakes! This was also a WIP from last year or before.

After I was finished with those two above, I thought about taking a two week break from stitching since I'm planning on 9 new starts in May for Maynia. It didn't last very long because I picked up Beau Leggy in The Desert. Here is the before picture...

This is from July of last year, not much done. And now, the after picture..

I'm at the halfway point with Beau. The changes I made so far are the color of his hat and the rope. I left his skin color as called for, thinking he just has a serious suntan going on! Lots of pointy stuff near him, that cholla cactus beneath him and to his left, barb wire. Once I have all my new starts going, I'll get back to Beau. 

I had to abandon Beau because I joined in an exchange with Dixiesamplar and once I got my partner info, immediately started stitching her a pynkeep from Stacy Nash which is a favorite. This project is counted as one of the 9 new starts.

Yeah, I decided to join in on Maynia this year. I decided on a new start every two days, totaling 18 days. Lately, it seems all I'm stitching on are WIPs. So here are my new starts, commencing on the 

1st:

The Stacy Nash mentioned above

All Hallow's Eve by Dulaney Woods Treasures. It came as a kit and is ready to go.

Tribal Rooster by White Willow Stitching with 32ct Wren PTP linen with overdye floss..

Fall Owl by Casey Buonaugurio, from JCS Sep/Oct 2011 issue..

Two Souvenir de France projects as planned..

Two projects from the Primitive Needle & Primitive Stitcher Christmas 2016 issue...

And one other that I haven't gathered just yet. It may end up being the freebie from Daffycat(?), the one called Stink Stank Stunk, from a song in the Grinch movie. Thanks Sharon! My daughter watches that religiously, the one with Jim Carrey in it. I recently bought a green linen to make her 6 ornaments as a Christmas gift this year. Yeah, I'm going with it! It'll be great. So there we have it, my 9 Maynia starts! Can't wait!

I also bought some new stash..

That BBD book I just had to have! Love both the house sampler and the big rose pillow. Of course, picked up a couple more LizzieKate's along with the LHN Farmhouse Christmas. 

I was lucky enough to win Kitten Stitcher/Kaye's recent giveaway and I just got the package today from Australia!

Love Michael Powell designs! This book has the cutest designs in them. She also sent the very pretty fabric along with the fabric ribbon and the postcard. That fabric will look perfect with a Souvenir de France finish. I'll have to match floss to that pink in the flowers. Kaye, if you read this, thank you so very much for this package of goodies. Love it all!

I recently got some good news, stitchy-wise! Last year or before, I mentioned a Kickstarter campaign that I joined for a designer who wanted to buy an antique sampler and reproduce it. Several people joined in. After the campaign was over, we never heard about anything. Well, yesterday, I receive an update from Kickstarter and the designer that she has come back and will make good on the promises! What I should be receiving are two limited edition flosses and a chart of hers. Other people who donated more $$ will be receiving an actual chart of the reproduced antique sampler. It will take longer for them to receive their gift. The sampler will be huge and I'm not quite ready to take on a large sampler. Anyway, I'm glad she is back on the road and feeling better.

The other news is the contest that Simona of Mani di Donna put on is shipping off what I won from back in December, this coming Monday. We won't go into the why's and wherefor's, I'm just happy that I will soon be receiving some great new charts. Looking forward to stalking the post office in two weeks or three!

So I believe that is it! I think with my new starts I'll be back here on the blog more often than once a month! I have to say welcome to some new followers on Bloglovin! Hope you find things interesting here. I'm an empty nester, divorced mom so I have all the time in the world to immerse myself in stitching, well, besides working my two jobs! 

Take care everyone. Thanks for stopping in and leaving comments!