Winter Unicorn - The Final Countdown

Tomorrow is my best mate's birthday.  Winter Unicorn was finally finish finished.  I had bought a lovely white frame from Ikea earlier in the week to frame it for her.  I totally mucked up cutting the mount and had to bin it.

What to do, what to do?

Well, upstairs I had a piece of styrofoam or something similar so decided to make a cube finish instead.  Here are a few photos of the finished item.

 This is it with the fabric I used for backing.

You can just about see the stars in this shot.  I actually stitched the moon and stars with Kreinik blending filament rather than a pale blue DMC as called for in the design.

This is the bow I managed to make at the second attempt.  I am actually really proud of it.  Not something I often say about things I have done.

Sadly, Debbie wasn't in when I went round to drop it in but she rang later to say thank you.  She was thrilled that I had remembered her birthday (don't think I have ever forgotten) and wanted to know if she was to open it now.  I made her wait until tomorrow, because I am mean like that!  I can't wait for her to ring to let me know what she thinks of it.

Edit - the pin in the middle, next to the bow was removed!

Winter Unicorn - IT'S FINISHED!!!!!

I have literally just added the last bead to Winter Unicorn.  Here it is...

Winter Unicorn

Just a quickie of this week's progress.  I should easily finish it in time I think.  I am working across the bottom before going up the side.  I had the urge to do some of the backstitch as I went as I didn't want to leave it all until the end.

Winter Unicorn - this week's progress

This is how far I have got with my unicorn this week.  Sadly, I was out for 3 evenings so there hasn't been as much progress as I had hoped.  The bottom of the leg is pretty much the bottom of the design which will give you a rough idea of how much there is left to do.

Winter Unicorn

I finally realised that it is my friend's 50th birthday at the end of the month.  I can't believe she is going to be 50, she looks so much younger than me. 
So I quickly worked out roughly how many stitches there were left to do in Winter Unicorn and divided it by 28 which would leave me 2 days for backstitch, washing, beading and framing. It came out as just under 300 a day so may just be possible.
The top photo is where I was before I started and the bottom one is the progress after 2 days.

Turtle Trot for March

Well this month I have made a bit of progress on the following projects...

A Place we call Home
CCN

On  A Place we call Home I have stitched the 'we' and 'ome' as well as the border to the bottom and right hand side.  I have also done the strange shape to the right of the house and the strange shape to the bottom left as well as the leaves also in the bottom left corner.  It's looking so pretty and I love the pastel colours too.

This is my progress on Midnight Unicorn.  I love stitching this as it is so quick not having to keep on dangling my thread as it doesn't twist like using 2 threads does.

Midnight Unicorn
Durene Jones

This is where Cinderella is at the moment.

Cinderella
Joan Elliott

Theme-a-licious update on February's stitching

Just in case you have been on a completely different planet for the last couple of year, Theme-a-licious is organised by Geeky Heather who gives us themes for our stitching each month.

Hmmmm...last month after taking tips from Jo, Queen of shoehorning themes into whatever she happens to be stitching, I had quite a few things to show.  This month...not so much!

Obviously there is Cinders, who was marching ever closer to a finish...eventually. I will update on the drama that is Cinder-gate in the next few days...

My gorgeous unicorn must count too despite the fact there is currently no evidence of a unicorn! I love this one, it's so easy to stitch with just one thread!

There's my little Just Nan Santa too...not that I am saying Santa is a fantasy figure of course...

And that appears to be it!!  See you next month with hopefully a bit more variety.

Crazy January Challenge - Days 6 and 7

Day 6 was Witchful Thinking from Pickle Barrel Designs which I was lucky enough to win in a giveaway by the designer last year.  Over half way through I realized that I was one stitch short in the upright of the letters stitched so far.  I looked at it, thought 'shall I unpick?' Very quickly that was followed by 'nah, it's fine' and I finished the last few letters off the same.  Now the question is...do I stitch the Witchful with one less stitch too, so they are the same height or as charted?

Witchful Thinking - Pickle Barrel Designs
fabric - Crafty Kitten, Bubbling Cauldron (second)

Day 7 was Winter Unicorn by Durene Jones.  As you can see I haven't had a lot of stitching time recently as there is an assignment due in.  2000 words on the depiction of the family in Peter Pan and 2 poems from 100 Best poems for children!  Thankfully that is now submitted and life can get back to normal for 2 weeks!