February Wrap Up

Well, February wasn't the best stitchy month for me, but I did reach a major goal, so it wasn't a total loss. I think February always throws me off because it's such a short month, and this year I was sick, plus there's been so much snow! Earlier this week, we had ice in the morning, which caused a lot of havoc, but I chose to stay home and stitch. :)

I haven't updated in two weeks, so here's what I was working on two weeks ago, my French Lavender kit by Riolis:

Please ignore the hoop marks. :) I worked on this for 6 days because I just couldn't put it away. I was tempted to keep going on this one, but I think I'll stick to my rotation for now. I was so happy to finally get the bottom of the basket done. I even backstitched it! The only bad thing is that I didn't notice one of the symbols in the leaves was supposed to be done in half stitch, and I did full crosses. I was debating just leaving it, but I think I'll restitch it after all. I like the textured effect it gives. And I'll have to take better pictures next time so you can see better. (Sorry!)

Luna did not get much attention in February, so I only managed a column and a half:

I'm still hoping to finish this page in March, so I'm still on track. It just feels like I'm going really slow on her lately.

This week I also worked on Stars by The Drawn Thread and managed a finish!

I got a lot done the day of the ice storm, so I just had to keep going to the end. The vines at the bottom were supposed to have buttons attached, but I didn't want to do that, so I stitched some red flowers instead. On the left, those are Leviathan stitches, which is a variation of the stitch used on the vine at the top. On the right, I did tiny Jessica stitches using a diagram I found on Google. Those were really easy and just add a little something different. So here's the full view:

I wish I knew how to get a better picture, but my phone just doesn't like to cooperate. But you get the idea. I'll have to custom frame this one, so it will be a while, but I'm so happy to have this done. This brings my wip count down to 67? I think? :)

That's all for now, I guess. I might start updating every 2 or 3 weeks now, just because I've got so much going on. We're really behind at work, so there should be a lot of overtime in my future. Hopefully I can keep up with stitching though. (Fingers crossed!) So, until next time! Happy stitching!

January Wrap Up

Hi all! January was kind of a crazy month for me, and I can't believe it's already over. I had a really good stitchy month though, mostly because I was off for quite a while with the government shutdown. :) I worked on 16 different projects and managed some good progress on a few, so here are a couple I haven't shown so far.

First, I'll share my weekly project from last week. It was Stars by The Drawn Thread, which I'm hoping to finish this year. I think I'll manage it, but it is taking a bit longer than I'd hoped. The good news is, I've reached the bottom of the chart:

The leaves really slowed me down since I stitch most of them one at a time. But the tree is officially done! I still have to stitch in more stars among the branches, but I was too anxious to get to that house this time around. That little house did stitch up rather quickly. Just have the windows and door to finish up, then three more houses, then done! Hopefully that will happen in early March. :)

And of course I worked on Luna, and managed 2 1/2 columns:

I'm hoping to do another 2 1/2 columns this month, even though it's a short month. That way, I can get to page 16 in March. I'm really anxious to get to her wings, so it's spurring me on!

I also worked on Kabuki this month, and met my goal without too much fuss. She looks really wierd right now, but page 6 is now complete:

I'm hoping to pull her out again this summer and at least finish the right side of her face. Then we can see those ruby lips!

Now for my special project. Does anyone remember the Chatelaine I started in 2017? I kept meaning to pull it out last year, but something always came up and I didn't think I could give it the concentration I needed to for all those specialty stitches. So on New Years Eve, I felt determined to get some stitches in for 2018, and I finally pulled her out. It was really daunting at first, but I think that was because I thought it should be difficult, but it actually wasn't too bad. So I kept working on her occasionally in January, and I've made some decent progress:

I added a bunch of petit treasure braid; all those dark green Algerian eyelets; light green diamond eyelets; brown ray stitches; and of course, those pink Jessica stitches in the center, my first ever. I'll say this about Jessica stitches: they aren't difficult if you can see your fabric clearly and have a long enough thread. I also counted my stitches along with the diagram, so I knew exactly where my needle should be with each stitch. And they took me about 20 minutes each.

If you're wondering, this one is called Medieval Cloister Herbularius, and someday will look like this:

My goal this year is to finish off part one and start part two. All I have left for part one is the backstitching around the leaves in the center, and a cross stitch border that outlines part two, so that should be easy. I'd love to finish part two this year, but that might be too ambitious...

Guess it was a long one this time, but I do feel like I made some good progress. Hopefully I can squeeze in a lot of stitching for February too. Wishing you all some great stitching. Until next time!

Stars, And Then...

A day later than usual, because my sense of time is way off this week. We had an unexpected day off on Wednesday, which was very welcome since we were also on overtime all week and I've been working like a crazy person. (Crazy in need of funds, to be precise.) So working Saturday made it feel like Friday, and Sunday just got lost in the shuffle. I'm still not quite with it yet, but I'm really looking forward to Friday!

Okay, stitching. Last week, I pulled out Stars by The Drawn Thread. This was my January start for the year of starts, and I really enjoyed it, so I finagled it back into my rotation this year. I left off with the top portion finished, so this time I continued on with the verse:

I am still super loving this piece! It's a very relaxing stitch, and the silks are beautiful. Those stars take a lot of counting, but they are super easy, and I love having something different to stitch. I'm hoping to finish this one next year, so you'll probably see it again soon.

And then, I was naughty.

Sometimes, I just can't help myself. I'm supposed to be focusing on my end of the year stitching and meeting my goals (which I'm very close to achieving) so of course I would scrap all those plans and indulge on a new start. Makes total sense. And you know how I love those insanely massive projects, right? So why not start one of the biggest projects I own? (sigh...)

This is The Awakening by Jonathon Earl Bowser, the Supersized Max Color version from HAED:

The stitch count is 623 x 999, so total stitches equals 622,377. I bought this chart about a year ago and have been fighting the urge to start it ever since. I just decided to stop fighting. Originally, I'd planned to get some 28ct Easy Count fabric to stitch this on, but I had a full yard of 28ct Antique White Lugana in my stash that wasn't going anywhere, so on my day off, I just grabbed it, gridded it and made my start. It was all very spur of the moment.

I decided to be even crazier and stitch this one diagonally as well, so progress is at a snail's pace, but I am so in love with this -- obsessed is really the word -- that the slow pace doesn't bother me. Besides, I'm still "setting up" all the colors, so a lot of time is spent just cutting threads. I'm sure I'll speed up once I find my groove, but that confetti is definitely a challenge. Totally worth it though, at least to me.

Here is a photo of my tiny start (upper left corner), just 370 stitches in 4.5 hours so far. I'm working on the 3rd diagonal, and just starting to see some bits of sky through the leaves. You can see how many colors I've got going so far, which is about a fourth of the colors on this page:

In hindsight, I probably should have stuck with 25ct for this one because of all the confetti, but the diagonal stitching really does help manage the bulk and make it neat. And really, I'm loving how this looks. These stitches are so tiny and so smooth! It makes me grin just thinking about it. :)

Realistically, I don't expect to finish this piece, but just this tiny start has made me crazy happy. I think my lifetime goal with this one is to get about 4 pages done, at least. That would be enough to stitch that cool orb thingy on top of the first pillar, plus a bit of the archway and a chunk of sky.

I know some of you may consider such a random goal as pointless, but I stitch for the process, not the product. This is my form of meditation, so whatever gets me "in flow" is worth my time. I don't know when I'll get to stitch on this one, but hopefully I'll have more to show by this time next year. So, until next time! ;)

Luna Makes her Appearance

Hi all! I've made some good progress this week, and have hit a milestone with Moon Indigo. So should I show her first? I think I will! :)

My goal with Moon Indigo is to finish two columns a month (1900 stitches). This month I managed about 2200 stitches, and I finished her face!! I am so happy to be done with all that confetti, but I am more pleased to have her whole face done. She's kind of doing that emo look to the side (like, finish my hair already, gah!) but she is really beautiful. Sometimes I see her from across the room and I'm like, Wow! Hopefully the stitching will be a bit easier and faster now that I'm on to simple sky and hair. Still shooting for a row finish this year:

For my morning stitching, I continued with Stars by The Drawn Thread, and managed to get the top third done:

I had so much fun doing all those little stars! And all those flowers too - they are Octagonal Leviathans, and threw me for a loop at first. But once I got the sequence down and learned to count properly, they were a breeze.

I didn't have the called for Dinky Dyes, so I subbed in Belle Soie Sister Scarlet. I've really enjoyed stitching this design, so it's hard to put away, but I'm also looking forward to the rest of my rotation. So next week it's on to Frosty Forest. :)

And of course, here are my updates on the Temperature SAL:

We've had some warmer weather this week, so it's into the greens. The darker green represents the low 60s. I'm wondering how soon I'll get to use a yellow, for the 70s. On the ornament, I'm starting a row of cute little hearts, and there is the first one in the top row. So cute! :)

That's all for now. Keep those needles smokin'!

The Year of Starts Begins

Hi all! Well I've worked on a few projects this last week and I think I've made some decent progress, so here goes. :)

First up is the Stitchrovia Quotes SAL, which I'm still stitching at a snail's pace. Last week I started quote #7 and got in 6 days of stitching:

Most of the stitching is done, but there's a lot of backstitch left to do, and I'm also doing the border as I go. So next rotation, I should get this one done. Then just three left! It does seem as I stitch these quotes that they are appropriate to how I'm feeling at the time. This one seems to be affirming that 2018 will be much better than 2017, and that makes me happy. :)

Next is Morning Glory, which is up to 12 days of stitching:

I like how she's coming along, but I'm definitely not going to get her done this month, which is a shame. Still, I am enjoying her very much. I'm trying to get the dress done before I move up into the wings, but they are very tempting.

I've also been keeping up with the Temperature SAL for Stitch Maynia, both my boring chart and the ornament. The weather is always a little haywire in Kansas City, so I'm getting a good range of colors to stitch. Our warmest day so far was 57°, the coldest was 8°:

And of course, I officially began the Year of Starts on the 18th. Last time I hinted at silks and specialty stitches, and although that suddenly made me think of a Chatelaine (did any of you think that as well?) I was actually referring to a chart by The Drawn Thread, called Stars:

I super love this design. I used to study astronomy, so I love all the stars, and the verse as well. The words are actually the last lines of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, called Morituri Salutamus. I haven't read the entire poem, but the last few stanzas essentially say that it's never too late to be creative or do great work in life, no matter how old you are. The blue silk is Silk n Colors (one of my favorites silks) in Stormy Skies. The others are Dinky Dyes, and it calls for NPI silks, but I'm subbing those out for what's in my stash. Here is a close up of those little star stitches:

There are 4 different sizes for the stars, so I'm looking forward to the bigger ones. I don't know if these quite look entirely star shaped, but I'm happy with them. I really want to get to those flowers as well (Octagonal Leviathans) but I want to finish the vine first.

So, I guess that's it for this week. Next week I hope to work more on Luna (I'm almost done with her face!) and squeeze in some Morning Glory if I can. Hope everyone has a productive stitchy week!