WIPocalypse - March

It looks like March is already over, time has flown by again! I hope all of you are well and well supplied with stitching supplies.
We don't have a total lock-down here in Germany, but everyone is advised to stay home and not physically socialize as much as possible (and you are not allowed to meet with more than one person outside, unless you live with them). Me and my husband are working from home now, since the university is closed (at least until 19th April), so we are home most of the time. Lucky us, we are introverts. I am reading, stitching and working and my husband is playing computer games and working. So far, we and our family and friends are healthy (even one of our friends is being tested for corona, he works in a hospital and one of his patients has been diagnosed with corona after he treated him, but he is not showing any symptoms as of now). My mother seems to be a bit more reasonable now. She feels a bit lonely at home, but she seems to stay at home now.

Anyway, back to topic - Wipocalypse! The original posting date was two days ago, but I did the one-per-day challenge and wanted to finish the challenge, which I did =) But first a short reply to this months question. Did I ever adopt a project from someone else or give a project up for someone?
No :D That just never occurred :D
If you are interested in more updates for this month, feel free to visit this months link-up page here.

So we can start with my progress for this month. First I have my work for the one-per-day challenge. I chose to work om Crossing the Stream by Goldenkite and went from here:

To here:

I stitched page 5 and I am now at 16 817 stitches. Since I reached the width of my Qsnap now, I will move to the second row of pages next. I don't want to damage my parked threads with the Qsnap and page 6 looks pretty boring anyway. Since the olympic games have been moved to 2020, Measi is inserting another one-per-day challenge in July and I think about featuring this one in that again. This project also qualifies for my non-Haed in March ;-)

I really loved this one-per-day thing, so I think about doing another challenge in April for myself (maybe Paddys Luck? Or Cliffside Beacon?).

I worked on two more projects. First up is Danielle by Sara Butcher (Haed). I did not work on my Geishas in March because I felt an urge to take out Danielle with her lovely springish colors. I went from here:

To here:

I did 3 columns, aka 2 400 stitches, and crossed the halfway point on the first row. It really was a joy to stitch on her and I found the bird! I love the contrast between the light yellow and the more intense blue/red/green colors. All the parts that look white on the picture are actually Rainbow 000 and it's soooo sparkly. Love it!

After working on Danielle, I worked on my map of middle earth for the GG Sal, by now I managed to finish the first row of pages (I need to make a post on that). Since I think that I did a great job with that, I thought it ok to part with my plan to rotate through all my projects once and picked up a project on which I already worked this year - SSMC Once upon a Fairytale by Aimee Stewart! I just wanted to work on it and it's soooo much fun! I went from here:

To here:

The lantern took ages to stitch, but it was still a lot of fun and I am so happy with the result =) I did 2 rows, so another 1 300 stitches. Since it is only two more rows to finish page one, I will stitch with this one for a few more days.

I hope you and your loved once stay healthy and (as) happy (as possible right now).
Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - July

It looks like July is already over and it's time for another WIPocalypse update. I was doing the one-per-day-challenge last month, so I decided to wait until the end of the month to share my final update on that. The good news is that I met my goal for that challenge, at least stitch-wise. Unfortunately I did not manage to stitch every day on Crossing the Stream by Golden Kite, but on most. I think there might be like 5 days on which I didn't work on this, but overall, I am really happy.
You know I already shared a tiny update (like 300 stitches) on this at the beginning of the month, but I am sharing the official starting point for July again:

And I managed to stitch page 4, which is 3 350 stitches:

So we do have 13 467 stitches done now. I definitely putting this away for a while now, working on the 32ct was a bit exhausting and I need to make up my mind on whether I should continue with page 5 or go down and start row 2. The point is that I am working on this on my Qsnap and I don't want to damage my parked threads by moving the Qsnap over them. Another page might just fit, but maybe I will just go down.

The bad news for this month is, that I hardly stitched on anything else. I did two columns on Kriemhild and a bit on my Middle Earth and that's it. I mean the amount of stitches I did is fine, but I missed working on different projects and some days I really struggled because I wanted to get my daily stitches into CTS, but also stitch on something else. I really wanted to get more done on Kriemhild, I did those 2 columns at the beginning of the month and then the month was suddenly over.
I went from here:

To here:

I must add that I also participated in a readathon this month and putting a stitching-challenge and a readathon into the same month is definitely not for me. I had a few days where I didn't get around to stitch because I was busy reading and I still felt like I was not getting enough reading done to meet my goals. A book that definitely kept me from stitching was "The Priory of the Orange Tree" by Samantha Shannon:

First I must say how amazing this cover is! You can see that it's really shiny and the colors are super rich and pretty. I love the way the artist did the dragon, it looks really impressive and alive and the contrast to the background is amazing. I would definitely stitch it.

The story follows a lot of different characters. The story is set in different locations and follows different characters, but what connects all of them is the fear of the nameless one, an evil dragon (called wyrm) that tried to destroy the world a thousand years ago, but he and his wyrms were defeated and banned into the abyss. Legend has it, that as long as the house of Berethnet rules the queendome of Inys in the West, the nameless one cannot return. So we follow Ead at queen Sabran the Ninths court in the west, who tries to protect the queen from assassins who try to end her line, but her survival and the survival of her bloodline is essential for the worlds safety. While the people in the west fear all wyrms, people in the east distinguish between dragons (good) and firebreathers (bad) and we meet young Tane, who trained all her life to become one of the legendary dragon riders. The conflict between east and west runs deep, but when the nameless one begins to stir, they need to unite to defeate him.

I must say that this is a longer book, it's over 800 pages, but they just flew by. Samantha Shannon did a masterpiece with this one, such rich world building and a lot of background story. You know there are a few books that just follow a red line and everything the characters do is just to get to the final battle and that's it. But here have a world build around the story, we have twists and turns, a lot of character development, you even need to read a few hundred pages until you get what the priory is that is mentioned in the title. The story and the world are really complex and I am really happy that the author decided to write a longer book to develop all the ideas. This is a standalone, but on goodreads Samantha wrote that the world has more tales to tell and she would love to return to it, I really hope she does! 

Well, one of the best books I read this year, if not the best book and just needed to talk about this. If you like high fantasy and/or dragons, give it a try ;-)

The last thing left for this month is to answer this months question: How do you get yourself out of a stitching drought? Ah, good question. I don't get worried if I don't feel like stitching for a few days and especially if I just feel like doing something else (like read Priory...), I just do that and don't try to push me to much. If I am in a real slump, I try getting inspiration from blogs or Instagram or flosstube or something like that that and then I try to do something like "half an hour a day of stitching and if I really don't like it, I do something else" and that usually does the trick.

Last but not least (this post in longer then I thought) I am sharing this/last months link-up with you, so you can see how everyone else did in July.

And plans for August... Well, a few last things are left to do for my wedding in September, we are currently learning to dance (works better than we expected) and we still need to pick up a few things. As for my health, I am officially done with my medication, it has been over a week since I last took the pain killers. I still have a bit of pain sometimes, but it's getting better every day =)

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse June

Hello lovely fellow stitchers,
I didn't make it to post on Sunday and then we were out of internet for two days, so I am making this post today. But you have to look at the positive side of things - I have an additional update for you because I am doing the One-per-day-challenge and already worked on this challenge for two days.

This being the June update means that we are to take a look at our goals for the year and see how we are doing. I honestly don't really want to take a look, I fear I am far from accomplishing anything this year. But if I remember correctly, I didn't put my goals to high. Anyway, let's have a look.

First up is my Kriemhild, she is (as every year) my focus piece and I try to work on her every month and that's what I did (even if I missed one WIPocalypse, I still worked on her). My plan is to finish the 5th row of pages and make a start on row 6. I am not yet done with the row, but on a good way. I also made some progress on her during the last month. Last time I was at the end of page 37:

Which I finished earlier:

And I made a tiny start on page 38:

And she is also still on my frame and I think I will add another column or two before switching to something else. Since January I did 10 083 stitches on her, so we are on a good way. I am joining the next Haed challenge on Facebook, which is to put in 10k stitches between now and 24th December, to finish the 5th row on pages would be 10 010 stitches. If I do about half a page per month, I should have this done by the end of November.

Next up is QS Paddys Luck, which you recently saw. My goal was to finish the first row of pages and that's what I did in June. Last time you saw Paddy:

And now, the first row in all it's glory:

I did a total of 5 440 stitches on Paddy this year and I am very much looking forward to start the next row because I can get back to stitching the rainbow again.

The next one is QS Trapped, on which I didn't work at all. I think this would be a good project for another one-stich-a-day challenge, but I still have a few months to try that (maybe in August or October?)

Next up is my Golden Kite called "Crossing the Stream". I have 3 pages done and want to stitch at least two pages this year. I have chose this project for the one-per-day challenge, which means that I want to work on this daily and stitch one square (at least). If work on this through the month, I should be able to stitch (at least) one page. I already worked on this twice and went from here:

To here:

Indeed I stitched two squares today because I loved working with the greens so much. So a total of 270 stitches done with a lot more to come =) I will share some updates on this one on my Instagram (@lady_stitchalot), not on a daily basis (I guess everyone would be sick of this after a week), but I will share a picture every few days. If I remember, I will also update on Facebook and maybe do a midmonth update here as well.

My second Supersize project is also on the list. I want to get Ride of the Yokai past the 15 000 stitches mark. I already did a bit of work on this one and I have now 12 550 stitches done, so I added 1 860 stitches to it. Another round of working on this should do the trick.

Last but not least there is a project I want to finish, which I actually "want to finish this year" for like 3 year now, which is since I started it. You see how well it works. I am talking about Cliffside Beacon from the Dimensions Gold petite collection. I went from here:

To here:

I just forget about this project all the time, but I vow to put a few stitches into this in July!

That's all the goals I posted at the beginning of the year. Another "plan" was to stitch from my stash this year (which is huge), well this didn't work out. As mentioned last month, I got a new pattern called "Garden Gate" by Dona Gelsinger and I started it =) I wanted to give the Haed challenge a try, but I didn't have a chance to stitch a full page by the end of June, but I still got half a page in:

I still have a long way ahead of me until it will look like this:

I am stitching on light green 32ct Murano, 1 over 1, full cross. All the confetti takes ages to stitch, but the result is so lovely and a real joy to stitch! I did 2 400 stitches on this one so far =)

As for my stitch count, I am currently at 31 633 (including my work on Middle Earth, which I share for the GGSAL and not counting my work on my Dimensions projects) and I worked on 11 different projects so far, if my count is correct I have 26 projects in total running, so still a way to go!

So all that is left for me to do is to share this months link-up with you, so you can check out more lovely projects!

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - Introduction

A new year means a new round for WIPocalypse and since this is the beginning of the year and I am still going strong with my new year resolutions, I am on time! Yay me! Appreciate it while you can, lol. But there seem to be a few people who are even more on time, they already signed up for this month!
Well, my name is Johanna, I am 27 years old (turning 28 in two weeks) and I am currently doing my phd in mathematics (at the university in Bochum, Germany). I am living with my fiancee and we are getting married this September (so I guess there will be a few updates on that as well). Besides stitching I love to read and I love to listen to audiobooks while I stitch. I am mostly into crime and fantasy novels, but I am always open for new things (I am participating in a book club, so I read a lot of different things). I also knit or crochet from time to time. As for stitching, I prefer bigger projects, I love Heaven and Earth Designs, Gecko Rouge and Golden Kite, but I own a lot of kits from other companies as well. I usually go for the bigger projects and higher counts. Ah and yes, I am usually late for WIPocalypse :D

If you would like to see all my projects, feel free to check out my last post, there are so many projects, I think like 23, and if I showed them all again, it would be exhausting for all of us. Therefore I am only going to show the projects on which I want to focus and for which I have a goal.

My first goal is something I didn't achieve last year - I want to work on all my projects! Last year I only worked on 18 of my 23 projects and this year I want to work on all of them. I am still not sure if I want to try another rotation or not. I will keep you up to date!

My focus project for this year will again be Kreimhilds Revenge by Howard David Johnson , charted by Heaven and Earth Designs.

Here she is, at least how she will hopefully look one day. She is my oldest WIP, I started her in March 2011, so she will turn 8 this year. So far I finished 35 of 64 pages:

I am at 154 503 stitches now, so just over 100 000 stitches to go on her. I definitely want to finish the 5th  row of pages and make a start on the next row. I will do my best to work on her every month =)

I also have two quickstitches on which I would like to make progress:

QS Paddys Luck is a super cute design, those colors always make me happy!

I started him after I handed in my Master thesis, but so far I only stitches two pages. 

I would like to finish the first row of pages, that is one full page and a partial if I remember correctly, so it should be ok.

QS Trapped has been a WIP for somewhat longer, I started her in 2016 for one of the Haed challenges on Facebook. 

The full design on this is also great, but it's very dark, so I went for the QS version which concentrated on the woman. I have seen a few people work on the original design and it's truly pretty. I worked on my own for two of the Haed challenges and after that she vanished in my cupboard. 

This is where I left her in March 2017, so it has been a long time since I worked on her. Therefore I want to focus on her for a bit and finish the first row of pages (half a full page and a partial) and finish the first page on the second row! I need to make up for the lost progress of 2018.

Another project on which I want to focus is my Golden Kite project called "Crossing the Stream"

Golden Kite does actually have a bunch of patterns without blended threads and this is one of them. To make up for this "loss of detail" it has a few more stitches - 990 across! It's close to 700 000 stitches in total! So far I stitched three pages:

I want to stitch at least two pages on this one, otherwise this will never get done!

And since I don't have enough on my plate yet, I also want to work on my second supersize patter, Ride of the Yokai:

Such a gorgeous design and I didn't manage to work on this in 2018! It was something like "oh I want to work on this in summer due to better light" and then I got into my reading mood and then the pain in my right hand and wooosh, 2018 was over! I am not really working page by page, I started in the lower left corner and doing something between working across and up...

I am at 10 690 stitches by now and I want get this to the 15 000 stitches mark at least! And take a better picture, it looks nearly as bad as Trapped!

Last but not least, I also want to finish something this year! I am working on a Dimensions Gold petit project called "Cliffside Beacon":

I already did a bunch on this one, I am more than half way done. I haven't done any backstitching, so that's also on top:

I made my way through most of the white fence, stitching that one was no fun! But since I managed to do most of it, I hope to speed up my progress and finish it. I have so many wonderful Gold petit kits in my stash, but I want to finish this first.

Well, this has been a long post so far and I guess some of you are already wondering and fearing, no word about new starts, let alone my new year start! But don't worry, of cause I started something new for 2019!

It's a pattern that has been in my stash for years and it's an amazing design! I am talking about "Noble Spirit" by Jody Bergsma:

I did not feel like kitting a bigger project up, I was just so busy! Therefore I wanted to pick somethin that I could do from my stash. So I also chose 32ct Murano in light blue for this one, the same fabric on which I am stitching Ride of the Yokai. I also decided to try another way of stitching:

I decided to stitch the blocks in a diagonal way, I am not sure what to think about this. But then I only have 1 000 stitches done so far, I will stitch a few more diagonals until I decide. Angela (imp stitcher) is doing a lot of diagonal stitching and it looked so interesting, but then she is not using waste knots (which makes the whole matter more complicated). If I really don't like this way of stitching, I will just go back to my usual columns. 

This is also one of my smaller projects, it only measures 350x466 ;-)

As for more new starts... We did some changes on the furniture in our living room (new bookshelves!) and I had to empty my stash cupboard to move it. So I decided to go through all my stuff and I had no idea that it's sooooo much! I have a ton of kits and a ton of fabric and I have like on million Mill Hill kits! I want to stitch from my stash as much a possible, so no "completely new" projects. I picked something smaller for my new year start because I want to start something bigger later this year:

This wonderful design is called "Young Lady with roses" by Golden Kite. I have a meter of 22ct Oslo in my stash and it has been therefor ages, the pattern is fairly new. I want to kit this up over the next months and start it this year, but I have no specific plans.

Another point for using my stash is to save a bit of money. We are currently spending a lot on our wedding. I bought my wedding dress just yesterday and my fiancee chose his suit and then we booked our honey moon (going to Greece!) last week, I never spent so much money in just 10 days... I guess I am going to live on pasta for the upcoming weeks...

To save even more money I am trying to go on a book diet, so far I didn't buy any books this year :D You know it's my birthday on the 20th and my whishlist consists only of books :D I got Kindle Unlimited, there was an offer where you could get 3 months for just 1,99 and so I gave it a try. To ensure further book supply, I friend unhauled books (like 550) and I picked up a few (like 30), I have a ton of Elizabeth George now and the first books on the Wheel of time, so I am going to be busy ;-)

Well, I guess these are all the tings I have to share with you this time! There is going to be another post at the end of this month and an update on the GGSAL to come =)

Happy stitching

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 =)

WIPocalypse - November

Guess what - I am in time for WIPocalypse this month! Yay me! And there is a good chance that I might be on time next month as well, since I have a few days off around new year ;-)
This wonderful SAL is hosted by Measi and you can find the link-up here.

This months question is about finishing techniques, but since I hardly finish anything, I don't really have a lot to say about this. Mostly I finish Mill Hill ornaments, which I just finish by gluing some felt to the back and making a hanger. Apart from that I finish smaller designs and frame them, so nothing special there. I plan on maybe stitching a cushion, so this would be a new way of finishing for me ;-)

I am not entirely happy with my progress this month. I worked on three projects this month, but with two of them I was thinking that I wanted to get more done. Also, I wanted get some work done on my Mill Hill project Hydrangeas, but what I have is not even worth showing...

But for the projects I did get some work done on:
First up is my Golden Kite project Crossing the Stream. I did some work on it last month and finished the second page this month. I went from here:

To here:

I had some drama with the fabric, it was torn. Fortunately it was not anywhere near the stitching, so I sewed some fabric to prevent further damage (as you can see in the picture)- I don't pull the tension to tight, but it works. I think the trees and the leaves on this piece look absolutely amazing and I am looking forward to getting back to this =)

The second project I worked on is my Supersized SK Storykeeper by Josephine Wall, I stitched two more columns and I am colose to finishing page 4 - one of the things I didn't get done this month... new try for next month...
I went from here:

To here:
The butterfly is full of confetti and it took ages to stitch it, but I think it is soooo pretty! I hope to show more of it next month =)

The third project I worked on is my Kreimhilds Revenge - as every month. I stitched two columns, I wanted to get another one done to finish the page, but I just didn't have enough stitching time

I went from here:

To here:

The stitchcount is now 128 400, so I am officially past the halfway point on her - yay! The next goal is to finish the fourth row of pages - 15 columns to go. I won't be able to do that this year, but it should not take to long to do that =)

I think that's all I did for this month. Happy stitching =)