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 =)

WIPocalypse April

And April is already gone - how did that happen? There must be something wrong, I feel like I hardly got any stitching done as well! But then I also had some trouble with my right hand and could not stitch for a few days at all and had to stitch with my left hand only - so my rotation got messed up because I didn't feel like switching projects after putting only a couple of hundrer stitches in. But my hand is better now and I hope to improve this month.

So here is my WIPocalypse update for April. The wonderful SAL is hosted by Measi and you can find the link-up post here.
As for this months question: What projects are in your UFO pile? Ah, that's complicated. I don't have any UFOs in the sense of "I don't want to stitch that any more". I have  few projects that get less love and I sort of have t push myself a bit to work on them. Actually, I worked on three such projects this month.
The first one is my oldet WIP - a kit by Dimensions Gold called "Paris Market" - I started this in Summer 2010, I fear :D I usually fortget about this project, I don't know why... The green in the tree seems to take forever, so I always try to put in a few tree stitches and I think that works. But the flowers are really nice to stitch. Anyway, last time you saw this - at the beginning of June 2016!

And now:

I think I did quite well for only three days on this ;-)

The same "problem" occurs with my Aurora Cabin by Dimensions Gold, the last time you saw this was in May 2016! Back then, it looked like this:

And now, I finished the full stitches on the big tree and got started on the background. So pretty, why don't I work on this more often? After all, the background is only half stitches and stitches up nice and quick... By the way, this is my second oldest WIP, started at then end of 2010 I think.

The third one is one of my older Haeds, I don't know what it is, but I never seem to find my mojo to work on this... I love the design and I think the way it comes out is nice, but I just forget about this. Anywy, I went from here:

To here, I added 2 columns, 1600 stitches:

We are getting somewhere, big plan is to finish page 6 this year (and halfway through).
Well, so much for the pile of shame...

Apart from that, I worked on Starlight by David Hoffrichter. At that time my hand hurt, so it took me more than a week to stitch 2 columns (1600 stitches as well). This put me past the halfwaypoint on the first row!
I went from here:

To here:

I really love the way the colors here stitch up, so nice and calming =)

I also stiitched a few days on Kreimhilds Revenge, I added 2 1/2 columns (1925 stitches) to it. But it's only sky...
Before:

After;

The last thing I worked on was the Cloudsfactory SAL - I am still terribly behind... And we had drama... I was stitching my way through Joan of Arc from the March block on Monday and then I noticed that half the horse was wrong... I somewhere missed my count... So I frogged this on Tuesdays and didn't feel like restitching it since then...maybe at the weekend. This is my current progress:

So I added Marie Curie and Cleopatra and we have a start on Joan of Arc (which seems to be a smaller design).

Anyway, that's my progress for April. I sort of got enabled by all the lovely new starts for Maynia and since I have a bunch of smaller designs here, I am givin in to some smaller new starts this month. I already started another birdie of my BFs mother, which is nearly done!
Apart from that, I put Danielle on the frame. I don't think I'll stick with the change once a week thing, I just change when I feel like it.

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - July

So, it's the end of July already. July was a very busy and exhausting month, I had a lot of work to do at university because the semester is endig now and exams are drawing nearer and I have a lot of people asking questions and so on. Along with that, it was my boyfriends birthday last week and we decided to celebrate it with some friends yesterday. So we spent a whole week planning and preparing and I feel like we can spent another week cleaning the place :D But we had a lot of fun last night, everybody was happy and the food was great. I am still very tired, so maybe this post will be a short one ;-)
Since I started with the Haed Challenge 3 with my Map of Middle Earth, I don't have that much progress to show and the same will maybe go for next month.

First up is Danielle. Last time, very close to finishing page 2:

And now, 2 1/2 pages done:

Absolutely lovey, I love all those colors and I'ma bit sorry that you can't see the sparkles on the pictures!

Apart from that I worked on my Supersized Ride of the Yokia. Last time:

And now, I did another partial page and started to work on the 3 pages above, so stitches are now 40 stitches high and 189 across:

I want to get to some of the detail, so I started stitching the 3 pages above and will try and focus on them next. You can already see the legs of one of the ghostlike animal (?). By now, I am a great fan of the 32ct fabric, I'm looking forward to picking this up again =)

This month has two topics - one is about challenges for the olympic games and one is a half-year goal report. I'm not doing any challenges for the olympics (not really watching them a lot and since I am doing the Haed Challenge, I don't want any more and just stitch what I feel like) and I didn't really set fixed goal for 2016. So I am doing a half year progress report and compare to my thoughts from the beginning of the year (like I said "I'd like to put more work into that") and so on:

First up is Kreimhilds Revenge by H D Johnson. At the beginning of 2016 I had 20 pages done:

There is an actual goal for her - finish row 3 (or more). I did 2 additional pages, 1 full page and a partial (just some 10 or 15 columns) left to do - next time she comes to the frame that row will be done! Especially since there is only sky with way less confetti there =)

Rheingold by Kinuko Craft - didn't touch it so far, maybe I will still get my butt up to finish the page I started:

Yule Angel by Anne Stokes - didn't touch it - still 7200 stitches left to finish the first row. Gotta do that!

Starlight by David Hoffrichter - didn't touch it. It's absolutely on the list of things to go on my frame next - don't have any anticipations or plans for this one, but I really want to get some stitches into it, it's so pretty!

Eternal Promise by Matt Stewart - nope, no progress (did I stitch at all this year??) - plan is to finish the page I started - that should still be possible:

Wolf Variant by Bente Schlick - oh, I worked on it! Still 4000 stitches to go to finish the 100x160 block I started, but I stitched!
Before:

And now:

Now that I look at it, I really want to pick it up again, it stitches up so nicely =)

QS Paddys Luck by Joanna Bromley - I worked on it! I wanted to finish the first page and did that, yay me :D I even made a start on page 2 and I put it on my frame tonight (just felt like it):
Before:

And now:

Danielle by Sara Butcher, I wanted to stitch page 2 or more and I did both, I am 2 1/2 pages in (see above). But here is her at the beginning of the year:

Supersized Iris Keeper by J Wall - big plan is to stitch all of row 1 this year. I'm on a good way (I think).  Here is where we started:

And now - half way through page 3 and I crossed the halfway mark of the page - so much fun to stitch!

Supersized Ride of the Yokai by Ruth Thompson - a new start for 2016 - I worked on it quite a lot :D You can see my progress above. No real goals for that. I said that it would be great to reach the halfwaypoint of my first row, but since I decided not only to stitch the last row of pages but also the above, this is not going to happen. But I am happy with my progress so far and I think I can put in another few xs and will be happy by the end of the year =)

QS Trapped by Melanie Delon - another new start. I wanted to stitch something I bought in 2013 (you know that - by see things, you love them, you buy them and then you don't start them :D gotta do something about that!). The dark colors are giving me trouble, but it's quite pretty: 1 1/2 pages in so far:

Apart from that I picked up my Dimensions projects
Paris Market went from here:

To here:

From an UFO to a WIP :D Love it!
And I even picked up Aurora Cabin for a few crosses, from here:

To here:

I guess I still forgot about a couple of things, but this is most of my progress so far.

Happy stitching =)

Updates on Kreimhild, Trapped, Aurora Cabin and Paris Market and some new stash

I have a couple of updates to show you today. I have been working on quite a lot of different projects lately because there are a few I want to get done soon.

Kreimhilds Revenge is still on my big frame and she is coming along really nicely.

Here is what she looks like right now:

Page 22 is a bit more than halfway done and I hope to share a page finish soon =)

Progress is not as fast as usual because I am also working on QS Trapped for the Haed challenge and I stitched a good amount on the dog bookshelf piece (hasn't seen love for far to long and it's time to get it done) on which I will share an update for the GGSAL.

As for Trapped, I did 45 colors on my 1 1/2 pages so far. I still find those mysterious single missed stitches everywhere and I think I screwed up her right eye (couldn't even figure out what went wring there, I just hope it will be ok in the end). Here she is:

I did not really enjoy stitching those scattered single stitches, I have been carrying my threads over such huge distances, my backside is a true mess. I could imagine doing cross country again, but not the entire stitches on a page if they are so scattered. But I will finish this challenge no matter what ;-) There are huge blocks of color to come now. I must admit that stitching with the same color all the time is a bit boring, but at least it gives me the feeling of making progress ;-)

I also did a bit of work on my Aurora Cabin, which I haven't picked up for ages (I think I didn't work on it in all of 2015...). I did some work work on the right tree (it's really huge, but a lot of fun to stitch).

Here is my current progress:

I really don't know why I haven't worked on this for so long, I really love it, I just forgot about it... But I will try and get some progress in in 2016.

I also put a few stitches into Paris Market, I think I did a bit of work on the trees:

Not much progress, but every stitch counts, right? ;-)

Edit: Lol, I forgot about my new stash! I just couldn't resist the 50% Haed SAL and ended up with 7 (!) new charts for me and I took the chance to sent out two RAKS.
Soe here we go!
As many of you already know, Cherie Gerhardt (Mystic Moon Media) did some Harry Potter themed artwork and the four house crests and since I love Harry Potter, I had to buy them all. So here are
Bravery (Gryffindor)

Cunning (Slytherin)

Loyalty (Hufflepuff)

And Wisdom (Ravenclaw)

I also got Distant Musings by Annie Stegg, I have been eying this one for ages, but I somehow never got it. But now it's mine. Isn't it gorgeous? =)

And then I got another chart by Jane Starr Weils, I absolutely need to start one of her designs! I chose Red Poppies:

The last one I got is QS Tree Swallow by Meredith Dillman. I am truly fond of birds these days and I saw a WIP of this and just had to get it:

I'll put a few stitches into Kreimhild now. 

So, until next time,

Happy stitching =)