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!

February Update

Hi all! I think I'm finally settling into the groove of this new year (still writing 2019 though) and feel like I'm getting a good bit of stitching done. I'm even getting used to my rotation again! (Probably because I can't think of a better option.) So, on with the pretties!

I say 'pretties,' but this first one is mostly black. It's my R2 Silhouette I got from Cross Stitch For You on Etsy. I worked on this the last week of January, but didn't get as far as I'd hoped:

I think that Death Star is going to take forever! Still, the goal is to finish it this year, hopefully this month, or at least early March.

Next, I pulled out Frosty Forest and stitched mostly white. (Beginning to think I've been falsely advertising these pretties...) I started block #6, and that border always takes a lot of time:

It was a short rotation this time, just 4 days instead of 5, but I got a good chunk of snow done, so I should be able to start the house next time round.

In my aim to get back to some of my older pieces, I pulled out Pavonia for 2 long stitching sessions and managed about 800 stitches. I'm converting her to diagonal stitching since I think it will help with all the confetti. Took me a while to get used to her again, but I'm still really enjoying her:

Sadly, this pattern doesn't work with Pattern Keeper, since older Golden Kite's didn't come with passwords and that somehow doesn't mesh with PK's programming. (Hopefully that will change in a future update.) But Pavonia is officially back in the rotation! My goal is to finish off the current page this year. (Small steps lead to great strides!)

Last, I want to mention this week's No Wip Left Behind project: Climbing the Dragon Gate from HAED. I started this chart on February 7, 2016 while recovering from a bit of surgery. The thought was that it was an easy chart, and easy stitching was what I needed at the time. I didn't think it would take me 4 years to finish a single page! But yes, on February 7, 2020, I finally managed it:

I remember having to put this down initially because I didn't have all the required floss in my stash. Then later, since it isn't a priority chart, I just never found time to work on it. But I still enjoy this one, and it would be nice to make more progress. I just keep struggling with that urge to stitch on all the things versus my limited ability in what I can actually manage. But I won't be discouraged! Somehow I'll find a way to balance progress and quantity. I know the solution will never be ideal, but I'll take what I can get and enjoy the process. Hope you all do the same.

Happy stitching everyone!

November Wrap Up

Well, I was waiting to have enough stuff to make a decent post about, then in the last few days I got caught up on a few things and now I have a lot to show. So let's get to it!

November has been an all over the place kind of month for me. The year is winding down and I'm really trying to make some last minute progress on a few projects that I skipped over this summer. I started off with Frosty Forest, and surprised myself with a quick finish on block #5. So here's how the whole thing looks now:

This won't be out again until February. I don't plan to finish it next year (you guys should know by now how I like to drag things out) but definitely the year after. Snowman's Cottage is up next, and those houses do take a while to stitch.

Next, I pulled out Jim Shore's 12 Days of Christmas, really cuz I was just in the mood for it, but I did want to try and finish block #4 this year. So here is my start on 4 Calling Birds:

This block has a ton of purple in it, which is really quite pretty. I don't get to stitch with dmc 550 very often. It's going to seem very bright with those greens and some deep reds coming up. This will be out again at Christmas, so hopefully I can finish this block this year. (Fingers crossed!)

I'm still a bit behind on Elizabeth Oliver by Moira Blackburn, so I worked on that for a few days and managed to finish of a section. Now the whole verse is done:

This is hard to get a good picture of. But I've just got the final section left for this row: the basket, another tall flowery plant and the border. This one always takes longer to stitch than I think, so it'll have to be a focus project in December.

Over the course of the year, I always pull out random projects to to work on outside of my rotation, but I only show them when I think it looks like something. I've managed some decent progress on my Supersized Awakening from HAED, though in the scheme of things, it's really nothing at all. But my last diagonal finished up about half of the first page, and it's looking really good:

This is only 2490 stitches so far (out of 622,377, but who's counting?) but it's taken me almost 32 hours to stitch. This is one of my first diagonal projects, and the first with so much confetti, so it's been a lot of learning in a short time. But I am getting faster and really understanding how I like to actually stitch it, like where to start and end my threads, etc. When I first started, I was only doing about 40 stitches an hour. Now I'm up to 140 to 160 stitches an hour, and the process has become much more enjoyable. Originally, I planned to do each page individually, but I think I'll start extending my diagonals across the first row, and perhaps into the second. I really want to stitch that orb thingy on top of the pillar, so I'll be doing the first two pages on the first and second row first.

Last but not least, I've made some really good progress on Luna this month, so much that I think I can finish another page by the end of the year:

Check out her wing! I really love how this is stitching up. For November, I finished off four columns and started the next pair, 4340 stitches in all. If you look really closely, you might be able to see the very tip of her shoulder curving down. So yes, this column will be her arm, and next will be her dress. I'm so excited!! I still have to rearrange furniture every time I work on her, but it's worth it. Hopefully I can keep up this pace in December. :)

Whew! That was a lot. It seems I always stitch a lot more at the end of the year, probably because it feels like a deadline is looming. I hope you all have a great stitchy month, and enjoy the holidays! Until next time!

4 Mini Finishes

Well hello there! I didn't expect to be away for so long, but it's been overtime every week since early March, plus cleaning up my mother's house in preparation for selling it, and getting my stuff cleaned out since I'm moving soon. March was a busy month for me! But overtime is over (for now) so I should get back into the swing of things.

I didn't do a ton of stitching last month, but I did get four mini finishes done since I've last updated. First off was a page finish on Blood page 4, and a small start on page 5:

It's interesting how the sky is so gradually getting lighter. And I'm more than halfway across the row! :)

I also finished the Snowgirl's Cottage on Frosty Forest:

I used DMC 800 for the house, which was a bit of a disappointment for me since my Morning Glory was so pale and plain. But I think it turned out nice. I forgot to take a pic of the whole thing though, so you'll have to wait til I finish the next block.

Next, I finished page 15 on Moon Indigo, the first page on row 3:

The sky here is getting more uniform, so hopefully I'll be able to keep up my pace with her as I start packing things up to move. I'm not actually moving until July, but I'm trying to downsize the amount of stuff I have, which is pretty challenging. Right now I've got a ton of boxes sitting where I usually stitch on Luna, so they'll have to be dealt with before I can make more progress.

Last is my project from last week. Since I've put Blood away for the year, I'll be working on Jinn, which is far more colorful (and confetti heavy):

I only got in 3 days last week since I've just been worn out from working. But it was enough to finish off page 2. I had hoped to finish another page this year, but that might not happen. Also, I'm trying to decide if I want to skip down to the next row or continue across. Hmm...

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to post more than once a month, but only if I have good progress. It just seems like so much is happening this year! But at least it's Spring and getting warmer. :) Hope you all are enjoying the season! Until next time!

Catching Up

Well, February has been a little disappointing so far. I've been kind of sick over the last two weeks, first with a three day migraine, then with a 7 day cold, which I'm still getting over, but I'm mostly well again. Just haven't been doing as much stitching as I would like.

I missed last week's update because I wasn't feeling up to it, and all I had to show was a few more rows on Blood:

I feel like I should be stitching faster on this, but again, I was sick, so I should probably go easy on myself. This will be out again the first week in March, so hopefully I'll have a page finish next time around.

Last week, I worked on my Frosty Forest, but I don't feel like I got a lot done:

I was very happy to get a start on the house though. Those stones look very nice to me. Unfortunately, my Morning Glory, which is used to stitch the house, is both disappointingly pale and unvariegated, so I'll probably end up stitching with DMC. It really is a shame though; that house was one of my favorite elements of the whole design. Ah well.

I think that's all I have for this time. We're having a pretty wet winter here in KC. I think it's snowed about every three days, several inches at a time. Then we get one or two nice days, enough to melt the snow before it snows again. And yesterday was my mother's wedding. She is very happy; I'm just happy it's over. :)

I guess I should try to get more stitching done now. Until next time!

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!

Year of Starts #11

Guess I have a bit of catching up to do since I was too lazy to post last week, so I'll start with last week's project. I worked on Blood, which is never exciting to look at, and made a good bit of progress on page 3:

I'd hoped for a page finish, but I knew I wouldn't manage it. Just not enough time! But I'm working on my plans for next year, and I should be able to catch up. :)

This week I pulled out Frosty Forest and started a new block. This one is the third in the series (I think). Anyway, this sits in the top right corner of the block of 9:

All that snow really takes a long time to stitch! But I'm happy with my progress. I'm making this a sort of focus piece next year, so I should have this block finished relatively soon.

And of course today I had a new start for the Year of Starts. This is one I've wanted stitch for a few years now. (I feel like I say that about everything.) This is Queen of Autumn by With Thy Needle & Thread, stitched on 40ct Sand from Picture This Plus:

I am really loving this so far! There is a ton of floss for this one, so I actually started kitting it up early last year. But the color palette is nice and soft, perfect for a cozy fall day. And since Thanksgiving is this week, it seemed a perfect choice. I'm hoping to get the left third done this week, so we'll see how it goes. (Bonus points if I get to the lady!)

As I mentioned, I'm already deep into my plans for next year, and I do plan to change things up a little bit. After agonizing over which chart to start on Jan 1st, I kind of had the idea to not start anything, but instead to finish up the project I started last year on the 1st, my very much neglected haven't-touched-it-since-January Morning Glory. Sounds good, right? I really hate to break my tradition, but sometimes you gotta go with what makes sense. (Doesen't mean that will happen this time.)

I do know I won't be doing the year of starts next year. Much as I love putting stitches into new charts every month, it's time to start finishing what I've got going. 63 wips is kind of too much for me, even though they aren't all active wips. So the goal is to finish more than I start, though at the moment, I'm not planning any starts next year. Yup, you read that right. No planned starts. Of course, I have been known to be impetuous. :)

Okay, enough rambling for now. Hope you all are having a great stitchy month! Until next time!

A Finish!

Hi all! I'm back with my first finish of the year! :)

January was pretty good for me stitching wise. I managed to stitch every day, worked on 10 projects, and did 12,749 stitches. I've done more in years past, but I still think I'm off to a good start.

This week I worked a bit on Frosty Forest and managed to finish another block. This is actually the first block in the series (I started with the second) called Frosty Reindeer:

My french knots could use a bit of work, but I think they're ok. I can do them really well on aida, but on linen, I feel like I'm forced to go through a different hole, and they always end up a bit wonky. Guess I'll just have to practice. And yes, I left that big empty space in the middle for the button, which will be added when all the blocks are done.

I also managed a few more days on Morning Glory at the end of January:

I feel kind of silly now thinking I could finish her in a month, but it's good to have goals, right? I am still not done with the dress, and I found a counting error in the right leafy thing she's holding; but you can't tell, so I'm not worried about it. :)

And here is another week on my Temperature SAL charts:

January is all done, plus the first two days of February. The average temperature for January was 37.4, so I stitched in the month on my chart with the corresponding color. I really like how both charts are turning out so far. I just hope I can keep up with this throughout the year.

For February, I've pulled out Euphoria, hoping to get a couple more pages stitched. I didn't get to her at all last year, so it's kind of nostalgic working on her again. Next week I'll be working on my Quotes SAL again, trying to finish up #7. So, until next time, happy stitching!