Moon Indigo, page 11

Finally! I have a whole page finish on Moon Indigo:

This is page 11, totally complete. It has taken me an age to slog through all the confetti, but it's finally done, and she looks fabulous. :) Honestly, I started this page on June 11th last year and just finished it Feb. 28th! I don't know how many hours it took, but I did spend 30 days on this page when my usual is 20-25. Anyway, it's done, she's gorgeous, and I'm on to page 12!

Last week I spent my mornings on the Stitchrovia Quotes SAL, but all I've managed so far are a bunch of borders:

So I've got the main outer border stitched as far as I can within the q-snap, plus the border for my next quote, which is #8 in the series. I did manage a tiny start on the interior banner, but all the fun stuff will have to wait til next time.

As I mentioned, I'm digging Cassiopeia out of hiding this month. I only worked on her for 4 days in 2017, and never took a picture, but I did remember to take a pic after I'd worked on her a bit last Friday:

I'm into the tricky bit around her arm, by those golden leafy things she's holding. There are lots of beads in that area as well, so it's going to be full of gaps for a while, but I'm really happy to have her out again. Hopefully I can make a good bit of progress on her this month, despite the fact that overtime already seems to be happening. (ugh!)

I also had a happy surprise on my Temperature charts this week:

See it? It's yellow! And it's so bright! On Feb. 27th (my best friend's birthday) we hit 71° so I was finally able to stitch with 725, my first yellow. It seems we're finally moving away from all those purples and dark blues and into the teals and darker greens. Now I'm waiting for the first appearance of orange. :)

Well, the year seems to be zooming by but I'm still managing to stitch every day, even if only for 20 minutes. But every stitch counts! For February, I managed 11,146 stitches, so I'm up to 23,895 stitches for the year so far. I'm aiming for 10,000 a month, though I think I'd have to stitch 3 times that to make my crazy goals. :)

Hope you all are having a wonderful stitchy time, wherever you are and whatever you're working on. Until next time!

May WIPocalypse

Hi all! It's been quite a while since I've posted, but hopefully that will get better. At work, we had a total of 5 weeks of mandatory overtime, which I think is a record. Things have eased up for the moment, but things may get hectic again next month when I switch departments.

So, stitching! My stitching time has been very limited, but I did get some good progress in on Luna. I was hoping to have a page finish by the end of this month, but I don't think that will happen. I did get very close though:

See those darker colors on the right? Yes, that's her hair! So excited to finally get to the lady herself. I hope to get through the next page as quickly as possible, but there's a ton of confetti coming up, so we'll see how fast I can go. :)

I've also managed a bit of progress on my Stitchrovia SAL, though I'm still woefully behind. However, I did manage to finish that huge banner at the top, and I've just completed the first quote:

It would be nice if I could finish at least one quote a month from now on, but that might be a bit much. I will keep this in my monthly rotation though, and hope for a finish within a year.

This month's question is: Which designer’s projects do you absolutely love, but are too intimidated to try?
I think the last time this question was asked (or something similar) I mentioned Chatelaine. I've finally started mine this year, but I've only done cross stitch so far. I have some Jessica stitches coming up, and they are very intimidating, I confess. But something else I find intimidating is hardanger. I've always wanted to try it, but it just looks so... exacting. There are a few patterns by Victoria Sampler which I find beautiful, but I don't think I could do all that stitching and then mess up on cutting the fabric (and I know I would). But perhaps one day I'll give hardanger a try, just because. :)

February WIPocalypse

Hi all! Hope everyone is having a good stitchy year so far. I haven't been getting as much progress as I would like on the projects that need it most, but my stitch count is still right where I want it, so I shouldn't complain too much. :)

Luna saw a fair bit of progress, though I couldn't quite manage a page finish:

That last column is 17 stitches across, so it's taking a bit longer, but I feel like I'm closer to finishing the page. The sky is turning a bit lighter again, so perhaps there will be a few newer shades next update.

I'm sorry to say I barely stitched on my Stitchrovia SAL. Luna kind of took over one weekend, and last weekend I was absorbed in a new project (more on that in a moment). Still, a tiny bit of progress is still progress. Hopefully I can finish the banner and start the quotes in March:

As for my new start? I'm totally in love with it! I saw the picture online when it was released in January, and every time I looked at it I found more to love. So I bought the hard copy as soon as it was available and managed a small start on the 24th. Then Saturday, after a full morning of errands and chores, I sat down to stitch for a little while around 2pm. Somehow I was still stitching at 8:45. I've never done that before, but it felt really good. I don't get much time to stitch during the week these days, but I've managed bits of progress here and there. So here's Hoity Toity, from Long Dog Samplers, started in the upper left corner:

Don't you just love it? It's a bit bold, but I really love the colors. I'm doing this in plain DMC, not the fancy stuff, but I think it's beautiful. :)

So, our question of the month is: What is your favorite stitch other than the standard cross stitch?
I haven't done specialty stitches in a  really long time, and I've only done a few. However, I can't say I've done one I didn't like, and that includes French knots. I think eyelets are my favorites because they look so satiny and shiny, and I like they way the fabric is pulled back in the center. But they do use a lot of thread. I also like smyrna stitches, 'cause they're like little stars. I am anxious to get my fancy Chatelaine started in a couple months, and then I can play with Jessica and Rhodes stitches too. But there's still a lot to be said for simple Xs. :)

Guess that's all for now. Until next time!

January WIPocalypse

Well, I've had the best intentions for keeping up with blogging and commenting, but alas, things are still a bit hectic. It feels like my stitching has suffered a bit as well (at least my larger projects have) but my stitch count for the month is already over 12k! Even I was impressed by that. :)

This year I've got wips and smaller projects all over the place, but I'm trying to focus on just a handful of the larger ones (I call them my Prime 9, cuz I like nicknames) plus a couple smaller wips that I'm hoping to finish this year. This month, I worked on a few out of the handful, and made dubious progress.

My main focus is still Moon Indigo, so hopefully you'll be seeing a bit more blue every month. I managed to finish off two columns, so I'm halfway through page 9:

I also worked a few days on Flora, beginning a new page and a new row. There's a big purple iris that dominates the page, so that's what I stitched on:

And I got a lot done on my first square of the Frosty Forest series, from Country Cottage Needleworks. I'm not sure how far I'll get this year, but I want to at least finish this square and start a second:

Stitching that house was actually a lot of fun. And I love those teal accents! :)

This month's question is:
What Stitch-a-Longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?
Actually, I just joined my first ever SAL, and it completely took me by surprise. Stitchrovia on Etsy has designed a series called "Quotes to Live By" which I think will have 9 parts, so only goes through September. I love Emma Congdon's designs, so I jumped on this as soon as I saw it. And the best part is, all proceeds go to a UK charity called MIND, which supports those with mental illness. So, win-win! I've seen lots of people personalize the colors, which is awesome, but so far I'm sticking to the colors as charted:

Still have a ways to go to catch up for January, but I'm really enjoying this one. I've also had my eye on the Clouds Factory and Frosted Pumpkin SALs, but I don't think I could keep up with them throughout the year. So perhaps I'll just buy the patterns down the road...

Guess that's all for now. Happy stitching everyone!