Continuing my Owl Obsession

When I saw this in one of ABCStitch's emails I fell in love with it, and ordered it straightaway. It was great fun to stitch, though attaching the owls with invisible thread was harder than I thought it would be. I can't seem to get the crease out of the linen no matter how much I steam and iron it. Any suggestions?

Moonlight Owls

Puntini Puntini

Taupe Cashel

DMC Color Variations 4150

I was sorry to learn the news that The Gift of Stitching Magazine is going to cease publication with the May issue. I was a subscriber for awhile and enjoyed getting it each month. All back issues are 50% off now. I did a Google search for the table of contents for one of their issues because I was looking for a certain chart. One of the searches led me to a website that I found absolutely appalling. It appeared to be a forum where people were requesting and posting scans of charts which could then be downloaded if you had some kind of membership. It was obvious that the site activity was illegal, and it really made me sad to see how many users were using it to cheat designers out of their work. I know designers know about this site and they have to vigilantly police it to have their charts removed when they see them posted. How upsetting and discouraging for them. I'm glad there are so many good people in the cross stitching community who would never dream of doing this.

For my next project I bought this from my LNS; truly words to live by. I'm stitching it on Light Mocha cashel with the called for GAST and WDW threads. My LNS visit was not cheap, but it was worth it!

Summer Song Finished

I finished up Summer Song yesterday morning and headed to Joann's hoping to find some backing fabric to use for my pillow. I wanted something with sunflowers on a black background. The only thing I could find had a green background, and it really didn't look right. So I picked out the fabric the stitching is lying on top of - the color of the design is actually more orange than it appears in the photo - it's as orange as the color in the lettering. I'm still not completely satisfied so I may wait until fall, when sunflower material may be more available.

I find myself without a project now that this is done. I'm just not sure what I want to stitch - has that ever happened to you? I'm trying to use my stash rather than buy new charts (famous last words) but nothing is really appealing to me. I guess I better get back to stash diving and pick something out before I go into stitching withdrawal!

All Over But the Lettering

I don't usually have something to post so soon after a previous entry, but I've actually made real headway on Summer Song by Midsummer Night Designs. I was so happy to finish the brown in the center of the flower - what a tedious job that was! But I really enjoyed stitching the flower petals - they are much brighter and more variegated than they appear in my photo - darn flash! There are a few places where I had to fudge a bit, including an over three stitch that I discovered when I was so far along I didn't have the heart to frog it, but overall it turned out pretty well. I even got used to stitching on the black fabric. Now all I have to do is the lettering, and it's done. My plan is to make a pillow. Have a happy rest of the weekend!