February WIPocalypse

I spent most of the past month working on small projects which can be seen here. This past Monday I picked up my larger WIP to try tackling it once again. Don't get me wrong, I love the design. It's just that I've had such a difficult time with it in terms of the floss colours. This is an older design from the Blackbird Designs book, A Fine Collection and because it's an older design the dye lots have changed for many of the called for floss. I didn't want to spend more money ordering floss which still might not work so I've dug into my stash in a search for just the right shade or another skein of the requested floss. In some cases I've stitched and then frogged out a section three times because I didn't like the looks of it.

Here's my progress up until now......Blackbird Designs February Hearts. 

I'm stitching this on a 28 ct Lakeside Linen Mocha. I haven't used 28 ct for some time now but I thought the colour suited the piece. I'm still now sure if I love the colours. I think it will grow on me more with time.

I really don't know what I'm planning for my next start. I've been checking out the Nashville Needlework Market to see some of the upcoming releases. There are several this year that I like so I might treat myself to two or three pieces. In particular Heartstring Samplery, The Scarlett House and With Thy Needle and Thread each have a piece that has caught my fancy. 

It's a cold, blustery day today so I'm about to sit for bit with a cup of blackcurrant tea and stitch for a while before supper. Looking forward to my quiet time with needle in hand!

February Smalls

Plenty of snow dumps in our area during the latter part of January and continuing on into February have led to plenty of time for hibernating with my stitching. As my thoughts turned to Valentine's Day, I worked on this pretty stitch for the occasion.....Blackbird Designs Sweetheart Pincushion. 

The linen I used for this design is a lovely 36ct from Dames of the Needle called Sweeney Red. One of the two floss colours used is WDW Fawn. Fortunately I had two skeins from different lots because the first skein was almost identical in colour to the WDW Sandcastle being used as the other colour. There were no variations in colour between the two and I ended up doing some serious frogging and hunting for another skein. I'm really pleased with the end result though. As usual, final finishing will come at a later date.

My second finish for the month is a sweet little winter design released by By The Bay Needleart called Chilly Winter. This is the second of two designs released under the same title in this chart.

I'm hoping to get around to stitching the first design in this series as well. I'd love to finish the two little cushions to add to my winter displays next year.

Since I've finished these smalls I've had trouble settling down to stitch anything else. I've been doing a little reading and browsing the needlework market's upcoming releases. I am considering stitching another of the Blackbird Designs strawberries and there is a Threadwork Primitives pincushion which I'm interested in too. Decisions, decisions..... See you soon with a post of my larger work in progress.