New Year's Starts

I know that many of you out there in blogland started new projects for New Year's day and so did I.  Only I started not one but two new projects!  First, I started Paradise Lost by Plum Street Samplers.  You might remember that I was trying to decide between this and Ann Grant and this won.  I'm so glad I did too, it's such a fun design!  I started with the verse at the bottom because words are never my favorite. 

I did a little grass above the words so I'd have something other than red done.  :)  I'm stitching this on 36 count Vintage Light Examplar fabric with the called for silks.  Sorry for the poor picture, you'll see better photos when I come back to this.

Then, I started the pre-stitching for a project that we're assembling at our next Sampler Guild of the Rockies meeting, a snowflake biscornu.  I have never assembled or stitched a biscornu before so this was a great opportunity for me to learn!  But, ugh, all that backstitching...  Here's my progress, I hope to finish the rest of the snowflakes in the next day or two:

Once I finish the pre-stitching for the biscornu project then I'll go back and finish up Elizabeth Sheffield.  I made some nice progress on her and ordered a frame at Lynn's when I was home at Christmas.  I'm going to wait to show you an overall photo until she's done but all I have left is the band with the little people and the house:

For some reason I keep thinking that the guy on the left looks like some of my old lego dudes from when I was a kid.  Maybe it's the shape of his face, maybe it's the funny (but cute) smile but I kept thinking Legos when I was stitching.  What do you think?

And, last but certainly not least, I signed up for a couple challenges this year.  One is the BAP (Big Arse Project) challenge hosted by Becky Bee.  Paradise Lost will be my challenge piece for this challenge since it's larger than 10" x 12".  I'll be posting updates here on this blog as I work on her (after finishing Elizabeth Sheffield of course) so check back to see how it's coming along. 

The other challenge I signed up for is the TUSAL Challenge.  For those who don't know, TUSAL stands for Totally Useless Stitch A-Long.  It's where stitchers post a photo on their blogs of a jar filled with their ORT's (Old Ratty Threads) on or around every full moon.  I had a lot of fun seeing these ORT jars on other people's blogs over the last year so I decided to jump in too!  The challenge is open, anyone can join in at any time of the year and all the information is on Daffycat's blog.  I have had this pretty fluted jar in my basement forever trying to figure out what to do with it.  So, I tied a pretty ribbon around it and voila! that's my TUSAL jar.  My first update will be later in January so check back for more photos of this one too. 

Well, that's it, I'm off to go work on snowflakes so I can go back to stitching on Elizabeth Sheffield.  I hope to have a finish on her to show you sometime soon! 

Jen