WIPocalypse January

It's the evening of the 26th, so I am on time for this post - yay me! Be sure to check out this months link-up, there is going to be a lot of action in the next days when all the people check in for the month =)

Just like last year, there is a monthly question and just like last year, the first one is about which SALs I am participating this year. And just like last year, it's only this SAL and the GG SAL, where we are working on projects that were a gift or are meant to be a gift. My last post was my entry post for 2020 for that and I already did a great start with my map of middle earth ( 2 500 stitches!).

Since I speant quite a lot of time on Middle Earth, I did not get as much done on my other projects, but I am still happy with what I did.
First I stitches another row on Supersized Maxcolor Once upon a Fairytale, which is a lot of fun, but full of confetti. So last time:

And now:

So during this month I did 2 600 stitches, since the project has nearly 714 000 stitches, I am nearly done...not...

The second project I worked on is one of my non-haeds! You all know I love my haeds and I work on them a lot. But I also own a big bunch of projects by Gecko Rouge, Dimensions and lately Tilton crafts (they released a bunch of great Lord of the Rings charts lately), but for my taste I am not working on them enough. Therefore I will try to work on (at least) one project every month that is not a haed. For this month I chose a design by Gecko Rouge called "Across Winter Lake". The artist is Jo Grundy and she did a lot of lovely winter and nature designs. I started this project in 2018 (I think) and then it disappeared in my cupboard until last week. I remember that the confetti really put me off and I must say that this project is going quite slow. But the part of the chart I am working on is just full of confetti and it definitely gets better.
Any way, a long long time ago, Across Winter Lake started to look like this:

And now I finished page 1 and it looks like this:

I added 2 016 stitches and I am now at 3 888 stitches done. I am currently undecided if I should continue to work across (more trees and confetti) or start to work down (then I would stitch a part of the lake with less confetti). Since I am going to switch projects again, I have a bit of time to decide on this matter (I just hope it won't be another 2 years until I work on it again).

I also did some more work on that Christmas ornament. I was in the middle of writing an extra long paragraph telling you that I did the beading, but hate backstitching and seriously need to get my butt up to do it when i decided that I could just give is a try. And now, I am done with the backstitching! I must say that I am no good when it comes to french knots, so my rabbit look a bit stoned....

So that's actually a tiny finish for this year! Don't get used to it ;-)

I am off to bed (and a nice book) now, so happy stitching to all of you =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - January

January is already halfway over, so it's time for a short update for the GG SAL. I wanted to post on Thursday, but then I was so close to finishing page 9 on Middle Earth that I decided to do that first and so I am posting today. I only worked on Middle Earth this month, but I did 2 500 stitches during the last week! I mus add that since we are nearing the end of the row, there is not much confetti and this stitches up in no time. I went from here:

To here:

Nevertheless I am super happy with my progress and I am so excited that I am starting the last page on the first row next month.
Just like last year, there is a monthly link-up and you can find the one for January here.

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse 2020 - Introduction

Happy new year, I hope you all made a good start for 2020!
We had a lovely celebration with our friends on the 31st. I think we are getting old by now. Back in the days we felt ill at the end of new years even due to to much alcohol and party and now we feel ill at the end of the day due to to much food :D We ate like a ton of raclette and potatoes and muffins. We stayed overnight at our friends house and since we had so many left overs, we had raclette again for "breakfast" (more like brunch) and I think I am done with cheese for a few weeks now ;-)

But for the first WIPocalypse post a short introduction is in order. Well, I am Johanna and by now 28 years old and I live in Germany. I studied mathematics and I am currently doing my phd (which I hope to finish this year). I live with my husband and he is studying computer science (about to start his master thesis now). Apart from stitching I love to read and when I stitch I usually have an audiobook playing (or booktube). I also know how to knit and crotchet, but I enjoy stitching a lot more.
I started blogging in 2011 and joined the WIPocalypse in 2012, I think took part nearly every year and hope the SAL will continue for the next years. Most of my projects (and stash) are from Heaven and Earth Designs, but I also own a bunch of charts and kits from Dimensions and Gecko Rouge. I prefer the bigger designs, but I also own a ton of Mill Hill beaded kits and ornaments. I fear I am really bad at blogging these days, but I update my instagram far more often (feel free to follow me @lady_stitchalot ). I always plan to post here more often and I also plan that for this year, I am just not sure of this will work out ;-)

Well, this is all I have to say about myself now. So what did I do in the last week?
On the non-stitchy side I read a lot, I dug out my Kindle again and have been glued to it since Christmas (I think I read like 5 books since then). Apart from that I had a first try at making my own soap (yesterday), it definitely looks very promising so far, but the soap needs to rest about 4 to 6 weeks until you can use it. I will keep you up to date ;-)

On the stitchy side there is my new year start =) I decided to join the crowd who stitches some version of Aimee Stewarts Once upon a fairy tale! I decided to go for the supersize max colors version, so it's 999x714 stitches and 239 colors, oh my! I decided to go for 25ct lugana because I fear there is going to be a lot of confetti (and I had a suitable piece of fabric in my stash). Here is what this will (hopefully) one day look like:

And here is where I currently am:

I decided to stitch this in rows (I sometimes just need a little change) and so far I stitched 3 rows or 1950 crosses. I am stitching this 1 over 1 as usual. There definitely is a lot of confetti, but I really enjoy it and plan to continue with this project for a few more days.
I also finished the first package of beads on my Mill Hill ornament and plan on finishing this in the nest days (just can't put down my fairytale).

This brings me to the plans for 2020... Ah plans usually don't work out for me. The thing about 2019 that made me most unhappy was that I did not work on all of my projects. So I think this will be my goal for 2020, work on all of them. I will try and rotate my projects more often and therefore I will now have a focus piece for the next months, at least not for the WIPocalypse SAL. I plan on concentrating on my map of middle earth for the GGSAL to finish the first row, after I am done with that I will probably decide for another focus piece for this SAL.

So that's all I have for this time. The link-up for this month is already up, since I am a lot more on time than usual, it's not that crowded yet, but I am sure this will change soon ;-)

Happy stitching =)