WIPocalypse April - including some finishes ;-)

Yes, the title is correct, this post actually features some finishes and those who know me also know, that this a very rare! But don't worry, I didn't finish any BAPs ;-)

This wonderful SAL is hosted by Measi and as every month, there is a link-up for this month, you can find it here. Also, as every month, there is a question:

"Tell us about your longest running WIP or UFO"

This actually brings two projects to my mind, one is featured in this post anyway and I would consider it a WIP, the other is tending to be an UFO because I constantly forget to work on it.

Well, fist my UFO, which is also my oldest project. It's a Dimensions Gold kit called "Paris Market" and I think it's a pretty design.

I am not completely sure about when I started this, I think it was in 2010? This would make sense because in early 2011 I found Haed and my progress on this one was slowed down :D I honestly don't know why I don't work on this more often, it is pretty and colorful. Usually, working on the tree puts me a bit down because nothing seems to happen, but last year I stitched my way down to the flowers which a a lot more fun to stitch.

You know, my very fist stitching project was a little duck, a kit I found in one of my parents cupboard. It was one of the kits you give to children to teach them to stitch, so it was really basic. But this caught my interested and after looking at a lot of designs, I decided that a Dimensions Gold would be a good start (go big or go home). I originally wanted to go for Aurora Cabin, but I remember that it was summer and very hot, so I wanted to start with a summer design instead of a winter design, so I got Paris Market. I did get Aurora Cabin a few months later and started working in that one and in February 2011 I got my first Haed pattern and worked and I went down the serial starter lane ;-)
I also had a lot of drama with this one. I was a newbie when I started this, I made a lot of mistakes and that put me off working on it for a while. But I finally sat down and froged all the wrong stitches and started working on this one for the YOTA SAL (back in the days). Since Yota is no more, I am in need of a big kick to pick this up more often.
I just noticed that there was only one update on Paris Market in 2017 (it was in May), I always forget that this one exists. It is somewhere between a UFO and a WIP, but I definitely want to finish is. Therefore I am going to pick this up for a few days and try to get a few stitches in!

The second project that comes to my mind is my oldest Haed Kreimhilds Revenge, the one that took my attention away from Paris Market. I got the pattern in February 2011 and ordered the materials around that time, but I think it was already late March or April when I started her, My first update on her was on 8th April and at that time I was about 75% done with page 1.
I would consider her my oldest WIP because it is my oldest project on which I am updating on a regular basis. So I am doing a better job on her than on my Paris Market ;-) Those who follow my blog know, that I am working on her every month and so there is also a new update on her, I went from here:

To here:

A row finish, yay! Now I also crossed the halfway point pagewise ;-) Picking her up every month and stitching about half a page definitely adds up over time :) I think the next row will feature her shield and her spear and - the best part - not so much sky!
The sky on this was really putting me off for some time, especially since I am stitching on ivory colored Lugana, so the bright colors are hard to see.
She surely has a lot of mistakes, misplaced stitches, some knots, grid lines, page lines... everything that could possibly go wrong, went wrong, but I sort of taught myself about stitching while I worked on her, there were times when I thought about restarting her due to all those mistakes, but I decided to keep and love her as she is ;-)
And one glorious day, she will look like this:

I don't know why I picked her, I just fell in love with her the instant I saw her ;-) I am know at 139.950 stitches and my next goal is to hit the 150.000 stitches mark (which I will surely achieve this year), I super motivated to work on her again =)

This also brings us to my progress for this month. Apart from Kreimhild, I have three more projects to show, including 2 finishes.

But first up is my work on my Golden Kite project "Crossing the Stream". It's one of my largest projects, so I try to get some work into it. Luckily the Golden Kite pages are smaller than the Haed pages, so it's easy to stitch a whole page and that's what I did. I went from here:

To here - page 3 is done:

I have now 10.117 stitches done, so it's still a (very) long way to go. But stitching Haeds for so many years taught me one thing: Just focus on the current progress and don't calculate how much there is still to go ;-)  As long as it is fun to stitch, everything is fine and I am definitely enjoying this one =) Though I would love to stitch something else than trees, maybe I will start working down ;-)

Now for my finishes. The first one is a small design I started around Easter - one of the Mill Hill Easter eggs that are entirely done in beads. This is Daffodil Egg:

I screwed up the colors in the top part of the egg and it took me aged to notice it. But I liked it, so it stays like this... Who cares about the stripes, as long as the flower is not pink instead of yellow, I don't care :D

The second finish I have is another Mill Hill -my Buttons and Beads kit called "Hydrangeas". I got a rush and finished all the remaining cross stitching and then started beading and is all went quite fast after all. I could have done this months ago, but well... better late then never.
Last time:

And now - done and dusted:

It's super pretty in real life, but you know, beads are always hard to catch on camera. Since I really love Hydrangeas, I want to frame this. I also have a companion piece called Geranium (I got it for my birthday) and I want to stitch and frame that one, too. I don't think I own a matching frame, so I will need to look for one. You can see that the design is not centered, but I plan to hide that when I frame it ;-)

I guess this is all I have for this month. My plans for next month are to start on the fifth row of pages on Kreimhild, get some stitches into Paris Market and choose a new small project that I want to try and finish next (maybe Cliffside Beacon or that DMC bird I found when I tidied up my cupboard).

Happy stitching =)