Catch Up Stitching

Hello again! I know it's only been a week, but I've still got a ton to show you thanks to some catch up stitching I've been doing this week. It seems parts of the netherworld may be experiencing a chill because my work has actually shut down for a full two weeks. They said it was to comply with the city mandate, but I think it has more to do with a confirmed case of the virus, plus a few suspected. Either way, I'm happy to be home stitching! Hope all of you are staying safe as well. :)

First up is last week's morning project, Elizabeth Oliver. I didn't take a full pic again (getting really hard to do that) but I'm making good progress on my current row:

These two trees were quite fun to stitch, especially the second one. It's very asymmetrical, which was a welcome break from all the mirror image motifs. I really enjoyed stitching all those leaves. I've also put my initials in, though that was a bit tricky for me. There was an alphabet provided for this, but no designated space, so I had to go by the cover image and do a bit of guesswork. Picking a color was the hardest part, but I'm really happy with the gold I picked, DMC 833. It stands out enough to be seen, but blends in well with the design.  The lines you see to the right are actually my start on that massive house! It's going to take an age for me to get through that lawn, but I think I'm up for the challenge. (Famous last words!)

My first day off work was Thursday, and the first project I picked up was my Wonders of Space SAL. I was almost done with the March block, so finishing it off was quick and easy:

There's Pluto! I was really hoping for another pretty nebula to stitch, but I do like how this block turned out. I'm glad I'm keeping up with this SAL, but it's really hard to wait for the next block. Hoping we get a galaxy somewhere in there...

Next up was my R2 Silhouette, and yes, I managed a finish!

I've had 5 page finished this year on my full coverage wips, but this is my first project finish, so my wip count is now 71. I started this on June 15, 2016, but it actually took me 45 days to stitch. All that black was pretty tedious, but I love the effect. I plan to frame it some day, but for now it's stuck in a drawer until I can go frame shopping.

Since I was on a finishing kick, I decided to get Kabuki out again and finish off page 8:

Isn't she gorgeous? That confetti was super frustrating, but I'm happy to have the row done. She's now halfway done, which is awesome, but the bottom half is mostly a confetti nightmare, so it's might take me another 12 years to finish her. (I hope not!)

I think that's all for now. You might have noticed Luna has been missing for a while? Yup, she's been totally neglected. I'm hoping to remedy that next week and do a little focus stitching to catch up. Hope you all are staying healthy. Until next time!

So Many Projects

Hello again! I've got another long update for you since I've been too busy this month to post. Seriously guys, February has been crazy! But I've been bouncing around on a bunch of projects (15 to be exact) and managed some decent progress on a few. So here we go!

First up is Kabuki. I was hoping to finish off the second row this year, but the confetti is proving to be quite a challenge, so that might not happen. Still, I did get close to a page finish this time round working on her kimono sleeve:

She'll be back again in March, so the current page will definitely be done. The next page is a partial, but also a confetti nightmare. Still, I will stitch valiantly onward. :) I do love how the shading is turning out though. I just keep thinking, this will look great on my wall one day.

Next, I spent a week on Eliza Knight from HATS. I seriously love this sampler, but I had burned out on her a bit after those over 1 eyelets that you can't even see. (They're very light blue, and the light just over exposes them.) So I set the eyelets aside for now and tried doing some of the over 1 letters using tent stitch, since the AVAS silk is very thick, especially on 45ct. Turns out I love it! Tent stitches make the over 1 super easy and fast and even fun.

I'm doing the tent stitches in the same direction as my top leg on normal cross stitches, which is backward for me, but I thought it made more sense to do it that way. After some experimentation, I decided to still throw in a few full crosses to make the over 1 look more fuller where there is a single stitch, like at the end of the 't':

Can you tell I changed it as I went along? I didn't get much done on the few days I worked on her, but at least now I am looking forward to doing the giant over 1 verse in the center.

I was hoping to finish off my R2 silhouette this month, but I just couldn't do it. However, my Death Star is nearing completion, so it won't be much longer:

Hopefully I'll have this done next month. Another few sessions should do it.

I also made time for Elizabeth Oliver since I love her and can't stay away from her for long. I managed to finish off that giant arbor and start on the next very tall fruit tree (please forgive all the threads in the way):

I've been trying to make myself stitch more in those odd pockets of time where I usually don't bother to get my stitching out. But my time is so short these days that even 20-30 minutes is enough to get me stitching. In doing that, I stitched my lion, that cute little bird, and a few odd leaves. Not much, but it does add up.

I think that's all for now. I did have a new start today, but I'll talk about that next time. I'm really going to try to update more often, especially since work is already getting crazy (hello overtime!) and shorter updates are easier. Hope you all are stitching as much as you can! Until next time! :)

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!

A Few Setbacks

Well, it's been one of those weeks again, where things just don't go as planned. (I have a lot of those, I know.) Haven't been feeling well since Wednesday. Don't know if it's the weather or stress at work, but it really affected my stitching Thursday and Friday, so Scale didn't get as much attention as I would have liked.

As for drama this week, lets see: First there was the mouse in my kitchen Wednesday night (second time this year); Second, my neighbor's apartment caught fire early Saturday morning, and while I was very fortunate in not getting any damage to my unit, I did get an apartment full of smoke. That was not cool, since my apartment is full of fabric, but it could have been a lot worse. Thankfully, it was a fairly small fire, and the firemen got here really quick.

So I guess I should get to the stitching, right? Okay. Last week I pulled out my R2 Silhouette, which I did work on last year but never posted any progress pics here. In fact, it appears I didn't take any pics of this at all last year, and of course, I forgot to take one before I started. So, here's a pic taken after Monday's session, and the final pic for the week:

I started this week working on the satellite and the foliage around it. My goal was to get the middle scene done, and I think I got most of it in. Now I can focus on getting the legs finished next time. I'm looking forward to the shape of trees forming as I go. :)

Since there wasn't much progress on Scale, I'll save her for next time and show you another of my wips that hasn't seen the light of day in a while.

Two years ago, my mother bought me a Riolis kit I just had to have for my birthday. I really love the scene, but I've barely worked on it at all. Partly because of the fabric (stiff aida), but mostly because of the chart. It's a large full color chart with lots of similar symbols, and the result is like some psychedelic painting that hurts my eyes. Recently, I've put the fabric onto a new frame (an Elbesee Easy Clip frame, great for stiff aida) so I decided to have another go at the chart. It's still difficult, but since I've resigned myself to not highlighting (it just blends right in) and am now using black marker to blot out what I've stitched, I actually made some decent progress today. Again, I don't have a "before" photo, but I worked mainly on the gentleman's cravat and shirt sleeve:

This was only my 5th day on this project, which is really shameful, but I think I've worked out my blockages with this pattern. I would have stitched more, but my right arm is bothering me quite a bit. (It's always something.) I guess what I really need is a bionic arm! Then I could get some decent stitching done. ;) Until then, progress is really slow on this one, but seeing part of the pattern take shape is really galvanizing. I can't say I'll be working on this all the time, but it's not going to sit in a corner and collect dust without getting touched, so I'll call that a win. :)

And on my Temperature charts, I now have three months done!

I was really bummed to have to break out the dark blue for the first of April. It hasn't been this cold in April in a really long time, and it's snowing again today! Hopefully that will change soon. Until then, I'm still waiting to use my orange. :)

The First 10 Days

Hi all! Back again with actual progress this time! :)

Since starting my Angel of Grace on the 1st, I actually managed to stitch on her every day of her rotation, which was 10 days. I wasn't able to stitch as much as I would have liked (still dealing with unpacked boxes and an injured mother) but since I'm focusing on the reams of white in her skirt, the stitches still added up pretty quickly. So here she is so far, with about 2700 stitches in:

All that white is reminding me of Scale, but in a good way. Pieces like this one almost make me want to go back to being a one at a time stitcher... Almost. But I have a closet full of wips screaming at me, so I've put her away for the time being. Next time, I hope to continue with the skirt and maybe start on that band of confetti along the hem. You might be surprised to know there aren't any beads in this one, just a bit of metallic curving around her. If I had known how simple she was to stitch I would've started her years ago!

During the week, I also got a tiny bit of morning stitching done, though I've been sleeping in a bit these days. I worked on my R2D2 Silhouette, which kind of got abandoned last year. So here is three days of progress:

I'm finally getting to the interesting part, where the outline turns into trees and landscape. Still, it's a lot of black. Odd that my first two pieces of the year were mostly white and black stitching. I'll have to find some color soon. :)

That's all I got for now. Still trying to fuss with what I'll be stitching this year. Stitch Maynia on Facebook is doing a sal with new starts on the 17th of every month, which would be an interesting way to space out new projects. And HAED is doing a mystery sal that looks pretty interesting (love those griffins on the preview). Still haven't gotten myself organized enough to attempt something fancy like the Clouds Factory or Frosted Pumpkin sals, but maybe one year it would be nice to try.

Hope you all are having a good stitching year so far. Until next time!

WIPocalypse Challenge #2

Hi everyone! Back with an update on the WIPocalypse Olympic Challenge. I've been having lots of fun switching through projects every day, though it's sometimes hard to put them down so soon!

Monday I worked on Death by Cross Stitch, which is still lots of fun:

The lighting at work is really bad, but you get the idea. :) Making good progress on my unicorn!

Tuesday I got back to my R2D2 Silhouette. Forgot to take a "before" picture, but I added 294 stitches. Pretty easy since it's all black:

Today I picked up a newer start. This is from the Frosty Forest series, from Country Cottage Needleworks:

I plan on stitching all 9 in the series on the same piece of fabric, so I've got a loooong way to go! But the little critters are so cute, I think it's worth stitching all that endless snow. Stitching this on 32ct Belfast in Touch of Gray.

Still plugging away on Scale, but progress has been a bit slow. Starting to get down to all the little confetti stitches, but that means I'm closing in on a page finish:

She's finally got her nostrils! Well, most of them, anyway. But I think it really makes a difference. It would be nice to have a page finish this weekend... but we'll see. :)

Guess that's all for now. Until next time!

Slow Progress

Hello again!

Seems like my stitching has been all over the place the last couple weeks. I've been stitching every day, but on lots of different things, so I haven't had much progress to show. Until now. :)

I pulled out my Tigers again last week, and managed to finish all the greenery, including the backstitching. I also finished up mama's other leg, and did the backstitching there:

Not bad for a week's work. I've still got some finishing to do on mama's front leg, then the faces, then a bunch more backstitch, then it's done! Hopefully I can manage a finish by the end of August, or there abouts.

I also pulled out my much neglected favorite, Pavonia. I haven't touched her since December, so I was glad to finally show her some love. Part of the reason for the hiatus was the confetti. Sometimes it just gets to be too much, searching ten minutes for those two or three stitches, and doing so for days on end. (Sounds awful, I know, but it's totally worth it.) But now the worst of the confetti is over for a while, and I'm getting a good start on her forehead:

It is so nice seeing her starting to develop. Her hair and face should be relatively easy stitching, so maybe I can get that much done this year. :)

I've got lots of smaller projects going at the moment, though few of them enjoy regular stitching. But I thought I'd show a couple that have managed to get 10 days worth of progress. I figure that's a good benchmark.

First is one by Moira Blackburn, called Three Things Sampler:

I really love this pattern. It has lots of little details, gentle colors, and I really like the verse. I started this in February, but only work on it a couple times a month, so it'll be a while before I get any significant progress.

A few weeks ago, I began a Star Wars pattern from Cross Stitch For You on Etsy:

I love this image! Of course it's R2D2, but it's also the Death Star, the forest of Endor, and a little Ewok in the center. (Yeah, I like Star Wars, can ya tell?) It's a ton of black, but I'm lucky enough to have one of those DMC cones of 310, so I'm happy to be using it. :) I'm not sure if I'll end up giving this to a friend of mine whose birthday is in October. I honestly don't think I'll have it done by then. But I'm thinking about it.

I've got Scale out again, but haven't made much progress yet. I've been shopping a few sales and stashing like crazy, buying a lot of patterns that are outside of my normal style, which I mostly blame on Flosstube. :) But I couldn't resist putting a few stitches into one of my newest stashquisitions, Death by Cross Stitch, from Long Dog:

 I'm doing this on 20ct Antique White Aida, with one strand of Thread Worx Deep Sea Blue. It's a variegated thread similar to 939, but with touches of black here and there. It's really subtle, but quite lovely.

Well, that's enough rambling for now. Hope everyone Stateside is having a good holiday. Until next time!