HD with me

My L&L Angel of Grace is finished! Yay! She has been my major project all this year, and I was so happy to take her off my lap-frame last night. She really does look a lot nicer than this picture suggests. She was stitched with DMC floss and Mill Hill beads over 2 on 28 count natural Jobelan. I made a few little changes from the charted design. Because I don't like stitching with metallic gold floss, I substituted gold Mill Hill beads (petites for the underskirt hem and bodice trim; seed beads for the overskirt trim and halo) or DMC gold-coloured floss (bodice). I omitted the isolated metallic gold cross stitches in the background of the design. I substituted Mill Hill beads for the cross stitches in the floral trim. I didn't actually follow the chart for the floral trim - I just filled in the space with beads, as the mood took me. I am very happy with the finished Angel. I also substituted Mill Hill petite beads for the two darker shades of DMC charted for the wings.

Now that my Angel is finished I can move on to some other projects (read - Christmas ornaments). I will be bringing Jolly Old Fellow down from the craft room to my stitching corner soon, and I plan to stitch on him for the first week or so of each month July through December.