Quarantine Stitching

Hello everyone! I managed to settle in and do some focus stitching this past week, so I'm back with some finishes!

First, I finished another block on Sheep Virtues:

That half finished border on block #5 kept taunting me, so I had to pick this up again. Also, it's the only block with a black sheep and a little house, so I really wanted to stitch it. Isn't it so cute? :)

Kingbird by Tellin Emblem is a fairly small chart, but somehow I dragged it out for 2 years. But now he's finally done!

I stitched this on 32ct Raw Belfast with the called for DMC. There are a ton of colors, but they're also used in the companion piece, Grosbeak. (I'll be stitching that at some point, but not this year.) These charts come with a button that goes inside a stitched outline, but I chose to stitch my initials there instead. I didn't really take the time to chart them out so they're very close together, but I kind of like the way they flow into each other.

I'm still playing catch up with Moon Indigo, but I'm making progress. This week I finished off page 18 and stitched the first column on page 19:

Her chest and arms are finally complete! There was so much confetti in these two columns it really slowed me down, but I love the results. I particularly like the lace edging on her dress. I can actually see the pattern in there. Now I have lots of her hair to stitch as well as her other wing.

I found out last week that my work will be closed until further notice, which will likely be 3 more weeks (but who knows). I've been buying so much stuff while I've been off, I have enough kitted up to do a proper Maynia. I don't think I'll be doing that, but I do have several new starts planned in May (cuz it's my birthday month!). I'm starting another HAED soon, plus two huge samplers. I figure I've got to start all the baps now so maybe I can finish some of them in my lifetime. And besides, it's fun!

Hope you are are staying healthy and well. Keep stitching! Until next time!

April Update

Hello and welcome! Hope you all are doing well. :)

My stitching has been kind of erratic these last couple weeks as I'm still trying to adjust to all this free time. I've been sort of keeping to my planned rotation, but taking lots of liberties as well, which basically means I'm picking up a project for 3 or 4 days and moving on. I've hit some good milestones here and there, but I won't bore you with everything. So here's the highlights!

First, I finished another block of Sheep Virtues, from Little House:

I skipped over and did block #6, since I thought it would be easier to count the border based on the way I like to stitch. This was a pretty easy block, so I also got a chunk of block #5 worked in.

I also finished up this month's block on the Wonders of Space SAL:

That is the Crab Nebula. I don't think this block quite does the real thing justice, but it's pretty good for a mini cross stitch. I'm still having a lot of fun with this sal (hence the quick finish) but waiting for the next release is really difficult. But I wonder if I had the whole thing, would I finish it quicker or let it languish like the others? ;)

It's been about a year since I worked on Ginger Nova, which is a shame because I love this chart. I was hoping to focus on her for a few weeks this year, so I pulled her out and did about 1200 stitches:

I don't know why I've let her become so neglected. It doesn't look like much now, but I've started on the halo that rings her head (all that dark purple at the bottom). On the other side of that, there's a color change to lots of oranges, so the rest of the page should be quite fun.

I think that's all for now. I may be going back to work next Monday so I'm trying to enjoy my last week of "vacation." Hope you all are getting some good stitchy time. Until next time!

Trying to Focus

Hi all! I've got a short and sweet update today since I've been trying to focus on just a couple projects this week. Hope you all are well and staying healthy! Work has decided to extend our quarantine another few weeks, so I'm doing my best not to go stir crazy. :)

First, I have to show off my progress on Luna. I've really been neglecting her since my move last summer, so I've been trying to do some focus stitching to help reach my goal of finishing the row by the end of the year. I haven't shown her since the end of January, but I didn't get much done in February either. But here she is now:

Not bad, eh? I managed to finish off 4 full columns and 2 half columns in the last 6 days. I think all the confetti in the lace part of her dress killed some of my joy for this project, but after powering through that, I had some very easy stitching all the way down her arm. And I really do like the patterns in her dress, so maybe all that frustration was worth it. :) I'm still not caught up to where I should be, so another week of focus is in her near future.

I had planned to spend a lot of my quarantine stitching working on various projects to help catch up or even finish a couple things. I managed to do that for about 3 days, then began going through stash (for inventory purposes) and pairing charts with fabric, then going through what I'd already kitted, etc. etc. You get the idea. Finally I broke and had to start something, so I decided to start Shades of Red by Northern Expressions Needlework:

I think I kitted this up in 2015, and I had planned to start it immediately, but then kept pushing it back.  It's one of those I've had on my mind every year since then, so it's no wonder I finally caved. And now I'm obsessed. This is my first geometric design, and it's really addictive. I love all the motifs and the way the design builds on itself, weaving all the different bands together. The colors are fantastic too; just two colors of Belle Soie silk, Tulip and Cranberry. I'm stitching it on plain 40ct Cream Newcastle, which has a nice creamy yellow tint that's impossible for my camera to capture. I'm still torn between continuing on this or going back to all my other pretties. We'll see.

That's all for now. I'm trying to resist making any more starts, though it's really hard. Hope you all can find some tranquility in your stitching. Stay healthy! Until next time!