Finish #2!

Hi guys! I'm back with my second finish of the year! Can you believe it? :)

This is a Lizzie Kate called When We Do. I stitched it for a friend's birthday in May, so I've got a while to find a frame for it. I'll likely have one custom made since the dimensions are so small. This was my February start for Stitch Maynia's Year of Starts. It took me just seven days to stitch, 7.5 hours total. I did make a counting error with one of the leaves on the rose, but I don't think I'll change it. (I'm so lazy!)

I have also finally, after much kicking and screaming whining and complaining, managed to finish my teensy tiny partial page for Euphoria:

That little point is the beginning of a leaf. I really wanted to stitch the next page where the rest of that leaf lives, but I just couldn't get my mojo going on her this year, so I've put her away for now. Next time! That leaf will appear! I know it's a lot of mindless pink, but there actually is a slight color change toward the top of the page, like an ombre into a slightly lighter pink. It's working up toward her shoulder, and eventually to that large trumpet flower there. But alas, that is far, far in the future. Still, looking ahead gives me impetus for the present. :)

Since I was struggling so long with Euphoria, that put me off track on Luna as well, so I'm still shy a page finish there. Hopefully that will change in the next few days. (I'm sure it will.) This next week will be difficult at work though. I've been expecting to train a few co-workers on our new program for a while now. Friday, I found out I have to give three or four separate classes, stretched across three or four days next week. Talking for several hours is not my norm and it tends to wear me out, so I hope I'm not too tired in the evenings to stitch.

For March, Stitch Maynia is having a mythology stitch along. So of course, I have to stitch on Cassiopeia! I've missed her so much, so I'll be happy to get her out again. It's really shameful how long these projects are taking me!

In the meantime, I'll leave you with my Temperature SAL charts. Can you see the new color?

Yay, it's yellow-green! We saw the highest temperature of the year so far (66) right before three days of ice, sleet, rain, and ice. But I was glad to stitch with something a little different. I also got to start a new round on the ornament. It's really starting to grow! :)

That's all I got for this week. Until next time, happy stitching!

My (Belated) 2016 Review, Part One

Whew! I had a lot going on in 2016, including a lot of stitchy stuff. Moving took up a big chunk of my year, (which is why this is a bit late), and there've been some family issues as well, though nothing too serious. It's just been a lot of a lot. I'm still trying to get things back to "normal," which at the moment means getting totally unpacked. Plans kind of fell apart mid December, so it'll be a while. Plus, I'd rather stitch than organize, so all those boxes will just have to wait. :)

So at last, here is my review! It's going to be a long one -- so long I've broken it up into two parts. I had 30 active projects last year, including 19 new starts (went a little crazy), but also 3 finishes! I am a notorious list maker and stitch counter, so I'll start off by dazzling you with my stitchy stats for last year. Ready? Ok!

All told, I did 131,496 stitches last year. Can you believe it? I can't. I never thought I'd do over 100k. I've had a busy needle, I guess. Part of that is doing lots of tent stitches instead of full crosses. Part is also due to my early morning stitching before work. Usually I only get an hour in the mornings, but I guess I'm a fast stitcher (?) as I can usually do 200 to 250 stitches in that hour, so even a few days a week can really add up.

I also know I've stitched about 623.85 hours last year, so my average is 210.8 stitches per hour. Sounds about right. I didn't manage to stitch every day (only managed 10 days in December) but for the year, I stitched 303 days. I would like to stitch every day this year, but over 300 is still pretty good.

I've got more detailed lists and spreadsheets with even more stats, but I don't think any normal people care about all that. You want pictures, right? Right! So here's all my wips carried over from 2015:

First is Pavonia. I had hoped to do so much more on her, but I got kind of overwhelmed by the confetti and had to set her aside. I did manage to get one section done though, and was very happy to get one of her eyes done:

Moon Indigo was a focus piece this year, so I tried to work on her every month. I really wanted to get that last column finished in 2016, but just couldn't make it. Still, I pretty much met my goal with her, finishing up pages 6, 7 and 8, and starting page 9:

Scale is a lot of fun, but can also be a lot of work with all that white! In the end I just powered through it and finished off two more pages this year. My mother now calls this one "Big Nose":

Euphoria is one of my easiest wips, with just 3 colors in the skin, plus she's tent stitched. I finally got part of that flower stitched this year, so it's not quite so boring to look at:

Wisdom is one of my favorites, but I just can't seem to get going on her. I did manage to finish page 1, but not the page beneath it. Halfway is still good though:

Madchen is nothing but sky at the moment, but there's more of it now than in 2015:

Flora saw a good deal of progress this year as I finished off 3 more pages (one was really small though). The bottom two rows are now complete:

Kabuki was kind of forgotten about halfway through the year. I had hoped to get her face done, but the chart is tricky to read, and she's not always fun to work on. But she will be back in 2017:

Favorite Bird is my biggest wip, so I should really try for more progress. But 3 pages last year is good enough for now. But I'm going to be stitching floor for a while:

Cassiopeia is another that wasn't picked up as much as I wanted. She is so easy and relaxing to work on, and I love those colors. Managed to get the bottom border done, and have just started working on her couch:

Tigers was my oldest wip, an old kit from Nature's Window. I was so happy to finally get it finished last year! Yes, it's still sitting in a drawer, but it is still a finish:

So that's it for all my older wips. The only wip that did not see progress was White Queen, which is a little sad. But I will try again this year.

All my other projects were new starts last year, which I'll save for part two of this post, in a day or three. Hope everyone is having a good stitchy year so far! Until next time! :)

March WIPocalypse

Hello again!

This will be a rather iterative post as I've just posted progress for IHSW this weekend, but more pictures can't be a bad thing, I think. :)

This month, I've managed a page (and row) finish on Moon Indigo . . .

Another page finish on Euphoria (featuring part of a flower) . . .

And some progress on Cassiopeia (almost to the edge of her dress).

The decision to stitch another page on Euphoria was a bit impulsive, but I'm glad I did it. Now I finally have more than a pink blob to show as progress! :) Since February is over, I can now report that my total stitches for that month was a staggering 16,327! Half of that was on Euphoria, as those tent stitches go really quick (especially when two of those pages only had 3 colors). I forgot to mention it last post, but January was also a good stitching month (since I was lounging around in my jammies the whole time) with 13,048 stitches. So I'm already a third of the way toward my yearly stitching goal! Now let's hope I can keep it up. :)

This month's question is: Do you use hoops, stretcher bars, lap stands or Q snap frames and why?
First: yes, no, yes and yes.
Second: I use whatever tools make it easier to stitch, which varies depending on my project and my mood. When I first started Luna (and Scale, and Wisdom) I used a hoop so I could stitch in my room at my desk. For a while, I switched Scale to Q snaps, along with a floor stand to hold her. When I stitch on Favorite Bird, that is also done in my Q snap, because the fabric is too large for anything else. But my preferred method by far is stitching on scroll frames. I like having the whole project neatly rolled onto the bars, not bunched up like on my Q snaps or hoops. I also like having a whole section of my piece visible and easy to work on, so I can range across a whole row if I want without having to stop and readjust. And, because I generally work strait across, there is that special moment when you get to roll the fabric further. :)

I haven't used stretcher bars because I'm too lazy to deal with all the pins, and I don't like square pointy frames. I've never stitched in hand either, as I'm too worried I'll mess up the tension. But I would encourage everyone to try different methods, and stick with what works for you.

I'm going to stop there, as I could wax on about stitching styles for days, and that would be tedious to read, I think. Can't wait to see what everyone else is stitching! Until next time. :)

March IHSW

It felt so good to be hermiting again this weekend! Many thanks to our wonderful hostess at Random Ramblings for continuing this happy sal. :)

I worked on two projects this weekend, Luna and Euphoria. I don't think I got a whole lot done, but I did manage to reach a milestone on each. First, I'm doing a mini happy dance for Luna, as I've managed to complete the first row! So happy about this. Here's before and after:

It was just the last 1000 stitches or so, but it did seem to take forever. Probably because I was a little sick this week (but ok now). Sad to say, but in 8 years of stitching BAPs, this is only the second project I have with a complete row finish. Guess that shows what a serial starter I am. :)

It was hard not to continue to the next row immediately, but I was determined to finish the next page of Euphoria, which was also close to being done. Here's the (messy) before and after:

Not just solid pink anymore! That bit of white is the tip of the first flower hanging over her shoulder. Surprising just how long that flower really is; I don't think this bit is even half of it. But it does help to break up the monotony.

This next bit isn't exactly stitching related, but I think it's pretty, so I'm gonna share. As I am finally well enough to sit at my sewing machine again, I've been practicing quilting designs to finish off a quilt I'm making for a friend. I'm still debating, but I might have settled on this design:

This was my first attempt, which did get easier as I found my rhythm. (Can you tell which half I did first?) I found a tutorial for this here if you want to try it. I have never done a branching pattern before, but it's a lot of fun, and I love the results. I'm trying a larger sample now to see if I can really do this on a full size quilt. It's tricky (especially seeing where I'm going with all those branches) but I might be able to pull it off.

Well, that's all for now. Hope everyone else has had a lovely stitchy weekend. Until next time!

February WIPocalypse

Hello again! Well, it's almost an end to the second month of the year, and so far I've been stitching like crazy. I've managed to meet two of my goals for the year so far, and I've made progress on a couple others. I posted the page finish for Mädchen Am Strand and progress on Kabuki last month. This month I've been working on Moon Indigo and Wisdom, and have met my stitching goal for Euphoria, which now has three finished pages:

Even though this meets my goal for the year, I'm kind of bored with having just skin to look at, so I'll probably forge on to the next page soon, where a bit of flower breaks the monotony. If you've got a keen eye, you might spot its shadow at the extreme left edge of the left page.

I also managed to finish page 6 on Luna a few weeks ago, and have made a bit of progress onto page 7, which is the last in the row:

Looking forward to finishing this page soon, as I can't wait to get to the next row! :)

I've decided to keep my little Wips graphic and cross off each goal as it's met, so here's where I am so far -- 2 down, 12 to go:

This has really helped to keep me focused so far, and helped with planning which project to work on next. Hopefully I will get to cross them all off my list by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!

This month's question is: If you have any of your pieces on display in your home which attracts the most plaudits?

Truth be told, I only have four pieces on display, and three are from the 90s. So at present, it's my most recent piece that gets all the attention, and that's the Green Fern Fairy I finished about a year ago. But I can show her off again, no problem! :)

I still love the way she sparkles every time I see her, like she's winking hello. :)

That's all from me for now. Until next time!

April WIPocalypse

Hi all! March was a really slow stitching month for me, and as of right now, I don't have a single stitch in for April. Not a good sign. But I do have something to show for my WIPocalypse darlings, which I didn't neglect too much...

First up is Pavonia, who is filling in a little bit.

Pavonia, March 31

I've been trying to balance the confetti with the filler colors, and it's working nicely so far.
March Goal: 1,550 stitches. Actual progress: 1,309 stitches.
Target Total: 4,030 stitches. Actual total: 4,018 stitches.
Didn't meet my goal this month, but I'll blame that on my new start. Still, I'm only 12 stitches down for the year so far, so that's not so bad.

As for my Lovely Luna (aka Moon Indigo) I've changed things up a bit. Instead of stitching my usual columns, I'm stitching page 4 in pieces. The page is divided neatly into thirds for sky, moon, sky, so that's kind of the way I'm sewing it. It's hard to explain with words. Here's a pic!

Moon Indigo, March 28

I think it's helped speed things up a little to focus on one set of colors at a time, but I doubt I'll continue this method beyond this page. But who knows. I tend to adapt my sewing method to the situation at hand.
March Goal: 2,616 stitches. Actual progress: 2,870 stitches.
Target Total: 8,502 stitches. Actual total: 7,795 stitches.
Still 700 stitches away from my year to date goal, but again, I'll blame that on my new start. :)

And now for the troublemaker herself, here's my progress on Euphoria.

Euphoria, March 28

This was my special new start to celebrate Spring. I had hoped to get in 10 days of stitching before the end of the month, but only managed 7. Since I've started at the bottom right, there won't be anything but skin for a while, but if you squint a bit, you might see a darker patch at the top of the second page. That's the shadow of one of the leaves on the row above, and it's the only bit of variance until I hit a flower two pages further on. Though I had hoped for more progress, I think this monotony is one reason why I didn't pick her up so much. She doesn't have a yearly goal, but for the short time I worked on her, I managed 3,510 stitches! I suppose that makes up a little bit for my other shortages.

And yes, that's my weird sideways parking technique I use when tent stitching. I never said I made sense to anyone besides myself, but it does tend to help keep page and column separations from being noticeable.

And of course, here's this month's question: Which specialty stitches do you love doing on projects? Which do you dread?

Unfortunately, I haven't done many special stitches beyond the basics. (I have a Chatelaine planned, but that's far in the future.) There was one project I did several years ago that had a handful of specialty bands with smyrnas and wheat stitches (also called partial rhodes stitch), and I loved every bit of it, though I thought the thread consumption was appalling. Still, it's fun to use the grid of fabric in new ways, and the end result was fabulous.

When I was in high school, I used to dread french knots and lazy daisy stitches, and avoided them at all cost. In fact, there's a project I made for my mother with a little poem in the center, and none of the I's are dotted because I just knew I'd mess up those french knots. Then I did a project that had lazy daisies, and it just wouldn't look right without them, so I forced myself to practice. I found they weren't so bad afterall, and could even get them to lay just the way I wanted them. Then I thought, if I can master these, surely I can conquer the dreaded french knots! So I practiced, realized I'd been reading the instructions wrong (those pesky days before the internet) and soon got the hang of them. Now they're not trouble at all. So I guess you could say I love all specialty stitches (so far) and have learned not to dread any of them, as they just require patience and practice. :)

I guess that's all for now. Hopefully things will settle down for me soon so I can get back to my full stitching schedule. Wishing everyone good progress! Until next time!

March IHSW

Hi all! It feels like ages since I've updated, but March has been a busy (and unfortunately, not very stitchy) month so far. But now Spring is here, and I've got a new start to celebrate! It was a perfect way to spend my IHSW.

My new start is a HAED chart called Euphoria, by artist Melanie Delon, whose work I've come to admire. She seems to specialize in ethereal, fantasy portraits of ladies (my favorite subject) and I'm hoping several more of her works get charted.

I'm stitching this one on 28ct Baby Pink Cashel linen, 2 over 1, using tent stitch. Here are pics of what she'll look like finished, plus my progress so far.

Don't she look sweet?

Progress as of March 22

I've started on the bottom right, so I'll be sewing nothing but skin for a while. I was hoping for a page finish this weekend, but couldn't quite manage. But thanks to the tent stitching and a mere 3 colors on this page, I did manage about 2,150 stitches. Not bad for three days work. :)

I'll be continuing on this one through the end of the month, and possibly until I finish this page and the next. She's 96 pages total, so it'll be a while before I get to those gorgeous eyes of hers. Something to look forward to, I guess.

Wishing everyone good luck and good progress. Until next time!