WIPs update & things going on in my stitchy life

I wanted to show my current WIPs.  I'm in the middle of charity stitching right now, so my stitching life is very full.  But I still always try to make sure that I do take the time to still work on my own personal WIPs.  It's important to me.  So I carved out about three days recently to work on Honeybee Happening.  It's coming along so nicely and my goal is to have it done by year's end ~ or even better yet, get it finished in November.  The top section is completely done as is the banner on the right side.  That banner was rather tedious.

 

 

The lighting is bad because I took this picture in the middle of the night (when most of my stitching is done.)  But I really love this piece.  I think I would have to say I'm enjoying this one the most out of anything I have done so far.  The colors - which the camera doesn't do them justice at all - are so gorgeous and I simply adore working with them.

 

The next thing I'm working on is half for me and half for my charity.  (I'll share more about our current charity post in one of my next posts.)  Sometimes with the items I do for my charity, I really like them and would like to have one for myself as well.  So I'll double up and stitch two of the same piece in tandem.  I don't do one and then the other.  That drives me up the wall to finish something and have to start over from the beginning and do the same thing again.  So I find it better to stitch both at the same time, a section at a time and only repeating that section.

 

Our current charity project has some Christmas items involved, so I chose a small Winter/Christmas banner as part of what I am stitching for the project. 

 

 

I took this picture to compare the difference that backstitching and detail work makes.  This one has lots of French knots.  I do have almost all of the backstitch work done on the second one now.  I'll be sharing these as a finish soon.  The one going to the charity I am going to make into a banner as it's intended to be and the one I am keeping for myself I have decided to have framed.

 

 

This was a very quick, one day finish.  My daughter's best friend left for college, so my daughter made her a scrap book of all their years together.  She wanted me to do a page as well.  So as part of the page I did for her, I stitched up this bookmark with her name on it.  The thread used is a Wildflowers by Caron.

 

So this is what I've been up to.  I would really like to get the Christmas piece finished today.  :0)