WIPocalypse February

Time for another WIPocalypse update and I seem to be sort of in time (by accident). I thought I messed this up again. On Friday I noticed that the last Sunday of the month would have been the 23rd, so I wanted to make a post. Then I was confused, that there was no link-up, until I remembered that we had a leap-day check-in this month, so I was actually a day to early and decided to do my post on Saturday, but then I was busy helping a friend move and I was invited to a birthday party, so Saturday was suddenly over and now I am a day late for the check-in. But here we go ;-) You can find all the other entries at this months link-up page. 

I had a super productive month, I stitched a lot and I read a lot (nearly 4200 pages and on top of that 2 full audiobooks and a partial one), so I am overall very happy.

As for this months topic, it's about the "leaps" we made in stitching. I don't really know how to answer this question. A big leap for me was to start my first Heaven and Earth Designs, we all know how big those are. Also I was still a student and living on my pocket money at that time, so kitting the supplies up for this was a huge expanse for me (and not an easy decision) . Maybe another leap was my first supersize project (Ride of the Yokai), I never did such a huge project before and I needed to work on 32ct because (at that time) this would have been the only way to fit the project on my frame. But I must say that I got used to the 32ct pretty soon and I am now very happy I made that leap.
A leap that is still before me is to start a Golden Kite with blenden threads. I have a few GK in my stash and I would love to start one of them. The problem is that he projects are not only quite big (and since I would need to stitch with two threads, I would use a 22ct or lower count fabric), but the amount of blended colors is huge. The total color count is around 200 and more than 100 are blended, I am still thinking about how to organize this and kitting such a project up would be quite expensive as well. If I make my leap here, you will learn about it here ;-)

But let's get to this months progress, I am eager to show you what I did =)
First I worked on The Silence After by Chris Ortega (Haed). This was my new year start in 2018, after I bought chart and material pack pretty soon after the release. I did 4 000 stitches and then this sat in my wip pile, so it was time to work on it again. Here is the last update you saw (in Febrary 2018):

And here is where I got to:

I stitched 4 columns, so 3 200 stitches and I am very happy with this. Stitching the tree was a bit dull, but I loved working on the sky behind the tree. There was a nice amount of confetti and I love how the smaller trees in the back turned out.

The second project I worked on was Supersized SK Iris Keeper by Josephine Wall (Haed). When I started this in 2015 I stitched on this regularly and made good progress, but then it disappeared in my wip pile as well. So it was more than time to take this out again and I went from here:

To here:

I did 4 columns on the second row, so a bite more than 3 000 stitches and I loved stitching this lovely swirl on color there =).

Last but not least, I worked on a project that is not a Heaven and Earth Designs again (still going strong on that plan). I originally wanted to work on Aurora Cabin, but when I went to my cupboard to take it out, I came across "Geishas" from the Maia collection (Anchor) and I just wanted to work on it. I started this for Stitchmaynia in 2018, but I didn't stitch more than one of the Geishas heads then. Last time:

And now:

So I started dressing that Geisha in her lovey yellow kimono and I love how this turns out. Compared to a haed there are only a few colors, but I love the shading they create. The project is still on my frame and I am not sure if I feel like switching projects yet, so I think I will work on this for a additional day or two.

So this is all the progress I made in February, as I said before: I am super happy =)
Since today is 1st March, this means the start for the first WIPocalypse challenge in 2020. It's another 1 per day challenge, I participated in them last year and had a lot of fun. For March I am going to work on my Golden Kite project "Crossing the Stream" (I already did that last year) and again, I plan to stitch one square (so about 100 stitches) per day. I am going to post regular updates (about twice per week) on my Instagram (@lady_stitchalot), so feel free to follow me there, but I hope to my a mid month update on this here as well.

I hope you all had a productive month as well.
Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse -July

And here we go with another WIPocalypse, somehow it seems to be the end of July and I am on time for this - at least while I am starting to write this entry. This months topic is the half-year recap and this could result in a really long post, so maybe I will not finish the entry in one setting.
Since the Lady of Stitch-a-Lot is still on holiday in the Castle of Read-a-Lot , I am also not confident that I will be satisfied with my progress so far (another reason why I don't really feel like writing this post).
I have a few days off from work since last Wednesday and I am so happy about it - it is so hot here in Germany, it's not funny anymore. I feel like I need to water my plants a hundred times a day and whenever I did that I need to shower, there seems to be no way to cool down the house (we are already leaving all our windows open at night) and you can't get outside because the sun burns so hot. I usually get up at 7 am and then I sit outside with a cup of tea (reading - what else these days?) because around 9 am it's to hot to stay outside (our garden is to the east, so I have direct sun there in the morning) anymore. We gave in and bought a small pool this year and it already was worth every penny... My stitching has increased over the last days, I think my bug is thinking about coming back, but while stitching I need to wash my hands all the same because my hands are getting sweaty... I really don't mind the sun or warm days, but these temperatures above 35° celsius (due to google: 95° fahrenheit) are killing me...
Well I am doing my best to put a few stitches in every day and most days it works. I am slowly increasing. I think one reason for my missing bug is that it just needed a rest - I stitched so much during the first months of the year and maybe I just needed a change. I always loved to read, but usually I read on my way to work (and back) and before I go to bed. I used to read like 4 or 5 books per month and most books I read where things I got for cheap while waiting for my train to arrive. But since I discovered booktube, it's like a whole new world is there, I started looking at different genres and so on. I never really read YA fantasy (well except Harry Potter), but there are so many authors I never heard of and so many lovely books, I was truly overwhelmed but it and I wanted to buy and read everything at once - lol. This and the fact that I always love to read a lot of stuff during summer just took most of my energy. I feel my focus moving back to stitching, but since there are still a lot of summer reads I am looking forward to (I am currently reading The Lake House by Kate Morton, it's so good), I think it's going to be a bit more quiet here for a few more weeks. But I feel the urge to stitch on some of my summer projects (like The potting shed or Danielle) now and that's always a good sign.

Anyway, this was a lot of talking about my life, let's move to the stitchy things. As mentioned somewhere above, it's time for a halfyear recap now. As every month - there is a link-up and you can find it here.
I tried to work on a few projects that relate to goals for this year (felt like I needed to do some work on them), so I will start with the projects where there is some new progress to show.

First up is my focus project Kreimhilds Revenge by H. D. Johnson. When I set out for 2018, she had 129 170 done and I had three goals: first I wanted to finish the fourth row of pages, then I want to crush the 150 000 stitches mark and then I want to hit the less-than-100k-to-go mark at 155 600 stitches. So far I did 145 340 stitches - so I met my first goal and I am close to meeting the second one.
Last time you saw her:

And now:

I have not met my monthly goal for July, I only picked her up last night, but I plan on stitching on her for a few more days.

The reason why I didn't get so much work into Kreimhild is my Supersized Sk Iris Keeper by Josephine Wall. I had four pages done at the beginning of the year and my goal was to finish the first row of pages and that's what I did last week - I added 4080 stitches and went from here:

To here:

And I am so happy about this! I planned on stitching on Iris for a couple of days and moving to Kreimhild, but then I was three columns away from the row finish and I just didn't want to stop - so I continued ;-)

The third project I worked on is on my to-be-finished list for this year - Cliffside Beacon from the Dimensions Gold petite collection. I went from here:

To here:

The progress is hard to spot - I mostly stitched white and it's super annoying and I am so happy when I am done with the white in the fence... A great summer project, I hope to make more progress on it for August.

So these are the projects I worked on since last month, which brings us to my work on my other goals.
So next on the list is my Sloth by Eya Claire Floyd from Gecko Rouge. I want to finish the first quarter of the chart and then head for the halfway point. I worked on this last month, but I only added one column. Here is where I currently am:

I definitely want to work on this, but I won't make any promises. My next plan is to do more work on Kreimhild and then there is that urge to work on The Potting Shed, so I don't know if I can share an update for next month, but I will try.

The last project I wanted to work on is my QS Trapped, I want to finish the top row this year, but so far I haven't picked it up...

Next up are the projects I want to finish in 2018, they are smaller projects so I have a chance to do so. The first one is already finished, my Hydrangeas by Mill Hill:

My Cliffside Beacon is listed above and I didn't do any work on that Bird from Dimensions so far.

Concerning my other projects I don't have any specific goals, I just want to work on all of them during the year. So far I worked on the following projects:
Crossings the Stream by Golden Kite - I stitched one page
Paris Market by Dimensions Gold
QS Paddys Luck by Joana Bromley - I did some 2000 stitches
Yule Angel by Anne Stokes - I stitched one page
The Silence after by Chris Ortega - I did 4000 stitches
Across Winter Lake by Jo Grundy from Gecko Rouge - some 2000 stitches
Geishas by Maia
Robin by Alysa


And these are the ones that still yearn for some love:
Aurora Cabin by Dimensions Gold
Danielle by Sara Butcher
Das Rheingold by Kinuko Craft
Miss Christmas Eve
Starlight by David Hoffrichter
Supersized Ride of the Yokai by Ruth Thompson
The Eternal Promise by Matt Stewart
The Potting Shed by Aimee Stewart
Whispers by Melanie Delon
Wolf Variant by Bente Schlick

So there are 10 projects I still want to work on, I am not sure if I will get this list to zero, but I will work on it ;-)

I also stitched two more small projects and finished them:
One of the beaded eggs from Mill Hill:

And I stitched a small design by Liebevolle Kreuzstichentwürfe:

So on my Haed/Gecko/GK projects I did 32 421 stitches. On my Gifted Gorgeousness projects I did another 9 600 and then my work on the smaller projects - so I am not even close to 50 000 stitches so far. I always want to try and do 100 000 stitches, but I think I am going to fail again ^^°

Well, this is everything I have for this month,
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 =)

WIPocalypse - January

And here we go with the next WIPocalypse, hosted by Measi and here is the link to the linkup page. Thanks to my rotation, I have quite a bit to show and I think January worked out really well!

But first I want to answer this months question: What SALs are you participating in this year?
The answer to this is quite short - I am doing the Fabulous Women in History SAL by Cloudsfactory.
The idea of this is really nice, I just hope that there will be a few scientists there, too (like Marie Curie or Mageret Hamilton, I would also love to see Emmy Noether as well, but I don't think she'll turn up).
So far we got Eleanore Roosevelt (in my eyes a very extraordinary women) and Coco Chanel (I'm not really into fashoin and could have done without her, but she's there and it's ok).
Unfortunately I got quite irritated by the little black arrows on the pattern and thought they would indicate the middle of the designs, but they were only for the middle of the block. Anyway, I had to change the position of Coco and Eleanore and I think this should work out now:

I am sorry, but the fabric color is really hard to catch, especially with artificial light in here.

As for monthly SALs, I am joining the gifted gorgeousness SAL hosted by Jo, where I show my work on pieces that were gifted to me or are meant as a gift for someone.  For further information on the SAL or in case you want to join the ride, you can sign up here.

Next step, WIPs!
First up is my new start Whispers by Melanie Delon, I did 4000 stitches (new start enthusiasm I guess):

Doesn't this flower look pretty! I was so close to screwing over my rotation (after week one...) to continue with this, but I forced myself to go on!

Then I spent 5 days working on Kreimhilds Revenge, I did I think like 1300 or 1400, I just hope that these stitches will add up over the months. I am aiming for 2 columns per month (1 560 stitches) and hope to catch up soon. I went from here:

To here:

There actually was quite a lot of confetti there, even if it doesn't look like it. but I think it looks very pretty and I am looking forward to picking her up again in February.

I picked up my Supersized Iris Keeper by Josephine Wall, not a lot of progress, but 1600 stitches is still more than no stitches. I went from here:

To here:

I am at 17 600 stitches in total now, I will do my best to finish the first row (that would be 24 000 in total)!

The nest Haed I worked on is my The Potting Shed by Aimee Stewart. A stunning design, but I am not sure if I ever stitched so much confetti in my life! I love the outcome and I really spent a lot of time on this one, but it just takes a while to stitch up. I went from here:

To here:

When I bought this, I was quite tempted to go for the Max color version, but considering the amount of confetti, I am pretty happy I went for the normal version. There were so many color changes in that small bit of sky there! But this doesn't bury my plans of doing a max color one day (I saw someone work on Aimees Birds and Blossoms in MC and that looked stunning and then that is also one of her "smaller" designs). I managed to add 1400 stitches in the week I worked on this.

Last but not least I have been working on the Haed Challenge, I am doing about 100 stitches a day (at least that's the plan) and since I started a bit late on it, I am at 2000 stitchs now. The section I picked is 7 800 in total, so I have a way to go, but this will also mean that QS Trapped will gain a bunch of stitches. I went from here:

To here:

That funny thing next to her head had some confetti, but I think the outcome looks quite nice. I hope to finish page 1 by the end of february (3200 stitches to go) and then do the half page underneath in march (2600 stitches).

Ok, that's it for this month,

Happy stitching!

WIPocalypse August

Oh well, it's already past time for another WIPocalypse. Honestly, I don't have much to show this month, I am still so busy with the Haed Challenge (but nearly done with it).

I only worked on Supersized Iris Keeper by Josephine Wall and added a few lines.
Before:

And now:

This one is so pretty and so much fun to stitch, I can't wait to get back to it =)

And then I started two new projects... As I mentioned before, I could not resist buying and kitting up The Potting Shed by Aimee Stewart and as soon as my missing threads arrived, I could not help starting it. I haven't done much on it, I just took a little break from my Middle Earth and did the first 1000 stitches (of 349 000):

The colors are really beautiful and I think even those 1000 stitches look amazing =) I guess I will go back to it to finish the first half of page 1 when I am done with the Haed Challenge. Here is how it will look one day (I hope):

And then I had another new start! I have a few days off from work (going on holiday tomorrow) and thought another start would be great. I decided to go for something different and picked "Sheep in the Meadow" by Country Cottage Needleworks:

I still had some 32ct Murano in light blue in my stash, so I'm stitching this 2 over 2 and the sheep will have some sky around them. Here is a picture of the finished design:

This is my first time working with variegated floss and it's so pretty =) I'm stitching all the green now and will fill in the rest afterwards. The outline of the first sheep already looks so cute!

This months question is about reading: Have I read any books involving stitching? Not so far! There are somr crime novels by a German writer called Tatjana Kruse (I think) and the police inspector is a stitcher. I looked for her books in the shop but they didn't have them (I always plan to order them, but they forget about it.. and I already have soooo many books I haven't read). But then I recently got one for a reduced price. In Germany the price for a book is fixed and shops are not allowed to give you a discount on new books. But if the book is damaged (like has a cut in the cover or so), they are allowed to sell it at a lower price and I own quite a lot of such books because they are less than half price (and I am always like "oh, what a good deal, I'll take it!") Anyway, I could not resist buying one of Kruses books for the reduced price. But that was yesterday, so I haven't read it.
I have another crime novel called "A deadly yarn" I won years ago and I never got around reading it. But it has something to do with knitting :D

Anyway, that's it for this month, I'm off to pack the rest of my things for a week by the sea =)

Happy stitching =)

Iris - Page 3 is finished

I'm still busy working on the challenge, I did 4 rows and made a start on rpw 5 since I took this picture:

Then I took a small break to work on something else, so I chose Supersized Iris Keeper and made some progress. I finished page 3 and added a small bit of page 4, so we have a total of 16 000 stitches done:

I truly love how Iris is coming out, all those lovely colors!

In the meantime, my missing threads for Potting Shed have arrived and I am more than tempted to start it! Maybe I'll put a few stitches in tonight (so much for the "no more big new starts or 2016" :D).

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 =)