Making Plans

I'm a day late for my usual update, but I just ran out of time on Sunday. Too much to do! Anyway, it's all good, cuz today was the last day for my rotation on A Stitcher's Prayer:

My goal was to get her halfway done, and I think I just about made it. I wish I could have filled in the details on my little stitcher lady, but again, I ran out of time! Hopefully I can finish this the next time I pick it up, but I don't think that will be this year. ;)

I took a couple days off work last week, and realized I hadn't touched my Angel of Grace yet this year. So that had to change:

This piece is really addictive once I get going. I was glad to carve out a few days to sit and stitch on her, but of course I'm never satisfied with my progress. I really wanted to finish a few more chunks of green and fill out that ribbon. But oh well. She has to go away for now, but she will be back, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Stitching on Grace cut into my time for Luna, but she's getting there. I've passed the halfway point for this page, and have stitched the cutest little curlicue in her hair:

Isn't that adorable? I just love it. I had hoped to finish this page in May, but now that's looking doubtful. Still, I'll give it a try. :)

It looks like I got my wish for colors on my Temperature charts. Lots of yellow! We've warmed up nicely (finally!) so my charts are looking much happier:

Today is the last day of April (already!) and I know I'll get to stitch orange for today. We're having a small heat wave, so I'll probably have another blob of orange to start off May. Not complaining though! Much better than snow! :)

I know everyone is talking about Stitch Maynia, so I thought I would kind of participate this year. I'm not doing 15 starts though! Instead I'm doing the Monogamous Maynia, where I'll attempt to stitch on one chart for 15 days. That's really tough for me, so we'll see how that goes. I've chosen the Museum Celle 1826 Sampler by Permin, which I've been dying to start for almost five years now, so I'm really excited to begin this piece. Here's a pic of the chart:

Also, I'll have a new big piece to focus on for May, and I've chosen Wisdom. I was really close to a page finish last year, so that will be some instant gratification waiting for me. I'm kind of playing with my rotation a bit, so we'll see how it goes.

Okay, gotta get back to stitching now. Until next time! :)

Year of Starts #4

Hi all! This week has been sort of a hodgepodge of things. I worked on a bunch of projects, but didn't make any significant progress on any of them. But I'll still show some pictures. :)

I spent another couple mornings on the Quotes SAL, and I do feel like I made a good start on the next quote:

There's a lot of backstitch in this one, so it doesn't look like much yet, but I'll get there.

Wednesday, I began the next project in my Year of Starts lineup. This is A Stitcher's Prayer by Little House Needleworks:

That leafy border is pretty, but it's a lot of stopping and starting, so I didn't get very far. Still, you can see where things are going to be. I've started the lady's dress, and got one whole word in! I'm taking a few days off work, but this will be my morning project for the rest of the month, so maybe I can get half of it done? That's the goal anyway.

My evening stitching has not been very orderly this week. I only stitched for three days, and had a different project each day. And I didn't stitch on Pastoral at all! But I did get some stitching done on a newer start, so I thought I'd share. This is Cirque des Coeurs, by Ink Circles (I know you all know this one) which I started on March 3rd. I've worked on this for 4 days now, and managed to complete my first full heart:

I'm stitching this on 36ct Smoky White Edinburgh. It's one of those painted fabrics, so it's only shaded on one side. I have another painted fabric that's really stiff and icky, but this one isn't bad. It's actually pretty soft. I've had this kitted for maybe 5 years at least, and I was just tired of putting it off. I tend to pick it up when I'm really tired but still want to stitch. The one color thing really helps. I'm using GAST Espresso Bean, which probably isn't what I'd pick to stitch with now (it's not variegated enough) but it's what I bought 5 or so years ago so I'm going with it.

And somehow, I'm still managing to keep up with my Temperature SAL:

This has been such an unusual April! But we finally seem to be free of the snow (only rain this Sunday). They're forecasting all greens next week (60s) but I'm hoping to see some yellow again soon. :)

Quotes SAL and Scale

Hi gang! I managed to finish off this week with a small finish on my Stitchrovia Quotes to Live By SAL. So here is quote #8 all done:

Once I got past the outer borders, it really stitched up quick. Even the back stitching only took about an hour. So now there's only 2 left! Here's the full piece so far:

I know the border will take me a while, but I'm still hoping to have this totally done at the end of August. I'll be working on quote #4 next, and plan to put in a couple more days of work ahead of my next Year of Starts project on the 18th. :)

I also made some semi-decent progress on Scale, though she is looking a bit weird:

Her cheek is green! It's kind of creepy, but it looks totally fine in the full pic, so I know it will work itself out. Still, she's green! I haven't decided if I'm going to continue with her next week or switch to something else. Pastoral has kind of been calling me since last week, so I might indulge in that. I guess I'll just play it by ear.

And on my Temperature SAL, you know how I've been waiting to stitch some orange? Well...

There's orange! Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were all in the low 80s, so there's a big blob of 970 to commemorate the occasion. This month has been really wacky with up and down temps though, since once again, it snowed today! Third Sunday in a row, in April! And it looks like next week will be a rollercoaster as well. Oh well, at least I got my happy orange. I don't think I'm quite as anxious to get to the reds. :)

A Few Setbacks

Well, it's been one of those weeks again, where things just don't go as planned. (I have a lot of those, I know.) Haven't been feeling well since Wednesday. Don't know if it's the weather or stress at work, but it really affected my stitching Thursday and Friday, so Scale didn't get as much attention as I would have liked.

As for drama this week, lets see: First there was the mouse in my kitchen Wednesday night (second time this year); Second, my neighbor's apartment caught fire early Saturday morning, and while I was very fortunate in not getting any damage to my unit, I did get an apartment full of smoke. That was not cool, since my apartment is full of fabric, but it could have been a lot worse. Thankfully, it was a fairly small fire, and the firemen got here really quick.

So I guess I should get to the stitching, right? Okay. Last week I pulled out my R2 Silhouette, which I did work on last year but never posted any progress pics here. In fact, it appears I didn't take any pics of this at all last year, and of course, I forgot to take one before I started. So, here's a pic taken after Monday's session, and the final pic for the week:

I started this week working on the satellite and the foliage around it. My goal was to get the middle scene done, and I think I got most of it in. Now I can focus on getting the legs finished next time. I'm looking forward to the shape of trees forming as I go. :)

Since there wasn't much progress on Scale, I'll save her for next time and show you another of my wips that hasn't seen the light of day in a while.

Two years ago, my mother bought me a Riolis kit I just had to have for my birthday. I really love the scene, but I've barely worked on it at all. Partly because of the fabric (stiff aida), but mostly because of the chart. It's a large full color chart with lots of similar symbols, and the result is like some psychedelic painting that hurts my eyes. Recently, I've put the fabric onto a new frame (an Elbesee Easy Clip frame, great for stiff aida) so I decided to have another go at the chart. It's still difficult, but since I've resigned myself to not highlighting (it just blends right in) and am now using black marker to blot out what I've stitched, I actually made some decent progress today. Again, I don't have a "before" photo, but I worked mainly on the gentleman's cravat and shirt sleeve:

This was only my 5th day on this project, which is really shameful, but I think I've worked out my blockages with this pattern. I would have stitched more, but my right arm is bothering me quite a bit. (It's always something.) I guess what I really need is a bionic arm! Then I could get some decent stitching done. ;) Until then, progress is really slow on this one, but seeing part of the pattern take shape is really galvanizing. I can't say I'll be working on this all the time, but it's not going to sit in a corner and collect dust without getting touched, so I'll call that a win. :)

And on my Temperature charts, I now have three months done!

I was really bummed to have to break out the dark blue for the first of April. It hasn't been this cold in April in a really long time, and it's snowing again today! Hopefully that will change soon. Until then, I'm still waiting to use my orange. :)

Hello April!

Well, I was supposed to get back to Cassiopeia last week, but that didn't happen. Lots of little reasons why, but I think one big one: it rained ALL week. Every single day, 4 days straight. We had a break Friday and Saturday, then today, it's snowing. So happy April Fools Day from Mother Nature, right?

Anyway, what I did work on last week was Hillside Travelers, another from Little House Needleworks. This was among my year of starts last year, but I don't think I've shown it here. It is one of my favorites though, and is among the few projects tempting me to be a one-at-a-time stitcher. So here's what it looks like and where I got to last year:

And here's what I did this year:

Of course I wanted to keep working on it, thinking "if I could just get those pine trees in" or "hey, I could start the verse at the bottom!" But at least I got the people and animals done, and most of the little hillside filled in. I need to find a good blue for the pond though. The pattern calls for 3022, which is the color of the gentleman's jacket. Definitely green. I know it's a mossy pond, but I want my water to be blue! But that will wait til next time, which will definitely be this year. :)

Since it's a new month, I've pulled out a new focus project for the evenings, and this time it's Scale. I haven't worked on Scale since Nov. 2016, and I really did miss her. I remember trying last year, getting her set up on the frame, but I never got any stitches in. So even though I usually stitch on Luna on Sundays, I just had to work on Scale today, and managed a little over 400 stitches. Not much, but a good start:

So yeah, I've moved down a row  of pages again, this time to work on her lips. Seeing her like this though, I can't help but think of my mother's name for this one: Big Nose. :)

I didn't finish my Temperature charts for March since the website I get my temps from hasn't updated the last two days yet. (Frustrating!) So here they are up to March 29th:

See those spools on the ornament chart? I think they're pretty cool. It's hard to see that the thread and spool are different colors on the first one, but I still like it. I'll be on this round for the whole month of April, so I hope I get some good colors. :)

Well, that's all for now, I guess. Until next time!