Birthday Stash!! (Plus a tiny bit of stitching)

Hi everyone!

Yup, I just had a birthday, and boy did I get some stash! Actually, I bought most of it myself, on impulse, but birthdays make the best excuses. :)

First I'll show off the one that was a gift, from my mother (darling woman, she really spoils me sometimes):

This is called "Pastoral." It's a kit from Riolis a Russian company, and quite expensive by my standards. The Stitchery was the only place I could find selling it, though I've since seen it on ebay (more on that in a moment). I really love this pattern! I have a patent weakness for anything Rococo, and it's so sweet and romantic too. Those oranges in her dress are so vibrant, and the background is beautiful and serene. I think those roses will drive me to distraction with confetti, but I love all those vines that kind of drift into the background. Not sure when I'll start this, but I'll probably get in a few stitches this year. It's too good to leave it alone.

The kit has a special kind of floss that's not DMC or Anchor, so I hope there's enough of it. I've already bobbinated most of the skeins, which are labeled with numbers. The color sorter came with a sample of each color attached to its assigned number, so differentiating 6 from 9 was no problem. :)

It has a full color chart, which I actually don't like. Color charts seem more difficult to me. Harder to make a working copy of, can't highlight without distorting the color... But I'll manage.

There were a bunch of other kits from The Stitchery that I really wanted, but thought were pricey -- I've noticed before they tend to charge more for stuff, so I went hunting for a better deal, and wound up on ebay. So I found a few more kits from Riolis, straight from Russia and without the mark up.

Yeah, I know, I'm crazy. Guess I was on a flower kick. I was actually only looking for the basket of lavender, but the Sweet William was just too sweet, and the Lilacs wouldn't let me say no. Tulips are actually a favorite flower of mine, so I had to have those, and then that Rose... I think it both simple and elegant. And I love those colors. :)

As for celebrating my birthday, I did that the best way I know how: with a new start! :) This one I've been saving since last year, back when I was too sick to do much stitching and spent most of my time drooling over new charts. This is another HAED, called Ginger Nova by Gracjana Zielinska:

Just look at those colors! I am partial to stitching ladies anyway (my favorite subject, I think) but it was all those bright pinks that got me, and I don't even like pink that much. All that light behind her is going to be a blast to stitch, and I love how the light clings to her and shines through her hair. I've only got one column done on page one so far, but I am already loving the color spectrum. So far it's purple and mauve giving way to gray, then blue violet, though the colors are rather muted in the picture. But my project box makes me think of candy and bubblegum with all those pinks and purples. :)

That little star had 10 colors in it! I'm hoping to get a page done on her this year, wishing I could do so much more. That's the downside to having so many wips going, but I'm still enjoying each one. :)

Speaking of which, I did manage to get a little stitching done on Cassiopeia last week:

I focused on the border at first, as I need to roll it up a bit, but I also managed to get the edge of the dress in, as well as the foot of her couch and the first two stars. That's my favorite feature about this pattern: her constellation is part of her, stitched in glow in the dark thread. There's one star in her dress by one of the black motifs, but the obvious one is just outside her dress, on the lower right. I was surprised that the couch has a lot of variegated silk in it, as the color used is a gray-green-red, the same one used in the border. I'm not sure how that will look against the other colors, but I don't plan to change it. Maybe it's just that I never stitch with variegated threads, but the stripey effect seems a bit strange to me.

Well, I guess that's all the rambling I'll do for now. Think I'll go back to Ginger for a while. :) Until next time!

May WIPocalypse

Hello everyone!

Been kind of absent from the blogging world this month as work has been crazy hectic, including mandatory overtime (aka the Weekend Killer). As such, my stitching has been a little spotty, but I've managed to make a bit of progress here and there.

For starters, I managed two more pages on Favorite Bird, which completes my goal for the year:

This one is dueced hard to get a good picture of, but there are now two table legs featured, not just one. ;)

I also managed to finish a page on Flora:

That red flower was quite challenging, but I loved stitching all those dark fuchsias and pinks.

Everything else has been interrupted, for lack of a better term. I've been so busy even outside of work (May is always my busiest month) I couldn't really focus on anything for long. But here are a few more leaves on my Tigers, still a long way from done:

A couple columns done on Wisdom, which I haven't touched since February:

And three columns done on Luna's second row:

I really love that bright blue spot at the top. The next few pages are nothing but clouds, but I am in love with her background, so I'm not complaining. :)

So for the year thus far, I now have three goals complete. Doesn't seem like many, but I'm close to meeting a few more, so I feel good about my progress this year.

For April, I did 16,184 stitches, so my total for the year is 57,657 stitches. May has not been nearly as productive, but every stitch counts! :)

This month's question is: What were you stitching this time last year and have you finished it?
Last May, I barely stitched at all. I only managed one week on Luna, which is still far from finished (but will be one day!).

That's all for now. Until next time!

Oh look! More Brown

Hi all!

Well, I've had kind of a stressful week thanks in part to my car (5 days in the shop! omg!) and work, which is getting hectic. This is actually our busiest month at work, though it won't actually calm down 'til September. It's just data entry, but there's a lot of it, and I wouldn't be surprised if I have to start working overtime soon. Love the money, but I'd rather be stitching. ;)

Despite all that, I actually had a surprisingly productive week. I spent most of my time on Favorite Bird, which has become known as "the Brown One" in my household, but I've actually got two more pages done:

It is really hard to tell, but there is now a second table leg toward the top. I actually didn't see it until I was editing the photo, but there it is: a bit of leg, with its shadow streaking behind it, and a reflection mirrored on the floor. At first I thought it was just a random blob of light, but now I am happy to see a bit more detail emerge. So, that's another wip that's met its goal this year, but I may stitch one more page on this sometime before the year is over...

I also managed a few more leaves on my tigers, but not nearly as many as I'd hoped:

And I have completed my first column on Luna's second row:

It looks really odd at the moment, but I just love the variegation in this column. Those brighter blues just sparkle amidst the grays and slate blues, then there's that bit of darker blue toward the bottom... It's just pretty! :) Hopefully I can get a bit more progress on her this week.

Guess that's all I've got for you this week. Until next time. Keep stitching!

April WIPocalypse

Hi all!

I know I'm a day late with my WIPocalypse post, but it has been a hectic week and a stressful day (car trouble! ugh!). But on with stitching!

Still can't cross off any more goals this month, but I have made good progress on a few projects. Since last month, I've worked on Flora:

Got a few more leaves on my Tigers:

Finished up two confettilicious pages on Kabuki and got a start on her face:

Finished another page on Favorite Bird (there's 3 now!):

And I've got a good start on Crystals and Crows (yet another new start):

I think I'm up to 42 colors done on the first page (out of 95) but honestly, I think I've lost count. :)

I'm also happy to say I again exceeded my stitching goal for March with 12,098 stitches! For anyone that's curious, that was 63 hours of stitching (it's practically all I do outside of work). For the year, I'm up to 41,473 stitches, which was close to my yearly total just a couple years ago. Still really mind boggling (for me, at least).

This month's question is: What do you listen to while stitching?
Mostly, I only listen to music. I'm a bit of a music fiend. I listen to just about any genre, and I love finding new artists. I've got a good eclectic radio station, The Bridge, that rarely gets old (listen online, it's awesome!). I also pay for Rhapsody, so I've got endless options when I want to hear something specific, or Google Music (which stole Songza, drat it) for neat playlists when I want variety. (Pandora has too many commercials these days.)

In the evenings, when my mother is home, we watch the news while I stitch, though it can be distracting. I'm the type of person who has to give my full attention to anything I watch for entertainment, so I usually stick to music. I have done audiobooks in the past, but now I can listen to those at work, which is much better. :)

Again, music is a topic I could discuss ad nauseum. If anyone has suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them (I really love listening to new stuff). For me, I think my three favorite artists this week have been Hey Marseilles, Shearwater, and Nathaniel Rateliff (though that is the tip of a very large, gargantuan iceberg).

That's all I got for now. Until next time!

April IHSW

IHSW! Yay! My favorite excuse for stitching all weekend. :)

Since I just started Crystals and Crows last weekend, I figured I'd keep working on it for IHSW. Most of the larger blocks of color have been filled in (though there are a couple more toward the bottom right) so the color changes are really starting to slow me down. Still, it is slowly filling in and trying to look like something. I seem to be outlining more leaves and stems, but it will be a while before I get through all those colors. Here's before, with 12 colors done, and after, with 29 colors done (out of 95!):

Somehow even with my tablet helping me, I'm still being plagued by ninja stitches. Must be a special talent of mine. :) But it is coming along, and I'm happy with the progress. Now to check in on my fellow hermiters!

Until next time!

Flowers, Birds, and a bit of Sky

Hi all! Hope everyone is having an awesome stitchy week. Spring is definitely in the air around here, so I could not resist a Spring-y title, though it also describes my projects this last week! :)

Finally, I've returned to Flora, my smallest HAED. The plan is to work this one in conjunction with the HAED BB Mini SAL, so hopefully you'll be seeing her once a month from now on. This week I managed 1362 stitches in a little over 5 hours:

For the most part, I just need to work on the berry, the large red flower (tiger lily?) and a bit of her hair, and this page is done! I was actually surprised to get so much done this week, but I've finally started using EzPDF to help me stitch, and it truly is a time saver. I'm still highlighting with pen and paper though, as highlighting on the tablet takes for-ev-er! But at least I don't have to hunt through a whole page of symbols anymore. I just follow the little orange dots on the screen. :)

I didn't do much other stitching during the week, but I did manage a page finish on Favorite Bird, which, visually speaking, has the honor of being my most boring wip now that Euphoria has her flower. Anyway, here's a bit more brown:

That poor table leg will have to stand on its own for quite a while yet. The page I just finished was only 2600 stitches, and mostly 2 colors, so it actually only took three days. I've already put a few stitches in on the next page, but have set this one aside for now, because...

I have a new start! I know, I always have new starts, but they're still exciting. :) This is one I've been wanting to start since last November. But first I had to sort through all my floss, then there was endless bobbinating, plus I was having medical issues at the time... So finally, Finally, I have begun Crystals and Crows, a max color chart from HAED. You may have seen my post rambling about my indecision over fabric? Well, I actually didn't fully decide 'til after I started it! Yes, I actually did the first few stitches on 18 and 25ct, but in the end, 18ct won. I just felt like the 25ct was swallowing the stitches too much -- probably my own sewing tension is to blame. But if I'm going to go to the trouble of stitching 237 colors, I'd like all of those colors to be visible!

I just started Friday night, but I've already got about 1400 stitches (enthusiasm anyone?). So here it is so far, starting on page 1 (sorry it's kind of a bad picture):

I'm not participating in the HAED challenge, but I'm kind of joining in spirit. :) This is seven colors done so far, out of 95 on the first page (yes, I counted). It's all bits of sky at the moment, though there is a fair bit of foliage on this page as well. I can already see the gradient from earthy beiges in the top left corner down to what will be a warm golden glow toward the bottom right. Absolutely love all the colors in this one!

237 colors = 2 boxes, plus a baggie

Again, EzPDF has been a life saver for finding stitches. With everything highlighted, I can now carry threads across page lines and sew a color until my thread runs out instead of stopping to highlight more, or park, or cut the thread for next time. And since it's 2 threads on Aida, I can use the loop method to start, and a pin stitch to stop, a technique I just recently learned from this video (I love Flosstube!). It really is a neat way to end stitches, and I don't have to flip the frame at all. It's on my heavy, awkward 36 inch Millennium, so that really helps, but I'll probably try it on other projects too; it's just that tidy!

Well, that's all I've got for this week. Gonna be working on C&C for a while, so I'll try not to ramble on too much about it. :) Until next time! Happy stitching!

A Bit of Progress

Hello again! Just a quick update to show last week's stitching. :)

First, Kabuki was dragged out of hiding so I could torture myself with more confetti. (Honestly, it wouldn't be so bad if the chart were more legible.) Happy to say I pushed through said confetti and finished the upper portion of her kimono sleeve! Here's before and after:

 As you can see, I've got a pretty good start on her face as well, with a hint of eyebrow. I am also happy to say that this completes the first row, so I have a second row finish for the year! Not as impressive as Luna's, I know, but I will celebrate where I can. :)

I also got a few days work on my Tigers, only about 850 stitches. But I'll take what I can get.

The "plan" is to finish all the greenery before I go back to the tigers (even though they look kinda weird with no faces). I've got pretty much the upper half done, so hopefully just a couple more weeks of stitching will get it done.

That's all for this week. As for Crystals & Crows, I am still debating my fabric choice, but I think I'll go with 18ct. Thanks again for offering opinions! Official start date is this Friday (can't wait!!) so I'll know for sure by then. :)

Until next time! Happy stitching to all~