Celtic Winter

This is the latest on Celtic winter .... it doesn't look like I've done a lot, but I have honest! My scanned pictures of Celtic Winter always look so awful, none of the sparkle in the gold thread shows up. Next time I'll use the camera and hopefully it'll look better. I was full of self doubt after my stint on this one last month, maybe I should be using the gold thread the pattern suggests, but really its the pictures I post here in my blog that are doing this to me. My Celtic Christmas in the sidebar also looks dull, but in real life it is full of sparkle and really beautiful. My intention is to keep going on CW until the skirt is finished.

My new toy from America arrived this week and I've realised why I kept moaning about my so-called Q-snaps when everyone else thought they were wonderful. The genuine article really is! My old version was much chunkier with big chunky corner elbows and the snap thingies didn't hold nearly so well. I should have bought proper ones long ago!

I also had a couple of ebay wins arrive ..... Teresa Wentzler's 'Lady of Shallot' chart, one of two remaining TW charts I was still hankering after. It is similar in style to Rapunzel so I'm not sure I want to stitch them both .... maybe if I leave 10 years between them. I don't want to repeat the way I am currently feeling about Celtic Winter having recently finished the very similar Celtic Christmas. The other chart is a Black Swan one, Avatar, wizard of the wind. I am drawn to fantasy-style designs and DH encourages me! Of course I want the other Black Swan wizards now .... more for the wishlist.

Long overdue update

Sorry about my lack of entries recently. When I am out of the habit of writing, I find it so difficult to get back in the swing of it.
This is my stitching progess - I did some of Lily of the Valley fairy while I was away. It doesn't look like much but the green part on the right hand side is now finished. The holiday wasn't really conducive to stitching - the house was lovely but an old hunting lodge all wood clad - too dark! I had intended to do a stint on Taj Mahal while I was away but I forgot the part of the pattern I hadn't already stitched so I skipped it for October.





I've done quite a bit of work on Sleeping Beauty since I've been back and am pleased with my progress. I've ordered a 'proper' set of Q-snaps from the US for when this gets bigger - I don't want to squash the stitched area in the holder things plus there are beads all over it so I really do need a bigger set. I'd taken a dislike to Q-snaps last year but they're working fine for me now. The ones I've got are probably a rip off copy - I'm hoping genuine ones will be better - I've heard good reports of them!






For this months goals - rather than working a set number of days on each project I'm intending to work a certain chunk of each one. This may mean I don't get through the whole rotation but that doesn't matter - I'll do what I can.
Sleeping Beauty - do the long drapy bit in green and white (this is done)
Celtic Winter - finish the skirt
Waiting for Neptune - complete the first half page of the pattern
Fantasy Triptych - finish the Castle
Taj Mahal - do half of the remaining area
Lily of the Valley Fairy - finish it.