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!

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!

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!

May Wrap Up

Hello again! I hope you've all had a productive week. :) I'm still a bit scattered (but beginning to find my flow) so I've got a lot to share this week. But first, here's a little story about obsession.

So, have you ever had something kind of on your mind a lot to the point where everything you encounter reminds you of that something? Like if you're thinking about cinnamon rolls, and someone mentions "aluminum foil" and you say, "Yes! I love cinnamon rolls!" Well, that's kinda what happened with me and Louisa Horsey.

So I started Louisa Horsey, another one from Shakespeare's Peddler. After a lot of internal debate, I made this my birthday start, though I've been resisting her since March. I had intended to start Ann Thomas from HATS, but that can wait. Louisa is one of those charts that didn't appeal to me at first, but hearing Theresa Venette extol all her virtues when she was released, I decided to get her anyway. I am a chart collector after all. Then sometime in February, I just got this impulse to pull her out and look at her. I was busy, so I shrugged off that impulse, but then she kept popping up at random places, so I finally gave in and pulled out her chart. And then I fell in love!

Louisa's border is probably one of my favorites. It has a double vine which is very time consuming, but also very beautiful. There are several kinds of flowers with different styles and color palettes, and a few odd bits thrown in for interest. I'm stitching her with dmc on 40ct Vintage Examplar from Lakeside Linen, starting in the bottom right corner:

I'm about 2700 stitches in and loving it so far. I wish I could have splurged on the silks, but I can't always indulge. The dmc colors are really nice though. The white/cream flower does blend into the fabric a lot, but I can't decide if I want to change the colors. Whenever it catches the light, it just seems to glow. There's a little girl in the other corner to mirror the boy, though the french knots I did for his eyes aren't the best. Still, isn't he cute? It's the little details, like the heels of his shoes done over 1, that really draw me to this pattern.

If you're not familiar, Louisa Horsey is a mourning sampler done to commemorate the death of her infant brother. The middle has a ton of over 1 stitching that lists her entire family and a verse, plus various motifs. I'm not the best at over 1, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. But I know it will be a while before I get there. For now, I'll just focus on that lovely pastoral scene. If you want to hear Theresa talk about Louisa, check out her Quicky StitchyTube 2 around 14:05.

Ok, I'll stop gushing about Louisa. For now.

I haven't shown Elizabeth Oliver in a while, but I haven't been neglecting her. It's just taken me a long time to finish off all this grass:

So that's the entire lawn and drive that will eventually lead to a great manor house. It's only about 3000 stitches, but I've been working on it since March. I'm hoping to have the house done by the end of August, but we'll see how long construction takes.

I also got a little addicted to Ginger Nova and managed to finish off page 2 with a little start on page 3:

It's fun to stitch all those bursts of color, though the stars are very confetti heavy. I kind of want to keep going on her, but I have too many other projects calling. *sigh*

I'm still playing catch up with Luna, but I managed 4 columns in May:

I hope I can keep up this pace for a while longer. There's still 17 columns left to finish the row.

Well, that's all for now. It always feels like I have nothing to talk about or everything to talk about. I'll try to work on that. :) Take care of yourselves. Happy 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!

Trying to Focus

Hi all! I've got a short and sweet update today since I've been trying to focus on just a couple projects this week. Hope you all are well and staying healthy! Work has decided to extend our quarantine another few weeks, so I'm doing my best not to go stir crazy. :)

First, I have to show off my progress on Luna. I've really been neglecting her since my move last summer, so I've been trying to do some focus stitching to help reach my goal of finishing the row by the end of the year. I haven't shown her since the end of January, but I didn't get much done in February either. But here she is now:

Not bad, eh? I managed to finish off 4 full columns and 2 half columns in the last 6 days. I think all the confetti in the lace part of her dress killed some of my joy for this project, but after powering through that, I had some very easy stitching all the way down her arm. And I really do like the patterns in her dress, so maybe all that frustration was worth it. :) I'm still not caught up to where I should be, so another week of focus is in her near future.

I had planned to spend a lot of my quarantine stitching working on various projects to help catch up or even finish a couple things. I managed to do that for about 3 days, then began going through stash (for inventory purposes) and pairing charts with fabric, then going through what I'd already kitted, etc. etc. You get the idea. Finally I broke and had to start something, so I decided to start Shades of Red by Northern Expressions Needlework:

I think I kitted this up in 2015, and I had planned to start it immediately, but then kept pushing it back.  It's one of those I've had on my mind every year since then, so it's no wonder I finally caved. And now I'm obsessed. This is my first geometric design, and it's really addictive. I love all the motifs and the way the design builds on itself, weaving all the different bands together. The colors are fantastic too; just two colors of Belle Soie silk, Tulip and Cranberry. I'm stitching it on plain 40ct Cream Newcastle, which has a nice creamy yellow tint that's impossible for my camera to capture. I'm still torn between continuing on this or going back to all my other pretties. We'll see.

That's all for now. I'm trying to resist making any more starts, though it's really hard. Hope you all can find some tranquility in your stitching. Stay healthy! Until next time!

January Update

Why does January always seem so long? Yet somehow, I also feel like I can't get anything done. One of those great mysteries, I guess. :)

I've been trying to get into the groove of my rotation, but I'm being difficult. I sort of rebelled against my rotation for most of the year last year, and now I'm trying to do it again. The benefits of sticking to my rotation are obvious: I get to touch all my wips in an organized fashion and make decent progress on my focus pieces. The downside is I'm not always ready to switch projects, so it takes me a while to get accustomed to the new piece. I've thought about longer rotations, but I don't think that's the answer either. Hopefully I can stick with it this year, but next year there might be some changes.

Okay, on to the good stuff! First up is Kabuki, by Mystic Stitch. I think this is my oldest wip, and my first full coverage piece. Shame I haven't finished her yet, but I'll keep trying. I did manage to finish a good bit of her face finally, and she's looking good:

I really do admire the way Mystic Stitch charts things. There's a ton of confetti and "weird" colors everywhere, but stepping back, the effect is amazing. She will be out again next month. Hopefully I can finish a page or two this year.

Next is Elizabeth Oliver, which you'll be seeing a lot of this year. I've started a new row, and will eventually get to that house in the middle, hopefully around May. For now, I've got the border and a good start on the first arbor:

Those flowering plants take a long time to stitch, but I'm really enjoying this. Hopefully I won't feel burned out when it's time to stitch them again on the other side.

I am participating in another stitch along from Etsy this year, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun. This is the Wonders of Space SAL from Climbing Goat Designs, and will feature 9 blocks of images from space. I have no idea what to expect, but the first block was the Ring Nebula, and it is really awesome:

I had a lot of fun stitching this, and can't wait for the next. They come out on the 15th every month, so if you wanna join, you won't be far behind. Each block is 30x30, so it's not too big, but it does call for 45 colors. There's also a description of each wonder in the pdf, which is pretty cool. I was really in to astronomy for a while, so of course I couldn't resist this project. :)

Last but not least, I managed to finally finish page 17 on Moon Indigo:

Isn't she awesome? I am super excited to be stitching her dress at long last. Hopefully this next page will not take as long since there's not as much confetti, and I'm using Pattern Keeper! Truth be told, I'm not looking forward to her hair and the moon as that always stitches slowly, but maybe it'll be better with the app.

Quick note about Pattern Keeper: if you stitch full coverage charts, get it. End of story. No debate. There simply is no comparison to any other app. Hope that helps if you're still thinking about it. :)

Seriously though? This is the first time I've really been able to stitch without paper and been comfortable with that. It really has made a difference and made things so much easier. Especially with my diagonal stitching. (Should I note I wasn't paid to say that?)

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm still working on my No Wip Left Behind project, but I think I'll keep those updates on Instagram, at least for now. One hour of progress isn't really much to look at, and if I post them here, I'll ramble on and on about each project. Unless I made separate posts about them... Hmm... Anyway, back to stitching. Happy Lunar New Year! :)

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!