WIPocalypse - February

Ah well, it's time for another WIPocalypse and I am only two days late for it :D And it is still February, so I am getting better at this! Maybe there will come a month when I am on time for this ;-)
Anyway, this months reason for being late is that I really wanted to finish the 30th page on Kreimhilds Revenge for this post and I was some 500 stitches short on Sunday evening. So there is another full shot of Kreimhild here, which is something after all, right?

But first let me point you towards the monthly link-up here. This months question is on the one hand about our results for the Olympic stitching challenges, but I didn't do any, so I am skipping this. On the other hand it's about our favorite stitching gadgets. Ah, that's easy, since I don't use a lot of gadgets. In fact, the only thing I use are needle minders and I have a ton of them. I absolutely need some kind of magnetic board to store them all, they are just everywhere and I am sure I already lost a few. Here are all that I could find:

But now for my progress for this month!
First up is my promised update on Kreimhilds Revenge by H. D. Johnson. As I said, I finished page 30, which means I went from here:

To here:

That's a total of 3465 stitches since you last saw her, yay! I am back to my schedule with her and I am aiming for a row finish by the end of April.

The next one I want to show is a new start and it's not a Haed. I started my second Gecko Rouge project. It was so cold and I was in such a winter mood, I just couldn't resist starting "Across Winter Lake" by Jo Grundy.
Here is what I have so far:

Well, these are 1846 stitches and they took ages because it is soooooo much confetti. It looks really pretty, but in the end I was sort of happy to be able to put this down ;-)
In the end, I hope it will look like this:

You can see, that I still have a long way to stitch on this! But at least, not all of this seems to be as confetti heavy as those trees.

The last project I worked on is my Mill Hill kit called Hydrangeas. I stitched more green and went from here

To here:

I stitched all of the dark green now and I am already done with the very dark green. The other green shades are no as much as the dark green and since I have enough stitching done for orientation, I hope to be able to finish a few more of those for next month.
I have to hurry up with this one now, Mill Hill already published another design from this range (geraniums) and I already bought it ;-)

Anyway, I am off to my mother in laws birthday party now, my fiance is already waiting for me =)

Happy stitching

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - February

Ah, it looks like we are already half way through February... I am 3 days late for GG SAL and don't have much to show, so everything is as usual here :D 

Work is still driving me made, I survived that exam we had in January (we were occupied with than until last Tuesday, since after the normal written test, some of the students (like 40) can do an additional oral exam and the whole process of correcting the exam, the students sign up for the oral exam and the oral exams themselves always takes ages...) and I am prepared for the next exam, which is next Tuesday (and those students also can do the oral exam stuff) and I finished designing the exams for my own students (the last two exams belonged to lectures from the last summer), which is at the beginning of March. Holy cow, sometimes I really hate how many students and how many exams there are! On top of this, I think that I am getting ill, I feel really done these days and by head hurts a lot, so I spent a lot of time sleeping and hoping that the flue won't visit me...

Anyway, back to topic! It's GG SAL! As always, it's worth taking a look at the monthly link-up here, 14 other people have already signed up, so there is plenty to see and - as always - Jo also has a lot of beautiful projects to show =)

Well, the first thing I have to show is a small update on my Wolf Kiss by Dimensions. I picked this up after my latest GG SAL update, I didn't work to much on it, but every stitch counts, right?

I went from here:

To here:

I think if I spent another day stitching this, I could finish the top half of the first page. Maybe I'll try this for next time. I originally wanted to start the owl from Eva Rosenstand, but the fabric is to stiff (can't get it on the frame and it's supposed to be linen), so I will wash it first. For this I need to surge the edges and for 4 weeks I have been planning to take out my sewing machine and do that (and maybe sew the last scroll rod cover I need). 

The second project I have to show is my map of Middle Earth. It is currently on the frame, I only did 500 stitches since you last saw it, but I am going to stitch those additional 500 stitches for my 1000-a-month-goal before I take it of the frame. I guess I should be able to finish the column tomorrow.

I went from here:

To here:

Taking full shots is starting to get difficult since the map is quite large and you can hardly see the column I started. Maybe I will only do full shots for page finishes from now on (doesn't happen that often..).

I must confess that there is still now further work on Santa. I am currently focusing on a smaller Mill Hill kit I want to finish, so whenever I sit down for a few minutes and stitch on a smaller project, it*s that one instead of Santa. But I will try again for next month!

That's already all I have for this month. 

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - January

Ah well, I was so happy to read, that the WIPocalypse posting date for this year has moved to the last Sunday of the month, so I can finally be on time for it. But look at me now, it is February and I am posting, lol. Well, it's the thought that counts, right ;-)
Anyway, here we go with my lousy update for this month. Work has been so stressful, I have often no energy left to stitch in the evening. But the semester is getting to an end now and I hope things will get better soon.
As I said, this SAL is usually taking place at the end of the month and is hosted by Measi. You can find the monthly link-up here.

I haven't made to much progress since last time, I only have two projects to show:

The first is my new year start called "The Silence After" by Chris Ortega, I added two more columns since last time. I went from here:

To here:

As you can see, I have a new needle minder, I thought it quite fitting for a viking :D This brings me to a total of 4 000 stitches on this piece. I must say, that in the end I got quiet tired of all the dark stitching and was rather happy to move on =)

The second project I worked on is my Kreimhilds Revenge, after taking a break on her during December, she is back in the game now. I only did one and a partial column, less then I wanted, but it's better than nothing. I went from here:

To here:

I hope to catch up on her for next month and I think I will stitch one or two more columns on her before I move on, so that is ensured. I am a bit tired of her dress, you know the fabric color is ivory and those light colors are not to easy to stitch on it. But you can see, that some of the background will appear in the next column and I think it will make a nice change. I will do my best to finish page 30 for the February update =)

This months question is about out goals/plans for the Olympics challenge, but I don't think I am joining this one. I like to watch the Olympics, but I don't have the head to do any SALs right now. I am entirely happy if I can survive the month of February without loosing my nerve over my students ;-)

Happy stitching =)