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!

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!

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!

January Wrap Up

Hi all! January was kind of a crazy month for me, and I can't believe it's already over. I had a really good stitchy month though, mostly because I was off for quite a while with the government shutdown. :) I worked on 16 different projects and managed some good progress on a few, so here are a couple I haven't shown so far.

First, I'll share my weekly project from last week. It was Stars by The Drawn Thread, which I'm hoping to finish this year. I think I'll manage it, but it is taking a bit longer than I'd hoped. The good news is, I've reached the bottom of the chart:

The leaves really slowed me down since I stitch most of them one at a time. But the tree is officially done! I still have to stitch in more stars among the branches, but I was too anxious to get to that house this time around. That little house did stitch up rather quickly. Just have the windows and door to finish up, then three more houses, then done! Hopefully that will happen in early March. :)

And of course I worked on Luna, and managed 2 1/2 columns:

I'm hoping to do another 2 1/2 columns this month, even though it's a short month. That way, I can get to page 16 in March. I'm really anxious to get to her wings, so it's spurring me on!

I also worked on Kabuki this month, and met my goal without too much fuss. She looks really wierd right now, but page 6 is now complete:

I'm hoping to pull her out again this summer and at least finish the right side of her face. Then we can see those ruby lips!

Now for my special project. Does anyone remember the Chatelaine I started in 2017? I kept meaning to pull it out last year, but something always came up and I didn't think I could give it the concentration I needed to for all those specialty stitches. So on New Years Eve, I felt determined to get some stitches in for 2018, and I finally pulled her out. It was really daunting at first, but I think that was because I thought it should be difficult, but it actually wasn't too bad. So I kept working on her occasionally in January, and I've made some decent progress:

I added a bunch of petit treasure braid; all those dark green Algerian eyelets; light green diamond eyelets; brown ray stitches; and of course, those pink Jessica stitches in the center, my first ever. I'll say this about Jessica stitches: they aren't difficult if you can see your fabric clearly and have a long enough thread. I also counted my stitches along with the diagram, so I knew exactly where my needle should be with each stitch. And they took me about 20 minutes each.

If you're wondering, this one is called Medieval Cloister Herbularius, and someday will look like this:

My goal this year is to finish off part one and start part two. All I have left for part one is the backstitching around the leaves in the center, and a cross stitch border that outlines part two, so that should be easy. I'd love to finish part two this year, but that might be too ambitious...

Guess it was a long one this time, but I do feel like I made some good progress. Hopefully I can squeeze in a lot of stitching for February too. Wishing you all some great stitching. Until next time!

French Lavender

Just a quick update today on French Lavender, my kit from Riolis. I only got 4 days of stitching on this, but there is some visible progress:

My original plan was to finish off the basket this week, but after the first day, I really wanted to stitch with some color. So, I've started some of the leaves on the right side of the basket, and it was hard not to keep going up that side. But I really want that basket done! I should have it done next time though, and I'll probably do the backstitching there, too. I also started the shadow underneath, and I think it adds a little depth.

See? Short and sweet. Not all my posts are rambly. :) Next week I'll be working on Stars. 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!

A Boring Wip Parade

Hi guys! I've got my two most boring wips to show today. The good news is these count as my first two page finishes for the year, so I'm very happy about that. :)

I started my new rotation last week, and the first week is for HAEDs, so I worked on Blood. I think this is a good winter piece. Gray fabric and gray thread under a gray sky. Anyway, I managed to finish off page three:

And I got a start on page 4 where you can see another wisp of smoke starting to form:

I'll be working on this piece in February and March as well, so hopefully I can get another page done.

I haven't settled on any kind of rotation for my evening stitching. I've just been pulling out random wips and stitching on them. But when I pulled out my Marquise, she didn't want to go away for a few days, so I managed to finish off two diagonals which completed page 1:

The wedge is getting longer. :) The next page is more brown than green, so I wonder if it will show up in my bad pictures. It might be a little less boring, anyway.

Guess that's all for now. Hopefully I'll have something more colorful next time. :)