
I started off the month of March with the #eapmacabre SAL hosted by Amy and Jenn in the Bewitched Stitches group on Facebook. I wanted to participate but didn’t want to veer too far off my course of working on my WIPocalypse pieces. So, I chose a small piece I’ve wanted to stitch for years – Quote the Raven by Cross-Eyed Cricket. It’s in the Two Familiars leaflet. I’ll do another post on him at some point with my changes, but I managed to finish him up by like the 8th of March.
After finishing up my raven for the EAP Macabre SAL I decided to pick up another WIP (although it’s not one of my 2018 focus WIPs). This was one of my Dark October starts last year. It’s Hallow Eden by Plum Street Samplers. Here’s how it looked when I picked it up.

And here’s how much I managed to get done in a couple of nights.

I really love stitching on that piece.
Anyway, after my dalliance with non-WIPocalypse pieces I decided to get down to business and get back to my Chatelaine. It was time to work on the top right corner. Here’s what it looked like when I picked it up on the 9th.

I started by filling in the stair steps with rice stitches and then moved on to the espalier trees. I got those stitched and beaded and made a start on the railing and the green hedge beneath it.
And that’s when it happened. I saw on Instagram that Debra AZ Needleworker (Chatelaine stitcher extraordinaire) was participating in the 100 Days of Chatelaine Stitching SAL. I immediately went over to the Chatelaine Support Group on Facebook and decided to take the plunge. I figured that working on M9 for 100 straight days should make a huge dent in what I have left to stitch. And maybe, maybe, I can even finish it. I can of course work on any Chatelaine in the 100 days, but only M9 is on my WIPocalypse list, so I’d really like to stick with it. If I get really burned out I may pick up Egypt Garden and work on it. But here’s hoping I don’t.
Anyway, I started a day behind everyone else, but here is my starting point. You can see how much I’d already done from my photo on the 9th.

And I’m now on day 6 of the 100 days, but here’s what it looked like when I finished stitching on day 5.

I’ve finished up the stair steps (still need to add beads to the top of the urns).

I got the outline of the railing finished and the green hedge below it. I added the beads to the corner of the railing.

I added the swirls on either side of the corner pool and completed the outline of the pool including the backstitching in Petite Treasure Braid.

I stitched and beaded all the flowers too. And I jumped down and started the outline of the side pool.

I am so happy with how it’s looking and how much progress I’ve been able to make so far this month. I am aiming to finish this corner by the end of the month. I think I can do it with almost a full week to go. Then it will be on to the bottom two corners and then finally the center. I hope that the 100 day challenge keeps me motivated to push through and get this beauty finished finally!
I am grateful for SALs to keep me motivated and good friends to cheer me on.
Beautiful, beautiful stitching!
Beautiful, beautiful stitching!
Mystery 9 is looking gorgeous, you are making fantastic progress
Mystery 9 is looking gorgeous, you are making fantastic progress