Melissa Shirley's stable, finished

I finished stitching this stable canvas in plenty of time to have a local framer put it on a board, edge it with ribbon, and stand it on a semicircle of mat board.  I did follow Anne Stradal's suggestion of encroaching gobelin for the timbers.  I used the same watercolors as I had used for the roof.  The donkey I did in alpaca 18 with the mane in DMC perle 5.  The stars were stitched in Balger #8 silver and gold.

I am now in the process of putting the finishing stitches into the individual creche figures on congress  cloth. That includes checking the figures for missed stitches.  I'll take photographs before I send them to my finisher, which I should do by Friday.  Time is slipping away and I need these for the Festival of Trees the weekend before Thanksgiving.

My beautiful mermaid is even more gorgeous now that she has been made into a framed pillow with pearls and cording.  My pillow finisher wasn't sure about the pearls because if you look very closely you can see the white thread tacking the pearls down.  I think the finished product is wonderful.  I don't know about other people, but I just love to sit and look at my newly finished pieces.  I still take delight looking at Gustav, my 30" nutcracker, among other finished projects.