August WIPocalypse/Challenge #5

Hello everyone! Time again for WIPocalypse and a recap for the Olympic Challenge. I signed up for both the Rotation and Distance challenges, and I think both were a success! :) I've been updating bits of each challenge all month long, so if you'd like more detailed info on all my wips, you can look back at earlier posts. For now, I'll update with the last four days of the rotation challenge, and reveal my overall progress for distance.

Thursday was another new start. This wasn't a start originally planned on, but more of a backup piece just in case. But it is really cute, so I'm glad I was able to incorporate it into the challenge. This is called Cats in Winter, a kit by Riolis:

The colors are a bit off in my pic (should be brown and gray) but you get the idea. Started in the upper right with a bit of building and sky, then managed to get one of the cats done! He's kind of hiding in the background, and I didn't even see him when I first bought the kit. This is going to be pretty small, just under 5 inches square. It uses the wool blend, and came with 16ct Aida. But it was a good Zweigart Aida, I was really surprised! I wish it were 14ct though, as the wool makes it a bit bulky. But not bad enough to start over. :)

Friday I went back to my Tigers, since they need all the love they can get. Didn't make much progress, but perhaps you can tell I got their noses in:

Aren't they so cute together? The chart is still proving vexing, as all the backstitch lines are covering up the symbols. Even using a magnifying glass, I've been missing symbols. But I'll get there eventually.

Saturday I went back to a recent favorite. I started this last month and found I couldn't put it down. It's been a regular fixture weekend mornings (until the challenge started) so I was glad to pull it out again. This is Paris from the Etsy shop Stitchery Stitch:

 I really love the colors in this chart, even though it's not my usual style. It's all bright jewel tones that just scream with vibrancy. And I also like the faceted effect, similar to my Geometric Bunny from Day 2. I've started in the middle, with the Eiffel Tower, of course:

Didn't get a whole lot done this time round, but I'll probably continue my weekend sessions with this for a while. It's actually very relaxing to stitch on, and easy to do while I'm watching flosstube. :) I'm stitching this on 18ct Aida.

Today I splurged on another new start. (This is what I'd hoped to start Thursday, but it didn't happen.) A while ago, I finally gave in to the "Prairie Schooler Apocalypse" and started stashing their charts. This is one that was on my list even before that, because I really love the design. This is Little Red Riding Hood:

So there's the first corner tree, and the first wolf lurking behind it, starting in the upper left. The whole design is only three colors, but so far it is lots of fun. I just love how she's running along the outside of the center image, and the wolf is always hiding ahead or stalking just behind her. I'm stitching this on 32ct Antique White Lugana, 2 over 2. I have a couple more of these story themed designs I also plan to stitch, Three Little Pigs and Tortoise and the Hare:

I also bought a few of their Halloween charts (a first for me), their alphabet series, and the months of the year. So you might be seeing more Prairie Schooler lurking around here in the future. :)

So that's it for my Rotation Challenge! I had a ton of fun doing it, but I'm also glad it's over. I'm looking forward to spending more time with each of my lovlies, except I really don't know which one to pick up first! Actually, the one I'm stitching as a gift will be first, but after that...

Okay, now for the second part of the challenge, Distance. I've been stitching on Scale every day since the 5th, trying for at least an hour a day, and I think I averaged that. There was one really rough day where I spent 10 minutes on 11 stitches, but that's life. (Had a migraine. Still tried to stitch. Yes, I'm crazy.) I've been posting little updates all month, but here is the full progress comparison:

To be honest, I had hoped to get much more done, but I'm not totally disappointed. I did manage to finish page 7, and I've got a good start on page 8, which is mostly white. I do love how she's looking though, and I will probably stick with her for the rest of the week. For the challenge, I managed 3,367 stitches, so not too bad.

This month's question is: Have you ever read any fictional books that involve embroidery?  If so, give us some recommendations?
Short answer is No, but there is a mystery series on my radar that begins with a woman opening up her very own cross stitch shop. The first one is called The Quick and the Thread by Amanda Lee. I know there are a couple more stitchy themed books out there, so I'm looking forward to seeing what others recommend. :)

That's all I have for now. Looking forward to getting back to a longer stitching rotation. Hope you all have fantastic progress on all your stitchy endeavors. Until next time!