We have a dragon!

After I finished my Rapunzel piece for my daughter a few months ago and then very shortly after that decided to stitch Rain Queen for her, I wondered if there could be anything my son might want.  Granted, I know mom's cross stitch isn't the coolest thing for an 18 year old boy, but still, I didn't see any harm in asking.  He browsed through my Herrschners catalog and found the Water Dragon.  It arrived yesterday and after the day's needful things were done, I set straight to it.  

I was a bit surprised at how big it is.  Here is my son holding it up over his head.

  

As you can see, the design is stamped on for cross stitch.  These gorgeous colors pop on this black fabric. And it's truly fabric ~ not Aida or linen or evenweave.  This is a quilting fabric.

As part of the kit, you also get this huge thread card.

Just a couple of days before this package with the dragon arrived, I had found a 17X17 qsnap at my local thrift store for $2!  (Insert Happy Dance...)  I had been needing one in preparation for the George Washington project.  (See sidebar.)  But when I saw the size of this project, I knew I could make use of that qsnap right away.  It was also a great opportunity to use my large floor stand.  

Perfect!

This is my progress with two days worth of work.  Water waves in the upper left corner and a start on the dragon's tail in the center.  I'll probably work on it a bit more tonight too.  I have to admit, I haven't been this excited for a project in a long time.  I'm not sure why, other than this piece is just so darn fun to work on!

Happy stitching everyone ~ I'm going to try and squeeze in some more needle and thread time before it gets too late.  ~~~

It's raining, it's pouring...

We are having a rain and thunder storm today in a very big way.  We haven't had a storm like this in a very long time.  The day really isn't fit for anything other than stitching.  But I'm also keeping the lighting low (headaches) and don't really feel like thinking or counting all that much.  I need a more relaxing form of stitching for a day like this.  And for me, that means one thing ~ plastic canvas.  I recently purchased an Autumn plastic canvas banner project from Herrschners.  It's this one.   I started on it one night last week and I'll work on it some more today.  I love how quickly most plastic canvas projects come together.  And it seems that in the world of stitching, it is most unappreciated by many.  But it's end results can be so very pretty and some projects I've seen are just as detailed as other types of stitching, complete with specialty stitches.  

But this one is easy and fun and will be super cute when done.

Here's my current progress.

Some of the background, one pair of ears, and one fall leaf, lol.

So this is what I'll be working on today.

The past two days I've been working on my "secret" project.  It's secret because it's a gift for my daughter, that I'm hoping to have finished and framed by Christmas.  I'm not sure I'll make it, but I'm trying.  It's Rapunzel, which she loves and I can't wait to give this to her.  Here's where I finished last night.  The past two days I've worked on finishing the castle and sun area and some of her hair up at the top.

Don't let this piece fool you.  It's not as simple as it looks.  It has almost as many three quarter stitches in it as it does whole stitches and the fabric I chose is that soft-as-butter kind that does *not* want to split for those kinds of stitches.  So it's slow going and time consuming, but I'm doing it.  I can't wait to see her face when she gets it.

Well, that's about all for me today.  I'm going to go dive into those owls and see how much I can get done on this super wet, dark day.  

It's kind of the perfect type of cozy for stitching.  ;0)