DIAMOND IN A SQUARE UPDATE Mad Miters

Diamond in a Square is coming along nicely.  I'm trying to finish up the background (the square) before starting the fun Mad Miters diamond.  Of course I have run out of one color, which I have ordered but it won't get here for about a week.
But, I can go ahead & fill in the gold and purple diamonds while I'm waiting.
AND, just in case anybody has missed it :-), registration for the Mad Miters class is still open on the CyperPointers website.
(No, the class will not do Diamond in a Square, this is very much an experiment!)

Marta Mask Progress #1

I've worked on the Marta Mask the last couple of days.  I finally redid the whipped backstitch around the white petals on the left, then worked the petals on the right more or less the same way.
I had already decided that I would us Criss Cross Hungarian for the face, but I spent a lot of time sorting threads. I finally got a selection of shades using floss & Silk N Colors.  I will fill the spaces with cross stitches, not beads.
(Her nose is not running, that is an away knot on her mouth that I haven't clipped off yet!)
This is very slow going for me.  I'm finding the painted canvas difficult to stitch sometimes where the paint is a little too heavy & has clogged the holes.  A couple of times I had to get a larger needle to open the holes.  It is nice though to be able to use finer threads than usual for 18-count canvas.

Busy Days

Sorry I haven't posted for so long!  I can't believe it has been 2 weeks!
I have been really busy with company - which was lots of fun as she is a stitcher-friend and we went to a one day retreat and did lots of shopping and stitching. 
Plus DH has a new job and is travelling, so there was packing to do and lots of phone calls. 
I am back to "work" now and should be back on track in a day or so with some photos to show you.  I finished my "secret" project, so have a little more time to devote to my other projects.
Among other things, I'm working on the Mask.  Pix soon....

Baroque Progress #5

Baroque is moving right along.  I finished the 4 corner squares last week.  The pattern calls for beads around the center Rhodes in each square, but I don't think I'd like that.  I think it would be too crowded.  Next up is borders around the whole thing.  Looks like that will take awhile!

2012 SOTM April

The SOTM for April is called Tortoiseshell Filling.  It is blackwork over a laid grid.  I completed this section in a couple of hours, but I don't really care for it.  And the edges are getting really messy, so I'm pretty sure I'll be adding some sort of border or outline at the end of this project.

Mad Miters, Again & Again

Registration is now open for Mad Miters.  Class does not begin until July, but you can register now and begin getting your materials together.  Go here to read all about it.  The picture to the right is a basic Mad Miters, similar to what we will stitch in the class.

Menagerie Blocks 5 & 6

ANG's Cyberpointers Chapter project, Menagerie, has two more blocks!  Block 5 is Box stitches.  I decided to just use a few and put them in one of my small (24x24 threads) blocks.  I used the Watercolours 001 for the Cushion Stitch border, with the Scotch stitches in my 3 shades of Splendor.  Then I did the center Alternating Scotch stitches in Neon Rays +.  I filled the rest with Cashmeres in the 001 Wildflowers.  I had to turn some of them sideways to make it all fit.

Block 6 is Diagonal patterns. I decided I needed to block this out on graph paper first & as soon as I started with the 2nd pattern, I saw that it wanted to be kind of a woven ribbons thing.  I used the same threads as for Block 5, except I switched the Neon Rays + to FyreWerks.  I did the background of this block with the Wildflowers in Nobuko stitch and I really like the way it turned out.  I had forgotten what a great background stitch Nobuko is! 

The picture below shows the whole thing so far.  After I finished Block 6 I realized that I will want to add some background to the Hilton Block, but I'll wait till later to do that.