It was new-start week last week for me! Because Green Sparkle Angel is complete (except for the beading) it was time to prep a new piece of congress cloth, mount it on the stretcher bars, and start a new project!

I pulled Blue Sparkle Angel out of the Gay Ann chart box and started stitching. For most of the week I stuck to my 15-minutes-a-day plan, but once the weekend arrived (and I finished a cross stitch ornament) I devoted all my stitching time to my Angel.

So this photo shows quite a bit more progress than I would normally make in a week, and yet it doesn't reflect the progress I would have hoped to make given all the time I spent on it. For some reason the silver braid and I didn't get along well--I must have stitched-and-ripped, stitched-and-ripped, stitched-and-ripped each one of those sections a few times before getting the count correct. I don't know why I had so much trouble, but at least most of the sections are in now. The last two shouldn't be as much trouble since there's no counting to be done!

Here's a close-up of the border so that you can get a better idea of what it looks like:

I'll be back to the 15-minutes-a-day plan this week. But hopefully I'll have a good deal of progress to show when I return.

Could it be possible to finish this one before the end of the month--which is only 9 days away? I'm going to try!

Happy stitching, everyone. And a happy Thanksgiving, too.

the mail...the mail...the mail....

Today's mail brought a treat--the final envelopes I was expecting from Gay Ann's E-Week sale! In addition to the last of the charts that I purchased (Glittering Diamonds and both sets of the Perforated Paper Ornaments) I received this beautiful Carrickmacross Lace Doily from the Sunday morning sales:

Isn't it beautiful? No photo can do it justice--it's so delicate and elegant. I think I'm going to have it framed and have the frame turned into a tray to use on my dressing table. What an elegant place that would be to put my jewelry at the end of the day!

All stitched up!

Look what can happen in only 15 minutes a day! All stitched up except for the beading in the center which will wait until I get the beading kit that I ordered--or until I finish the other 3 angels. It might make more sense to do all the beading at once, just before they are sent out to the finisher.

So now...which angel should I stitch next? Blue, lavender, or red? (OK, it won't be the red angel. I'm considering changing her color so that she blends in better with the other angels.) I wonder if I can finish another one before the end of the year?

I hope you're all having fun stitching your Gay Ann stash. I know I am!

In just 15 minutes...

Just look at what you can do!

15 minutes a day...

WOW--this 15 minute a day thing is really working! Here's what my ornament looked like when I first started on this plan:

And a close-up of the center so that you get a better idea of where I really was:

And this is what it looks like after 11 days of working that plan (2 hours 45 minutes of stitching time):

Here's a closer view of the lower-right-hand corner--see the filling starting to appear?

See you next Sunday with another progress report! I wonder how many sections I'll have filled in by then?

And I wonder how many finishes I'll have next year if I only stick to this program?

Gay Ann mail!

Yippee! My first Gay Ann mail arrived today! Margaret Rose has landed, and she brought along the book on Bullion Roses.

I spent a very happy hour looking at them before putting them both safely away in the portable file box that I have dedicated to Gay Ann's charts. I'm sure I'll be pulling them out again to look at them while I wait for my next shipment.

It's so much fun to study new charts!

Oh, and I've been faithfully stitching for 15 minutes a day on Green Sparkle Angel. You're going to be amazed when you see the progress I've made! Look for the 'reveal' on Sunday!

Weekend update

Here's the result of stitching for 15 minutes a day on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sadly, when taking the photo this evening I noticed that I've got an error on the starting point for the bottom right hand gold diagonal that I stitched today. So tomorrow's 15 minutes will be spent picking it out and re-stitching. Oh, well. That's the way it goes sometimes. But I'm still happy with the amount of progress I can make in only 15 minutes!