Sweet Treats!

It's been a while since I last posted! I missed last week out completely... and I was doing so well posting once a week too. Oh well. :-)

I've managed to get a wee bit of stitching in over the past few weeks. I've mostly just stitched on the "Sweet Treats" series by Country Cottage Needleworks. This is a really bad photo - it's taken very late at night (you can click on it to see a larger version though of course). I'm stitching it on Vintage Lentil Belast linen (Lakeside Linen). I haven't actually sewn the buttons on yet, they're just placed where they're supposed to go - I'll leave the buttons 'till the end!


I've decided to stitch a bunch of these "food" (and drink!) designs for my mum. I think they'd look adorable in her kitchen! So let's see how many I can complete and have framed for her birthday in December.

Now, I'm cheating a wee bit here, as I stitched this back in 2005. This is Mini Mandala Gardens I (#3 in the first series).

I used the recommended Mill Hill beads and I was really unhappy with the way the cluster of crystal beads in the centre of the design looked... they just didn't fit on the Belfast linen! Or I didn't do a very good job of making them fit anyway! ;-) So I finally got it out over the weekend, ripped out the beads and replaced them with petite crystal beads instead. It still looks a wee bit wonky, but nothing that won't be fixed when it's stretched for framing. I'm much happier with it anyway. It would have been nice to use delicas... but I didn't have the patience to source just the few beads that I needed. You can see a before shot in my Flickr album here or straight here for the enlarged version.... bad huh? I can't believe I left it so long to fix it!

Thank you for all your lovely comments on Mini Mandala Mystery I. Isn't Martina Weber (Chatelaine) a fabulous designer? I wish I had the stamina to complete one of her large Mandalas! I have two started and a few others kitted up... one of these days! Nicki asked if I planned to stitch all the Mandala's in this new series (Mini Mandala Mystery Gardens - there are 4), and I absolutely do! Martina gave us a sneak peek of all four and I loved them all. I like that they're not as expensive as the large mandalas (and I've also been using DMC instead of the NPI) and that they're easy enough to complete in the three months.