One month later...

I'm soooo completely overjoyed at finishing the centrepiece. It took a couple of weeks to finish, and between cross stitch, pulled backstitches and eyelets was around 25,000 stitches. OMG!!

I was going to continue on with this piece until I finished it, but to be honest, I need a break. I'm suffering from burnout!! I could have finished what I have a lot sooner, but I'm not one to work solidly on something for such long stretches, so my concentration level has not been great this last week or so. So I figure I'll take a "mini-vacation" from model stitching for a week. I'm way ahead of schedule so it's okay, right?

Now to decide what to work on. I thought about starting the next flower model but I'm torn between doing Rose, Marigold or Iris. So I put that thought away for now. I also thought about starting the alternate model for My Mother's Garden II in the sampler colours, but I need to order thread for that first because I'm not certain that one skein of each will be enough, and I don't want multiple dye lots. So I forgot about that too. Then I thought about starting Growth Rings (I'll be stitching it twice, once for my brother as a Christmas gift and once for me because I must have it for myself too!!). Bro picked out colours he liked for it, I just have to pick the fabric. He likes Gloriana's Antique Black and Holly Berry - so I'll do the majority in the black with the red as the interior. I'm thinking a light tan fabric for it - and I'm sure I have something in my stash that will suffice but I haven't gotten that far yet. And again, I need 2 skeins of the black and only have one on hand and would rather have matching dye lots... so that'll have to wait too. And Rosewood Manor's Past and Present has been constantly niggling me since I bought it, but I'd like to convert that one to NPI and will likely have to order some colours for it. So it too shall wait.

Of course I have multiple WIPs I could work on too. I'm leaning towards Strawberry Sampler but Alpine Garden is yelling at me. Might end up a close my eyes and pick one situation.

I finally decided on colours for the long version of Antique Lace, with the help of bro and mom. Fabric will be either Silkweaver Heritage or Lakeside Vintage Pearled Barley. I decided this time I'd like a softly mottled linen. I love both of these, but I have both in 40ct and I know 36ct tends to dye darker so I'm not sure which I'll like better when I order those in. For floss I'm going simple with Gloriana Ecru. Much more tone on tone this time. A Sassy's colour or two may yet sneak in there before it's time to order too - if her 36ct order arrives before then. I really want to go 36ct this time. I like 32 for Mirabilias but I really do prefer higher counts. Heck I'd use my 40ct but then the pearls won't fit. I've spent way too much time obsessing over this one I think.

I think it's time to do some stitching now. :)