Needlework Rotation: Millennium and a Christmas Gnome

I worked a bit over ten hours on Teresa Wentzler's "Millennium" and got the angels both completed except for the backstitching on the lower half.   I would like to do that next, but really need to get at least a few stitches worth of the landscape area completed up against each inner edge.   On St. Michael, it's easy.  If I do the area between the robes and the sword edge, I can complete all the back stitching except the very bottom of the under robes (though I'll probably leave all the under robes on both sides to do with the arch base just to make it easier to keep track of where I am).   On St. Raphael, it will be a little more difficult.  I'll have to just work along the edge on that side a "needle's worth" of stitches.  Next time.

At the end of this rotation

And for comparison, here's where I started:

And now I'm back to the 'modern' sampler slot in the rotation.   I thought I would start another one of the Victoria Sampler pieces, but then this bit of Christmas frivolity caught my attention.  Being on a large count over two with perle cotton and only a half dozen colors, it's just what I need while I'm crazy busy with the holiday season.

I picked him up from the sale table at the Silver Needle camp a couple of years ago.   He was a 'secret needle night' kit, not a camp project.   One of my co-workers made me a big stand up gnome last year for our holiday gift exchange, and he needs a friend......