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 - May

Same procedure as every month - I am late for the GG SAL! This month I had a nice mix of work, building stuff in the garden and forgetting to take a picture. But here I am! It's Sunday evening and I am tired and looking forward to getting a few stitches in, so I will do my best to keep this short. 

The SAL is hosed by Jo and you can find the link-up with evrryones progress here.

I only worked on two projects this month, but one of them was a new start and a finish as well! I stitched up that cute littel great tit by Eva Rosenstand for my bfs mum to go along with her robin. I did not get round to framing it, but hope to do so soon.

Anyway, here ist the cute little bird:

I think he is super cute! Maybe not as cute as the robin, but cute enough =)

The next project I worked on is - as every month - Candy Cane Santa. It's getting some love every month and I hope that this will add up. I did some work on the windows.

I went from here:

To here:

For next month I want to work a bit more on the windows and start to fill in the windof next to Sanata =) 

I will try and catch up with your blogs over the next week, but now I am off to get a few stitches in ;-)

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - May

MAy is already halfway over, so it's time for another GG SAL update. This SAL is kindly hosted by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching. If you don't know her blog yet, it's surely worth a visit and if you want to have a look at the other entries for this month, you can do it here.

So here is my update:
First up is a last update on my Robin, I framed him an gifted him to my Bfs mum (she was very happy). I decided to go for a green frame:

I am super happy with it and I really love the design. I might even stitch this again for myself.

The
next one I worked on is the Candy Cane Santa Stocking. I stitched Santas Hood and added a missing stitches in his face. He still doesn't have eyes because I think he looks funny that way. I started working on the background as well.
Last time you saw him:

And now:

I also worked a bit on the Dogbookshelf piece and added a few rows.
Before:

After:

I hope that I will be done with page 2 next month, it's time to get this finished!

Last but not least I worked on my Map of Middle Earth. I didn't get much done this month, just 700 stitches, but progress is still progress, right?
Before:

And now:

This is all I worked on this month.

Happy stitching =)

Kreimhild page 22 and a framed robin

I am happy to announce, that I managed to finish page 22 on Kreimhild - yay me! I think she looks super lovely and after a short break (will work on Middle Earth until the 15th) I will pick her up again and and finish the third row (just one page and a tiny partial one). So here is her now:

And her stats:
Total stitches: 255 600
Total stitches done: 99 525
Stitches in 2016: 9548
Stitching days: 24
Average stitches per day: 398
Stitches left: 156 075
Days left to stitch: 392

It took me 13 days to finish this page because I am working on several projects at once. I am trying to work on the dog bookshelf piece and the Christmas stocking for my bf and also on the Haed challenge. I'm trying to get some order into this because I feel like I am not getting anything done this way. I now working on the stocking from the 1st to the 15th of each month, from the 16th to the end of the month I am working on dog bookshelf (which will hopefully be done soon) and during the weekend I am trying to squeeze in a few stitches on Trapped for the Haed challenge. So my progress will hopefully get back to normal soon. Or at least a bit. Since I am working 30 instead of 20 hours now I don't spent so much time stitching anymore (mostly around 2 hours) and so my progress suffers. But at least I get more money to spent on stitching stuff :D *already placed an order*

I also managed to get my Robin by Eva Rosenstand framed. I picked a nice green frame an my bfs mother loved it. Here it is:

I love this one so much, maybe I will stitch it again for myself ;-)

I guess my next post will be for the GG SAL (with work on my stocking and Middle Earth).

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - April update =)

It looks like April is already halfway over again. I'm healthy again now and I am getting back to usual stitching schedule again (Kreimhild is on the frame again).
Nevertheless I have some updates for the GG SAL to share.

The first I want to share is a small finish. I stitched the small robin kit by Eva Rosenstand and I plan to get a frame for it and give it to my BFs mother, since she loves birds and I think it will make her happy.
It's not ironed (and you can still see the traces from the marker) yet, it's currently being washed =)
So here is my robin:

It was a lot of fun to stitch, just 4 or 5 days of stitching and I think it's very cute. I'm super happy that I have two more kits from Eva Rosenstand in my stash and I'm looking forward to stitching them =)

The next one I worked on is Wolf Kiss by Dimensions. This will one day be a gift for my BF.
Here is what it looks like now:

I did a good bit on the second wolf, you can't see much of him yet but this will change in the next months.

The last one I worked on (during the last few days) is the Map of Middle Earth. This was RAKed to me a few years ago. I added 2000 stitches, which brings us to 20 000 in total:

I am half way through page 3 and at the end of the page there will finally be some writing, yay!

If you want to see more posts from this month, take a look over here =)
I hope to be able to share more progress on my Santa Stocking next month. After all, I want it done by Christmas ;-)

Happy stitching =)

Page finishes on Kreimhild and Iris, IHSW, plans and even more stash...

Well, I do have a lot on the agenda today!
First I want to thank you for all the lovely comments on the Middle Earth map for Chelle =) The map has been sent on (floss arrived) and due to parcel tracking it has been successfully delivered as well =)

Since the missing floss arrived I also managed to fill in the missing stitches on  Paddys Luck, unfortunately I just noticed that I forgot to take a picture, so an update is to follow in a few days (when I post my final progress on Iris before switching to something else).

As for Updates:
I worked on Kreimhilds Revenge by Howard David Johnson and stitched down a page. We do actually see more of Kreimhild now, yay! The page was real fun to stitch (it involved a bit of frogging because somehow I used a wrong color on the previous page and noticed when the pages were meeting (and things looked odd). But now things are right again and i love how she is turning up. She will turn up soon again (see my plans down below).
Here is what she looked like when you last saw her:

And now:

The quality may not be that amazing, but the colors are showing up really well on this one!
So here are my stats on Kriemhild:
Total stitches: 255 600
Total stitches done: 94 751
Stitches in 2016: 4774
Stitching days: 11
Average stitches per day: 434
Stitches left: 160 849
Days left to stitch: 371

I finished the page on Friday and since the previous weekend was the third weekend in March, it was time for IHSW (it's back, yay, and I participated, double-yay!!!). IHSW is the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, so all I did (basically) was hermiting and stitching. If you are interested in seeing the other participants work, take a look over here . It is hosted by Joyce from Random Ramblings and her blog is surely worth a visit =)

So here is my before-picture for IHSW, Iris as you last saw her last year:

I managed to finish page 2 on Sunday:

And made a start on page 3, here is where I left of last night:

Look at those gorgeous blue colors that start to appear! I love it!
As I said, I stitched my butt off, so I am more than happy with the progress in two days!

Here are the stats so far:
Total stitches: 301 698
Total stitches done: 10 550
Stitches in 2016: 1350
Stitching days: 2
Average stitches per day: 675
Stitches left: 291 148
Days left to stitch: 432

Ok, the stats look really funny because I stitched so much on her. Since I have a few more days off, I think there will be another update in a few days featuring a similar amount of stitching, lol.

But that's not even the whole amount of stitching I did :D I made a small start on the little robin kit I showed a few posts back and it's stitching up so fast!
Here is what it will look like (hopefully soon):

And what I did so far, most of the robin is already done:

Due to the flash light the colors looks quite off. I hope the next picture will be better. Since spring is finally coming around, this is a nice small and matching project.
This is just two days work and I am quite happy with it. This is also my first time stitching one of my Eva Rosenstand kits and I am really amazed! The fabric is Aida and it looks and feels great, the floss is lovely and the colors are great (and presorted on floss cards, way better than the Dimensions!). The pattern is easy to read I'm looking forward to working on the other two kits I have =)

I think that is all my stitching so far, so the next thing I want to share are a few thoughts on rotation and plans and so on:
It looks like a lot of people are starting rotations and I sometimes think that I should try that, too. People say that they feel like making so much progress and their mojo is really high, but my problem is that I often feel like leaving "unfinished business" when I drop my needle after a certain amount of days. Like look at Iris. Last time I left it off with a half stitched column and it bothered me since then.  I like to finish pages or half pages or stitching to certain marks (like 150 stitches across or 200 across, I like even numbers...). But there are a lot of things I want to work on and I want to ensure that I get to work on different projects because I love all of them.

So I made a rough plan on projects on what I will work on next:

First is Iris, I want to stitch until 150 stitches across (started column and another one), this is roughly the half way on the first row!
Then I want to stitch another page on Ride of Yokai while I still have some time off (and daylight!).
After that Kreimhild will be back for another page again (I want her finished one day, right?)
Next up will be Starlight, I am not sure if I will stitch one page or a half page, it will depend on my mood (I'll be working 30 hours instead of 20 from April on, so stitching time will suffer).
The next round will be for Yule Angel, I plan on finishing the first row (one page and a small partial).

I will try and squeeze in a few stitches on my Candy Cane Santa Stocking, I have no regular intervals for that. I just pick it up and stitch half an hour or an hour and then I pick up something else. Works good so far.
When I am switching my Haeds, I want to put in a day or so when there is one of my Dimensions projects (the wolves or Aurora Cabin) on the frame. The exception is the change between Iris and Ride of the Yokai. The Idea is that I want to be used to working on 28ct when I switch to 32ct (so maybe it will be easier for my eyes? We will see if this works... but the change from 28ct to 14ct to 32ct would be hard for me...).
I don't plan to stitch for a fixed amount of days, just "rotating by goal" or so... Let's see how this works :D I will keep you updated :D

OK, now for the last part of this super-long post: stash!
It may look like I only keep buying stash because things seem to add up, lol.
I went to a crafts fair last week and spent a ton of money there.
The thing is this: There are not that many stitching shops near me. There are some shops selling knitting supplies, but most of them carry the same yarn (not that easy to get some nice hand dyed yarn or fancy stuff).  I once drove to a shop carrying stitching supplies when I had the issues with the 32ct for Ride of the Yokai and that was an 80km drive to the shop and then an 80km drive back home, taking more than one hour in each direction. So I don't go to shops that often, I mostly order things online. So I went to that craft fair and I finally had a chance to look at things! You know stitched things look far better in real life than on picture. So this is a sort of unique chance for me, so things sort of escalated :D
Here is what I bought:

I bought the Woodland Enchantress from the Dimensions Gold Collection. She was the first cross stitch project I ever saw and at that time I though "wow, I want that!" and that's what got me into stitching. I don't know why it took me 7 years to get her, but now she's mine ;-)
The small Dimensions is from the Gold petite and calle "Silent Night" I think... I saw this stitched and fell in love (I wouldn't have noticed this if it was just a picture..). I also got some Rainbow Gallery petite treasure braid and some hand dyed fabric. I want to try stitching a Joan Elliott Design (or two, can't decide between Medieval Lady and Snow Queen) and I think I will order a pattern and the beads next month and I will share detailed pictures when I decided what to do ;-)
The small Riolis kit is something I got fro free, I don't know if I will stitch it. I don't like the floss (looks fuzzy), the fabric feels like plastic and the beads look cheap... I think the Dimensions Gold and the Eva Rosenstand kits put my standards really high...
I also got some size 28 needles from Dimensions (still looking for the perfect needle...) and another Qsnap (I theoretically own a 11" qsnap, but my sister has it and I think it will never turn up again ;-) ).
I got a small knitting kit for wrist warmers, they were so lovely, I had to get them! And then there is a skein of  hand dyed yarn, it's impossible to catch this on a photograph and I so much looking forward to knitting something from it! It's sock yarn, but I am not sure if I will do socks with it.

There I also got some earrings, they were soooo expensive, but they are so lovely. They are all made of silver and I think they are hand made (the stone is a moon stone I think):

They are quite big and the photo doesn't do them justice at all ;-) They remind me of the elvish jewelry from Lord of the Rings and you all know, I just love LotR!

Not on the picture are things like storage boxes for all my leftover beads from the mill hill kits, some magnets because maybe I will try doing my own needle minders and a magnifier (for Ride of the Yokai, let's see how we get along).

Ok, this may be one of the longest posts I ever did, if you decided to scroll though all my talking and just look at the pictures, that's absolutely fine :D If you managed to read all my ramblings, congratulations, you owned yourself a biiiiig stitching break now :D

I will be back with some updates on Iris soon (or for WIPocalypse at the latest).

Happy stitching =)