In the Paraphrashed words of Garfield the Cat...

Whomever created confetti stitches should be drug out in the street and shot.

I put a couple of hours into Eagle today and his belly is coming along nicely, though I'm still surprised how light some of the colors are.



That is 201 stitches. Eesh. A close up shows how many different colors make that up.



Confetti is blah, but he'll look great in the end.

Oh, and have I mentioned I am insane? I bought my first chart from Heaven and Earth Designs.

Behold, Lust:



She is one of a set of the 7 deadly sins. I hope to do five of them. Avarice and Gluttony are nice, in their own right, but yellow and pink aren't my thing.

I figure she should take me, oh, about 20 years to complete. Yay, insanity!

There was a Girl who had a Horse...

...and Eagle was his name-o.

So, Marv turned Eagle into a pattern for me. From this:



to this:



Amazing work, right? Seriously, if you want a custom pattern done without buying the software, try Marv over at http://www.crosstitch.com. He's done two patterns for me so far, and I'm happy.

Seem like I'm stalling? I am. I only have 50-some stitches into Eagle so far.

Progress:



Not a blazing start, but it's getting there. The one thing I was worried about was putting a big dark bay gelding on a stormy looking background off of a picture that was taken on a bright spring day. The Aida, however, is nice and light in its variation of color:



I think I can leave him mostly as is without worrying about it clashing. To me, it's more like the sky right before a storm when the sun is showing through the clouds rather than a dark and stormy afternoon.

Wish me luck!

Night of the Living Craft Wench.

So, I'm sure you noticed I took another huge sabbatical. It happens, but I've been working on stuff, promise.

Without further adieu, Fantastic Creatures:













I filled in much of the vegetation and added Marty the Meerkat. Under Leo's chin is the beginning of Bert the Big-Horned Sheep. Still got a long way to go.

Murphy the Green Winged Macaw is going much better.

My newest work gave Murph a nose, err, beak.



Altogether, he's starting to look quite lovely.



I believe I could have him done in a couple of serious sit downs.

At the moment, I am working on cross stitching Easter eggs for my family members. They'll be posted as soon and I get them sewed together.

Also, I'd like to introduce two projects that I will be working on very shortly. They are both being designed by Marv from http://www.crosstitch.com and he is doing wonderful work.

Flying Eagle is a portrait of one of my best friend's horses made from her favorite photograph. I will post the picture when I start Eagle.

A Princely Nap is a custom of my 15-year-old Lhasa Apso.

Both of these projects are being done on hand dyed fabric.