A long overdue finish!

I was so thrilled this week to finally finish a piece I've been stitching off & on for the past 2-1/2 years!!  It's been so long I had to go back on my thumb drive and see when I originally created the pattern (3/15/2010 to be exact for this "smaller" version).  I call it the "Electric Owl" because of all the electric blues in it (DMC #995 and #996).

I'm using this as my entry for the Etsy NEAT (Needle Arts Team) July/August Creative Challenge, which had a theme of "The Forest".  Our deadline was 8/22 and I finished on 8/23, but the blog post hasn't been put up yet for us to reveal our items (as of the time I'm typing this post on Saturday afternoon), so I really should be showing it to you yet, but I'm a very impatient person and just can't wait to show this to everyone!!!  My friend says it was a stretch on the theme, but I told her owls live in the forest so I could use it, LOL!

I stitched the piece on 14 count vinyl aida and am using it as an insert in a mouse pad.   The listing for the mouse pad will be active in my Etsy shop as soon as our team blog post goes up where I can enter it.  Keep your eye on my newsletter and/or shop as I just might release this as a pattern.
 

I first started this piece back in 2008 on 14 count black aida.  It's been sitting in one of my stitching baskets only about 5% done (if even that much) since then.  It was going to be HUGE.  Something like 14" high by 21" wide.  I planned to hang it on my living room wall and I figured it would be one of those pieces that when people saw it they would either love it or hate it, but no in between.  I'll be scrapping stitching it on black as it's too difficult to see all the black & navy blues.  Instead I will stitch it slightly smaller on 18 count white aida and give it to Zach.  He's been waiting years for me to finish it for him.  I figure considering he doesn't have his own place to hang it yet I still have time to go, lol!

Anyways, enough of my rambling.  I'm sure you can tell I'm excited to have it done and thank you so much for letting me share it with you.

Happy Stitching!
Kelly