Row Finish for Wind Moon and Much, Much More

Hello Kindreds,

This row took me forever to complete, mainly because I started Generations in the middle of it, then made "Welcome Friends" for a wedding gift, then made two Christmas stockings.  So I was a little bit distracted. But here it is, 6 and a half pages of Wind Moon done, completing row 3.  Her lovely face is finished as well as the bulk of her hair, and in the next row I start on her wings and her beautiful, beautiful dress.

She doesn't look so stark in real life, she's very lush.  I tend to have these row finishes very late at night - it's just coming up to 2 in the morning, and I think the light I use to lay the work under is very bright, which leads to the starkness.  But I can tell you, she is very lovely up close.

As I mentioned, I made a wedding present, "Welcome Friends" for friends of ours whom we will be staying with in Scotland, but for our lovely hosts in England, I made stockings for their two children.

I wanted to have a snow motif that connected the two, so, with the help of a dear friend who sewed these for me, we picked out the fabric you see below.  Alice's stocking is backed with a grey/blue velvet with a blue polka dot tulle over top (the polka dots symbolizing snowflakes). Monty's stocking is a red velvet backing with these adorable cotton balls that look like snowflakes that line the seam of the stocking.  The inside is lined with a pale blue polka dot cotton fabric. I think they turned out perfectly.  I hope they like them!!

We just had our summer fair and I entered Adrift, Meeting on the Turret Stairs and Welcome Friends. It was the first time I've ever entered any of my work into a fair and guess what? I won all categories, with Adrift taking home the best in division.

This is a terrible photo, because she was laying flat on a table and the lights were directly above her, which makes her look really red, but also puts some strange circles on the piece.  But this is what I saw when I went through the fair on the day before it closed.

People were really amazed and I felt really proud bringing home those ribbons and cash prize (A whopping $9)  It's nice to be able to show people what cross stitch is capable of being.

I'm on my way to England and Scotland this Friday and I haven't decided what to take with me.  I bought a little HaED quick stitch, so I'm either going to take that or Generations, which I haven't worked on in ages and I need to get cracking on that.  I guess it will come down to the night before and how much room I have in my carry on as to what I will take. I hear the weather has cooled there, thank goodness, so it seems the perfect time to travel.

Happy stitching to you all and I'll see you all when I get back, at the end of September.