Big Finish #3

 Hello lovely people! I'm finally back for an update, and I've got some good progress to share.

March was a pretty hectic month for me, and my stitching was all over the place trying to meet the challenge in FCF (which I did, by the way). I kinda wish I had stuck to my planned rotation, but it was also nice to touch on so many of the projects I did, even if for just one day. Most of those projects are scheduled to be worked on again, so I'll share pics when I get to them.

In the meantime, I finally managed a huge finish I've been working toward for quite some time. Yup, I finished Elizabeth Oliver:

I haven't added up my total time and stitches yet, but she did take me 162 days to stitch. This was the second sampler I ever started, and there's a lot I would do differently if I were starting her now. For starters, I'd have stitched her on a higher count to make her smaller (she's 22.5" x 25" on 32ct). And I would have changed some of the colors, particularly the yellow and pinky brown. (Fun fact: 407 is my least favorite DMC color.) She does have some blended colors, and I love the way they look, but a variegated thread might've been just as nice.

Overall, I'm thrilled with how she turned out, and I actually took her to the framer's the same day I finished her. It's still kind of surreal though. I finished her on April 10th, but I could've finished her a bit sooner. Unfortunately, when projects I love are nearing a finish, I actually find I don't want to work on them, probably because I don't want to let them go. And also, I let myself get totally distracted by a new start.

So I have finally caved in and started the Modern Folk Embroidery sal. I really thought I could resist, but I've been seeing it everywhere and the fomo is real. So I spent a couple days trying to pick out some colors and just started:

I think my palette could use a little tweaking, but I was way too impatient for that. The purple isn't as light as I had pictured in my head, and the brown isn't as dark, but it's the only brown that wasn't too dark or didn't clash with the purple. And of course there's more than 2 colors there. I just couldn't decide! So I'm using a handful with two darks, two lights and a mid tone.

This arrangement was purely happenstance as I was sorting colors. They ended up in a pile, and I went with it. So it's DMC 30, 31, 32, 779, and 451. The fabric is 40ct Latte by XJuDesigns. And if you haven't noticed, it's an uneven weave, and I actually kind of like it. I counted it out, and it's 41 threads in width, but 44 threads in height. So my octagons will be a bit squished.

My focus piece for April is Luna and I've already managed to finish off page 20 (and yes, her hair is finally complete!):

I've got a good start on page 21 now, so a row finish is in my near future. :)

Lastly, here's my Temperature Library for March:

Had a warm start (highest was 77) but mostly 50s and 60s. The painting on the shelf adds a really nice touch, doesn't it?

Ok, I think I'm mostly caught up now. Hope you all are enjoying the changing seasons. Until next time!

Finish #2

 I made a big push the last few days, so I was able to finish Wonders of Space today! So happy with how this turned out:

I made a few adaptations to leave out the words that were charted, and I think it looks pretty good. She's got another version of this chart where each square is a solid block, but I rather like the speckled look. It should fit nicely into an 8x8 frame, so hopefully that will happen soon. If you're wondering, this is from Climbing Goat Designs on Etsy. She has another stitch along for this year, but I'm happy with this one. :)

I've been stitching other projects as well, but they're still a bit haphazard as I'm still working on the History challenge in Full Coverage Fanatics. But I did manage 3 days on Crystals & Crows and added about 350 stitches:

I'm kind of struggling with this one a little bit. I love it, I want to stitch more on it, but my progress is just so horribly slow. I don't know if I need to adapt my stitching method again -- though honestly, I do like this one best -- or if I should just go back to my 18ct version. I'll persevere with this one a while longer, but sometimes it's hard for me to enjoy a piece when I'm constantly questioning my methods. I guess I just need to have patience.

I'm almost done with my History challenge (just 5 to go!) so I should have the random bits done this week. I still need to get in my stitches for the counting portion though. I'm also planning to switch my focus piece to Elizabeth Oliver until she's finished. I still can't believe I'm almost done with her! I guess that's all for now. I gotta get to stitching! :)

Going with the Flow

 I had a plan for March. I had a handful of wips to work and focus on. But then along came the March History Sprints in Full Coverage Fanatics, and I got all swept up in the challenge. So while part of me is a bit upset that goals and plans have been pushed back, the other part of me is saying, Hey, this is fun! And wasn't that the ultimate goal for this year? To enjoy my wips and go with the flow? So I'm trying. It's still hard to be flexible. But I've managed to take on the challenge, rearrange my mindset and adapt my current stitching to some larger goals. So that's success right? I'll take it!

So the History Sprints basically gives you 20 dates for March with historical events. The challenge is to either stitch on a piece for the same number of stitches as the year, or to match a prompt based on the day's historical fact. Because I have so many wips, I'm attempting to do both, sort of. I've picked one date and one wip to match the number of stitches, and for every other date, I'll match the prompt with a small stitching goal. Simple enough, right?

My goal for the prompts is to stitch on each wip for at least 30 minutes, which is very doable, but it still takes over my evening stitching. I've stitched on 7 different wips so far and matched 9 of the prompts, so I'm about halfway there. I'm not going to show all those tiny bits of progress here, but I do want to share one wip that I started at the end of last year and haven't shown here yet.

This one is called Summer Breeze by The Cross Stitch Studio. I was enabled to visit them through Flosstube, and I would highly encourage you to check them out. Many of their charts are quite large (this one is 869x649) but they do have some smaller charts as well, all full coverage. I started this on December 20th, and it's 2x1 tent stitch on 25ct Lugana:

I'm not really big on beach themed stuff, but I really adore this image. Something about the color palette and those big clouds makes it seem really calming to me. I don't have any definitive goals for this one, but I at least want to get that first page done. It'll be a while before I get to those clouds though.

I am still doing a focus project for the month. This time I'm back to my Wonders of Space SAL that I was so enamored with last year. I was working in block 6, the Andromeda Galaxy, when I put it down last June. I think I was really stressed at the time, and the confetti and I were not getting along. But I've made some good progress this week and got 2 blocks done:

I've had to make some adjustments to this chart, which might be part of why I put this away for so long. The SAL version was charted with words that cut across some of the images. It's nice and all, but I just didn't care for that version. So I've filled in some gaps to make it a nice 3x3 square. I only have 2 blocks left, so I should have this done pretty soon. :)

That's all for now. Next week I'll keep sprinting and hope for a finish. I still have a lot of stitching to do! Hope you all are staying on track with your goals. Happy stitching!

Hi's and Lo's

 I didn't do quite as much stitching last week as I would have liked, but honestly, isn't that always the case? I did try my best to get some good progress on my current Frosty Forest block (which I started last February) but it was much more work intensive than I anticipated. So instead of finishing off this block and getting a good start on the next, I didn't even manage to complete the one:

In all honesty, this project started to drag me down after a few days, and I found myself not wanting to work on it. Nothing against the project, but it's on that very stiff Wichelt, and it after typing all day for work, it was a bit hard on my hands. I had been really looking forward to stitching the house (love stitching houses!) but stitching that variegated thread one stitch at a time is not my favorite, but I liked the effect too much to stitch in rows. Plus, I found my thread a bit tangly, so I used my trolley needle for most of the house. It looks much nicer, but slows me way down. So I hope I can find more time for this one later this year and finish off a couple blocks. That house needs to be done!

I've also put a few more days into Elizabeth Oliver to meet my goal for the month:

I am so happy to have most of that green block done, and I've got her name in! That makes her officially official in my mind, and she's in the home stretch. I'm really hoping to finish her in March, or at least early April. Fingers crossed!

When I didn't want to work on Frosty Forest, I turned to my Temperature Library instead and surprised myself by catching up:

I added 4 colors for that very cold week we had (a new color every 3 degrees) and chose a really pale purple down to the very dark gray-purple for our 0 day. That way it's easy for me to spot. Then a week later we hit 69, so I got to stitch my first yellow. I really thought about trying to mark the days when it snowed, but my official weather station doesn't record trace amounts, and I haven't been keeping track. But next time I do a temperature chart, I may find a way to indicate some weather.

So that's all I worked on last week. My March plans are a bit all over the place, and I have a crazy notion I'll be participating in the Full Coverage Fanatics challenge for History Sprints. It involves switching to different projects almost every day to match a prompt, so we'll see how that goes. I'm kind of excited to try though. Guess that's all for now. Happy stitching!

First Finish of the Year

 You guys! I finished Ann!

I'm so happy to have her done. She's a fairly small sampler, but she was still a lot of work. All told, I counted 8,283 stitches. It took me 40.8 hours to stitch, stretched out over 39 days.

Just to recap, the chart is Ann Barson Loughbro 1837 by Plum Street. I stitched mine on 40ct Light Examplar by Lakeside Linens with the called for threads, mostly Classic Colorworks with one GAST. The chart does not offer a DMC conversion, but it does include an alternate palette to match what the original looks like now, which is also on the cover of the chart. My favorite color was, of course, Manor Red, which was used to stitch the verse.

I also spent 4 days on Luna last week, and got in about 1600 stitches. I've reached the edge of the moon, and I'm almost done with the last bits of her hair. (Not to judge, but seems to me she could use a good trim. Guess there aren't many salons up on the moon.)

As I'm working on these two columns, I'm also working on 2 different pages. So technically, I've already started the last page on this row. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I can reach that milestone. :)

I guess I'll keep it short this week. I've put a few more stitches into Favorite Bird (the big brown one) but nothing worth showing yet. I did add some colors to my Temperature Library, so I need to catch up on that. But next week, I'll be bringing out Frosty Forest for some much needed progress. Hope you all are meeting all of your stitchy goals. Until next time!

It's So Cold!

 Currently here in KC, it is -5 degrees and snowing. The high for today is 0, maybe. I don't think it's been this cold here in my lifetime, although I could be wrong. It doesn't feel like it though. I had to replace my car battery last week, and I'm hoping the new one will be ok. At least my apartment is fairly warm, and the pipes haven't frozen, thank goodness!

I didn't have the best stitchy week, but I think I had a minor cold for a while. Just a couple days of bleh and drippy nose and being very tired, but I think I'm better now. My weekly projects did suffer a bit, but I managed a little progress.

I'm still working on Ann Barson everyday. I'm not sick of her yet, but I wish I could hurry up and finish her. I did get in a page finish though, so just one more page to go:

I debated about stitching that bit of border in gold or to keep it white, but I thought, since I've stitched all of Ann's other "mistakes," I'd keep it consistent. It is a bit quirky, and I think I like it. She really did struggle with that central basket though. It's not at all symmetrical, and because it's on the page divide, I actually had to frog twice to restitch it as charted. I do wonder how Ann would feel about me restitching her mistakes. Would you cringe if someone meticulously reproduced your errors? Or would you feel vindicated, because it's just a cool hobby we do for fun? And it still looks nice. :)

Beth ended up a bit neglected this week, as I just couldn't rouse myself to stitch in the evenings. I'm blaming my cold for that. But I did get three sessions with her, and managed to stitch in the year and her age:

That green box is quite enormous. I've still got the outer color to do along the top, and then I'll let myself stitch her name. I'm kind of daunted by that, as it makes it officially hers somehow. I suppose it's been a long journey with this one, and I'm grateful to Ms. Oliver for letting me share it with her.

I spent the weekend with one of my full coverage beauties, Secluded Blue. I'm actually doing the WipGo challenge of Facebook, and her number was drawn this month, which made me very happy. I spent 5 hours working on her and managed 700 stitches:

My WipGo board is a mix of yearly goals and indulgences -- those projects that I love but might not pick up without prompting because they aren't my priority. I don't know if I'll make all my bingo's, but I'm really glad to have an excuse to spend time with my non focus pieces.

I guess that's all for now. I need to pull a few more colors for my Temperature Library, since I wasn't expecting another polar vortex. I hope you are all much warmer than I am, wherever you are. Happy stitching!

Switching Gears

 Hi all! I didn't think I'd have much to share after just one week, but I guess I was wrong. Last month, I worked almost exclusively on full coverage projects, so this month I'm focusing on a few samplers and other designs.

I kicked off the month with a new start, because how could I not start something on 2-1-21? I had originally planned to start Amethyst by Carolyn Manning, as it ties in well with February (it's the gemstone for the month) but I couldn't wait, and started that last year. So, in search of something else purple, I settled on Purple Passion by The Silver Lining. They have tons of fabulous charts for flowers, but I'm partial to purple and irises.

It's suggested to stitch this chart over 1 on 28ct, which I almost did, but in the end I went with 32ct Taupe Lugana over 2. My mother actually bought this for me a few years ago, but I was so intimidated by all the confetti (and backstitch!), it's taken me this long to start it. One of the things I love about this chart is that it's charted for both DMC and Anchor to get all the purples possible. I'm really impressed with the purple hues Anchor has to offer, and I love how this is stitching up, even if I'm stitching it really slowly. This is about 5.5 hours of work.

My focus project for this month is Ann Barson Loughbro by Plum Street. My goal is to finish her this month:

When I pulled this out last year, it felt like I had lost the love for this piece, though I don't know why. I love the verse, but stitching on her felt like a chore. So I was kind of dreading pulling her out again. But the love is back! I'm really enjoying this now, and I feel really motivated to finish, probably because I've decided to reward myself with more of Grand Vierlande if I get her done before the month is over. :)

Last, for posterity's sake, here is my Temperature Library with the January shelf all done:

I'm already excited to continue with the February shelf as it has the first of the few knickknacks that are scattered about. Also, we're in for a deep freeze this week, so I'll probably get to use my coldest colors. I may even need to add a color if it gets below 10 for a high. We'll see.

I guess that's all for this week. Next week I'll be working on Elizabeth Oliver, as I really want to get her done by the end of March. Hope you all are enduring (or enjoying) the weather wherever you are. Happy stitching!

Kickstarting 2021

 Hello all! Welcome back to another long winded stitchy ramble. :)

I don't know about you, but I love making plans, especially about cross stitch. I usually start planning for the new year around September as I'm always so anxious to see what all I can accomplish and what my goals should be. For this year, I'm actually trying to plan a bit less than my normal obsessive self would like and be a bit more flexible. It's hard. I'm one of those people who doesn't like surprises at all. I'm at my best when I have a scheduled itinerary for the day, and a nice to-do list so I can check off tasks. But last year, what I wanted to stitch started to butt heads with what I was "supposed" to stitch, and the result was usually me sulkily playing games on my tablet instead. 

So this year, I'm being more flexible. Trying to be. I haven't done my usual weekly planning of wips for the year. Instead, I'm making loose plans from month to month based on a handful of goals, and I'm letting myself be more open to changes that pop up in facebook challenges, sals, or just my whims. Right now, my plans for February are pretty solid, but I've left a little wiggle room here and there. I also have definite goals for March, but no definitive plan. But April? That's still completely open. I'm hoping I can have a bit more fun with my stitching this year and stitch on what I'm enjoying at that moment, even if that means some of my goals will not be met. Because that's ok! 

I've already embraced a bit of whimsy by taking on 2 new SALs, both completely unplanned, but both amazing projects. The first is from Quiltify Designs, called Grande Vierlande. 

When I first saw this on Etsy, I just gasped. There's something about they way those circular motifs are arranged that I absolutely love, so I had to have it. This one is a very large project at 493x467. But I think what truly makes it amazing is that you actually get 3 versions of this chart, which he's colored as Red, Blue and Green, so you can pick your favorite motifs to stitch and make your sampler truly unique. I can't imagine how much work must have gone into charting all that, but it's a fantastic concept. Of course, I haven't made near as much progress as I would've liked, but I almost got my first motif done:

My alphabet is from the Red version, as are the first 2 crowns. My first motif is from the Green version. It was really hard to pick which ones to stitch, as they are all lovely. I had some Silks4U in my stash and thought these colors worked very well together, PR132 and PR021. The design is so large, I decided to go with 46ct Latte from XJuDesigns. I know I can't keep up with the sal, but I hope to get back to this regularly.

My second sal is another temperature chart. I really liked Stitchin' Mommy's temperature tree last year, and I may do that next year, but when I saw this temperature library from Kristi's Corner Needle, I thought it was pefect:

I didn't start this until the 12th, so I'm a bit behind, but I love how this is stitching up. Some people have opted to backstitch their books to make them more distinct, but I'm rather enjoying the blobs of color at the moment. Plus, the books are usually different shapes and sizes, so telling them apart isn't difficult.

I've updated my colors a bit from the last temperature chart I did. Aren't they all so lovely? :)

I suppose I should move on and talk about what I did plan for this year. I plan to make a bit more significant progress on a few select wips. I've picked 8-10 of my full coverage pieces, and about a dozen smaller pieces. I'm hoping to get in 6 finishes this year, and maybe 15 page finishes. We'll see. To help with this goal, I've decided to have a focus project each month to work on every day. I don't think I can be monogamous, but at the same time, working long term on a project seems to make me want to stitch more on it, not less. At least, up to a point.

My first monthly project was Kabuki. I had just finished a 30 day rotation on her in December, but I really couldn't wait to pick her up again. I only worked on her for 25 days this month (12 Days of Christmas got the first 5) but I've added 2,931 stiches, and I think she's looking pretty good:

I've almost finished her neck now, just another couple rows until her kimono starts to sweep around her. Once again, I am sad to put her down, but I'm also excited to see how much progress I can make on my other projects. I'm think Kabuki will be out again in June, but no firm plans yet. :)

I've also decided to pick up one of my most neglected wips again this year (although I have quite a few, sad to say) because it just breaks my heart to see these projects languish year after year. I actually picked this up in December and got a tiny page finish, and that has helped to fuel the fire for this year. This is The Favorite Bird from Golden Kite, art by Charles Hue:

I don't really like showing this one because there's nothing to look at yet, and the camera doesn't like all those dark colors. I've started in the bottom right corner, so it's just the floor and the beginning of a couple table legs. But one has to make a start somewhere, and my brain does not like center starts on full coverage, so floor and table it is. My goal is to complete at least 4 pages this year, although I might aim for 9. I've already completed 1 page and started a second, but I doubt this will be out every month since I'll still be focusing on Luna. It'll be a push, but I do love this image, so I think a push is needed.

I haven't decided yet if I'll be focusing on Favorite Bird every year now or if I'll rotate through my other neglected wips. I do have quite a few that are calling to me. I'll likely set a certain goal for each project and rotate when that's done. Probably. Which one would you work on if you were me?

I hope you are are making some good stitchy progress. Until next time!

A Brief, Belated Farewell to 2020

 I know yearly summaries should be accomplished at the end of the year, but here we are, almost done with January, and I'm just now getting around to mine. I feel like time has turned into an express train and I keep waiting for it to stop. Oh well. I don't want to spend too much time going over everything I've done for the year, but I thought I'd mention a couple highlights, and document a few statistics since I like keeping track of those.

My big goal for 2020 was to stitch on all of my wips at least once. I didn't quite succeed, but it was so close, I'm considering it a success. My main reason for doing this was to reacquaint myself with all of them and figure out if any should be ufo'd or become more of a focus. I'm really glad I did that, because I did have a few surprises, and that has helped me rearrange some goals for this year.

I started 2020 with 66 wips (I think) and, after a bit of lockdown madness that started in April and somehow managed to reverberate through the rest of the year, I finished with 77 active wips, 2 finishes, and 6 ufos. Out of all these wips, there were only 3 that I wasn't able to stitch on, and 2 of those became ufos. So, pretty much a success.

Because of the quarantine, I was able to have a very good stitching year. My total stitches for 2020 came to 153,622. (I should mention, I do count tent stitches as 1 stitch.) I think this is my highest total yet. My total time came to 792.4 hours, and I managed to stitch 355 days for the year. Not too shabby.

While I would love to show you all the progress I made on each of my 77 wips, I know that's impossible for one post. But I would like to highlight a few favorites. First up, as always, is Luna:

I had really hoped to finish off the row for the year, but that just didn't happen. But I did manage to add 20,500 stitches to this beauty, so she wasn't too neglected. She's still a focus piece for 2021, so we'll see if I can make up for my lack of progress.

Next is Elizabeth Oliver by Moira Blackburn, I've decided to gift this to my mother this May, which means I need to hurry up and finish her. I'm definitely getting closer:

I've really enjoyed stitching on this one, and I'll miss her when she's done. For the year, I put in 14,899 stitches. Yes, she really is big.

My New Year's start actually became one of my favorites as well, even though I'm only stitching the carpet at the moment. I've loved this image for so long, that may be part of the reason. This is absolute confetti with blended threads, but it's hard to put her down once I've started. This is The Fireplace, art by James Tissot, chart by Golden Kite. (Please excuse the messy threads and terrible lighting):

I've nicknamed this one Sofie, as sort of an homage to Georgette Heyer and her book The Grand Sophy. (My Sofie looks pretty grand too, right?) I wish I had picked this one up a few more times, but I'm glad I got as much progress as I did. Total stitches so far is 8872.

Last, I will show what is probably my oldest wip, Kabuki from Mystic Stitch. I spent a few months watching all of Kim Hollenback's flosstube videos, and she really inspired me to try to make more progress on at least some of my full coverage wips. To that end, I challenged myself to work on Kabuki for 30 days straight with the goal of at least 50 stitches per day. It's not a lot, but it's more than nothing:

I did my 30 day challenge from mid November through mid December, so she got a total of 53 days progress. I managed 2909 stitches in those 30 days, and 6270 for the year. I was really surprised at how much I've enjoyed working on her, as this is a pretty difficult chart. But it was hard to put her down at the end of those 30 days. I've actually picked her up again this month, but that will have to wait for another update.

Hopefully, I can get back on track this year with my updates. (If I can tear myself away from stitching to do so.) Wishing you all the best for 2021. Happy stiching!