2019 Review

Hello again and welcome! My reviews are more statistics than pictures, but feel free to skip the reading and just look at the pretties. :) I have so many wips, it would be impossible for me to do before and after on all of them; however, I did make a concerted effort to update all of my wip pics, so just look under Wips and More Wips to check out all 70(!) of my lovelies.

For 2019, my stitching resolution was to have more finishes than starts for the year, and I managed it! Here were my 5 project finishes:
#1) and #2) My temperature charts for 2018:

These felt like cheating since there were only a few days to fill in on each, but they still count. :)
#3) Stars by The Drawn Thread:

Loved stitching this with silks and all those specialty stitches!
#4) and #5): Two charts by Little House Needleworks, A Stitchers Prayer and The Virtue Sampler:

I also had 6 finishes between the Frosty Forest series and Sheep Virtues:

It feels pretty good to say I finished off 9 charts in 2019. I also had 9 page finishes on various full coverage projects. I only had 3 new starts for the year (compared to 28 in 2018). Stitching time was super scarce in July and August, but I still managed 109,690 stitches for the year which I think is really good. My total stitching time was 536.7 hours, quite a drop from last year's 765.3. Also, out of 75 wips, I only managed to work on 39 of them, so there's still lots of room for improvement.

As always, here is a look at my Luna for the year:

I ended up about 4 columns short of where I'd hoped to be for the year, but I did manage to make up a lot of missed stitching in November. I'm still hoping to finish off the row in 2020, which means almost 29,000 stitches. Wish me luck!

For 2020, I've got 5 starts planned, but I may add a few more. However, I really enjoyed focusing on current wips (for the most part) in 2019, so I'm trying to find a balance between the old and the new. My stitching resolution for 2020 is to work on all of my wips at least once. I think it's time I got reacquainted with some of my older wips and perhaps reevaluate my rotation. We'll see.

I'll leave you with a little teaser of my planned starts. Since it seems I've been thoroughly bitten by the sampler bug, I'm starting a bunch of huge ones all at once (typical Imp Stitcher fashion). I actually took some money out of savings to indulge in a couple silk kits (from Sassy Jacks Stitchery) and I'm slowly kitting up a few other lovelies. So here are the first three:

That's Anne Thomas and Ann Uffindell from Hands Across the Sea, and Ann Dale from Shakespeare's Peddler. I kitted both HAtS samplers with 46ct fabric and will be using 100/3 silks for the first time. (I hope it's nice!) Ann Dale is on 40ct with the called for NPI, plus a couple Gloriana and a Belle Soie. I really can't wait to dive in to all this luxury! I'm starting Ann Uffindell on February 29th, a special date for a special sampler. The other two will begin in May.

I think that's all for my review! Thank you to all who read and follow this blog. 2019 was a year of transition for me, and I feel like I'm still trying to find my footing. Wishing everyone all the best for 2020! Happy stitching!

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!

Luna Page 16

Hi all! Just a quick update to show that I finally managed to finish page 16 on Moon Indigo!

I am so happy to have this page done! I still don't have a dedicated stitching spot for her so progress is usually on weekends when I can set her up at my desk, which is a hassle, but at least she's not totally neglected. I was surprised to see a little bit of her wing detail pop out at the bottom middle, and there's just a hint of the full wings to come at the bottom right. Now I'm on to page 17 to stitch her wings in full. I don't expect to have another page finish this year, but I'll take what I can get. :)

I also worked a bit on Jack's Bash from Plum Street:

This is on 40ct Vintage Cedar Plank by Lakeside Linens, and I really love this fabric! It really looks good with these fall colors. I'm tempted to keep going on this to finish off the top section, but I'll probably rotate next week. (Frosty Forest has been screaming for a while...) I'm glad I got a start on the over 1 stitching for "Happy Hallow e'en" at the top. I was tempted just to do half stitches there, but nah, I'll just go for it. It does take a while though.

I do love Plum Street's designs, but they are always way more stitching that you think they'll be. This is partially because of lots of color changes, but also because there's so many areas of solid stitching. But I know it's gonna be great in the end!

I think that's all for now. Until next time!

July thru October

Catching up is hard. It's so hard I've been putting it off for a while, which only makes it harder.

Hi all! Long time no see. I can barely remember what I've blogged about so far this year, so I guess I'll just dive right in and start rambling. It was a crazy summer. I've moved. My mother sold two houses and bought a new one. She also had knee replacement surgery. Her new husband fell twice and broke several parts of his anatomy (but he's all healed now). And overtime at work didn't end until September 28th. So I've been a bit worn out.

My stitching progress overall hasn't been that spectacular, but I actually did manage a few finishes, all from Little House Needleworks. The first is the Virtue Sampler, which I kind of picked up and didn't put down back in August. So in 12 days, I went from here:

to here:

This one took 22 days total, and was pretty fun to stitch. I used all the called for colors on 32ct Limestone Belfast from Zweigart. I haven't framed it yet, but I suppose I should pretty soon. :)

My other finishes were from the Sheep Virtues series. I finished Love on August 2nd and finished Peace October 25th. So far, each of these has taken 7 days to stitch.

It's nice to have the first three of these done. Maybe I'll just do 3 a year. No rush, right?

My stitching has been really off since I moved (only managed 1691 stitches in July) and my rotation went out the window, but things are beginning to get back to normal. When things got super stressful, I didn't switch my projects as often and worked on things for 2 or 3 weeks instead of one. Since I didn't always stitch every day, I didn't see a ton of progress, but I think it's enough to share a couple things.

After I finished Virtue Sampler in August, I picked up Summer on Cherry Hill. This one feels like an August project to me, I don't know why. But it does have Summer in the name:

I'd say this is almost halfway done. About that, anyway. It's hard to say because I know the grass is going to take forever. But the bees are done, and I've started on her massive skirt, so that's something.

In September I spent a few weeks on Autumn Fraktur. I didn't plan to keep working on it, but once I started, I couldn't stop until the right side was finished:

I almost kept going on the left side. Almost. Maybe next year.

I've worked on a few other odds and ends, but I'll save those for later. I wish I could say I've made massive progress on Luna as well, but I haven't even finished the page I was working on back in May. It's very sad really, but I still don't have a stitching spot for my floor stand set up in my new place. Very sad.

I'm trying to get a few more goals met this year on various projects, but I've got a lot of distractions. I've been trying to declutter for a while now, and in the process I've stumbled across all my hidden treasures from other hobbies. So in the interest of use it or lose it, I've been quilting, knitting, doing puzzles and paint by numbers again. It's been a lot of fun, but it's also been a challenge to work everything in and share stitchy time. But I'm learning.

I think that's all for now. I've pulled out Jack's Bash by Plum Street for this week, so we'll see what kind of progress I make. Until next time!

June Wrap Up

Hi all! I should really be packing right now, but what the heck! I've got a few tidbits to share, and I'd better do so before I forget everything. I'm moving in a week and still have lots to pack, but I have to keep stitching or the stress will overwhelm me. Plus work is starting to get hectic again, so there's gonna be lots of overtime in my near future. Better stitch while I can!

So, I had a bit of startitis this month, even though I did so well up until last month. But I went shopping with my overtime money again and bought a bunch of kits, which made me go and fondle all the kits I already own and haven't started yet, which led to my first start. I'm sure you've seen this a millions times, but I still think it's beautiful. This is Chickadees and Lilacs from Dimensions:

I've been wanting to start this for at least 3 years now, and almost did while I was doing the year of starts, but something else always came up and this got pushed aside. No more! I worked on this for 6 days and made a fair bit of progress thanks to all those tent stitches. I've also decided I can't start in the middle of projects anymore. It's like there's too many options of which way to stitch. So I started in the bottom right corner, something new for me, and I'm really loving it. It just makes my brain happy. :)

My second start was one of my new purchases, but I've literally been drooling over this one for a couple years. I found it for a good price on ebay and snatched it up, and started it two days later. This one is Hollyhocks by Riolis:

Again, I started at the bottom. It's been a long time since I've stitched on black aida, so that takes some getting used to, but I love how the colors look on the black. This is only 3 hours work, but you can see the first leaf taking shape. The lighter color is actually a blend, and this kit is very specific about how the stitches are worked. For this one, it's two strands of the same darker green you see for the bottom leg of the stitch, then one strand of a lighter green for the top leg. I generally work in rows, doing all the bottom legs then crossing for each row, so I had to adjust the way I stitch while working the blend. But I really like the effect.

As proof that I don't only work on my new starts, here's some progress on my 12 Days of Christmas by Jim Shore:

I finished all the stitching for 3 French Hens, but again, there will be a ton of beads, which is why it still looks unfinished. I thought this one would take a lot longer than it did, but it was actually easy stitching. Hopefully I'll have this back out in July to get a start on 4 Calling Birds.

I've also been focusing on Quaker Compass by Rosewood Manor for about a week. I'll probably keep working on it for another week, but here's a bit of progress to show:

My goal is to finish the bottom left quadrant this year, but there's still a lot left to do. The stitching does go pretty quick though, even if it's a lot of stop and start stitching with the tiny motifs. I wish I could take a better picture to show how those colors look in real life. I love the muted palette. Those gray greens are very soft and warm. :)

I think that's all for now. I didn't get my columns finished on Luna this month, but I'm not too far behind. My rotation is still off, but I'm still stitching, so that's all that matters, right? Hope everyone is making fantastic progress on all your projects. Until next time! :)

April/May Catch Up

Hi stitchers! It seems I've fallen off the blogging train again. Haven't been posting on Facebook or Instagram either. I blame too much overtime plus trying to find a new apartment. Every spare moment I've had goes to stitching, not posting.

We had three weeks of mandatory overtime at work, minimum of 15 hours extra each week. And you know, once it stops being voluntary, it stops being fun and starts to kill you. But I think I've recovered now. :)

My stitching really suffered for about a month, but I've stitched almost every day, and I've hit a few milestones. First, I'll share a finish on a cute little project from Little House Needleworks. This is Stitcher's Prayer, stitched on 32ct Raw Belfast, finished May 25th:

Forgive the crappy lighting, it's been a struggle. I really like how this turned out. I don't have any immediate plans for it, but perhaps I'll frame it once I find my new place. It could be a good start to a new stitchy wall. :)

I also managed to keep up with Luna, and now have half of page 15 done:

I've kind of started a new way of stitching on this one. Instead of stitching down one column, I'm stitching two at a time. And instead of stitching each color within a full block, I'm doing two rows at a time, using parking. It sounds fiddly, but with only a few colors, it's super easy and goes fast. I don't even have to mark my pattern anymore. I don't think I'll stitch this way with high confetti areas, but it's awesome on the background.

I've been trying to keep up with my Elizabeth Oliver sampler by Moira Blackburn. I'm trying to finish at least a row every year, but I kind of fell behind with the first section. I think I can catch up though, since the next two sections are all text, and that goes pretty quick. Here's the full image, which is hard to photograph properly:

It seems odd that I can't stitch the blue border yet, as it has to be stitched in the same direction all around. But I am loving all the little motifs so far.

The last thing I want to share is a new start. Yes, it finally happened. May 13th, I started Eliza Knight by Hands Across the Sea Samplers. This is my second HATS start, and my second Eliza, but I just couldn't resist this one. I can't say what I like exactly; I don't even like green that much. But the sampler is very symmetrical, and has a lot of flowers and trees and little motifs. Overall, I just love the look of this one. So with my first bit of overtime money, I treated myself to the fabric and fiber kit from Sassy Jacks. The fabric is 45ct Woven Sedge with Au Ver a Soie silks, and I must say, the silk is definitely worth it! Here's my progress so far, starting in the bottom left corner:

I've stitched on this one every day since I started. I really don't want to quit. My May rotation schedule has been completely ignored, and I think June's is out the widow as well. I don't know how long I'll keep going, but I'm just gonna roll with it.

Here's a couple of close ups, though the lighting is still terrible:

 That branch the parrot is sitting on contains my first over 1 stitches ever. They came out a little sloppy since the thread is really too big for the fabric, but I'm okay with it. (At a distance, they look fine.) I think the large trees at the bottom are what really sold this pattern for me. They're like three trees in one. First the checkerboard, then the dark green oval, then the black triangle. I really love how it comes together. And the trunk is actually stitched 1 thread off to make it perfectly centered. That was a little daunting to stitch, especially since the threads are so close, but the fact that it's centered just makes it sing for me. :)

The fabric is actually not the best. I'm stitching Eliza Bell Cox on 46ct Zweigart linen which seems easy, but this 45ct Woven Sedge is extremely dense. I have to use my magnifier, and even then I can't always see the threads. (It's only a 5x though.) It's not so bad I want to restart, but sometimes I have to count very carefully with the tip of my needle and hope I'm not messing up.

So here's something interesting. Sassy Jacks actually sent me the pattern with my fabric and fiber kit, even though it wasn't part of the kit. That means I have two Eliza Knight patterns. Which means I'm willing to pass along the extra to anyone willing to attempt this beast, free of charge. I know most of you either like really small things or really big things, but if you're interested, just leave a comment or send me an email. And I don't mind sending international. :)

Well, that's all for now. I've got to get back to stitching. Until next time!