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! :)

December Wrap Up

Hey guys! December was another all over the place kind of month for me and I've got another ton of projects to share. I hope I can keep them all straight. ;)

First, I managed to meet my goal with Elizabeth Oliver, and I finished off another row:

This one took a lot longer than expected. That tall plant alone took about 4 hours to stitch. I don't know if I'm that slow or if she's just that big. She is now technically halfway done, but realistically, that house is gonna take forever! Still, I'm aiming to get the next row of pages done next year.

I've been trying to work on my Marquise de Caumont a few days every month, so I've managed to finish 3 pages this year. It's still all background though, which is why I never show her:

I really like stitching this diagonally, as it keeps it from being too boring. One more row would actually start the top of her head, but I think I'm gonna dip down to the second row and keep working on the background for now. I'm still organizing her threads, so sticking to the background is super easy.

I can't remember the last time I've shown my Angel of Grace. I do know I've neglected her again this year (a sad affair that will likely continue) but I've managed to finish off this middle section that I've been stitching on for three years. (Can you sense the eye roll there?):

I'm not sure when I'll get around to making her a focus piece (maybe 2021?) so I'll just keep plodding along on her for a while. It would be nice to finish off the bottom section next year. sigh

I don't think I've ever shown my Palazzo con Personaggi. This is a massive Golden Kite design that I started back in May 2017. Unfortunately, that was just before a lot of major life stuff happened, so I just got around to a page finish this year:

I started on page 96 for some strange reason, which is the top of the bench on the left side. I don't expect I'll ever finish this design, but I'd really like to stitch the woman in green and the man in blue next to her. If you look closely, you can just make out the edges of the lady's fan and her sleeve.

On Christmas Eve, I pulled out my Chatelaine again. I don't know why, but I always want to work on it this time of year. I had a goal to finish part 1 this year, but then I haven't touched it since January. But I was a lot closer than I thought, and now I've got a good start on part 2:

The funny thing is, part 1 still isn't done. I just need to backstitch the leaves around the lily pads in the middle, and then there's another border outline to do. But since that is intertwined with part 2, I'm just stitching them together. And who wants to backstitch when there's so much awesome stitching to do? Hopefully I can finish off part 2 next year, and then the really fun stuff will begin. :)

The last thing I want to share may be kind of surprising, especially if you've been following me for a while. Back in 2016, I started a really awesome design by Omar Rayyan called Crystals & Crows from HAED. I couldn't decide if I wanted to stitch it on 18ct Aida or 25ct Lugana. I went with 18ct, which seemed fine, but as the years have passed, I've kept thinking how blurry the design was looking. Going back to it in November, I just felt really dissatisfied, so I thought, why continue if it makes me frown every time I see it? So, I restarted it:

18ct version

25ct version

I had around 12,000 stitches in on the 18ct, which was about 3 years of stitching, so it will take me a while to get back to where I was. However, I have no regrets about the restart. I do wish I had gone with 25ct the first time, but I think the confetti would have overwhelmed me. Stitching diagonally, the confetti makes it slow for sure, but it's relatively easy for me, and it keeps everything nice and tidy. The image is still a bit blurry -- it's just part of the design -- but I definitely think it looks better, and I'm enjoying it more. But maybe I'm just biased. :)

Wow! I really need to stop making these posts 10 miles long! Hopefully I'll get better at that next year. I hope to have a goals update soon -- if I can decide what to start on January 1st. :) Happy Stitching!

October Wrap Up

Hi guys! Got a lot to share this week, I almost don't know where to begin. Guess I'll start with last week's focus piece, which was Autumn Fraktur by Plum Street:

My, how that little plant did grow! :) I feel like this has sort of been a year of Plum Street for me, but I really love her designs. The only thing "bad" about them (not that I would change it) is that they take a little longer to stitch because of all the little details that require stop and start stitching. Like those little dark bits on the acorns, for example. I do a pin stitch for all of those because I don't like to carry thread (unless it's full coverage) so they took a while to complete, but I love the end result. I was happy to get the bird started as well. It feels like I'm stitching him a nice fair isle vest. I'm stitching this with one thread on 36ct, so the coverage is a little sparse, but not too bad.

Now for my full coverage pieces. As always, I stitched two more columns on Moon Indigo, so I was able to complete the moon (at least for the time being):

I'm definitely going to finish the row this year, but I'm going to try and push myself and see if I can get a start on the next row this year as well. Three more pages and I'll get to start on her wings! It's a ways off, but I can't wait to see what they look like stitched up.

My other focus piece for October was supposed to be Crystals and Crows, but you probably already know about my little distraction that interrupted that plan. Nevertheless, I was able to get a good bit done, about 2,000 stitches altogether:

You might notice I started page 3 stitching cross country, but decided to try out diagonal stitching on this project as well. I wasn't sure if I would like it since there's quite a bit more confetti in this chart, but I liked it much more than expected, and over all, I think I'm a little faster at stitching this way (at least on this chart) although the EZPdf app is helping a lot, too. I've already got a wing done of that pale green butterfly, and it keeps calling for me to finish it. So maybe I'll get in a few more stitches in November.

As for my distraction, aka the Marquise, I managed to reach the bottom of page 1, though I am halfway across the top of page 2:

I'm going to stop these diagonals with the first row of pages, otherwise it would be too difficult to stitch, but I like the way it's shaping up so far. Each diagonal will have 670 stitches now until the end of the row, and I really like just working my way down them. It's kind of addictive, actually. I'm hoping to finish off page 1 completely this month, which means 4 diagonals. I hope nothing else comes along to distract me. :)

Last but not least, here are my Temperature charts, all done through October:

You can see we're cooling down quite a bit, with lots of green (finally!) and a little blue. I think this is how April should have looked, but it just kept snowing! On the ornament chart, I've finished off the alphabet round, and now I'm on a round of diamonds. There's only one round after this one, but each side will represent one day, for the last four days of the year. It's strange to think I've only got two months left on these projects, but I'm looking forward to seeing them completed. The average temperature for October was 65.8°F, which is 704, the lime green which is hard to see in these pictures.

Whew! That's all for now. I'm hoping I can stay this productive through the end of the year -- it's a good distraction from online shopping. :) Happy stitching everyone!

Hocus Pocus, and Other Musings

Hello again! It's finally October, so I have officially started my Fall stitching, because there are some projects that just begged to be worked on this time of year. Unfortunately, we've had almost non stop rain for several days now, so my pictures aren't very vibrant. But if you ever drop by Kansas City, I'll be happy to show them to you in person. :)

First up, I worked on Hocus Pocus by Prairie Schooler. I started this one last October, but my stitching was off that week and I didn't get very far. I'm happy to say that was not the case this year, and I'm pleased with my bit of progress:

That moon took a fair bit of stitching to finish off, but I love the result. He's so jovial! That's the start of the cat on the right, but at the moment it looks more like a sort of demon. Which I like. :) The only thing I may change about this pattern is the orange. On the model, it's a bright, lovely orange, but the called for color just fades into the background, not bright at all. Definitely have to do something about that.

I'm also happy to show off a page finish on Crystals and Crows, so have a look at a crow's tail:

It took about 3 hours to finish off those last 400 or so stitches. To say that this chart is confettilicious is almost an understatement. But I really love the end result. This photo is really washed out, but I think I stared at all the blues in that crow's tail for 10 minutes once it was done. :) I'm still hoping to make it halfway through page 3 by month's end, but it's definitely slow going.

I didn't show my Temperature charts last time because I wanted to finish off September. It's done now, so let's have a look:

September was kind of a funny month. At first, it started to cool down quite a bit, and I thought I'd get into some nice greens for a while. Then it's like Mother Nature heard everyone complaining about the end of summer and decided to give it one last go. Then the day before Autumn, summer abruptly relented, and we eventually got into the 60s, which is that light green at the bottom. But now you see October's antics? It was 91° on the 3rd, 65° on the 4th. We'll just see how the month goes. :) The average for September was 80.3°, which is about the same as May.

Some of you may remember there's a SAL for all the Hawk Run Hollow charts going on this month. I had originally planned on joining in with Christmas, but I wanted to tweak some of the colors first, and I'm still not sure how I want to go about it. I'd like to do it in silks, but I can only afford a few at a time, so it takes a while to kit up that way. But I just wasn't happy with some of the DMC colors.

Anyway, I really want to start another project on the 18th: Jack's Bash by Plum Street. I've seen a lot of people stitching it recently, and it was one of the first Plum Street charts I bought. So I'm really looking forward to it. If anyone else has this chart, you should stitch it with me! That would be fun! :)

Well, I think I've rambled enough for today. Hope you are all enjoying stitching in the new season. Until next time!

Jack's Bash by Plum Street Samplers

Trying Really Hard

Hey stitchers! This year has been off to such a rocky start, I feel like I'm still spinning in circles, trying to find my direction. Moving in with extended family has its own headaches, but I still haven't had time to get things set up just right, including my main stitchy spot. But I am slowly getting there, and things are beginning to settle down. My mother injured her knee just before Christmas, but now she's well enough for physical therapy and she is finally able to walk with just a cane! So that makes a huge difference in how much I do for her, and gives me lots more time to stitch. :)

I've kinda been all over the place with stitching, but I've managed some decent progress on a few projects. I never got around to solidifying my goals for this year, but there is one goal I hope to stick to. I've decided to try and stitch Every Single Day this year, even if it's only 30 stitches. After barely stitching at all last Autumn, I feel like I lost a lot of potential progress, even if I'd only managed 10 minutes of work. So, this year, it's stitch every day! I've already had a couple nights where it's the last 10 minutes before bed, but I feel so much better the next day, knowing I made that small effort.

So, February started off with Flora, though I only managed 4 days of stitching. Last time I focused on the purple iris, so this time it was the pink shawl. There's also a pink/red flower toward the top that's slowly taking shape:

I also pulled out Crystals and Crows, which has been calling to me since last year. This project is so large, it's difficult to get it all set up, but I managed to put a pretty big dent in the sky on page 2, with a little bit trailing into page 3:

I really love that hint of lavender at the top. The colors are blending so beautifully together. There's a lot of sky on this page, so I hope I can get through it fairly quickly and make a start on page 3 later this year. But we'll see. It still amazes me that the original version was done in watercolor.

My Geometric Bunny saw a week of progress, and is now doing a fair imitation of a chipmunk. :)

This one is very relaxing to stitch, and feels good on a stressful day. All the symmetry and solid blocks makes it so easy, I'm gonna miss him when he's done. But that's still a ways away.

Angel of Grace also got 4 days of work, though I was sick for two of those days. However, yesterday turned out to be a really good stitchy day, my first all year I think, so that kind of made up for a bad week. I worked mostly on the flare of dress to the left, and I'm close to finishing some of those pretty pleats and ruffles:

I am so tempted to keep working on this project! I may keep her out a few more days, we'll see. The dress is supposed to be edged with DMC Metallic gold, but since no one has ever had a kind word for that thread, I want to substitute in something else. I thought of using Kreinik, but now I'm thinking Petit Treasure Braid? (I've never used that.) Only they have so many shades of gold! So now I get to have fun picking and choosing, which give this project an added personal touch and makes it even harder to put down. But alas, other projects are calling...

Luna got some love as well, but I think I'll save her for WIPocalypse so you don't get sick of tiny bits of blue. I've been struggling with my Stitchrovia SAL though, since it was an unplanned project. (I haven't even started the quotes yet!) Hopefully in March I can get my act together. I'll also be pulling out Scale pretty soon, as I've really started to miss her. Hopefully I can get another two pages done this year and finish off her lips. :)

In the meantime, I've been kitting up a new project. Another Massive project. And yes, it's a Golden Kite.

This is Palazzo Con Personaggi. It is 896x654, or 585,984 stitches. I plan to tent stitch this on 25ct Magic Guide. I don't know that I'll ever finish it, which I'm fine with, but I really want to start and at least stitch that couple on the left, the woman seated in green, and the man standing in dark blue. I think just those two take up 30 pages or so, but the pages are half the size of a regular HAED. So, for the last couple weeks, I've been slowly amassing materials and making lists of symbols for my Pako organizers, which really help in sorting those blended threads. I had about half the floss on hand, and thanks to a very convenient sale at Joann's, I now have the rest. So now I am slowly bobbinating before I start snipping lengths of thread and filling needles. It's a very labor intensive process, but very worth it once I begin stitching. If you're curious, I'll try to show more of my setup process in a later post. :)

Well, I think I've rambled enough for one post. Thanks for reading. Until next time!

It's a Twofer!

Hi all!

Didn't have much to show last week, but now I have not one, but two page finishes to show off! :) I am super happy about these, since they are on my most confetti heavy projects.

First, Pavonia, who was very near a finish before WIPocalypse:

Her eye is completely finished! Love how this turned out, with all the subtle shading. Those shadows are so dark, it was hard to see anything for the longest time. But now it's perfect! It does look kind of odd, since there's no highlight in her eye (I'm too used to anime, I think) but that should look better once the full face is in -- many, many years from now. ;) I am happy to be out of the feathers for a while and have three pages of hair to look forward to, which is not quite so confetti heavy.

Next, I spent last week on Crystals and Crows, which hasn't been worked on since April. This one put up a real fight, but I managed to get the first page done:

Love how those branches turned out, and how they're twisting around each other. Those darker colors really brought the page into focus, and I can't wait to do more. It will probably be a while though. I'm heading across to page two next; after that, I may work down, as I really love all that foliage. And just a random bit of info: page one had 97 colors, out of the total 237. :)

What I did not make much progress on was my Tigers, which only got four days last week:

I had hoped to get much farther on the faces, but there is more stitching there than I realized. More confetti too, though it's not too bad. Though it's sometimes hard to see around all the backstitch lines (there are a ton!). And of course, all the white stitching around the eyes isn't showing up, but it's there. Don't think I'll manage a finish next month, but September for sure! :)

Now, about that WIPocalypse Olympic Challenge... I was undecided before, but now I am committed to give it a go. And I think I'll try the rotation challenge and the distance challenge, since I'm a bit behind on Scale, and she could use the attention. Since I'll be taking most of my rotation pieces to work with me, I might throw in a couple new starts (though I've already made a few this month). So you'll get to see all my smaller pieces that aren't in my normal rotation. Hopefully I can put in at least an hour on each every day. That should show some progress.

Not sure how I'll be updating, as I don't want to save them all for the end. Maybe weekly? Or every few days? How often would you all like to read my ramblings? ;)

Well, that's all for now. I'll be getting back to Flora next week, and she'll be the first of my Challenge wips. This should be lots of fun.

Until next time. Happy 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!