Far too long without an update...

... and much to report!

A new design is available and ready to ship. The design is called Marigold and it was beautifully stitched by Darla Bohn - who did a fantastic job. It uses two colours of Crescent Colours Belle Soie and is stitched on 40ct Lakeside Linens Magnolia. I'm really not an orange person, but this orange really does steal my heart - isn't it lovely?

I've been plugging away at lots of new stuff and will be delving back into the world of model stitching soon - materials are making their way to me now. I finally get to use my Valdani silks! I have had this one nearly ready to go for some time now, but one of the colours I needed has been out of stock for ages and ages. I was happy dancing when I checked the site last week and found it was available!

I'll give you a little sneak peek at the new designs and a little description. Warning, these are NOT for the faint of heart, there is little cross stitch in them. However, NONE of the stitches in them are difficult, they just take a little practice and patience. 

The series is called A Sampler of Seasons and as you might guess, there are four designs:

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

Each design uses six colours of Valdani silk floss, though there are a few overlaps between the designs. They will be released as four separate designs, however as a special gift to my fellow insane stitchers who LOVE BAPs, I will also be releasing some different ideas for layouts that include all four designs on one piece of fabric. There will also be some different borders to join them all up and a verse I wrote that could be included if you choose. It's not really that HUGE to be honest, not like Antique Lace HUGE or anything, but I suppose that all depends on your definition of huge, doesn't it? Here is just one idea - which will quite probably get added to and fiddled with quite a lot yet. Very excited and can't wait to get started!

On another note, the lovely and talented Jo has already used her prize from my giveaway and sent me some lovely photos of her work. She used two bands from Antique Lace in a band sampler round robin that she was stitching! I love seeing creativity like this, it's truly inspiring!

Okay, so what else is new... well I've nearly completed designing the last two pieces in the geometric flower series, and number seven is being stitched as I speak. I've also been working on some new band samplers and lots of other stuff. Hopefully I can keep up my design mojo for a while!!

It's been crazy at work - summer is here, and being a holiday town our population increases exponentially in the summer. And working in a butcher shop during bbq season... well you get the idea. Looooong busy days. It's tiring but I'm managing. It doesn't help that the temperatures here have been skyrocketing up into the high 30s - one day was OVER 40C and humidity on top of that. We finally got a little break yesterday, but today is climbing back up again. I'm about ready for fall now. I love summer, I don't mind high 20s, even low 30s, but this humidity sucks, especially since I don't have air conditioning. Just rain already!!! It's been weeks with no rain and the forecast doesn't look very promising. ICK. 

Which brings me to a little vent/rant. Friday the 13th fast approaches. Our little town gets overwhelmed by bikers every Friday the 13th. They close half the roads to cars, and it's nearly impossible to get anywhere. While it's great for SOME businesses, it's getting a bit ridiculous. Where I work is right next to where they start the roadblocks. We're a place of business but the police won't let people cross the barrier to come in and shop. I mean from a legal standpoint, they actually CAN'T do that. It's not like it's a state of emergency, it's a freaking bike rally. I really wish more people would stand up to them and stop putting up with the crap. It's bad enough that anyone who lives here either has to leave for the weekend or go without sleep because of the noise, but when it affects people's ability to earn a living it's going to far I think. I'm kind of hoping my boss will give me Friday off so I don't have to try and fight the traffic to and from work. 

Back to stitching - I have actually been stitching the last couple of days and my stitching mojo has returned in a BIG way. Not sure why it disappeared these past couple of months, but I'm very glad it's back! No WIP pictures today though - I don't really want to unroll the scroll rods. lol Laziness rocks.

And since I've been such a good girl today and done lots of work, now it's time to go relax and stitch. :)