IHSW - February 2013 Edition

Would you believe it - we've had a lovely sunny weekend!  Life feels so much better when the sun shines!  I bumped into a friend of mine while I was doing a spot of shopping yesterday morning before coming home to stitch, and I twisted her arm.  She paints and draws when she gets the chance, and I convinced her that she really ought to abandon the housework and spend the rest of such a lovely sunny day with her art.  Hopefully next time I see her, she'll have something gorgeous to show me.

I managed to put in quite a few hours this week, and particularly this weekend, and hope that you like what I'm going to show you.  This week I have been concentrating on my deadline pieces and so here they are - closest deadline first.

 Turkish Challenge has to be completed by the second Thursday in April - not just the stitching, but also whatever I decide to do with the fabrics that I was given.  The first stem and leaves are now complete, apart from the very bottom of the stem which comes below the right hand leaves on the second stem, which is now started.

Carnation has its second anniversary towards the end of May and the hope is to finish page 3 by then.  This week took me into row 8 so this piece is going well.  Having checked my progress against the actual picture itself, the top of the second little girl's head should start to appear in the next few rows.

Finally, I have made a start on Enchanted Garden, which has to be finished and framed by mid June.  What you can see here is the lower part of the rabbit's head and the dark bit on the right hand side is its nose.  I think that this is another piece where the back stitching is going to make a big difference.

My Just Nan piece, the Guardian Angels, also has a deadline, but this is not until mid November, so this and Train of Dreams are on hold for the time being.  As soon as I get Turkish Challenge done, I intend to bring the Angels back into the process.

Despite the sunny weekend, they are forecasting more cold weather and possibly more snow to come, so please keep yourselves warm and snug - it's hard to stitch with cold hands.