Turtles!

Nan's Garden is stitching up nicely. I'm about at the half-way point now.
I finished the knot gardens and made it to the back stitched turtles. Aren't they adorable?

When I gathered the supplies for this piece, I realized I didn't have all of the required DMC floss. So when I went to Hancock's last week, I thought I'd pick up the remainder of what I needed. Unfortunately, it seems Hancock's no longer stocks DMC! (At least not the store I went to.) They instead carry a brand called Sullivans. They had a conversion chart handy, so I decided to just pick out the substitute colors and give it a try. So far, so good. The Sullivans floss looks and feels very much like DMC. The plies separate easily and it stitches smoothly. So far, I really can't tell a difference. And the skeins even have the DMC comparison numbers on the label.

Have any of you used this brand before? Any opinions on it, good or bad?

In sewing news, I have been half heartedly meaning to cut out my Vintage Sewalong dress all week, but I couldn't seem to find my fabric. Of course I haven't really been searching for it as hard as I could, so I just assumed I'd find it this weekend under some other fabric. Well, I found it last night. Apparently, when I prewashed it, it got tossed into the pile of clean laundry on the couch. My teenage boys folded the laundry and put it away. I guess they thought that fabric was a really long tablecloth, or a really big bedspread, because I found it nicely folded... in my linen cabinet.