December Wrap Up

Hey guys! December was another all over the place kind of month for me and I've got another ton of projects to share. I hope I can keep them all straight. ;)

First, I managed to meet my goal with Elizabeth Oliver, and I finished off another row:

This one took a lot longer than expected. That tall plant alone took about 4 hours to stitch. I don't know if I'm that slow or if she's just that big. She is now technically halfway done, but realistically, that house is gonna take forever! Still, I'm aiming to get the next row of pages done next year.

I've been trying to work on my Marquise de Caumont a few days every month, so I've managed to finish 3 pages this year. It's still all background though, which is why I never show her:

I really like stitching this diagonally, as it keeps it from being too boring. One more row would actually start the top of her head, but I think I'm gonna dip down to the second row and keep working on the background for now. I'm still organizing her threads, so sticking to the background is super easy.

I can't remember the last time I've shown my Angel of Grace. I do know I've neglected her again this year (a sad affair that will likely continue) but I've managed to finish off this middle section that I've been stitching on for three years. (Can you sense the eye roll there?):

I'm not sure when I'll get around to making her a focus piece (maybe 2021?) so I'll just keep plodding along on her for a while. It would be nice to finish off the bottom section next year. sigh

I don't think I've ever shown my Palazzo con Personaggi. This is a massive Golden Kite design that I started back in May 2017. Unfortunately, that was just before a lot of major life stuff happened, so I just got around to a page finish this year:

I started on page 96 for some strange reason, which is the top of the bench on the left side. I don't expect I'll ever finish this design, but I'd really like to stitch the woman in green and the man in blue next to her. If you look closely, you can just make out the edges of the lady's fan and her sleeve.

On Christmas Eve, I pulled out my Chatelaine again. I don't know why, but I always want to work on it this time of year. I had a goal to finish part 1 this year, but then I haven't touched it since January. But I was a lot closer than I thought, and now I've got a good start on part 2:

The funny thing is, part 1 still isn't done. I just need to backstitch the leaves around the lily pads in the middle, and then there's another border outline to do. But since that is intertwined with part 2, I'm just stitching them together. And who wants to backstitch when there's so much awesome stitching to do? Hopefully I can finish off part 2 next year, and then the really fun stuff will begin. :)

The last thing I want to share may be kind of surprising, especially if you've been following me for a while. Back in 2016, I started a really awesome design by Omar Rayyan called Crystals & Crows from HAED. I couldn't decide if I wanted to stitch it on 18ct Aida or 25ct Lugana. I went with 18ct, which seemed fine, but as the years have passed, I've kept thinking how blurry the design was looking. Going back to it in November, I just felt really dissatisfied, so I thought, why continue if it makes me frown every time I see it? So, I restarted it:

18ct version

25ct version

I had around 12,000 stitches in on the 18ct, which was about 3 years of stitching, so it will take me a while to get back to where I was. However, I have no regrets about the restart. I do wish I had gone with 25ct the first time, but I think the confetti would have overwhelmed me. Stitching diagonally, the confetti makes it slow for sure, but it's relatively easy for me, and it keeps everything nice and tidy. The image is still a bit blurry -- it's just part of the design -- but I definitely think it looks better, and I'm enjoying it more. But maybe I'm just biased. :)

Wow! I really need to stop making these posts 10 miles long! Hopefully I'll get better at that next year. I hope to have a goals update soon -- if I can decide what to start on January 1st. :) Happy Stitching!

November Wrap Up

Well, I was waiting to have enough stuff to make a decent post about, then in the last few days I got caught up on a few things and now I have a lot to show. So let's get to it!

November has been an all over the place kind of month for me. The year is winding down and I'm really trying to make some last minute progress on a few projects that I skipped over this summer. I started off with Frosty Forest, and surprised myself with a quick finish on block #5. So here's how the whole thing looks now:

This won't be out again until February. I don't plan to finish it next year (you guys should know by now how I like to drag things out) but definitely the year after. Snowman's Cottage is up next, and those houses do take a while to stitch.

Next, I pulled out Jim Shore's 12 Days of Christmas, really cuz I was just in the mood for it, but I did want to try and finish block #4 this year. So here is my start on 4 Calling Birds:

This block has a ton of purple in it, which is really quite pretty. I don't get to stitch with dmc 550 very often. It's going to seem very bright with those greens and some deep reds coming up. This will be out again at Christmas, so hopefully I can finish this block this year. (Fingers crossed!)

I'm still a bit behind on Elizabeth Oliver by Moira Blackburn, so I worked on that for a few days and managed to finish of a section. Now the whole verse is done:

This is hard to get a good picture of. But I've just got the final section left for this row: the basket, another tall flowery plant and the border. This one always takes longer to stitch than I think, so it'll have to be a focus project in December.

Over the course of the year, I always pull out random projects to to work on outside of my rotation, but I only show them when I think it looks like something. I've managed some decent progress on my Supersized Awakening from HAED, though in the scheme of things, it's really nothing at all. But my last diagonal finished up about half of the first page, and it's looking really good:

This is only 2490 stitches so far (out of 622,377, but who's counting?) but it's taken me almost 32 hours to stitch. This is one of my first diagonal projects, and the first with so much confetti, so it's been a lot of learning in a short time. But I am getting faster and really understanding how I like to actually stitch it, like where to start and end my threads, etc. When I first started, I was only doing about 40 stitches an hour. Now I'm up to 140 to 160 stitches an hour, and the process has become much more enjoyable. Originally, I planned to do each page individually, but I think I'll start extending my diagonals across the first row, and perhaps into the second. I really want to stitch that orb thingy on top of the pillar, so I'll be doing the first two pages on the first and second row first.

Last but not least, I've made some really good progress on Luna this month, so much that I think I can finish another page by the end of the year:

Check out her wing! I really love how this is stitching up. For November, I finished off four columns and started the next pair, 4340 stitches in all. If you look really closely, you might be able to see the very tip of her shoulder curving down. So yes, this column will be her arm, and next will be her dress. I'm so excited!! I still have to rearrange furniture every time I work on her, but it's worth it. Hopefully I can keep up this pace in December. :)

Whew! That was a lot. It seems I always stitch a lot more at the end of the year, probably because it feels like a deadline is looming. I hope you all have a great stitchy month, and enjoy the holidays! Until next time!