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! :)

Quarantine Stitching

Hello everyone! I managed to settle in and do some focus stitching this past week, so I'm back with some finishes!

First, I finished another block on Sheep Virtues:

That half finished border on block #5 kept taunting me, so I had to pick this up again. Also, it's the only block with a black sheep and a little house, so I really wanted to stitch it. Isn't it so cute? :)

Kingbird by Tellin Emblem is a fairly small chart, but somehow I dragged it out for 2 years. But now he's finally done!

I stitched this on 32ct Raw Belfast with the called for DMC. There are a ton of colors, but they're also used in the companion piece, Grosbeak. (I'll be stitching that at some point, but not this year.) These charts come with a button that goes inside a stitched outline, but I chose to stitch my initials there instead. I didn't really take the time to chart them out so they're very close together, but I kind of like the way they flow into each other.

I'm still playing catch up with Moon Indigo, but I'm making progress. This week I finished off page 18 and stitched the first column on page 19:

Her chest and arms are finally complete! There was so much confetti in these two columns it really slowed me down, but I love the results. I particularly like the lace edging on her dress. I can actually see the pattern in there. Now I have lots of her hair to stitch as well as her other wing.

I found out last week that my work will be closed until further notice, which will likely be 3 more weeks (but who knows). I've been buying so much stuff while I've been off, I have enough kitted up to do a proper Maynia. I don't think I'll be doing that, but I do have several new starts planned in May (cuz it's my birthday month!). I'm starting another HAED soon, plus two huge samplers. I figure I've got to start all the baps now so maybe I can finish some of them in my lifetime. And besides, it's fun!

Hope you are are staying healthy and well. Keep stitching! Until next time!

2019 Review

Hello again and welcome! My reviews are more statistics than pictures, but feel free to skip the reading and just look at the pretties. :) I have so many wips, it would be impossible for me to do before and after on all of them; however, I did make a concerted effort to update all of my wip pics, so just look under Wips and More Wips to check out all 70(!) of my lovelies.

For 2019, my stitching resolution was to have more finishes than starts for the year, and I managed it! Here were my 5 project finishes:
#1) and #2) My temperature charts for 2018:

These felt like cheating since there were only a few days to fill in on each, but they still count. :)
#3) Stars by The Drawn Thread:

Loved stitching this with silks and all those specialty stitches!
#4) and #5): Two charts by Little House Needleworks, A Stitchers Prayer and The Virtue Sampler:

I also had 6 finishes between the Frosty Forest series and Sheep Virtues:

It feels pretty good to say I finished off 9 charts in 2019. I also had 9 page finishes on various full coverage projects. I only had 3 new starts for the year (compared to 28 in 2018). Stitching time was super scarce in July and August, but I still managed 109,690 stitches for the year which I think is really good. My total stitching time was 536.7 hours, quite a drop from last year's 765.3. Also, out of 75 wips, I only managed to work on 39 of them, so there's still lots of room for improvement.

As always, here is a look at my Luna for the year:

I ended up about 4 columns short of where I'd hoped to be for the year, but I did manage to make up a lot of missed stitching in November. I'm still hoping to finish off the row in 2020, which means almost 29,000 stitches. Wish me luck!

For 2020, I've got 5 starts planned, but I may add a few more. However, I really enjoyed focusing on current wips (for the most part) in 2019, so I'm trying to find a balance between the old and the new. My stitching resolution for 2020 is to work on all of my wips at least once. I think it's time I got reacquainted with some of my older wips and perhaps reevaluate my rotation. We'll see.

I'll leave you with a little teaser of my planned starts. Since it seems I've been thoroughly bitten by the sampler bug, I'm starting a bunch of huge ones all at once (typical Imp Stitcher fashion). I actually took some money out of savings to indulge in a couple silk kits (from Sassy Jacks Stitchery) and I'm slowly kitting up a few other lovelies. So here are the first three:

That's Anne Thomas and Ann Uffindell from Hands Across the Sea, and Ann Dale from Shakespeare's Peddler. I kitted both HAtS samplers with 46ct fabric and will be using 100/3 silks for the first time. (I hope it's nice!) Ann Dale is on 40ct with the called for NPI, plus a couple Gloriana and a Belle Soie. I really can't wait to dive in to all this luxury! I'm starting Ann Uffindell on February 29th, a special date for a special sampler. The other two will begin in May.

I think that's all for my review! Thank you to all who read and follow this blog. 2019 was a year of transition for me, and I feel like I'm still trying to find my footing. Wishing everyone all the best for 2020! Happy stitching!

July thru October

Catching up is hard. It's so hard I've been putting it off for a while, which only makes it harder.

Hi all! Long time no see. I can barely remember what I've blogged about so far this year, so I guess I'll just dive right in and start rambling. It was a crazy summer. I've moved. My mother sold two houses and bought a new one. She also had knee replacement surgery. Her new husband fell twice and broke several parts of his anatomy (but he's all healed now). And overtime at work didn't end until September 28th. So I've been a bit worn out.

My stitching progress overall hasn't been that spectacular, but I actually did manage a few finishes, all from Little House Needleworks. The first is the Virtue Sampler, which I kind of picked up and didn't put down back in August. So in 12 days, I went from here:

to here:

This one took 22 days total, and was pretty fun to stitch. I used all the called for colors on 32ct Limestone Belfast from Zweigart. I haven't framed it yet, but I suppose I should pretty soon. :)

My other finishes were from the Sheep Virtues series. I finished Love on August 2nd and finished Peace October 25th. So far, each of these has taken 7 days to stitch.

It's nice to have the first three of these done. Maybe I'll just do 3 a year. No rush, right?

My stitching has been really off since I moved (only managed 1691 stitches in July) and my rotation went out the window, but things are beginning to get back to normal. When things got super stressful, I didn't switch my projects as often and worked on things for 2 or 3 weeks instead of one. Since I didn't always stitch every day, I didn't see a ton of progress, but I think it's enough to share a couple things.

After I finished Virtue Sampler in August, I picked up Summer on Cherry Hill. This one feels like an August project to me, I don't know why. But it does have Summer in the name:

I'd say this is almost halfway done. About that, anyway. It's hard to say because I know the grass is going to take forever. But the bees are done, and I've started on her massive skirt, so that's something.

In September I spent a few weeks on Autumn Fraktur. I didn't plan to keep working on it, but once I started, I couldn't stop until the right side was finished:

I almost kept going on the left side. Almost. Maybe next year.

I've worked on a few other odds and ends, but I'll save those for later. I wish I could say I've made massive progress on Luna as well, but I haven't even finished the page I was working on back in May. It's very sad really, but I still don't have a stitching spot for my floor stand set up in my new place. Very sad.

I'm trying to get a few more goals met this year on various projects, but I've got a lot of distractions. I've been trying to declutter for a while now, and in the process I've stumbled across all my hidden treasures from other hobbies. So in the interest of use it or lose it, I've been quilting, knitting, doing puzzles and paint by numbers again. It's been a lot of fun, but it's also been a challenge to work everything in and share stitchy time. But I'm learning.

I think that's all for now. I've pulled out Jack's Bash by Plum Street for this week, so we'll see what kind of progress I make. Until next time!

April/May Catch Up

Hi stitchers! It seems I've fallen off the blogging train again. Haven't been posting on Facebook or Instagram either. I blame too much overtime plus trying to find a new apartment. Every spare moment I've had goes to stitching, not posting.

We had three weeks of mandatory overtime at work, minimum of 15 hours extra each week. And you know, once it stops being voluntary, it stops being fun and starts to kill you. But I think I've recovered now. :)

My stitching really suffered for about a month, but I've stitched almost every day, and I've hit a few milestones. First, I'll share a finish on a cute little project from Little House Needleworks. This is Stitcher's Prayer, stitched on 32ct Raw Belfast, finished May 25th:

Forgive the crappy lighting, it's been a struggle. I really like how this turned out. I don't have any immediate plans for it, but perhaps I'll frame it once I find my new place. It could be a good start to a new stitchy wall. :)

I also managed to keep up with Luna, and now have half of page 15 done:

I've kind of started a new way of stitching on this one. Instead of stitching down one column, I'm stitching two at a time. And instead of stitching each color within a full block, I'm doing two rows at a time, using parking. It sounds fiddly, but with only a few colors, it's super easy and goes fast. I don't even have to mark my pattern anymore. I don't think I'll stitch this way with high confetti areas, but it's awesome on the background.

I've been trying to keep up with my Elizabeth Oliver sampler by Moira Blackburn. I'm trying to finish at least a row every year, but I kind of fell behind with the first section. I think I can catch up though, since the next two sections are all text, and that goes pretty quick. Here's the full image, which is hard to photograph properly:

It seems odd that I can't stitch the blue border yet, as it has to be stitched in the same direction all around. But I am loving all the little motifs so far.

The last thing I want to share is a new start. Yes, it finally happened. May 13th, I started Eliza Knight by Hands Across the Sea Samplers. This is my second HATS start, and my second Eliza, but I just couldn't resist this one. I can't say what I like exactly; I don't even like green that much. But the sampler is very symmetrical, and has a lot of flowers and trees and little motifs. Overall, I just love the look of this one. So with my first bit of overtime money, I treated myself to the fabric and fiber kit from Sassy Jacks. The fabric is 45ct Woven Sedge with Au Ver a Soie silks, and I must say, the silk is definitely worth it! Here's my progress so far, starting in the bottom left corner:

I've stitched on this one every day since I started. I really don't want to quit. My May rotation schedule has been completely ignored, and I think June's is out the widow as well. I don't know how long I'll keep going, but I'm just gonna roll with it.

Here's a couple of close ups, though the lighting is still terrible:

 That branch the parrot is sitting on contains my first over 1 stitches ever. They came out a little sloppy since the thread is really too big for the fabric, but I'm okay with it. (At a distance, they look fine.) I think the large trees at the bottom are what really sold this pattern for me. They're like three trees in one. First the checkerboard, then the dark green oval, then the black triangle. I really love how it comes together. And the trunk is actually stitched 1 thread off to make it perfectly centered. That was a little daunting to stitch, especially since the threads are so close, but the fact that it's centered just makes it sing for me. :)

The fabric is actually not the best. I'm stitching Eliza Bell Cox on 46ct Zweigart linen which seems easy, but this 45ct Woven Sedge is extremely dense. I have to use my magnifier, and even then I can't always see the threads. (It's only a 5x though.) It's not so bad I want to restart, but sometimes I have to count very carefully with the tip of my needle and hope I'm not messing up.

So here's something interesting. Sassy Jacks actually sent me the pattern with my fabric and fiber kit, even though it wasn't part of the kit. That means I have two Eliza Knight patterns. Which means I'm willing to pass along the extra to anyone willing to attempt this beast, free of charge. I know most of you either like really small things or really big things, but if you're interested, just leave a comment or send me an email. And I don't mind sending international. :)

Well, that's all for now. I've got to get back to stitching. Until next time!

February Wrap Up

Well, February wasn't the best stitchy month for me, but I did reach a major goal, so it wasn't a total loss. I think February always throws me off because it's such a short month, and this year I was sick, plus there's been so much snow! Earlier this week, we had ice in the morning, which caused a lot of havoc, but I chose to stay home and stitch. :)

I haven't updated in two weeks, so here's what I was working on two weeks ago, my French Lavender kit by Riolis:

Please ignore the hoop marks. :) I worked on this for 6 days because I just couldn't put it away. I was tempted to keep going on this one, but I think I'll stick to my rotation for now. I was so happy to finally get the bottom of the basket done. I even backstitched it! The only bad thing is that I didn't notice one of the symbols in the leaves was supposed to be done in half stitch, and I did full crosses. I was debating just leaving it, but I think I'll restitch it after all. I like the textured effect it gives. And I'll have to take better pictures next time so you can see better. (Sorry!)

Luna did not get much attention in February, so I only managed a column and a half:

I'm still hoping to finish this page in March, so I'm still on track. It just feels like I'm going really slow on her lately.

This week I also worked on Stars by The Drawn Thread and managed a finish!

I got a lot done the day of the ice storm, so I just had to keep going to the end. The vines at the bottom were supposed to have buttons attached, but I didn't want to do that, so I stitched some red flowers instead. On the left, those are Leviathan stitches, which is a variation of the stitch used on the vine at the top. On the right, I did tiny Jessica stitches using a diagram I found on Google. Those were really easy and just add a little something different. So here's the full view:

I wish I knew how to get a better picture, but my phone just doesn't like to cooperate. But you get the idea. I'll have to custom frame this one, so it will be a while, but I'm so happy to have this done. This brings my wip count down to 67? I think? :)

That's all for now, I guess. I might start updating every 2 or 3 weeks now, just because I've got so much going on. We're really behind at work, so there should be a lot of overtime in my future. Hopefully I can keep up with stitching though. (Fingers crossed!) So, until next time! Happy stitching!

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!

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! :)