Forest Goddess Happy Dance!

I have finished her!!  Here she is....

Stitched on 32 Ct Shades of Autumn fabric from Sparklies.

I made just a couple of tiny changes, more tweaks really.  There are some different fractionals on her face, her lips are darker than charted and (more obviously if you are familliar with this design)  I have removed the beads she looked to be juggling, I just thought she looked enough without them, plus they would get a bit lost on this very mottled fabric.  I also changed the red seed bead to a metalic magenta colour similar to the magenta kreinik used on the pattern.  I think these look better on this fabric.  And I also changed the beads on her neck line to a very very high shine gold, for me the bright red didn't work there.  (I can find the mill hill number for these bead changes if anyone is interested)

I just adore this design, I have loved stitching it throughout and if you are considering it I highly recommend it.  It is simply stunning and a fairly quick stitch.

At last I have a finish towards my 11 in 11, just 10 more left to go!

Abject Failure

Despite my best efforts I have failed to finish Forest Goddess and I'm now off to bed.  I am so close though, the number of beads simply beat me!  I promise a Happy Dance tomorrow, so hear is a teaser picture just to prove that she really is nearly finished.

My Guilty Secret

Ok, I admit, it wasn't hard to guess! 

This is Patsy (Sing Along II).  She arrived yesterday afternoon and has settled in very well, although she did give me quite a ride this morning.  I'm hoping she'll get a bit less 'bouncy' in a week or so or I am going to have to become quite a rider!  Like all my pets she gets her own page so I don't take up too much blog with non stitchy news.  I'm sure her page will grow in time but there isn't much on it yet.

Forest Goddess will be finished for you by tomorrow so please don't leave me if you have had enough of horses.  This is their last post for a bit I promise!

Trying to finish!

Thank you for your lovely comments about the loss of my poor Finchie.  He was a bit special and I will miss him hugely.  But back now to more regular stitching posts!  I really want to finish my Forest Goddess this weekend to get back on track with my 11 in 11.  I still have yet to post a finish towards it and I should nearly be averaging 1 per month.  Here she is now.....

I just have this part of her cloak to finish and then all the back stitch and beads.  I think I can do it and the next Hermit and Stitch weekend should help, but I do have a guilty secret and a reason why I may not stitch as much as I'm hoping this weekend.  But I'm not giving any more away yet, you will just have to check back in a day or two........ (Don't get too excited, it's not stitching related!)

Goldfinch 1985 - 2011

Some people may already know from a couple of cross posts, that I lost my old event horse yesterday.  He died in the afternoon, in the sunshine and I stayed with him until he had gone.  He had been ill since Christmas but he spent his last week in his field with his friends, happy and pain free due to the powers of modern veterinary medicine.  But with no chance of improvement and the pain suspended only temporarily there was only one kind choice.  So I am afraid that I have stitched very little and posted even less this last week as I have spent most of it standing quietly in the field with him whilst he was grazing on the new spring grass.  I will be stitching Martina's (Chatelaine) Goldfinch to replace one of the birds on Winter Watergarden and Martina has charted a tiny pieces of text for me to stitch secretly next to it, more on this when I get to that part of the design in a few months time.

I will leave his page up for a month or so and there are more pictures on there, including the Christmas dressage where he put up with more tinsel on him than my Christmas tree!

So now just a couple my most special pictures of how I will remember him, at work and at rest.

Goldfinch

1985 - 2011

Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride,
Friendship without envy,
Or beauty without vanity?
Here, where grace is served with muscle
And strength by gentleness confined
He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity.
There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent.
There is nothing so quick, nothing more patient.
England's past has been borne on his back.
All our history is in his industry.
We are his heirs, he our inheritance.

THE HORSE by Ronald Duncan

More Part 2, Now Stuck!

Part 2 is half finished.  I now have to wait for the Winter Brook Gloriana to arrive so I can stitch the plants and reeds.  I'm not going to give in and stitch it in the DMC conversion as I did for the Heirloom Blue in Part 1 because i'm a bit disapointed with how different my DMC is to one i've seen in the silk.  I'm still not sure if i'm going to frog that colour, which would be a huge amount of work.  Here are a couple of pics of it as far as I can get.  It is so subtle and looks just like soft glistening snow, I love it.   I can't wait for my thread to arrive.  Hope that you are having a good weekend.

A Start on Part 2

Part 2, day 1.