I have really been falling behind lately, sadly. Things have been a bit chaotic in my life - lots of changes going on! But things are calming down a little bit in any case, and not to mention spring is finally here! The snow will be gone soon, but there is a whole lot of mud and water everywhere now to deal with.

I'm posting my winter projects officially now that the exhibition is more or less over. I have put them in their permanent place here. They are both below. In short, they were both fun projects to work on. I feel like I finally made some stumpwork figures that turned out to be pretty nice. I ended up feeling a bit rushed on them though, so I didn't really get to do as many little details as I would liked to, but I am pleased with them anyways!

Sadly, the stitching has been minimal this past week or two. I just haven't been able to sit and focus my thoughts on it. But hopefully now I am ready to start picking it up again!

I made a new start this weekend. I have to admit the distractions are making progress a bit slooow at the moment.

I picked out some really nice spring-ish colors for this one. Nice greens and some pastels. I haven't decided on the butterfly color yet though. I will worry about that when all is done I suppose.

I'm off to a bad start with the TAST2 work. Already behind after two Tuesdays! Well, I should have a bit more time these next few days to catch up a bit I hope.

I finished this project up last night. I think it turned out quite nice. The leaves ended up being the most time consuming part of the project. It took an hour to do just the padded satin stitching alone.

The closeups where you can see the individual stitches are kind of fun, although it does make it easy to see the faults too!

I have another wreath waiting to be stitched, this one spring-themed. I will probably work on that next although I have a few cross stitch projects waiting too.

My picture isn't the best, but here is my progress on my latest project. I should have had it finished by now, but I have still been a bit ill. Not shown are the leaves that will go on there. They are partially done. I hope to have this done in the next few days.

I've been fighting a cold these past few days, so my pace slowed down a lot, but I am much better now. Last night I put the final stitch in this project. I like this style of making gardens a lot, so I plan to do more with the flowers from the book. I don't know if I will manage to do all for the seasonal gardens shown on the cover, but there are some other ideas in the book and many types of flowers to try out. I'm about to write a little review of the book. I'm putting some close-ups of my stitching in there, so be sure to check it!

Next I'm going to try a little stumpwork design I put together. It has a fall theme, so it's completely out of season, but right now, thinking about anything else is better than the snow and cold outside my door. :)

It's been a few days now since I started the a project from the Diane Lampe book. I decided to try the Spring Garden project. (It's on the front cover.)

You can see that I started with the larger flower sections, as instructed in the book. The wisteria took the most time - it takes awhile to make all those french knots! Like I said the other day, the book doesn't give you exact patterns to follow, it outlines the areas and you fill them with the flowers. I admit I like all the lines written out, so this is new for me, but I'm getting the hang of it. I'm not completely sure how long this project will take to finish now. It has been a bit slow, but I have only smaller flowers left now. And I will hopefully be writing my review at the end of the week, but if you like stitching flowers and gardens, this is a great book to have.

It is nearly time for Sharon B to start the yearly challenge she runs from her blog, Pin Tangle. This time it will be a new round of take a stitch Tuesday, one stitch every week through the rest of the year. It's a great chance to practice and learn new stitches! Make sure to go and sign-up so you are "official"!