Needles and Pins and a couple BAPS

In my quest to do smaller projects and to clean up some of my stash, I pulled this out of the pile and finished it in a couple of days. It's Needles and Pins by Milady's Needle. When completely finished, it will be a needlebook. This was fun and quick to stitch. As soon as I can find some Skirtex (which my local Joanne's says they don't know what it is - odd for a store that sells upholstery fabric and supplies), I'll put this together and post a picture. I guess a quick trip to the upholstery store will render what I need.

I'm enjoying working on these smaller projects. Traditionally I've been attracted to those BAPS (big-a$$ed projects) that take a year to do. I love the results, but tend to lose interest in doing them. Another thing, with two busy children, I tend to do my stitching between 9:00 and 10:00 at night - not a lot of time to spend when you have larger projects). One of my favorite BAPs was And They Sinned by Examplar Dames (excuse the picture, it's hard to get the whole thing in the camera frame, but you can click on the picture and it will come up larger):

Another was Alhambra by Chatelaine Designs.

Close up of corner.

Close up of beaded center:

I enjoyed working on Alhambra so much, but trying to cram all those beads in the center (which I was positive would never fit) warranted a lot of expletives on my part (of course, under my breath so other members of the family wouldn't hear me). But for all the aggravation, the results were really stunning.

Both of these took me about a year on and off. I currently have another Chatelaine in process, Convent's Herbal Garden, but again, I get so far along in it and I want to get something done quickly.