Birthday Stash!! (Plus a tiny bit of stitching)

Hi everyone!

Yup, I just had a birthday, and boy did I get some stash! Actually, I bought most of it myself, on impulse, but birthdays make the best excuses. :)

First I'll show off the one that was a gift, from my mother (darling woman, she really spoils me sometimes):

This is called "Pastoral." It's a kit from Riolis a Russian company, and quite expensive by my standards. The Stitchery was the only place I could find selling it, though I've since seen it on ebay (more on that in a moment). I really love this pattern! I have a patent weakness for anything Rococo, and it's so sweet and romantic too. Those oranges in her dress are so vibrant, and the background is beautiful and serene. I think those roses will drive me to distraction with confetti, but I love all those vines that kind of drift into the background. Not sure when I'll start this, but I'll probably get in a few stitches this year. It's too good to leave it alone.

The kit has a special kind of floss that's not DMC or Anchor, so I hope there's enough of it. I've already bobbinated most of the skeins, which are labeled with numbers. The color sorter came with a sample of each color attached to its assigned number, so differentiating 6 from 9 was no problem. :)

It has a full color chart, which I actually don't like. Color charts seem more difficult to me. Harder to make a working copy of, can't highlight without distorting the color... But I'll manage.

There were a bunch of other kits from The Stitchery that I really wanted, but thought were pricey -- I've noticed before they tend to charge more for stuff, so I went hunting for a better deal, and wound up on ebay. So I found a few more kits from Riolis, straight from Russia and without the mark up.

Yeah, I know, I'm crazy. Guess I was on a flower kick. I was actually only looking for the basket of lavender, but the Sweet William was just too sweet, and the Lilacs wouldn't let me say no. Tulips are actually a favorite flower of mine, so I had to have those, and then that Rose... I think it both simple and elegant. And I love those colors. :)

As for celebrating my birthday, I did that the best way I know how: with a new start! :) This one I've been saving since last year, back when I was too sick to do much stitching and spent most of my time drooling over new charts. This is another HAED, called Ginger Nova by Gracjana Zielinska:

Just look at those colors! I am partial to stitching ladies anyway (my favorite subject, I think) but it was all those bright pinks that got me, and I don't even like pink that much. All that light behind her is going to be a blast to stitch, and I love how the light clings to her and shines through her hair. I've only got one column done on page one so far, but I am already loving the color spectrum. So far it's purple and mauve giving way to gray, then blue violet, though the colors are rather muted in the picture. But my project box makes me think of candy and bubblegum with all those pinks and purples. :)

That little star had 10 colors in it! I'm hoping to get a page done on her this year, wishing I could do so much more. That's the downside to having so many wips going, but I'm still enjoying each one. :)

Speaking of which, I did manage to get a little stitching done on Cassiopeia last week:

I focused on the border at first, as I need to roll it up a bit, but I also managed to get the edge of the dress in, as well as the foot of her couch and the first two stars. That's my favorite feature about this pattern: her constellation is part of her, stitched in glow in the dark thread. There's one star in her dress by one of the black motifs, but the obvious one is just outside her dress, on the lower right. I was surprised that the couch has a lot of variegated silk in it, as the color used is a gray-green-red, the same one used in the border. I'm not sure how that will look against the other colors, but I don't plan to change it. Maybe it's just that I never stitch with variegated threads, but the stripey effect seems a bit strange to me.

Well, I guess that's all the rambling I'll do for now. Think I'll go back to Ginger for a while. :) Until next time!

May WIPocalypse

Hello everyone!

Been kind of absent from the blogging world this month as work has been crazy hectic, including mandatory overtime (aka the Weekend Killer). As such, my stitching has been a little spotty, but I've managed to make a bit of progress here and there.

For starters, I managed two more pages on Favorite Bird, which completes my goal for the year:

This one is dueced hard to get a good picture of, but there are now two table legs featured, not just one. ;)

I also managed to finish a page on Flora:

That red flower was quite challenging, but I loved stitching all those dark fuchsias and pinks.

Everything else has been interrupted, for lack of a better term. I've been so busy even outside of work (May is always my busiest month) I couldn't really focus on anything for long. But here are a few more leaves on my Tigers, still a long way from done:

A couple columns done on Wisdom, which I haven't touched since February:

And three columns done on Luna's second row:

I really love that bright blue spot at the top. The next few pages are nothing but clouds, but I am in love with her background, so I'm not complaining. :)

So for the year thus far, I now have three goals complete. Doesn't seem like many, but I'm close to meeting a few more, so I feel good about my progress this year.

For April, I did 16,184 stitches, so my total for the year is 57,657 stitches. May has not been nearly as productive, but every stitch counts! :)

This month's question is: What were you stitching this time last year and have you finished it?
Last May, I barely stitched at all. I only managed one week on Luna, which is still far from finished (but will be one day!).

That's all for now. Until next time!

Oh look! More Brown

Hi all!

Well, I've had kind of a stressful week thanks in part to my car (5 days in the shop! omg!) and work, which is getting hectic. This is actually our busiest month at work, though it won't actually calm down 'til September. It's just data entry, but there's a lot of it, and I wouldn't be surprised if I have to start working overtime soon. Love the money, but I'd rather be stitching. ;)

Despite all that, I actually had a surprisingly productive week. I spent most of my time on Favorite Bird, which has become known as "the Brown One" in my household, but I've actually got two more pages done:

It is really hard to tell, but there is now a second table leg toward the top. I actually didn't see it until I was editing the photo, but there it is: a bit of leg, with its shadow streaking behind it, and a reflection mirrored on the floor. At first I thought it was just a random blob of light, but now I am happy to see a bit more detail emerge. So, that's another wip that's met its goal this year, but I may stitch one more page on this sometime before the year is over...

I also managed a few more leaves on my tigers, but not nearly as many as I'd hoped:

And I have completed my first column on Luna's second row:

It looks really odd at the moment, but I just love the variegation in this column. Those brighter blues just sparkle amidst the grays and slate blues, then there's that bit of darker blue toward the bottom... It's just pretty! :) Hopefully I can get a bit more progress on her this week.

Guess that's all I've got for you this week. Until next time. Keep stitching!