Middle Fill

The middle is almost all filled in! 

Filling The Diamond

The diamond is coming along and it's beginning to look like a formal garden.

Curlicues And Greens

More of this done, with a lot of green fill added. Even the outline is taking shape.

Mini Mandala Done!

The top picture is the one taken at the time of all the other pictures last night, and the bottom one is from this morning, with it complete. I had to stay up late waiting for company to get here through the snow, so I put the time to good use. I like the looks of it and will be turning it into a little cushion for the friend who got here late last night. This also makes finish number seven of my ten project challenge and I get to start something else. Yay! I do finish things sometimes.

Mini and Midi Again

Slowly but surely that mini mandala is getting done. Lots of backstitching on it lately, and I'm really just about done on the middle. Got all the cross stitching completed. Rhodes and more Rhodes to go, though, then the beads. I think it looks pretty, but it doesn't look like the picture in Gift of Stitching. That one didn't have a model stitched for it and there really wasn't an explanation as to whether things were Rhodes or Algerian eye stitches. It also had a really bad way of showing the backstitches. Who knows if, in the end, I'm making it the way Martina designed it? On the Midi, I got the ball and plant in the upper basket done and am now working on the basket itself. Once that basket's done, there are the balls on the tops of the columns and then a whole line of plants in pots at the bottom. At least it's not those arches!

Midi and Mini Chatelaines

The mini is still coming along. As you can see, I've been doing a lot of Rhodes stitches and backstitching on it. Pretty much half the backstitching is done, and there are fewer than that Rhodes stitches to do. Once both of those are done, I'm going to take a day and do the beading on it. Then it'll be done. On the Midi, you can see that I've managed to start another color than the arches! I'm so happy to finally have those done. Since they are the biggest part of Part 2, maybe I will have it done in the next couple of months. I am soooo slow at these things. Maybe one day I'll have more time.

Medieval and Mini

Well, I got the black square backstitching done on the Medieval Mandala and got to start the brown backstitching in the fences. I -might- finish that backstitching this week, depending on what comes up in my real life, which has been surprising me a lot lately. That's the reason I didn't get around to even think about finishing the Mini. On the other hand, I've started doing the backstitching and specialty stitches on it, and they're going quickly. After I took this picture, I managed to get a quarter of the Rhodes stitches around the inner water area done and two Algerian eyes done in the corners by the gold. I still plan on working on this to finish it as soon as I can. I have too many other things I need to start, and this is waaay too small a project to have taken over three months on.

Mini Mandala

Probably next week I'm just going to sit down and finish this. It's getting on my nerves that it's taken so long. I've got almost all the cross stitching done and have a lot of the Rhodes stitches done. There's a lot of backstitching in the middles of the quadrants for fountains that I need to do, and the gates, but I think I can finish it off in one day if I don't work on anything else. That'll be a goal for next week... and another project crossed off my list.

The Small Pieces

Both these pictures were taken on Friday, so they don't show current progress. I worked on both today, adding some to the edges on the mini mandala and completely finishing the January Heart. You won't see a picture of the completed stitching until next weekend, though, as my husband and his camera are both in France. That makes three complete projects for the 10 Project Challenge on the Wagon. I'm getting there! Today, I taped the pattern for the Silk and Metal GCC from Kay Stanis on my kitchen window and the silk on top of it to trace tomorrow. It's my new start - another piece of goldwork!

Mini and Midi Chatelaines

I'm finally feeling like I'm making progress on the Midi arches. I've got one color done completely on three of the four arch sides, and another color done completely on one side. So... just have to get the rest done! On the Mini Mandala, I've really got most of the cross stitching done. All of it's done in the top half. As you can see, I started backstitching this week. Maybe I'll target it to complete next, since it's so close and I was so successful with that on the goldwork.

Mini Mandala and January Heart

Considering how small these are, it's a wonder they're not done. At least each made some progress this week. Hopefully I'll be able to finish them off very soon.

The Four Chatelaines

Something got done on all four of these this week. I'm hoping to have Part 1 of Mystery X done by the end of the month - it's not really a LOT of stitching. On Medieval Town Mandala, I got the cross stitching done on the flowers on all four sides - now I've started on the fences for the four sides (since this picture). Hopefully I'll get Part 4 done in the next couple of weeks. On the Midi Mystery, I am STILL working on the green arch. It's getting more and more done. And on the mini mandala, I've gotten some more done. It's really not that big and should be done soon. I hope.

Progress on Chatelaines

As you can see, progress has been iffy at best on these. Another two day car ride (with three cats), company overnight, and then my son coming from Texas to stay this weekend has made me both too busy and too frazzled to stitch much. My son goes home on Tuesday; hopefully after that I can get something done. Anyway, barely any progress on Mystery X. I managed one strand of silver. Got some blue and black done on the mini mandala. The Midi Mystery has more of the arch done - the arch that goes on and on and on. And the Medieval Mandala has most of the fourth side done on its leaves. I am getting there. Slowly, but I am.