Back to Samplers

I have spent a wonderful weekend at the LNS and online buying up samplers, samplers, samplers!! I haven't purchased a new one since 2006, so I have a lot of catching up to do. That said, after all my purchases, I settled on a freebie start. This is from Tracy at Ink Circles. It is a Mystery that will run through out the year. We have the outline right now. I am sprinkling DMC metallics in along with HDF for the majority of the stitching. The final product is supposed to be much like a "Carpet Page"- google that. They are gorgeous!!

Here is the upper left corner of mine- subject to change if I decide to frog it all. Worked on 40 ct Daily Grind linen one over two.

QS Red Poppy by CCK

Here she is after the March HAED SAL Challenge. I got lots of stitching done this weekend since I didn't have to work. I am going to force myself to do the background and top of her hair before I start on the face. I think she is going to be beautiful. She's so bright as colorful!! This is 7100 stitches so far.

Update on VoL

As promised, here is my latest pic of VoL. She has gotten so big that I had to unroll her from the scroll frame and drape it over- hence the noticeable wave. Now, I know the mess of threads looks awful, but it is NOT a tangled mess. I park my threads which saves tons of time. I have only had one thread get tangled since I started parking (and it wasn't on VoL). I comb through them every once in a while with my fingers, so they stay nice and usable.

I took this pic without the flash in regular room lightening. It is slightly brighter IRL, but I thought it showed the nice sparkley jewelry better. I recharted the jewelry using DMC metallics.

I am almost to the bottom of the piece- the bottom left corner grid is as far down as it goes. I have decided to go all the way down and then over for the rest of the pattern- I am hoping if I concentrate on this and only join in the SALs, I should be able to finish by June 1st. Maybe sooner.

So far, so good. Stitching deligently on VoL with no other WIP screaming too loudly in my head to be stitched. But I will be happy to work on QS Poppy this weekend for the HAED SAL. I'll post a pic of VoL on Friday if I remember.