It’s been driving me crazy, not having something to do with my hands when I’m sitting watching TV, even if it’s just the news.

I did get out Defender of the Kingdom, but at 1 over 1 on 25-count, it’s too small for me to see with my glasses on – and I can’t see the TV if I have my glasses off. It’s also a bit fiddly for my current metal and physical energy level.

After briefly considering picking up so long-abandoned Hardanger, I decided to hunt out Mirabilia’s Autumn Queen. I’ve already stitched the first three seasonal queens (Winter Queen, Summer Queen, Spring Queen) and I always wanted to do this one to finish the set. Unfortunately, it got caught up in my general stitching decline. Since I had started Cinderella, I felt I had to finish that before starting something else by Mirabilia. Having officially made Cinderella a UFO makes me more comfortable about starting a new project.

Autumn Queen Model

I knew I already had the fabric because I’d bought an entire strip of white Belfast when starting Spring Queen and only needed half of it, so the rest was waiting, all labelled for Autumn Queen. I had also pulled out the Kreinik for the design ages ago. I even managed to find it today. When I looked, it turned out I already had all the beads as well and most of the DMC. So I need to buy the crystal treasures, some DMC and (yuck) some Wisper thread for her cloak. I used that in Winter Queen and it’s horrible stuff to work with. But I’ll manage.

I picked this one to try to have as a current project because it’s 2 over 2 on 32-count so I should be able to see it with my glasses on, because a Mirabilia design is generally an easy stitch but makes up into something beautiful, and because I’d love to finally have all four queens finished. (Although we’ll have to take out a mortgage on the house we don’t own to pay to frame them all, as the other three are rolled up in the cupboard because I wanted all the frames to match.)

So far, I’ve stitched a grand total of 14 stitches. Hopefully there will be more.

8th January, 2012