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! :)