Catching Up

Well, February has been a little disappointing so far. I've been kind of sick over the last two weeks, first with a three day migraine, then with a 7 day cold, which I'm still getting over, but I'm mostly well again. Just haven't been doing as much stitching as I would like.

I missed last week's update because I wasn't feeling up to it, and all I had to show was a few more rows on Blood:

I feel like I should be stitching faster on this, but again, I was sick, so I should probably go easy on myself. This will be out again the first week in March, so hopefully I'll have a page finish next time around.

Last week, I worked on my Frosty Forest, but I don't feel like I got a lot done:

I was very happy to get a start on the house though. Those stones look very nice to me. Unfortunately, my Morning Glory, which is used to stitch the house, is both disappointingly pale and unvariegated, so I'll probably end up stitching with DMC. It really is a shame though; that house was one of my favorite elements of the whole design. Ah well.

I think that's all I have for this time. We're having a pretty wet winter here in KC. I think it's snowed about every three days, several inches at a time. Then we get one or two nice days, enough to melt the snow before it snows again. And yesterday was my mother's wedding. She is very happy; I'm just happy it's over. :)

I guess I should try to get more stitching done now. Until next time!

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!

French Lavender

Just a quick update today on French Lavender, my kit from Riolis. I only got 4 days of stitching on this, but there is some visible progress:

My original plan was to finish off the basket this week, but after the first day, I really wanted to stitch with some color. So, I've started some of the leaves on the right side of the basket, and it was hard not to keep going up that side. But I really want that basket done! I should have it done next time though, and I'll probably do the backstitching there, too. I also started the shadow underneath, and I think it adds a little depth.

See? Short and sweet. Not all my posts are rambly. :) Next week I'll be working on Stars. Until next time!

A Frosty Finish

Hello again! Hope you all have had a great stitchy week. :)

Last week when I showed my update on Blood, a couple nice ladies mentioned they'd like to see her picture. I thought, well, that should be on my Wips page, right? Wrong! Somehow I'd completely overlooked her. So that's fixed now. Blood is now on the sidebar (you might have to scroll a bit) and on my Wips page, where she belongs. I added a few more pictures while I was at it, but it's hard to know how best to organize things. Even with just my full coverage pieces on the sidebar, you'd have to scroll forever to see them all.

The good news is, I still haven't started anything this year! I've been really tempted though, especially because yesterday was the kickoff for the Year of Starts. And I had a dream a last week that I was digging through my stash for fabric to start another HAED -- a particular one that has definitely been on my mind. But in the dream I thought, Wait, I can't start this now! It's No Starts 19! But when I woke up, I almost started it anyway. :)

But I've found that a good antidote to startitis is finishing things. And I have another finish this week! It's small, but it still counts. This is Snowy Deer, the third installment of the Frosty Forest series by Country Cottage:

At first, I wasn't thrilled to be working on this again. (It's the fabric. Wichelt, you know.) But then I thought, why prolong the misery? Just power through it and get it done! And that actually motivated me. I finished it on Thursday, so Friday I was able to start on Snowgirl's Cottage, though the border was already done:

All that white is not my favorite thing to stitch. I find my mind wandering a lot because it's so simple, and then I lose steam while I'm stitching. But I filled in the mound on the left, so I could start the house if I want to next time (looking very forward to that). And here's the full pic after I moved the qsnaps:

Aren't they cute? :)

My evening rotation has settled down a little bit, but I'm still all over the place. I know I mentioned picking up last year's New Years start in lieu of starting something else this year. Instead, I went back to 2017's New Years start, my Angel of Grace. I've decided to try and get at least her bottom half finished this year. It's been a while, so here's what she looks like:

And here's my progress this month:

I worked a bit on the green part of her dress, and started the first color in the tan part that wraps around her. (What is that called? I think of it as her bustle, but I don't know if that's right.) I also did as much of the ribbon as I could before I move the qsnaps. I really love how flowy and shimmery it looks. :) Hopefully I can work on her a few days each month, as I really want to finish her someday. I always forget how much stitching goes into that dress, though. It's really huge, but at least it's easy stitching.

Okay, I think I've rambled enough now. I've got more stitching to do! Until next time!

A Boring Wip Parade

Hi guys! I've got my two most boring wips to show today. The good news is these count as my first two page finishes for the year, so I'm very happy about that. :)

I started my new rotation last week, and the first week is for HAEDs, so I worked on Blood. I think this is a good winter piece. Gray fabric and gray thread under a gray sky. Anyway, I managed to finish off page three:

And I got a start on page 4 where you can see another wisp of smoke starting to form:

I'll be working on this piece in February and March as well, so hopefully I can get another page done.

I haven't settled on any kind of rotation for my evening stitching. I've just been pulling out random wips and stitching on them. But when I pulled out my Marquise, she didn't want to go away for a few days, so I managed to finish off two diagonals which completed page 1:

The wedge is getting longer. :) The next page is more brown than green, so I wonder if it will show up in my bad pictures. It might be a little less boring, anyway.

Guess that's all for now. Hopefully I'll have something more colorful next time. :)

First Finishes!

Hi all! Hope you are having a great start to the new year! I am happy to report I haven't started anything yet this year (though there has been temptation) but I have managed my first finishes already! Yes, I have two, though you are probably tired of seeing them already. But now they're done! Here are my Temperature SAL projects for last year, all complete:

I really like how they turned out, but I have to say I'm very glad they're done. That was a lot of stitching! The last 4 days on the smaller chart were a bit grueling as each day was one full side, but I like how it frames the piece. We had a pretty warm December, almost as warm as November was, but I really prefer sunny and 50° to snowy and 18°. It still seems weird that last January was so cold, maybe because this January is so warm. This weekend it was 60°, as opposed to 30° last year. Again, the small chart is a freebie from Hetti on her blog.

I really like the idea of these temperature charts, but the execution is a bit monotonous, at least in stitching. If I ever try it again, I may use Stitchin Mommy's Temperature Garden, where each day is a petal. But I've also thought of doing a simple chart with colored pencils, which would be a lot faster and still fun.

This week, I've also been working on my 12 Days of Christmas from Jim Shore. I finished off the Turtle Doves in December, so I've made some pretty good progress on my French Hen:

Her head and tail are done, and her wing is almost complete, just missing a bit of red. I finished the outline of her body, but I'll fill it in next time. There are so many beads in this one, she's really going to shine when she's fully finished. But it's going away for now, so I'll finish her off in June.

Well, that's all for this week. Until next time! :)

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Hi all! Happy 2019! Hope you get used to writing the new year soon, cuz those 8s are really hard to change into 9s. :)

Looking back over 2018 is kind of overwhelming for me. I had so many starts and very few finishes. But I did have a lot of fun stitching! :) I also had a few firsts this year: With Eliza Bell Cox (first pic) I started my first project on 46ct linen (and loved it!). With Marquise de Caumont (2nd pic) I experimented with diagonal stitching and became somewhat addicted to that method. And with The Awakening (3rd pic) I began my first supersized HAED (though I have two other wips that are almost as large) and stitched full crosses over 1 on 28ct for the first time, which I also seem to enjoy.

I only had 3 finishes, but one of them was Quotes to Live by, which is a fairly large project. My Frosty Forest project is far from finished, but since these are individual charts, my Snowy Reindeer counts as one. When We Do, by Lizzy Kate, was a really quick stitch that I gifted to a friend.

Going in to 2018, I had two stitchy goals: to stitch at least 30 stitches every day, and to stitch 150,000 stitches for the year. The first goal was to remind myself that even when I think I'm too tired or distracted or whatever to stitch, it doesn't have to take up a lot of time. Plus, I always feel better after stitching, and always regret it when I don't. The second goal was just me being competitive with myself because I like to aim high. For comparison, my 2017 total was 114,637. So, what is my 2018 total stitch count? Drum roll please... 150,910! Woohoo! I never actually expected to make it, but like I said, I'm competitive. I should also mention I don't count backstitches or specialty stitches, but I do count tent stitches. My total time for all stitches for the year was 765.3 hours, and I did manage to stitch every day. :)

Here's a few more stats (cuz I like to keep track): In addition to my 3 finishes, I finished 9 pages on various full coverage projects; I started 28 projects (told you it was a lot); my current wip count is 70, though 8 or 10 of those are neglected ufos; and I stitched on 62 projects during the year.

I like to end my reviews with a look back at Moon Indigo, which has been my focus piece for 4 years now, and likely will be until she's done. So here's her progress from January to November:

I've already made a start on her 3rd row. The goal is to stitch at least half of that row in 2019.

Looking forward, I'm hoping to make 2019 a year of progress. As I've previously stated, I don't plan on making any more starts this year; I want to enjoy what I've got going, and hopefully get a few more finishes. (Any bets on when I cave in and start something?)

I've got a new monthly rotation worked out this year for my morning stitching, divided into weeks. Week 1 is for my portable HAEDs; Week 2 is for series projects, like Frosty Forest and Sheep Virtues; Week 3 is for a few focus projects I want to make good progress on; Week 4 is for projects I want to finish this year. This isn't a rigid schedule, but more of a guide. I get a planner every year and plot out my morning stitching for the whole year (in pencil) so I have a realistic idea of how many projects I can work on and when. It's really helped me to see which projects are foremost in my mind to get done and make time for them accordingly. This process also helped me to realize I need to stop starting all the things, as there is a long list of projects that won't get touched this year.

My evening stitching is not so organized. I have a general idea of projects I want to work on and goals associated with them, but no schedule, per se. Moon Indigo will still get her 2 columns a month, at least. But I'd also love to start working on Pavonia again. Completing a diagonal every month on Marquise de Caumont sounds good, but I also want to squeeze in time for Elizabeth Oliver and Awakening as well, not to mention my monthly rotation of full coverage pieces.

See what I mean? I may try a 3 day rotation in the evenings for some projects, just to see if I like it. Everything else should find its place. It usually does. :)

Okay, I've rambled enough here. Thanks to all who read this blog. Happy stitching!