First Finish of the Year

 You guys! I finished Ann!

I'm so happy to have her done. She's a fairly small sampler, but she was still a lot of work. All told, I counted 8,283 stitches. It took me 40.8 hours to stitch, stretched out over 39 days.

Just to recap, the chart is Ann Barson Loughbro 1837 by Plum Street. I stitched mine on 40ct Light Examplar by Lakeside Linens with the called for threads, mostly Classic Colorworks with one GAST. The chart does not offer a DMC conversion, but it does include an alternate palette to match what the original looks like now, which is also on the cover of the chart. My favorite color was, of course, Manor Red, which was used to stitch the verse.

I also spent 4 days on Luna last week, and got in about 1600 stitches. I've reached the edge of the moon, and I'm almost done with the last bits of her hair. (Not to judge, but seems to me she could use a good trim. Guess there aren't many salons up on the moon.)

As I'm working on these two columns, I'm also working on 2 different pages. So technically, I've already started the last page on this row. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I can reach that milestone. :)

I guess I'll keep it short this week. I've put a few more stitches into Favorite Bird (the big brown one) but nothing worth showing yet. I did add some colors to my Temperature Library, so I need to catch up on that. But next week, I'll be bringing out Frosty Forest for some much needed progress. Hope you all are meeting all of your stitchy goals. Until next time!

It's So Cold!

 Currently here in KC, it is -5 degrees and snowing. The high for today is 0, maybe. I don't think it's been this cold here in my lifetime, although I could be wrong. It doesn't feel like it though. I had to replace my car battery last week, and I'm hoping the new one will be ok. At least my apartment is fairly warm, and the pipes haven't frozen, thank goodness!

I didn't have the best stitchy week, but I think I had a minor cold for a while. Just a couple days of bleh and drippy nose and being very tired, but I think I'm better now. My weekly projects did suffer a bit, but I managed a little progress.

I'm still working on Ann Barson everyday. I'm not sick of her yet, but I wish I could hurry up and finish her. I did get in a page finish though, so just one more page to go:

I debated about stitching that bit of border in gold or to keep it white, but I thought, since I've stitched all of Ann's other "mistakes," I'd keep it consistent. It is a bit quirky, and I think I like it. She really did struggle with that central basket though. It's not at all symmetrical, and because it's on the page divide, I actually had to frog twice to restitch it as charted. I do wonder how Ann would feel about me restitching her mistakes. Would you cringe if someone meticulously reproduced your errors? Or would you feel vindicated, because it's just a cool hobby we do for fun? And it still looks nice. :)

Beth ended up a bit neglected this week, as I just couldn't rouse myself to stitch in the evenings. I'm blaming my cold for that. But I did get three sessions with her, and managed to stitch in the year and her age:

That green box is quite enormous. I've still got the outer color to do along the top, and then I'll let myself stitch her name. I'm kind of daunted by that, as it makes it officially hers somehow. I suppose it's been a long journey with this one, and I'm grateful to Ms. Oliver for letting me share it with her.

I spent the weekend with one of my full coverage beauties, Secluded Blue. I'm actually doing the WipGo challenge of Facebook, and her number was drawn this month, which made me very happy. I spent 5 hours working on her and managed 700 stitches:

My WipGo board is a mix of yearly goals and indulgences -- those projects that I love but might not pick up without prompting because they aren't my priority. I don't know if I'll make all my bingo's, but I'm really glad to have an excuse to spend time with my non focus pieces.

I guess that's all for now. I need to pull a few more colors for my Temperature Library, since I wasn't expecting another polar vortex. I hope you are all much warmer than I am, wherever you are. Happy stitching!

Switching Gears

 Hi all! I didn't think I'd have much to share after just one week, but I guess I was wrong. Last month, I worked almost exclusively on full coverage projects, so this month I'm focusing on a few samplers and other designs.

I kicked off the month with a new start, because how could I not start something on 2-1-21? I had originally planned to start Amethyst by Carolyn Manning, as it ties in well with February (it's the gemstone for the month) but I couldn't wait, and started that last year. So, in search of something else purple, I settled on Purple Passion by The Silver Lining. They have tons of fabulous charts for flowers, but I'm partial to purple and irises.

It's suggested to stitch this chart over 1 on 28ct, which I almost did, but in the end I went with 32ct Taupe Lugana over 2. My mother actually bought this for me a few years ago, but I was so intimidated by all the confetti (and backstitch!), it's taken me this long to start it. One of the things I love about this chart is that it's charted for both DMC and Anchor to get all the purples possible. I'm really impressed with the purple hues Anchor has to offer, and I love how this is stitching up, even if I'm stitching it really slowly. This is about 5.5 hours of work.

My focus project for this month is Ann Barson Loughbro by Plum Street. My goal is to finish her this month:

When I pulled this out last year, it felt like I had lost the love for this piece, though I don't know why. I love the verse, but stitching on her felt like a chore. So I was kind of dreading pulling her out again. But the love is back! I'm really enjoying this now, and I feel really motivated to finish, probably because I've decided to reward myself with more of Grand Vierlande if I get her done before the month is over. :)

Last, for posterity's sake, here is my Temperature Library with the January shelf all done:

I'm already excited to continue with the February shelf as it has the first of the few knickknacks that are scattered about. Also, we're in for a deep freeze this week, so I'll probably get to use my coldest colors. I may even need to add a color if it gets below 10 for a high. We'll see.

I guess that's all for this week. Next week I'll be working on Elizabeth Oliver, as I really want to get her done by the end of March. Hope you all are enduring (or enjoying) the weather wherever you are. Happy stitching!

Something Old, Something New

Well guys, the honeymoon is over. I have to report back to work on Monday. :/

I shouldn't complain since I've had 11 weeks off, but a girl gets used to things, you know? I'm trying to anticipate all the overtime and plan out what I'll be stitching and when, but my plans always seem to change. Hopefully I can go with the flow and find time for what I love. It's going to be a lot of adjustment though. We have to wear masks all day, and foot traffic has to move in certain directions? I'll find out when I get there. But Missouri is one of the states with lots of new cases, so I'm hoping we don't just get shut down again. The work has to get done at some point.

Okay, enough of that. I know I've had a bunch of new starts recently, but I've actually been trying to focus on a few wips to get some good progress in. My success is dubious at best, and everything is taking longer than I'd hoped, but slow progress is better than no progress. So here is Ann Barson Loughbro from Plum Street:

I think this is one of the wips that got skipped last year. I loved her when I first started, but I couldn't really get motivated on her this rotation and I really don't know why. I still love the verse, and the lacy border. Maybe because there's a lot of color changes? I'm gonna try to pick her up again next month and hopefully get the bottom left corner done. She is super small. Wish me luck!

I also picked up my 12 Days of Christmas by Jim Shore and managed to (finally!) finish the stitching on 5 Gold Rings:

I thought this would be such a quick block, but nope! I made two very bad counting errors that resulted in frogging about 2 hours of work, so that killed a lot of the impetus I had going. Plus there is a surprising amount of fiddly confetti scattered around this one. The leaves took a bit of patience, but the real culprit was "GOLD". There are three shades of gold there, and a lot of one or two stitch bits where I didn't want to carry my floss. I do love the end effect though, since it does seem to shimmer like gold.

I really wish I could do the beads as I go, but I know they have to wait. But next month I get to start on the giant goose laying eggs! :)

And, yeah, I have another new start. This one was a spontaneous stress start though, and I think it did help a bit. However, I spent so much time getting things together, I barely had any stitching time. Still, the process helped me deal with some pent up anxiety, and it was a good end to the day.

I actually just purchased this chart a few days ago and got it in the mail Saturday morning. I wanted to start it immediately and almost put off my morning plans to do so, but I thought I'd be sensible and do my adult things, so I set it aside. But the day ended up being so stressful at the end of a pretty trying week, I decided to go for it. So this is Passion by Reflets de Soie:

I knew it was meant to be because I already had the fabric and thread in my stash. The chart is huge, 557x410, so it requires a fat half even on 40ct. This is 40ct Espresso by R&R and the thread is a hank from Silks4U, PR034. The chart suggests a darker red, but I wanted to use what I had, and I like this red just fine. It's a good match for DMC 498, with maybe some hints of 816 and 815, a very subtle variegation. I had been thinking about trying a Bristol sampler, but I like this one much better, probably because of the sense of space. Also, there are 26 alphabets in 26 fonts, the first one starting at 4 stitches high (for the a) and gradually increasing. Something about that really appeals to the OCD nerd inside me.

I guess that's all I'll ramble about for today. Hopefully I'll be back in a couple weeks with more awesome progress. (ha!) Until then, hope you are enjoying your free time. Happy stitching!

September Wrap Up

Hi guys! Back with some good progress this week. :)

I kept stitching on Ann Barson Loughbro, and I got a good chunk of the verse in:

It looks weird with those half sentences, but that's the direction my needle wanted to go, and my qsnaps really aren't very big (I use 8x11). So next time I pick this up, I'll finish off the right side. But I'm really loving this so far. I have no idea what that golden motif at the bottom is supposed to be, but I've decided it's a deformed apple. I don't think it's grapes, but maybe? Or a leaf? I dunno. Let me know if you have a better suggestion. :)

In the evenings, I focused mainly on Luna because I wanted to knock out page 13. And I did!

I am so thrilled with my progress on her. I just hope I can keep it up and finish off this row by the end of the year. (I think I can...) The night I finished this page there was an odd coincidence with numbers. This was day 303 of the project; I had to finish off the last 33 rows to finish page 13; and it took me 33 days to stitch this page. That's a lot of 3s! But I had fun stitching this page, and I'm almost done with the moon. Page 14 changes to a slightly lighter sky, so I'm looking forward to some new colors too. :)

For October, I'll be pulling out Crystals and Crows for the monthly challenge in Full Coverage Fanatics. I was just shy of a page finish last year. While I'd love to finish off pages 2 and 3, that's probably totally unrealistic. So we'll just see how far I get. Until next time, happy stitching!

Year of Starts #9

The year is just flying by, isn't it? Welcome to Fall (for the northern hemisphere)! :)

Last week I continued working on Jinn, yet another neglected HAED, but also one of my favorites. I just love the colors in this one! I could stitch those background swirls forever, which is probably a good thing since it's most of the design. This session was a little challenging with the confetti, but I think I made some decent progress on page 2:

It just looks so cool! I love the way those colors blend into one another, and how the same gray can look purple or green or brown depending on the colors surrounding it. I think I'm through the worst of the confetti, so I should make better progress next time around.

For the year of starts, I picked up a new to me chart from Plum Street. This is one of her reproduction samplers called Ann Barson Loughbro 1837. I've only spent four days on it so far, but here's my start:

This is on 40ct Light Exemplar, stitched with a mix of Classic Colorworks and GAST. I really enjoyed stitching those little motifs. They stitched up pretty quickly. I thought that third motif was a crown, but since it was asymmetrical, I determined it was a lamp (like, for genies?). Then I noticed there's another one farther down the row, and yes, it's supposed to be a -symmetrical- crown. But I already had the stitches in and I like the variegation, so I left it. It's one of those instances where the original stitcher made a little mistake, and the designer chose to chart it in. I think that's cool, but I wish I had noticed it sooner.

I also loved stitching that border. I vacillated for the longest time, wondering if I should stitch it in the called for white or a darker color. At the bottom, the border actually switches to gold (I guess Ann ran out of thread) and I thought that might look nice. But then I thought It might be too heavy for such a small design, and I'm liking the lacy look of the white. (It shows up better in person.) The design is super simple and beautiful, so I didn't need to look at the chart to stitch.

My favorite part about this chart, though, is the verse. It might be a bit morbid, but I like that it speaks of death as a great equalizer. If you can't read it from the image, I'll copy it here:

Hark from the tomb a doleful sound
My ear attend the cry
Ye living men come view the ground
Where you must shortly lie
Princes this clay must be your bed
In spite of all your towrs
The tall the wise the revrend head
Must lie as low as ours

Nice, huh? And she was 11 when she stitched that.

Well, that's all I got for this time. Hope you're enjoying the transitioning seasons without too may allergies. Happy stitching!