WIPocalypse April

Welcome to May and this years edition of "WIPocalypse April", lol. As predicted (when I made my entry for the GGSAL on Saturday), I am late again.
Unfortunately, I started to play Skyrim and so I am not getting anything done during the weekend, which includes stitching and blogging. The week once again flew by (still working a lot) and now it's Friday afternoon. But better late then never.

This months topic is about our longest running WIP or UFO. I guess my longest running project is "Aurora Cabin", which is somewhere in my cupboard and it's hovering between UFO and WIP. Most of the time I just forget it exists. My longest running WIP is easier, it's my very first Heaven and Earth Design and it's an ongoing journey since 2011. You know I took a small break from her when I finished the 5th row of pages in December, but now she is back and I am so in love and so motivated!
I went from here:

To here:

That's 3 columns in just one week! I still use printed copies, on which I also mark where I park my threads, so I always print the row I am working on and the next row. So this was my time to print the pages of row 7 and that's the last row of full pages! I am soooo excited about that =) Also, whenever I start a new row and finish the first column, I take a look the original artwork to see which things will appear in that row:

So I am working on her shield now and we are clearly going to find that helmet and also a few of the flowers. In the lower right corner on column 3, there are a few read crosses and those might belong to the flowers! Only one way to find out ;-)

But I actually started the month of April with some work on my supersized "Once upon a Fairytale" and finished page 1, so I went from here:

To here:

I may just be 1 300 stitches, but with all the color changes, things just take longer to stitch and since the result looks great to me, I am fine with it =) By now I decided, that I will stitch the page below next. I want to stitch this shelf by shelf, I think the first shelf is about 180 or 190 stitches high, so it's about 2,5 pages in large format.

I also wanted to do another 1-per-day challenge to get some work done on one of my dimensions projects. I picked "Cliffside Beacon" and went from here:

To here:

My plan was to stitch on this for 30 minutes a day and my big wish (which seemed realistic at the beginning of the month) was to finish the stitching. Unfortunately, I did not stick to my plan. There were a couple of days where I was just to exhausted to stitch on anything, but I still think I did a lot stitching and I really enjoyed it. Since there is a lot of free space in the lower right area, there actually not to much missing, so I will try to work on this in May and maybe I have a chance to finish it this month (and then it will sit in a corner until I get my butt up to do the backstiching, after which this will sit in a corner until I get my butt up to frame it).

I even have a fourth project to show (this is starting to feel like I did get something done after all...), I worked on "The Eternal Promise" by Matt Stewart for a few days and went from here:

To here:

Once again, this is just 2 columns worth 1 600 stitches together, but it's still better then no progress at all and I just felt like it. Actually, I am feeling like working on this again, but I am forcing myself to rotate a bit more to spread my stitchy love as far as possible (there are also my Garden Gate and my The potting Shed, both a great projects for spring). At least I crossed the halfway point on the first row =) 

So this is all my stitching progress for this year, to follow are a few words on my other hobbies. If you would rather read about more stitching, feel free to hopp over to this months link-up to see more updates!

First I want to show you that gorgeous new bird feeding house thing (however you call them in English) I bought!

Isn't it pretty? This was taken a few weeks ago, when our fake cherry was in full bloom (it blooms like a cherry, but it doesn't bear fruit - at least none that I know of and none that you should eat, but the bees love it). Gardening season has begun, I bought a ton of stuff for the garden yesterday (we are not leaving the house to often, even though the shops reopened. So my husband I decided to go to a gardening center once this month and so I just bought all the stuff I need during the next weeks... Maybe a few more flowers towards the end of the month or the beginning of June). The weather is not to nice (well it's supposed to rain today, there are dark grey clouds outside, so I am sitting inside but there is no rain....), but it's supposed to be better on Sunday, so I will work in the Garden on Sunday.

 My reading has also suffered, but I decided to join a readathon in May and hope to get back on track, I have so many lovely books here and want to read them all. Just in case anybody is also into books or just likes to look at huge piles of books - the readathon is called "medievalathon" and you can follow that hashtag on twitter or instagram to see a lot of entries. The basic idea is to increase my nobility rank by reading a lot of books (7 to become Empress) and then there different criteria for the books to earn you different prompts such as outfits, weapons and pets...
So here is my super ambitious TBR for the medievalathon:

I plan on receiving two outfits, one demands a shiny book (I picked my edition of Nevermoor, it has a lot of gold foil detail and an extra shiny hidden cover) and the other for a book with green on the cover ("Die Elbenstifte"). I want to get three "weapons", for a pair of twin daggers I need to start or finish a duology (I want to read Shadow and Flame to finish one), for an axe I need to read a heavy book ("Die Elfen" has over 1000 pages) and to get a shield I need to read something for which I have high expectations ("Das Erbe der Elfen" - the first part of the longer witcher story, part three if you count the short stories as part 1 and 2, or part 4 if you count the first book of short stories, then the novel "Season of storms" and then the second book of short stories... Which is still not totally the right order, but quite close... anyway, I'm reading that witcher-mainstory-book-thing, because it has been on my tbr for years now). As for the pets, I want a chicken, so I need to read a scary book ("Ada - Die vergessenen Kreaturen") and a goat, so need to read something that is high up on my bookshelf (My throne of glass books are on top of my shelves, so I picked the next unread book from the series: "Crown of Midnight").
As you notice, I am including a lot of German books this year. The first three books are by German authors, so it seems natural to read them in German and since the witcher books are translated anyway and I got them for Christmas some years ago, I am reading them in German. The books have been republished last year and the new editions look really good, but then I have the complete series in the "old design", so I guess I will stick with then... But the new ones look really good and I am a bit jealous.
I already started with "Ada" to arm myself with a chicken. My current rank is "Prisoner", but I hope to break free with the help of my mighty chicken soon (the chicken has super-powers, it attacks people with mathematical formulas because it's a mathemachicken).

So this is what goes on here right now, I am now torn about what to do with the rest of the day. Read? Stitch? SKYRIM??

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse May

And again I am late! Like every month :D This wonderful SAL is hosted by Measi and you can find the link up post here =)
 I did not spent that much time with my stitching this month, the weather improved and I spent a lot of time working in the garden.

This first "WIP" this month was our raised bed:

It is not completely finished, the planks on to still need to be cut, but that will happen next week. I put some strawberrie, some salad, peppers and carrots in. There is still some room left, but I have not decided what to put in there. I have some tomatos, a cucumber and some beeries as well, so I guess I will have plenty of vegetables and fruit throughout the summer ;-)
In front of the raised bed I put some herbs:

We have some lemon balm, basil (three different ones: one with small leaves, a violet one and a "normal" one), some french lavender, mint and parsley.
I also got a few cuttings from my neighbours rosemary and sage and hope to grow some plants from them.

So a lot of time went into this project, so less time for stitching, but I still got a few stitches in!

First up is Danielle by Sarah Butcher. Oh how I love her, all those amazing colors! It's a true summer project! I got two columns in, so 1600 stitches were added:
I went from here:

To here:

I think it's not to far to go until the little bird will appear, I am looking forward to picking this up again soon =)

Then I also spent some time working on Kriemhild and managed to finish another page on her (the second one for this year). I went from here:

To here:

I am bravely making my way through the sky, at least it stitches up very fast. I actually think that this was the last full sky-page, yay me!

The last project I worked on was Eternal Promise by Matt Stewart, I stitched some more trees.
I went from here:

To here:

It doesn't look like a lot of progress, since the trees all look alike, but I added 1600 stitches and I think that's better than nothing.

I also started a new project calles "Hydrangeas" by Mill Hill. There is not much to see, especially since I only stitched light yellow on lite yellow paper :D So I will share a picture next month when there is (hopefully) more to see =)

Due to my rotation I still need to work on Wolf Variant and QS Paddys Luck. But I decided to pick up the potting shed by Aimee Stewart for a week or so because it is really calling to me. Then I will go back to working on the remaining two projects and maybe start my first Gecko Rouge project after that (maybe the Sloth?)

Anyway, as for this months question! It's about designers I would like to try, but I am to intimidated to start them. I suppose I didn't make much progress on that front, it is still Chatelaine. They have beautiful designs with so many lovely special threads and stitches, but since they are fairly expensinve and I never really tried special stitches, I am intimidated (like when it's so expensive, it's even worse if I mess it up).

That's it for this month,
Happy stitching =)

Page finish on Eternal Promise and update on Wolf Variant

Well, time for an update, I have quite a lot to show!

First up is my end of rotation update on Eternal Promise, my LotR Haed by Matt Stewart:
I finished page 3 and made a start on page 4, I have a total of 16 000 stitches done now:

Those trees are really lovely, but the confetti is really hard. I love the outcome, but those 4000 stitches took ages to do!

After sharing my update on this for WIPocalypse, I really had to take a small break and picked up Wolf Variant by Bente Schlick. I worked on this for 4 days and finished off page 10! I did 2100 stitches in 4 days, yay me! It was soooo much fun =)
So here I am right now:

Total Stitches: 409 500

Total Stitches done: 13 900

Stitches done in 2016: 7 100

Stitching days: 14

Average stitches per day: 507

Stitches left: 395 600

Days left to stitch: 781

We already reached December and I still have so many goals I want to meet this year. One of those is to fill in the missing stitches on that 100x160 block and I will see what I can do. I mean this is way more possible than finishing the first row on Iris, the first row on Yule Angel or something like that... I put Yule Angel on the frame for now and will work on that for a few days. Since I haven't worked on Starlight this year, I will do my best to pick that up as well. And then I also wanted to finish my sheep in the meadow and Gwen... Oh my! Where has 201 gone??

I guess I should go for some stitching ;-) 

WIPocalypse - November

Oh my, what's this??? WIPocalypse update on WIPocalypse day! Yay me!
To be honest, I wondered about when the next date would be a few days ago and was sort of prepared to post today... But anyway, here I am! And I feel like I have super much progress to show =)

First up is my lovely Kreimhild, I managed to finish the third row of pages!
I went from here:

To here:

There was quite a lot of confetti in the trees, I actually think they were the most confetti heavy thing so far, but I think they look stunning. I really hope that I can get this on the frame one more time this year, I think this would be a great feeling to start the next row of pages. I also think there is only one full page of sky left here!

Ok next is Gwen, I planned on finishing her in October, but then I got stuck with Kreimhild (I finished the third row on the 30th) and just put Gwen on the frame for a few days.
I went from here:

To here:

I can still not really capture the fabric color, but it's getting closer (at least more orange). I finished the cross stitching in her dress and hat and added the fence. So I need to do the cross stitching on the flowers, backstitch her upper body and add beads. It's still weird to stitch something with so little color changes, after a few days I just feel the need to get back to a Haed...
I think I will put her on the frame once I am done with my current part on Eternal Promise.

Yes - Eternal Promise is back! It has not seen the light of day - or the LED spots of my living room - for a good year, how could this happen? Anyway, I am working on it.
I went from here:

To here:

There is an awful lot of confetti in the trees, but they look amazing!  And the blue frame is so much fun to stitch, there is some confetti in the flowers (and you can't see the sparkle), but it's fine. The plan is to add a total of 4000 stitches to it (5 columns), this would finish page 3 and make a start on page 4. So far I did 2400 stitches (3 columns) and there is a partial column left on page 3.
As you can see, I also started feathering my edges - I didn't fear column lines as there are many changes of color, but they don't hurt and they make counting far easier (especially if you park your threads somewhere "far away").

The last thing I worked on is my Dimensions Gold Petit kit called "Cliffside Beacon" which I started back in Summer. I got a few stitches in now and then and when I took it out for a picture yesterday, I thought that I might as well add a few more.
I went from here:

To here:

The sky stitches up quite fast - it's only half crosses. I am filling in some of the gaps then and again, always nice for a little change.

Ok, those are my updates for now. I still have two projects I haven't picked up this year (Starlight and Yule Angel) and I really hope that will have changed in time for the next WIPocalypse update (at least one of them).

As for this months Question: What pattern (or designer) is on your must-try list?

Ok, there are a few. Mostly it's non Haeds (there are some "must-stitch" things there, but since I have stitched a couple of Haeds, it's not something new to try).
First up is Golden Kite. I really love their designs, they have a lot of antique artwork. For a long time I was scared by the price, but I finally gave in and bought 3 patterns on sale (which put them to a reasonable price). I am starting one designs next year, it's called "Crossing the Stream":

And it rather similar to a Haed because it's full crosses only, full coverage and in this case a solid colored design. They carry a lot of designs that feature blended colors and I definitely have to try that (and hopefully admire the effect). I would really love to stitch "Beauty with Parasol":

But I need about 280 skeins of floss for that, so I did not kit that up so far (maybe I should try and find a floss fairy or kit this up bit by bit...).

The next I always wanted to try is a Gecko Rouge pattern, I really like their style and I also found quite a few I like. I love the artwork by Gillian Mowbray, especially "A Lighthouse Evening"

I don't know what it is with me and lighthouses these days... But I truly love this one, the colors are so pretty!

Apart from that, I would like to try stitching something like Death by Crossstitch, You know, just one color and (mostly) full crosses. There are a lot of things I like about the designs, but I never felt the need to stitch an alphabet (but then again I see so many people work on this and it looks so amazing! I also found a beautiful piece of 32ct murano in a pale green, I think this would go along well with some color changing thread... But then I haven't seen someone stitch this 1over1 on a count as high as 32...we will see...).
Also on the must-try list is a Joan Elliott, she has so many pretty designs and it's something different from my Haeds...).

Ok, that's it for this month. The Link-Up is not yet set up (look how early I am on this), so I will add that later.
In the meantime you may visit Measi at her place, she is hosting this SAL.

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 =)