Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - December

I can't believe we already made it to December, so this means that this is my final update for 2018! Therefore I am going to recapture all the progress I made this year ;-) And being only two days late is an improvement for me, but nevertheless there is already plenty to see at this months link-up page ;-)

For this month I only worked on one project, stitching is getting better again since my medication is working quite well now, but the time before Christmas is always so busy. I have all my present ready by now (well - I still need to do some baking for my uncle, but that's scheduled for the next weekend), I just need to wrap them up. I also spent a lot of time making tags for the presents, unfortunately it's not so easy to take pictures of them (and with 16 tags made I didn't feel like taking individual pictures):

These are my first attempts to card making - it's really fun, I am not completely happy with some of them, but I am still learning, right? And since these are going away with presents, I decided that they belong to the GG SAL. 

The general idea is that I want to gain some practice at card making. You know, I am going to marry next year and we didn't find invitation designs that were to our liking AND for a reasonable price (some cards are really expensive and since we are going to need like 50 invitations, the price really adds up). I will keep you up to date with my "experiments" ;-)

But back to stitching! I worked on my Map of Middle Earth by Heaven and Earth Designs. Since this is the last update for this year, here is my starting point for 2018, back then I was at 43.000 stitches:

Since last month I added another 800 stitches - so here we are at 55.000 stitches:

So I managed to get 12.000 stitches this year - my original goal was to get at least 14.000 stitches in, but considering the nasty business with my hand, I am completely happy with my 12.000 stitches. I am not sure if I can get the row finished by next year - it's 20.000 stitches after all! But I will do my best and try to get as close to that as possible.

So far I didn't get any more progress into Candy Cane Santa by Dimensions Gold, I thought about not posting until I had something to show, but I didn't want to be to late with this post (well last year I posted on the 23rd...). Anyway, I was still able to make some progress in 2018. I went from here:

To here (at least I took a new full shot)

The biggest change surely is that Santa does now have eyes - I am not sure if he really looks less creepy now - lol.

Another project I took with me from 2017 into the new year is Wolf Kiss by Dimensions. I went from here:

To here:

I only picked this up twice during this year - the progress is really fine for that amount, but I should definitely pick this up more often! It's a nice design, not to many colors and it stitches up in no time.

Last but not least, I restarted my In the Moonlight by Tilton Crafts - you may remember that I managed to mess up the orientation of the fabric. I only stitched two columns, but it's a (new) start:

The background is as dull as the first time, I think I just need to get past the point of my previous progress and then the motivation to work on this will hopefully kick in.

Those are all the things I worked on, I am generally happy with what I achieved this year (there is always room for improvements). The GG SAL will continue in 2019 and I am in for that! Hopefully with more progress on Santa! 

For all those who only drop by for the GG SAL: I hope you have a wonderful and festive time and I am wishing you all the best for 2019 =)

Happy stitching!

WIPocalypse November

Hello everyone,
I am giving myself a big kick to get this post up, I am in an absolute no-blogging-mood, maybe because I am not getting any stitching done (at least that's what I feel like).
I am getting medication for the pain in my hand now and it's working, at least a bit. The medication takes a few weeks to work properly. You start with a low amount and then you increase it after a days. The stuff makes me a bit dizzy, especially in the evenings. During the first week I fell asleep about one hour after my evening dose, but that already got better. I am seeing my doctor weekly because he wants to watch this closely (which I really appreciate, there are a lot of doctors who just leave you with this stuff and say "well you get used to it" - this might be so in a good amount of cases, but since things can go really wrong with strong pain medication, I prefer someone to double check). We plan on increasing the amount one more time, because I still have a bit of pain. The difference so far is that I even had pain when I didn't do anything with my hand and very strong pain when I was doing light work like carrying a mug or a plat or stuff in general. Those things are now painless, yay! I was also able to stitch a bit more, I did like 300 stitches yesterday! But carrying heavy things, using the hand a lot (cooking was complicated, handling knives, stirring something, carrying pot filled with water) still results in pain, so there is room for improvement.

Another good news is that I am going back to work, no teaching (can't handle that amount of writing), but I want to continue with my phd thesis and honestly - staying at home for a week or two is ok - you go like "yeah reading time" and "yeah stitching time" and "yeah netflix time", but I have been at home for four weeks and I am fed up with it by now... Therefore, I am going back by tomorrow and so I am kicking myself to get this up today.

WIPocalypse was scheduled for 25th November, so I am really late for this. At least my answer to this months question about which new stitching techniques I learned this year is short: None...

As for my progress, I decided to pick up Aurora Cabin by Dimensions Gold - I didn't know what to pick up so I chose something I haven't worked on this year. I worked on it for a few days and went from here:

To here:

I just did a bit of work on the background, but it was nice to see some progress on this. Once I got started on the background, it actually went pretty fast.

The second project I worked on is - as usual - my Kreimhilds Revenge. I went from here:

To here:

I think I added like 3 columns to her, so I have 153 040 stitches done on her. I am positive that I can get page 35 done by the end of the month, especially since a lot of the remaining stitches are black.

Since stitching has been so difficult during the last weeks, I spent a lot of time reading - I did the amazing amount of 12 books in November! Well, at the end of the month I decided to reread Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and I didn't finish it so far. I forgot how long this book is - 800 pages! We watched the Harry Potter movies last month, I really like the movies, but there is so much more detail in the books, all those lovely small things that build this world, but I see why it's complicated to include all this in a movie. You know the last time I read this was about 10 years ago, maybe 11. I was pretty young then, I think this was one of the first books I read in English (apart from lectures in school). I remember that I tried to read this book in German a bit earlier, but I dropped it after about 100 pages then, but when I tried this in English, I few through it. Anyway, reading this as an adult (and with a lot more experience with English) is like a whole new experience, I am sort of impressed about how much I remember, but I completely forgot about a few things. The pages are just flying by and it is a true delight to enter this book again, it's a bit like coming home ;-)

Well, this is enough rambling, the next post is due on 30th December. Since I don't have to work between Christmas and new year, I will do my very best to post on the 30th or 31st. Until then,

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - November

Sometimes I think I should try and schedule the GG SAL updates for like the 12th or so in my mind, so I can be on time for the actual update, lol. It looks like I am 6 days late for this and in 4 days there is WIPocalypse (I expect to be late for that, too). I so much wanted to finish page 7 on Middle Earth first, but since my hand still hurts, I took ages to do so. On some days I can do about one or two hundred stitches (spread over one day), on some days I did not stitch at all. Compared to the fact that before I was able to easily do 600 to 800 stitches on a free day, this is really depressing =/
I had a few more appointments at various doctors over the last to weeks and some of them were truly awful. But at least I am getting some medication now, so the pain will hopefully lessen soon (the medication take a few days to work). I am currently off work and will stay so until the end of the month, but I hope to go back to work by December. I won't teach, because I have trouble writing, but I want to try and continue my work on my phd thesis. But enough for my health troubles, you are here for my stitching, right?

As mentioned above, I worked on my Map of Middle Earth and I am finally done with page 7, yay! I added 1 300 stitches since last month an the total stitch count is now 54 300.
Last month:

And now:

I also put a few stitches into my Candy Cane Santa, not much but every stitch counts, right? I went from here:

To here:

Well, that's all I have for this month. I really hope that with the new medication I can get a bit more done (I was told to try and use the hand from time to time, so the muscles would not stay intact, so I try and stitch for a few minutes then and again). I merely forgot to add this months link-up, a lot of great updates can be found over there ;-)

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - October

Well, it looks like October has been renamed to Octover by now (pun-alert, sorry...) and I haven't posted for WIPocalypse by now. I don't know, time just flies by and I really have to kick myself to post at all (most of the time I feel like I don't have much to show anyway...). I'm pretty busy with my work right now and the issues with my hand are quite unnerving. I am going to hospital tomorrow and I sort of hope that they can finally figure out what's wrong, running from one doctor to another and everyone is telling me that I am perfectly healthy (except for annoying pain in my hand that doesn't let me sleep at night that is) is truly unnerving by now...
But back to business. I read 9 books during the last month, but I still managed to get a few stitches in as well. I have two bigger projects and two mini finishes to show (can't believe it myself!). But first, I would like to answer this months question:
Do you prefer to stitch on a rotation or one project at a time?

Well, I guess that's easy. I rotate my projects. If it's a really small design (like my two finished this months) I finish them in one go, but that go also takes one or two evenings. But apart from that, I rotate my projects and I can't think of any other way for me. Those who watch this place know that I love BAPs, I do a lot of Haeds and they usually have like 250k+ stitches. I think I would go crazy otherwise. If I have enough time and I am in the mood, I do about 1500 stitches per week (I am picking rough numbers to make the calculations easier). So a project with 300 000 stitches would take 200 weeks to finish, that's nearly 4 years! I truly can't imagine working on just one project for 4 years! I have my two focus projects (Kreimhild and Middle Earth) and I am doing my best to work on them every month and even that is sometimes exhausting me. So there is clearly no way that I am stitching one project at a time.

Since I already mentioned two smaller projects, here they are! I stitched two mini Halloween designs, they seem to go by the name of "Make me for Halloween". They are small, cute and pretty cheap, so I ordered three (so I need to stitch one more) of them last month. I chose some hand dyed fabric from a grab bag that I got from Polstitches. Unfortunately, I don't know the name, but it's a nice and light purple/blue/green shading. Also, the colors don't really show in the picture:

I also got some small frames and I already frames the pumpkin and still need to do this with the witch. The third design I have is a little spider and I think about getting a fourth one since I still have some fabric for another design. 

Apart from that I worked on two of my Haeds. The first one I chose is Whispers by Melanie Delon, my New Year start from 2017. I decided to finish page 2 and went from here:

To here:

The red bubble still looks pretty strange to me, but I guess it will get better once I am starting on page, I think this is going to be another flower. I always love to work on this in autumn/winter. The colors are dark and gloomy in the back, but the flowers are warm and I absolutely love red! I am torn between taking this out again this month or working on another project that hasn't gotten any love this year (like Starlight or Rheingold of Wolf Variant). Since I am currently into audiobooks (currently listening to Steven Kings It) again, I sort of hope to squeeze in a few more projects in a month. 

The second Haed I worked on is - as every month - Kreimhilds Revenge. I managed to make a start on page 35, not much but enough to get me past the 150k mark, yay! I am at 150 730 stitches now, so I met another goal for this month. I went from here:

To here:

The colors are a bit boring, I mean there is some confetti spice things up, but it's all black and brown and I fear it's going to stay like this. As far as I can see, we are going to encounter some of her dress in the middle of page 36, I am not sure if I will get there this year, but definitely early next year. I am keeping her on the frame for a few more days, so I can hopefully finish page 35 this year. 

Since it is already November, I am starting to think about next year. I usually do a new start for New Year, but during the last months, my focus turned from stitching to reading and so I am unsure bout ne new start. I currently feel like I am not getting as much done on my current projects and maybe I shouldn't start something new. But then it is also a kind of tradition for me and I always enjoyed them. I usually have a few days off after New Year, so there is enough time for stitching. Maybe I will watch out for a few Black Friday deals for threads and kit something up. I think I will go through my stash or maybe buy something new. I currently have my eye on "Memories of Venice" by Alex Levin:

As I said - I love read and I absolutely love the golden embroidery! But I also have a few nice things in my stash, maybe I will just do another post on this matter. 

This blog post turned out longer than I thought. You can find all other entries at this months link-up here. Measi just announced that WIPocalypse is also going to continue in 2019, that is already going to be the 7th year! 

Anyway, that's all I have for this months WIPocalypse, I guess I will really do a post on my new year start thoughts ;-) 

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - October

Hello lovely people and welcome to another GG SAL update. Thank you for all your comments regarding my hand, we are slowly getting better now ;-)  I am only 3 days late this time, so it's my usual amount of being late :D The days are getting shorter here and it becomes more complicated to take a decent picture now. The picture below is my progress from Monday evening, but I got home quite late during the last days and it was just to dark to take a picture and even with some natural light through the window, I had to use my phones flashlight because the colors looked so off.

So here is my tiny update for GG SAL, I worked on my map of Middle Earth. I managed to catch up with 500 stitches missing from last month and added another 1 000 stitches for this month, so this time I am actually happy with my progress. Next goal is also to make some progress on my other GG SAL projects.
Before:

And now:

So this is all I have for this month. As every month there is a link-up (and as every month a good amount of people already signed up for it) =)

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse September

So this is a September post in October, I know, but I was on holiday and just didn't make it on Sunday, which is weird because this post is going to be extra short. I talked about the issues with my right hand a lot and still I don't know what's actually wrong with it. I went to a ton of doctors and I have a few more appointments to go. But I did get some medication to fight inflammation and that actually worked (well, the pain in my hand has come and gone for about 10 years now, so I am not really convinced that I'm done with it...). Anyway, my fingers still feel a bit stiff, but the pain is gone now, so I am back to stitching and hope to have more progress to show for Octobers WIPocalypse. I even bought a few small Halloween kits, they are super tiny but cute =)

Well, back to topic, WIPocalypse and stitching and stuff. I actually only worked on my Kreimhilds Revegene and I am nearly done with page 34 now. I went from here:

To here:

I am at 149 190 stitches now, so I am super close to my 150k mark, yay! I think I added 4 columns since you last saw this, so I actually got something done. Also, her spear looks absolutely awesome so far =)

Well, that leaves us with this months question/ topic:  How do you keep your stitching stash organized?
Ah well, I am not doing anything special. My fiance would probably say that my stuff is all over the place, lol. So far, my stash still fits in a cupboard in my living room, but my DMC boxes usually are near my stitching spot and everything looks a bit chaotic. I have a couple of kits and fabric, but mostly I own patterns from Haed and Golden Kite and so on and they are stored on my computer (and online just in case).

So that's it for today, I guess I will see you soon with my 150k stitches on Kreimhild ;-) In the meantime you should check out the link-up for this month, a lot of people already signed up =)
Happy stitching

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - September

Another GG SAL post after another month with hardly any stitching...
I think I mentioned before that I sometimes have trouble with my right hand, it usually happens if use my hand to much or lift to many heavy things and so on and it usually get better after a few days. But this time it's different, since a few weeks both my hand and my right arm (and part of my back) hurt like hell, I spent the last week running from one doctor to another, but so far it's a mystery. So I don't stitch much, or at least I don't get a lot done because I mainly stitch with my left hand only and that takes ages.
Anyway, I managed to get a few stitches into Middle Earth, it's only 500 and I am super behind on my monthly and yearly goal, but every stitch counts ;-)
I went from here:

To here:

And since I am again late for this SAL, a lot of people already signed up for the monthly link-up here, so take a look over there as well =)

I hope the situation with my hand will improve soon and I can catch up a bit.
Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - August

And here we go for another WIPocalypse, it's the 31st of August, so at least it's still August. I really didn't feel like blogging, so I guess this will be a short post. As every month, there is a link-up and you can find it here =)

This months question is also short to answer for me: Which is more satisfying to you and why – the process of stitching a piece, or the finish?
Well, it's definitely stitching. Yea, finishing something is also nice, but I love to work on my pieces. Thinking about finishing my bigger projects makes me happy and sad at the same time, because I know that I would miss working on them ;-)

I have a tiny bit of progress on Kreimhild to show - I don't know, I seem to be a bit sick of her by now. During the heat wave I just couldn't work on her, the darker colors put me down, so I switched to something more powerful. I went from here:

To here:

I added two columns, so I have a total of 146 880 stitches done. Therefore I am still positive that I can reach the 150k mark this year ;-)

Since I needed to work on something more colorful, I decided to pick up The Potting Shed by Aimee Stewart and that was just the right project for this weather.
Before:

Now:

I stitched a whole page on this one, it was just so much fun! The colors and the detail are sooooo beautiful =) I am super happy with my progress on this one =)

The third project I worked on is my Cliffside Beacon by Dimensions Gold petite. I had a hard time stitching the white on the fence, this was a lot of counting, and I was quite happy to be done with it.
Before:

and now:

The white is hardly visible, but quite a bit has been added and one day this will be finished ;-)

Well, I guess that's all I have for this month. I am currently stitching on Kreimhild, finishing page 34 for next month would be great. I am not sure which project I want to pic up next - maybe Starlight or Sloth or Whispers?
Anyway, I will find something pretty.
Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgousness SAL - August

Well, I am not sure if I have ever been this late for the SAL. The simple reason for this is that I don't really have a lot to show, so I thought about skipping this month, but over the last couple of years I posted for this SAL every month and it just didn't feel right to skip this month and after all, there is one project on which I worked. And it's not Santa or Middle Earth!
I did my best to work on Middle Earth, I was on the frame for 4 days or so, but whenever I sat down to work on it, I found myself doing everything but stitching, even staring at the television like a dummy (I usually watch TV or listed to audiobooks when I stitch). I just didn't feel it. In those days I did like 30 or 40 stitches on Middle Earth, some of the days I couldn't even bring myself to work on it at all. Well, I checked back, since last June I have been working on ME every month and I think I was just so sick of it... My stitchy bug is a bit weird these days anyway and I don't want to loose it completely, so I put Middle Earth away for this month.

After that episode, I decided to pick up another of my GG SAL projects - Wolf Kiss by Dimensions. I haven't worked on this for ages and it doesn't have so many colors, so I thought is would be a good and easy project to get over Middle Earth. I worked on this for two evenings and went from here:

To here:

I actually am fairly happy with  what I did in those two evenings. You know the pattern consists of two pages and this month I managed to finish the upper half of the first page (this is why the male wolfs face looks so funny, I wanted to finish the upper half so I don't have to flip over the pattern all the time). It also helped me to get my stitchy bug back again ;-)

Well, this is all I have for this month. Lucky me, the link up is still open and you can find it here.

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse -July

And here we go with another WIPocalypse, somehow it seems to be the end of July and I am on time for this - at least while I am starting to write this entry. This months topic is the half-year recap and this could result in a really long post, so maybe I will not finish the entry in one setting.
Since the Lady of Stitch-a-Lot is still on holiday in the Castle of Read-a-Lot , I am also not confident that I will be satisfied with my progress so far (another reason why I don't really feel like writing this post).
I have a few days off from work since last Wednesday and I am so happy about it - it is so hot here in Germany, it's not funny anymore. I feel like I need to water my plants a hundred times a day and whenever I did that I need to shower, there seems to be no way to cool down the house (we are already leaving all our windows open at night) and you can't get outside because the sun burns so hot. I usually get up at 7 am and then I sit outside with a cup of tea (reading - what else these days?) because around 9 am it's to hot to stay outside (our garden is to the east, so I have direct sun there in the morning) anymore. We gave in and bought a small pool this year and it already was worth every penny... My stitching has increased over the last days, I think my bug is thinking about coming back, but while stitching I need to wash my hands all the same because my hands are getting sweaty... I really don't mind the sun or warm days, but these temperatures above 35° celsius (due to google: 95° fahrenheit) are killing me...
Well I am doing my best to put a few stitches in every day and most days it works. I am slowly increasing. I think one reason for my missing bug is that it just needed a rest - I stitched so much during the first months of the year and maybe I just needed a change. I always loved to read, but usually I read on my way to work (and back) and before I go to bed. I used to read like 4 or 5 books per month and most books I read where things I got for cheap while waiting for my train to arrive. But since I discovered booktube, it's like a whole new world is there, I started looking at different genres and so on. I never really read YA fantasy (well except Harry Potter), but there are so many authors I never heard of and so many lovely books, I was truly overwhelmed but it and I wanted to buy and read everything at once - lol. This and the fact that I always love to read a lot of stuff during summer just took most of my energy. I feel my focus moving back to stitching, but since there are still a lot of summer reads I am looking forward to (I am currently reading The Lake House by Kate Morton, it's so good), I think it's going to be a bit more quiet here for a few more weeks. But I feel the urge to stitch on some of my summer projects (like The potting shed or Danielle) now and that's always a good sign.

Anyway, this was a lot of talking about my life, let's move to the stitchy things. As mentioned somewhere above, it's time for a halfyear recap now. As every month - there is a link-up and you can find it here.
I tried to work on a few projects that relate to goals for this year (felt like I needed to do some work on them), so I will start with the projects where there is some new progress to show.

First up is my focus project Kreimhilds Revenge by H. D. Johnson. When I set out for 2018, she had 129 170 done and I had three goals: first I wanted to finish the fourth row of pages, then I want to crush the 150 000 stitches mark and then I want to hit the less-than-100k-to-go mark at 155 600 stitches. So far I did 145 340 stitches - so I met my first goal and I am close to meeting the second one.
Last time you saw her:

And now:

I have not met my monthly goal for July, I only picked her up last night, but I plan on stitching on her for a few more days.

The reason why I didn't get so much work into Kreimhild is my Supersized Sk Iris Keeper by Josephine Wall. I had four pages done at the beginning of the year and my goal was to finish the first row of pages and that's what I did last week - I added 4080 stitches and went from here:

To here:

And I am so happy about this! I planned on stitching on Iris for a couple of days and moving to Kreimhild, but then I was three columns away from the row finish and I just didn't want to stop - so I continued ;-)

The third project I worked on is on my to-be-finished list for this year - Cliffside Beacon from the Dimensions Gold petite collection. I went from here:

To here:

The progress is hard to spot - I mostly stitched white and it's super annoying and I am so happy when I am done with the white in the fence... A great summer project, I hope to make more progress on it for August.

So these are the projects I worked on since last month, which brings us to my work on my other goals.
So next on the list is my Sloth by Eya Claire Floyd from Gecko Rouge. I want to finish the first quarter of the chart and then head for the halfway point. I worked on this last month, but I only added one column. Here is where I currently am:

I definitely want to work on this, but I won't make any promises. My next plan is to do more work on Kreimhild and then there is that urge to work on The Potting Shed, so I don't know if I can share an update for next month, but I will try.

The last project I wanted to work on is my QS Trapped, I want to finish the top row this year, but so far I haven't picked it up...

Next up are the projects I want to finish in 2018, they are smaller projects so I have a chance to do so. The first one is already finished, my Hydrangeas by Mill Hill:

My Cliffside Beacon is listed above and I didn't do any work on that Bird from Dimensions so far.

Concerning my other projects I don't have any specific goals, I just want to work on all of them during the year. So far I worked on the following projects:
Crossings the Stream by Golden Kite - I stitched one page
Paris Market by Dimensions Gold
QS Paddys Luck by Joana Bromley - I did some 2000 stitches
Yule Angel by Anne Stokes - I stitched one page
The Silence after by Chris Ortega - I did 4000 stitches
Across Winter Lake by Jo Grundy from Gecko Rouge - some 2000 stitches
Geishas by Maia
Robin by Alysa


And these are the ones that still yearn for some love:
Aurora Cabin by Dimensions Gold
Danielle by Sara Butcher
Das Rheingold by Kinuko Craft
Miss Christmas Eve
Starlight by David Hoffrichter
Supersized Ride of the Yokai by Ruth Thompson
The Eternal Promise by Matt Stewart
The Potting Shed by Aimee Stewart
Whispers by Melanie Delon
Wolf Variant by Bente Schlick

So there are 10 projects I still want to work on, I am not sure if I will get this list to zero, but I will work on it ;-)

I also stitched two more small projects and finished them:
One of the beaded eggs from Mill Hill:

And I stitched a small design by Liebevolle Kreuzstichentwürfe:

So on my Haed/Gecko/GK projects I did 32 421 stitches. On my Gifted Gorgeousness projects I did another 9 600 and then my work on the smaller projects - so I am not even close to 50 000 stitches so far. I always want to try and do 100 000 stitches, but I think I am going to fail again ^^°

Well, this is everything I have for this month,
Happy Stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - July

And here we are in the middle of July and it's time for another GG SAL update and this month am not only on time for the SAL, but I also have progress to show on two of my projects AND one of them is Santa! It's currently really hot here in Germany, we are having a wonderful summer (maybe not enough rain, the grass outside looks like hay...), so it was not easy for me to pick up Santa, but I wanted to get the second window section done (there really wasn't much to do...), so I gave myself a kick.
So I went from here:

To here:

As you can see, I even bothered to stitch Santas eyes, lol. He looks a bit less creepy now, but still a bit weird. I guess that the backstitching will help a lot, but since I am stitching this on a Qsnap and I am still moving around the frame, I am doing the backstitching at the end. You can also see that I added a few more stitches to the window cross. I am not sure about which section I will start next - the one with Santas body or the one with the Christmas tree, but I think I am going to start with doing more work on the window cross for orientation ;-)

The second project I worked on is- as every month - my map of Middle Earth. I added my 1000 stitches for this month, we are not moving along that fast with Middle Earth, but the stitches add up. My total stitch count on Middle Earth for this year is 8 000 and that's definitely something =)
I went from here:

To here:

The progess on this is still really slow, there is a lot of confetti in the mountains and that dark blob in the lower right corner is full of confetti (at least it's done for this row).I am now at 51 000 stitches, if I stick to my plan, I should do another 6 000 stitches this year, which brings us to a total of 57 000 stitches. The first row has 75 000 stitches, so getting that done by the end of 2019 would be awesome. I think I will try to squeeze in a an additional 1 000 or  2 000 stitches this year, so I can meet my goal for next year =)

Well, this is all I have for this month, not to much progress, but every stitch counts =) I have a few days off soon and I think I will pick up my Wolf Kiss then, so I can add at least a few stitches to them for my August update =)
I nearly forgot to include the link-up for this month, but here it is =)

Happy stitching =)