Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - August

 I know, I didn't make a post for July, but I was just super busy and didn't feel like blogging.

The last semester was very stressful (teaching online was a lot of chaos, especially since the person who was supposed to organize things prefers to "let people decide on their own" and that results in chaos... ah well... I'm glad it's over now). Apart from that I have been working on my phd thesis, I started to write all my stuff down, so I can hopefully hand the thing in this autumn. I had two week off at the end of July and I dearly needed them, I was really completely done, so I spent my days tidying up the house, stitching, audio books and reading. Hubby is currently writing his master thesis, he has until the middle of November, so there are two stressed out people in this house and the place is a mess. We decided that it*s completely ok to have more take-away food (expensive and usually unhealthy) in the next weeks, sometimes we just don't have the nerve/energy/time to cook and clean... And then we have a heat wave, I am melting and feel sticky all day and that doesn't help at all... 

Anyway, today I got my butt up to do a small update for the GG SAL here. I even have two projects to show you! A few people already signed up for August, so head over to Jo and take a look at this months link-up.

First I want to show you my progress on Middle Earth. You know I finished the first row of pages earlier this year and now I made a start on the second row of pages and did my first 2000 stitches (I am again stitching 10-block columns, so I technically made a small start on row 3 here). I went from here

To here:

Not much to see, but in terms of this project there was a lot of confetti in the second column ;-) I think I will pick this up in September or October again and hope to get a bit more done =)

What I am currently stitching on is my Candy Cane Santa stocking, I think by now my hubby forgot that I am stitching this for him because I am so slow with this :D I went form here:

To here:

Not terribly much, but I just started working on it and since I didn't stitch on this for like two years, this is a start after all. I am working on this for a few more days, so this will appear again in September (when I will hopefully also make a post).

I fear this is all I have to show for this SAL. I also skipped the last WIPocalypse, but I hope to make a post for it this month. Also I decided to join the masses stitching Pandemic by Longdog samplers (my first one). I got my fabric (40ct Newcastle linen in creme) and a couple of threads (hand dyed cotton and silk) for test stitching and decided on a color. I now ordered a ton of hand dyed cotton from a German manufacture called Vaupel und Heilenbeck  (it was very expensive but is pretty), but it will take 2 to 3 weeks to arrive. Apart from that, not much is going on here.

I hope you are all healthy, please sty safe and positive!

Happy stitching =)

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!

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 =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - April

Well, since all my energy is spent on being on time with the WIPocalypse posts, it's only natural to be late for the GGSAL, lol. A bunch of people has already signed up for this month, so head over to Jo's place and check out the link-up here.

Unfortunately, I am not very happy with my progress for this SAL. I didn't get as much done as I wanted and the main reason is that I am mad about reading these days and therefore I am not stitching so much. I usually read when I go to work or return home (I go by train) and before I go to bed, the rest of my evening is usually spent stitching or doing sports. But during the last weeks I spent a couple of hours reading per day (especially during the weekend), so my stitching time is short and I am not making good progress. 

But I am still stitching, which is the most important thing ;-)

So here is what I got done:

The first project is - as every month - my Map of Middle Earth from Haed. I went from here:

To here - I wanted to get 1 500 stitches done, but managed only 1 000. But I will continue with Middle earth before I switch to something else.

The second project I worked on is my Candy Cane Santa. Picking this one up is really hard, I always have to force myself, but I did get a few stitches in. I went from here:

To here:

There are still a couple of stitches missing in the tree, but we are getting there ;-)

Well, that's all I have for this month.

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - March

Here we go for another GG SAL update. I could have sworn, February just turned into March, but it looks like March is already half way over! And I am two days late for the SAl, so if you take a look at the link-up there is already plenty to see ;-)
I was super busy during the last weeks, my students had their exams and we spent ages correcting them. Luckily only 540 students turned up for the exams (the students are signed up for the exam automatically and most of them don't turn up - our list had 1096 students on it), but it still took a lot of nerves to go through it all. Now there are just some oral exams to do, but we think we can finish them in one day. And after that, I have two weeks off from work, yay! I'll stitch and start working in the garden then =)

But back to topic - my progress for the GG SAL. I managed to work on two project and have some stash to show (I got some kits for my birthday and since I was to busy to drive to a "local" shop (80km one way), I order a few things online)..
Let's start with my actual stitching.
The first thing is - just as last month - my Map  of Middle Earth. I managed to get a page finish on this and went from here:

To here:

So I added 2 000 stitches since you last saw this one. 6 pages done, 54 to go.... I hope to be able to finish another page this year. If I stitck to my plan of doing roughly 1 000 stitches per month, this should not be a problem ;)

The second project I worked on is my Candy Cane Santa Stocking - yes, he's finally back! Not to much progress on him, but every stitch done is a stitch closer to gifting this to my fiance. I went from here:

To here:

You can see that I am now working on background now and since it's only half crosses, it stitches up rather fast. I just need to pick this up more often.

And since I don't already have enough on the go, here is some stash I got for my birthday =)

First up is a small kit by Dimensions Gold - it's from the petite collection. I think it's very pretty =

The second kit I got is also from Dimensions Gold. I loved this when it was released, but it was quite expensive here and then sew and so had it on sale, so I got it =)

The third kit I got is a Mill Hill beaded kit called "Geranium". I am currently stitching "Hydrangeas" from this line, I am close to finishing all the stitching and looking forward to get to the beading =)

And once I am done with my Hydrangeas, I will stitch this one =) It looks like so much fun =)

That's all I have for this month.
Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - January

The GG SAL also continues in 2018 and once again I will do my best to post every month =) This SAL is (still) hosted by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching (fun fact: Serendipitous is a word I always have to look up, I just can't remember how to spell it). I will put up the link to the link-up here ever month, so you can join the ride or look at the other stitchers progress. Since I am usually quite late for the SAL, there is plenty to see there when I post about it. For example, if you follow this months link-up, you can already find a bunch of entries ;-)

Anyway, for those who don't know about this SAL: Its about sharing your work on projects that were a gift to you (the pattern was a gift, the fabric was a gift, you use gifted threads or so, the whole kit was a gift and so on) or that are meant to be a gift for someone.

My first project I share here is my Map of Middle Earth, the pattern was gifted to me several years ago. I fear I don't remember by whom, but it was part of those Haed Appreciation events on Facebook several years ago. Since I love Lord of the Rings, this was a perfect gift for me and I am working on this since August 2014 now (didn't know it was so long...).

Here is what the design is going to look like:

And here is my starting point for 2018, 43.000 stitches in:

And here is my current progress, 44.000 stitches:

The plan is to add at least 1.000 stitches per month, it doesn't sound like much, but I think it will add up. I did 11.000 stitches last year, so this should be an improvement and to me it sound much more doable to go for 1.000 stitches every month than to go for 2.000 every other month ^^

Then I am also stitching a Christmas stocking for my fiance , which didn't get any love since last month (mostly due to a pair of socks I had to knit for Christmas, which I finished late on the 23rd and gave away early on the 24th - I wrapped it up that morning and didn't get a chance to take a picture - and after that I had just so many other projects). But I hope to share something for next month.

Here is what it should look like - Candy Cane Santa Stocking by Dimensions Gold:

And here is where I currently am:

For those who don't know: My fiance is actually called Alexander, so the picture of the stocking if very accurate ;-) The next goal is to fill in that window section and then move to the section with the rest of the tree =) 

The next project I want to share for this SAL is another gift for my fiance, since he really loves wolves (me too). It's another Dimensions design called "Wolf Kiss":

And here is my starting point for this one:

The pattern has two pages and the line you see indicates how far the first page goes (just did a few stitches on the second page when I had a bit of thread left over). I would be super happy if I could finish that first page this year =).

Which brings us to the new starts for this year.

First is not a real new start, it's a restart. Stupid me managed to start in the wrong direction and so the fabric was to short. I didn't have a heart to restart last year, but I will do so this year! Another wolf design called "In the Moonlight" by Tilton Crafts:

The fabric is already cut and surged, I just need to reprint the first page. I did 3500 stitches last year before I noticed my mistake, so the goal is to catch up to those 3500 and add a few more to it.

The second one is a kit I got for my birthday in 2015 (gift from my fiance). I always said "ok I will stitch this once I am done with wolf kiss" but by now I still not done with wolf kiss and I feel sort of guilty for not starting this, since this is such a beautiful design.

It is a kit by Eva Rosenstand, I am not sure it has a name. I think the kits only have numbers and no names, which is weird (I have a couple of her designs). The thing with Eva Rosenstand is, that the pictures on her kits really don't so the design justice. You look at the picture and you go like "nah, it's okay" and then you look at the price (they are fairly expensive, her kits are easily above 60 Euro (a Dimensions Gold of equal size but in full coverage is mostly about 45 Euro)) and you go like "ok, for this amount of money, I expect something better". I came to really stitch one of her designs by chance, I was looking for a gift and found a small kit featuring a robin, it was on sale and not expensive. you may remember it:

And here is what it looked like when I did it:

I am no expert when it comes to taking pictures, it still look way better in real life, it's really really pretty, the threads the fabric are of high quality, you can feel it and you can see it (in real life), but my crappy picture still looks better than the one on the kit... I think it's a shame...  

Anyway, where I am heading is that I am really looking forward to stitching the owl, my robin sort of prepared me, that it will look amazing. I am sort of excited about the outcome for this one ;-) 

The list might grow - actually, it's my birthday today (another fun fact) and I got a voucher for stitchy stuff from my fiance and my mil (I already call her that, I don't always want to add the "to be") and we will make a trip to a craft shop soon =) so there would be more things to qualify for this SAL!

Big question is: I plan on stitching a ring cushion for our wedding, would this qualify as a gift? I mean it's a cushion for my fiance and me, so it's half a gift :D 

Well, those are my plans for 2018 so far, I am looking forward to a wonderful stitchy year and hope the same for all of you =)

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - December

Oh my, I can't believe how late I am with my GGSAL post this time! I was just so busy this month! I had to scroll on Jo's blog for a while before I found the link-up, but I found it! Here it is :)

It's early in the evening on the 23rd here in Germany and I finally seem to be done with (almost) everything! The place has been cleaned, everything is prepared for Christmas eve, (nearly) all my presents are wrapped up (I bought the last one on Thursday) and the Christmas tree is set up now. I spent a lot of time baking and packing boxes full of cookies for my family and friends and I am so happy that I can now just sit on my couch and watch tv.

One more present needs to be finished - a pair of socks for my boyfriends mother, You know those people who don't craft on their own and who think that things can be done in no time? I fear she is one of them. So I spent a lot of time knitting her socks and hardly got any stitching done.
Therefore I only have a little to show:

First up is one last update on my map of Middle Earth for this year.
I went from here:

To here - another 1000 stitches done.

This means I did 11 000 stitches on it this year, I was so much aiming for 12 000, but it didn't happen. For 2018 I might go back to working on this monthly (so taking it out of my normal rotation) and do 1 000 stitches per month.

The second project I worked on is my Candy Cane Santa Stocking - I was doing really well on him, but then the sock-thing came and so the section I was working on is not yet done. I went from here:

To here:

There a quite a lot of color changes in the tree, so it took a while. But most of the missing stitches are just background, so it should stitch up fast (I always seem to say so, but I always take ages).

Unfortunately, this is all I have to show for December. I think my next post will be on 31st December (my end of the year update for WIPocalypse).
In the meantime I hope that all of you will celebrate a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends, I hope you get lots and lots of lovely stitchy presents and even some time to stitch =)

Here is our Christmas Tree for this year:

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL November

Winter truly is a bad time for me to be on time with my SALs. When I get home after work, it is already dark outside and all the pictures I take look awful. So I took some pictures this morning and they look ok.
But here is my GG SAL update for this month. You can find everybody's progress here =)

First up is my usual update on my Map of Middle Earth, another 2000 stitches added.
I went from here:

To here:

I am a bit sick of those mountains by now, they just take ages to stitch because they are very confetti heavy. This is maybe the most confetti heavy section of the chart so far. I am 42 000 stitches in by now, so I guess this is the ultimate answer to life and everything concerning Middle Earth ;-)

The second project I worked on is my Candy Cane Santa, I got a fair amount of progress in.
Last time:

To here:

As you can see, Santa has a full hand now (and looks less than one of those waving cats you can find in the Asian shops). and he has his candy cane and there is even a bis of the Christmas tree to see.

That's all I have for this month. Again, no work on my Wolf Kiss, but hopefully next month ;-)

Happy Stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - September

Same procedure as every month - it's GGSAL time and I am two days late for it :D I planned to post this update on Saturday, so I would only have been one day late, but I was just so busy yesterday. You know summer is nearly over and all my lovely flowers in the garden are looking a bit dull by now, so I decided to pick up some autumn flowers and so I spent a lot of time in the garden yesterday.
Anyway, a late update is still better than no update and I actually do have a bit to show this month! This wonderful SAL is hosted by Jo and you can find the link-up here.

As for my progress, the first thing I have to share is bad news. I wanted to pick up In the Moonlight and work on it for a few days, but I noticed, that I made a mistake - the fabric orientation is wrong... I can't believe that I didn't notice this when I started! Now the fabric is actually to short =/ I am happy that I am "just" 3500 stitches in, but it still put me down. I already cut a new piece of fabric because I definitely want to restart this. But I just couldn't push myself to do this right now.

Sine I was super determined to stitch one of my Wolf designs and In the Moonlight was out, I decided to take out my Wolf Kiss and I made some nice progress on this - the needle just flew through this =)
I went from here:

To here:

The second wolf now has an eye and I also decided to add the back stitching to both eyes and I think it looks lovely =)

The second project I want to share is my Map of Middle Earth. I was aiming for a page finish, but there are still 800 stitches left on page 5, But I will definitely have them done by next month. I am at 38 000 stitches now - so I am past the halfway point on my first row of pages!
I went from here:

To here:

I added 6 000 stitches this year and I really hope to add a few more (at least 4 000).

The last one I have to show - as every month - is Candy Cane Santa.
I went from here:

To here:

Santa is getting a hand! Yay! But actually, it makes Santa look even more creepy... :D Perhaps it will get better once he has that candy cane :D

Ok that's it for this month, I am off to stitch now =)