Kreimhilds Revenge - Row finish!

So, here I am again with a row finish on Kreimhilds Revenge by Howard David Johnson =)

I really wanted to finish the third row this month, so I pushed really hard to stitch page 23 and 24. Yesterday I ended up doing about 830 stitches, by the end of the day I was so sick of this project! But I really wanted to get this done and here we are:

The bushed on the right side were actually quite confetti heavy, so those 830 stitches didn't stitch up fast at all. But I did it! 24 pages done, 40 to go... And as far as I can see it, there is only one full sky page left to stitch (in the next row). Maybe she will be finished this century....

As for her stats (I'm not really sure if I will continue with this thing, I always forget about it... but then I do it and I feel like I am accomplishing something after all)

Total stitches: 255 600

Total stitches done: 105 300

Stitches in 2016: 15 323

Stitching days in 2016: 41

Average stitches per day: 374

Stitches left: 150 300

Days left to stitch: 401

I just noticed that a) I crossed the 100 000 stitches mark (how magical!!) and b) I "only" have about 150 000 stitches left :D 

Ok, I'm putting something else on the frame now, maybe Wolf Kiss for a day or two or maybe Gwen will make another appearance (would be fitting - after all it's Halloween... Yes, I think I will take her out).

I'm not sure about my next Haed, maybe I will take out Starlight (didn't get any love for over a year...) or Iris for a few columns... And then there is Eternal Promise as well... Oh my, I need more hands to stitch with!

Last but not least, I want to show my new needle minders. I ordered from NoName Needleminders (some of you my know the Queen of Starts from Floss tube - she just got this business up):

She added the little heart to the order - that was so sweet of her =) I think I will stick or two to my next project now =)

I think I will share an update on Gwen in a few days  - apart from that I am stitching on my dog bookshelf piece, it's so confetti heavy right now - I'm really behind my schedule, but I am still determined to finish this by the 15th.

Happy Stitching =)

WIPocalypse - October

Oh my, whenever WIPocalypse is close to the GGSAL, I tend to be late for it :D But here we go!

I have a few updates to show.

First up is my Rheingold by Kinuko Craft, I managed to finish page 5 and made a start on page 6 (yay me, the love for it is not gone!!). So I went from here:

To here:

Then I had a new start (again!), but I am determint to finish it this year ;-) It's "Gwen" from Nora Corbetts Bewitching Pixies. I am doing this 2 over 2 on 28ct Jobelan in Toffee Popsicle (which I always want to call Topsicle... what a silly world...) and the skin is 1 over 1. Unfortunately, it's hard to catch the color correctly, it's way more orange in real life:

As I said, I think this has a good chance of being a finish this year. I have two colors left in the dress, the beading (to which I am looking forward) and the background to stitch.

The last one I worked on is Kriemhild, she is back on the frame since last week. I am going for a row finish. I went from here:

To here:

I have 4000 stitches left on row 3 and I am doing my best to get them done this month (got to move on with my goals). Since a lot of it is sky, so that stitches up quickly.

Ok, then for this months question: What online stitching communities do you enjoy?
Well, obviously I am in blogland, both as a blogger and a blogreader, then I am active on Facebook (mostly the new official haed group and Stitch mania) and I watch flosstube (but not doing it myself).

I think all of those have advantages. With Facebook it's so easy to stay up to date, you go on there, take a quick look or post a quick update, but I am not investing as much time on it. I am not writing long texts or long comments or talk about my life that much (it's so tempting to hit the like button and scroll on...), I don't blog so often, but when I do, I sit down and think about what to write and I take my time to make a post and it's the same time with reading blogs. I am sometimes quite behind on reading all the posts, but I usually take my time to read what people say.
I started watching flosstube a year or so ago, it's nice to be able to put a face to the name and listen to peoples voice. And I can stitch while watching it! :D I sometimes thought about trying my own flosstube, but I can't really imagine filming myself and anotehr weird thing I think about is that I am not a native speaker. I read a lot in english, I watch movies in english and writing in english is fine, but speaking is another thing. I mean, I am sure that I am mispronouncing quite a few things, I have a nice German accent and sometimes I just don't know the word I am looking for :D So I am staying in blogland :D

Ok, that's it for this months update. If you want, you can pay a visit to Measi and see who else did an update =)

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL October

And it's time for the GGSAL update again - no Middle Earth this month (feels weird) :D This hasn't happened since March! And oh well, in March and February I was stitching the Middle Earth Map for Chelle, so that's basically a ME update :D And I am quite sure that I will work on ME for next months update.

Anyway, I still have two projects I worked on.
First up is my Wolf Kiss by Dimensions, which didn't get a lot of love this year, so I added a few stitches. it went from here (back in April):

To here:

It's not much, but it's something. The she wolfs head on the first page is as good as done and the other wolfs ear is coming along now. I think I should just try picking this up more often for a day or two, after all it does stitch up fast.

Ok the next I got is my dog bookshelf piece, I am flying along with that one. I am still doing 520 stitches per week, this adds up! I went from here:

To here:

Unfortunately, the writing is quite hard to read. I have 40 rows left, so I will try and finish this for next months update! I will also try and do some work on my Christmas Stocking, it has seen little love lately.... But my focus will be on the dog bookshelf, it's so close to being done.

Apart from that, I am making plans for 2017, I think I will really give a rotation a try (at least so I am working on all my projects for once). The Christmas Stocking will be a focus piece that's out all month to get a few stitches then and again, so I hope to show it to you more often and get some decent progress into it. I also decided to definitely start In the Moonlight for the GGSAL, I am not sure about when... I thought about making this my new year start, but then I usually start a Haed on January 1st (already feels like a tradition to me) and since I got another material package I will start another Haed in 2017. So In the Moonlight might move to March. But I am not decided yet.

Ok, that's all I have for this month. If you want to see the other entries for October, take a look over here. The SAL is hosted by Jo and her blog is always worth a visit ;-)

Happy stitching!

My first Nora Corbett - Gwen

Ok, I finally got around sharing an update on my first Nora Corbett design called "Gwen" from her Bewitching Pixies series. I ordered a kit from Polstitches Designs a while ago (along with a kit for Joan Elliotts Enchanted Aurora) and decided to do some Halloween stitching.
I wanted to try something different from my usual Haeds, something smaller :D
So here is where I got:

And this is the full design:

The fabric I use is 28ct Jobelan in Toffee Popsicle (hard to take a picture - it's darker and more orange) and it came with the kit. I am stitching 2 over 2, except for the skin, I am stitching that 1 over 1. I am not sure if it was a good idea to get the kit, I already have tons of floss leftover (like the colors from her skin). I somehow thought this would use way more floss and therefore decided not to use my master set :D Well, I am sure I will find a use for all the floss (just have to be careful, the floss from the kit is european DMC, sometimes the colors are different from the non-eu colors).

This seems to be a nice and quick stitch so far, but after working on this for one week I noticed that I truly miss my Haeds :D Not enough confetti in this one :D

Right now Kriemhild is on my frame and ready for a row finish (go, me, go!).
I can't believe it's already the middle of October, I feel like I still have tons of things I want to accomplish in 2016. One think surely is to finish the row on Kriemhild, then I want to finish Gwen (which should be possible) and my Sheep in the Meadow (which should also be possible). I am sticking to my plan with the dog bookshelf piece, I'm doing 520 stitches per week. Then I still have like 3 projects I haven't touched in 2016 (Yule Angel, Starlight, Eternal Promise) and a few where I planned on further stitching (like Wolf Variant or Ride of the Yokai or Iris). But then there are still two and a half months left this year, so I will see what I can do.
Apart from that I am thinking about 2017. Goals don't really work for me, rotations don't really work for me, stitching without a plan ends up with me not touching a project for a whole year.
So I am think about doing a rotation at the beginning of the year. I could pick a focus piece (like Kriemhild) to work on every month for a few days and then I rotate through all my projects once. So every projects get some love during the year and once I am done with all of them (including a few new starts...) I will decide how to go on. Maybe I will stitch what I feel like for a few weeks, maybe I will start another rotation cycle some time later in the year (the first one is to take about 5 months if I want to work for a good week on everything).... I will keep you up to date =)

Happy stitching =)

Das Rheingold - Page 5 AND a start on page 6

Just a quick update here, I managed to finish page 5 on Rheingold - yay me! And even better: I made a start on page 6!
You all know that I have been struggling with Rheingold for a while now, I am just not getting into it and I am pushing myself to take this out once a year and give it a try. I still love the design and I think the way it stitches up is great. So I am very happy that at the end of page 5 I just felt like putting in a few more stitches. It's only a partial column with 560 stitches, but I think it goes in the right direction. Maybe there will be a chance that I can finish the row by the end of 2017 (like 9600 stitches to go).
So here is where we are now:

I am off to start my first Nora Corbett now - one of the bewitching pixies called "Gwen". After all, the temperatures in Germany are dropping and it starts to feel like autumn around here ;-) So it's time to stitch something halloweenish ;-)

Happy stitching =)