New Mola and current stitching

I got a new Mola in the mail yesterday, and I'm thrilled with it. It was for sale in Etsy, and I had put the link in my favorites so I could go back and look at it every day; on Monday I found out I was getting a bonus from work for my 15th anniversary, by Thursday this was in my hot little hands.



The Mola is beautiful, and the needlework on it is exquisite! I think this mola was used in a garment; there are needle marks along the sides and the top. (There is also another mola for sale with the same maroon back-ground, showing Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus with a donkey, escaping to Egypt. Used molas usually come in sets of 2 because of the way the blouses are made.) There are 3 layers of fabric over all, the maroon, black, and yellow, and then there are partial patches around specific figures, the orange around Joseph (I can tell it is Joseph, because he has a beard), the green around Mary, and the gold and the green around the cows, just to mention a few. After that there are appliques: all the small bars and the "X's" are appliqued on to either the maroon layer or the black layer. On top of that yet, there is embroidery. Most of it is very fine chain stitch (the embellishment on Mary and Joseph's clothing) but there is also detached chain and feather stitch.

It even has angels!

Can you tell how much I like it?

I'm still working on this project:



It is part of a stitch-along, transferring a pattern that was originally made for a c8 base to c10 and 32 (and 42) centers. The first one went quickly, on a c8 there are 8 triangles and 6 squares to stitch around. The c10 went okay, there are 12 pentagons and 20 triangles to stitch around, so it took longer. The stitching on this one seems endless! (I'm not planning on doing the 42 centers.) There are 12 pentagons, 20 hexagons, and 60 triangles! I have pins in the mari because eventually I want to take out the marking stitches, so I didn't want to stitch the corners down and I like the way they look. They do tend to catch the stitching, though. When I have the 3 passes done at a corner I'm taking them out. You can tell how far I have to go.

Last night I had help (briefly). C likes to pull the needle through after I place it, but the stitching was difficult last night, she didn't have the strength to pull the needle, so she stopped after a couple of tries, and asked to pick out colors for her project (for me to make for her).

I had picked out these colors a couple of weeks ago, so I pulled them out and showed them to her:



They are acceptable. The next comment was "So let's get going, then!" Grandma had to explain that she wasn't quite ready yet. I'm such a disappointment. I will have to get the project set up so the next time she's around we can start on it.