This is where I got to on Sleeping Beauty before I put her away so I could rotate onto another project.

Attempting to Rotate Projects

I've never been one to work on projects on a schedule per se - I just work on one project until I'm a bit bored of it, and then work on something else (preferably something I've already started). My list of in-progress projects, kitted projects (not started but most of the materials put together) and wish list projects (ones I want to start soon but probably don't have more than just the pattern) has really grown exponentially.

Given how long that list is now, I'm going to try to rotate projects, working on it a week at a time, and then changing to the next one. I don't know if it'll make them go faster, but I always feel guilty if I haven't worked on one for a long time (Knotgarden...Midsummer Night's Fairy....and most especially Edith Wolford).

So we'll see how that works. I'm going to include two of the projects that I have kitted up - Royal Holiday and Mermaid of Atlantis, both Mirabilias. I also have My Sweet Rose by Artecy kitted, but that can wait a little longer.

I tidied out my stitching bag (a big old LL Bean tote bag) today, and realized that "Meeting on the Turret Stairs" was further along than the previous picture, so here's where I'm at with that. I'm almost finished page 5 of 9 pages.

Sleeping Beauty is starting to emerge....

I'm going to need to make a run for more floss soon - the purples and the greens are running out fast!

There's also a surprising amount of white in the piece; you don't notice it as much with the shading but it's definately there. As usual, the drapes of fabric are coming out great.

I'm getting started on the dress - there's so much going on with the swirling colors (pale greens and pale blues) as well as the beading pattern over it.

Lace!

I come from an English background, and as such, no furniture surface was "complete" without a lace doily on it. Not long after learning how to crochet with yarn, I started playing around with crocheted lace. These are two recently finished projects that will be Christmas gifts. Each is about 15 inches in diameter.

Both are made out of #10 crochet cotton in white (and both are badly in need of a bit of starch and an iron LOL). Patterns are from my favorite crochet magazine, Magic Crochet (out of print for several years now).

An update on "Meeting on the Turret Stairs"

This was where I was in early August. As much as I like the picture itself, the confetti stitching is a bit frustrating at times. I've still been picking at it and making progress though.

Cake!


My neighbors celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary last week, so my folks asked me to make them a cake for the community meeting. This is what I came up with:











It's a vanilla bean cake with a chocolate mousse filling, chocolate swiss meringue buttercream, and a dark chocolate drizzle across the top of each layer. The tiers are 8 inch, 6 inch, and 4 inch. I did a few tuxedo dipped strawberries to finish it off; it's been over a year since I did any flowers in buttercream/fondant/gumpaste, so I opted to do the berries instead, since I didn't have a lot of spare time to play with the flowers. I packed up the top layer for the anniversary couple to take home, then served the other two layers - not surprisingly, most of it went. The few extra slices got sent home with people. I really had fun making it.

Crystal Symphony Framed!

Although she looks a little monocromatic with the grey matting and the pewter frame, she'll be hanging in a room that has a lot of roses and pinks in it, so it really picks up the roses on her dress. As always, the picture doesn't do her justice.

Slow progress on Sleeping Beauty



Slowly but surely! I don't seem to be getting very much done on her, but she's coming along. Some of the stitching is quite close to the background color so you can't see it very well on this picture, but it'll all come together.