Sarah and Ginger

Last week I kept my needle occupied with Sarah Spurr and managed to finish the top portion of the border -- which took me something like 9 hours to stitch -- and also managed a good chunk of the alphabet. Those letters really stitch up quick so it was hard to stop, but I finished off a thread halfway through the W and had to call it quits:

Last week I mentioned stitching the cream color in the border with 712, but it wasn't showing up very well. I switched to 3865 and like that much better, but I decided to be lazy rebellious and leave the 712 in anyway. And I'm glad I did. It actually blends in rather well, and isn't distracting the way I thought it might be. Now I feel like I have a secret about this piece, and it just makes her all the more dear. :)

My full coverage focus project for this month has been Ginger Nova, which is one of my more neglected pieces. I remember last time I put her down, I thought the confetti was a bit too much, so that feeling of stitching as a chore kept me from picking her up again. But after stitching on her again, it really isn't that bad after all. Maybe I've just grown accustomed to confetti? Or maybe after working on Kabuki, Ginger was a breeze. In any case, I managed my 1200 stitches for the month, which finally completed page 1 (plus a small start on page 2):

I guess I'll keep it short and sweet this month. So until next time. Happy stitching!

Summer at Cherry Hill

Hi all! Back again with meager progress to show from last week. :)

This time I worked on Summer at Cherry Hill by With Thy Needle and Thread. I fell in love with this pattern a couple years ago, so it's a shame I don't have much done on it. This was my first project on 40ct, which took some getting used to, but I think I'm starting to hit my stride with this piece. Here's a reminder of what the pattern looks like and where I left off last year:

There was a lot of stopping and starting some days, so I don't feel like I made a ton of progress, but I counted 1,111 stitches added. That was enough to finish off the top portion and move the qsnaps down a bit. Here's where I ended up:

This really is a fun project to stitch, even if progress is slow. Next time I pick this up, I'll tackle all those bees floating around.

Since Saturday was the 18th, I started something new: Sarah Spurr, by Kathy Barrick. I've had this in my stash for a while now, so I'm glad to finally have started it. I'm working on the very boring to look at border for now, which is coming along nicely:

I'm stitching this on 40ct Burch linen, which is a nice color, but apparently not dark enough for all the DMC. The conversion for the white is 712, which is a nice cream, but invisible on this fabric. I actually have some stitched in the top left corner. (Really, I do!) I had planned to use 3865 instead, but it looked so glaringly white when I picked it up I thought I'd give 712 a try. Now looks like I'll be frogging a bit. Oh well. :)

Guess that's all for now. Next week I'll keep working on Sarah, and hopefully stitch a border you can see. Until next time!

Quaker Compass

Last week I worked on Quaker Compass by Rosewood Manor. I can tell my rotation is way too full, because I really should have worked on this more than once this year. But anyway. I totally forgot to take a "before" picture, so I'll just treat you to a photo of the whole piece so far:

It's over a quarter done! (Small milestones, you know.) This round, I worked along the top and finished off that motif with the dark chevrons around it, then started the one next to it. I also completed the crown (if you can see that light color) and all the smaller motifs to the right, then filled in a bit of the central compass border. Not bad for a week where I was so tired I could barely see straight. :)

That's all I got for this week. Short and sweet, huh? Next week I'll be pulling out Summer at Cherry Hill, from With Thy Needle and Thread. I'm also planning my new start for the 18th, which will be a Kathy Barrick design called Sarah Spurr. (Really looking forward to that one!)

Speaking of future plans and Kathy Barrick, there is another Hawk Run Hollow SAL starting up October 1st. I might jump in this time with the Christmas at HRH chart, which might be my favorite (though Village is a very close second). So if any of you need an excuse to start another BAP, here's your chance! :)

All right, I'm done enabling you. For now. Until next time!

Hello August!

Hello again! Happy August! Still can't believe how fast this year is going. :)

Last week I pulled out an older wip with barely any progress on it (I've taken to calling these my Pitiful Projects Collection, since there are quite a few). This one is a Hannah Alexander design, one of her Art Nouveau versions of Ariel. I love Ariel. I think I was 10 when that movie came out and it really spoke to my little girl heart.

Anyway. This pattern is from an Etsy shop called CrossStitchToYou. Since I haven't shown this for a long time, here's the eventual outcome:

Pretty, isn't she? The pattern is really confetti heavy, so I feel like I barely made any progress, but it doesn't look too bad:

I managed to finish the yellow background up top and filled in the first bits of flower. I also started parking because stitching cross country was taking for-ev-er! Hopefully when I pick this up again I can stitch a bit faster.

I also made enough progress on my Elizabeth Oliver sampler to show another picture (sorry for the poor lighting):

I am still really in love with stitching this! I don't pick her up very often, but I think about this one a lot. I've only got four more honeysuckles to stitch, then I'll turn the corner into the side border. It would be nice to have this top portion done in the next two months, but we'll see. :)

And, since July is over, I'll show you my Temperature charts:

We did have one day that reached 100°F. Can you see it? It's a very dark red. I'm kind of disappointed that was our only day, and I never got to use my hot pink for 105°. But oh well. I think we're already cooling down for the end of summer, but August can be tricky. The July average temperature was 92.3, so it's backstitched in 608.

Well, that's all I got for now. Hope you are all getting some good stitching in. Until next time!

July Wrap Up

Hey peeps! Well, July is almost over, so I guess I'll show off what I've been working on.

First, a quick update on last week's new start, 7 Virtues by La D Da. I worked on this for a few more days and managed some decent progress:

I managed 1855 stitches in 7 days, so I guess it's stitching up pretty quickly. I still find it very relaxing as well. Something about those big block letters. :)

My full coverage focus this month was Kabuki, which is now my oldest wip (I think). I didn't work on her at all last year because I was too stressed, and I left off in a very confetti heavy area. But I was determined to get my 1200 stitches in, so I picked her up for 7 days this month:

I am super pleased with my progress on her! 1255 stitches isn't a lot in the scheme of things, but I was happy to get one eye finished and some progress on her other eye. So the top half of her face is looking pretty good, and I knocked out about half of the worst confetti. There's still the shadow of her cheek to contend with, and her other eye has about 30 colors left, but the two main colors of her skin can balance out all that craziness. :)

And of course, I can't forget my lovely Luna:

I stitched two more columns this month, so that's a quarter of page 13 done. I think I got the final wispy strands of her hair stitched for this row, so now I get to focus on the moon. It fills in most of this page, but I'm already getting close to the back curve of it.

I think that's all I have for now. Next month I'll be pulling out Ginger Nova for my focus. I think 1200 stitches is all I need for a page finish, and she really needs some attention. Again, it's Full Coverage Fanatics on Facebook if you want to join the monthly challenge (they have others also). I'm finding it a really good motivator to get my stitches in. :)

Until next time. Happy stitching!

Year of Starts #7

Hi all! Back again with a quick update. I didn't post last week 'cuz I really didn't have much to show. It was a weird in-between week for my projects, but I was stitching! :)

I pulled out an older project from The Drawn Thread, called Sampler Game Board, and worked on it for six days. I don't know when I last showed it here, but here is my progress:

I really love this piece, but progress does not show on it very quickly, probably because those houses are solid blocks of 400 stitches. But I finished the red house plus two motifs, and got a good start on three more houses. I didn't make room for this again in my official rotation, but I might squeeze in a few more days on this to try and finish out this top portion before the end of the year. We'll see.

Of course, on the 18th I had a new start, though I switched up my plans a bit. I was going to start My Stash by Waxing Moon, but instead I went with 7 Virtues by La D Da, stitched on 32ct Fresco by Picture This Plus:

I had planned to start this one earlier this year, but started another project instead. I guess I couldn't overlook it any longer. This is only 3 days progress so far, but I'll keep working on it next week. This one is very relaxing to stitch on since it only has 4 colors, so it's perfect to do while listening to my audiobooks. :)

I did make a change to the red in this chart. I'm stitching with DMC, and the called for color was 3857, which is a very nice brown. I didn't want a very nice brown, I wanted red like the photo shows, which is part of the charm of this piece for me. So I changed it to 815, which is a little brighter than the image in my head, but very close. I also considered 814, but at a distance, it also looked brown. It's times like these I wish I could afford all those special hand dyed thread clubs and have my own stash of awesome one-of-a-kind threads, but I have a bad habit of spending all my money on charts instead. But I do have a DMC thread chart, and I know how to use it. :)

Well, that's all I got for now. It feels weird not showing my Temperature Charts, but at least I'm keeping up with them. Until next time!

Christmas in July

I'm going to say something blasphemous here -- I don't really care much for Christmas stitching. I know! I'm horrible! Ornaments and Santas and Christmas trees don't do anything for me. But for some reason, I love charts featuring the 12 Days of Christmas. It's probably because it's a series, and I'm crazy about collecting things.

Anyway, I thought I'd do my minimal celebration of Christmas in July with Jim Shore's 12 Days of Christmas. I started this last July and finished the Partridge last year. This year has been all about the two Turtle Doves. Here's my progress for the week:

I'm hoping that if I continue working on this every July and for 12 days starting on Christmas (see what I did there?) I can finish one block a year and be done with this project sometime in 2029. Yes, I plan for the long haul. Of course, I may increase my rotation at some point, but I'm really in no hurry. :)

At some point, I may break down and start the Nora Corbett version of the 12 Days. Have you seen these? They are gorgeous!

The only reason I haven't started yet is I couldn't decide if I wanted to stitch these individually or all on one fabric. I was going for the all on one thing when I realized the swan is 9 stitches taller than all the others, and the piper is both taller and wider than the others. It kind of threw me off. I was contemplating just hacking a bit off of each, but I hate to do that, though the thought of 12 frames is also a bit daunting. However, I may do something a little different and stitch three sets of four. Sad that it took me over a year to have that little brainstorm, but better late than never. So, it may be a while, but this project is definitely in my future. :)

I think that's all for this time. I may keep my Temperature charts to just once a month, especially since the summer colors are so boring. So, happy stitching everyone. Until next time!