A finish and final update for 2016

Well, this is the last day of 2016, so I want to share one last update because I made some more progress on various projects.

First up is another finsih for 2016, yes, that does happen!! I finished my first Nora Corbett called "Gwen":

Actually, the colors on that picture are quite close this time! Now that she is done I am really happy with her, the beads really did the trick and they were so much fun to do! =) I can actually see myself stitching more Noras! I even found a mermaid I like! Oh my! Unfortunately I am not so good at capturing Gwens beauty on a picture. I will try to frame her and will take another picture then =)

As for further progress, I stitched like a mad girl! I had some time off before Christmas - you know like you have to prepare for Christmas and all the people and so on and then you have to relax from Christmas and all the people and so on :D It's nice to see all the family, but also a bit exhausting, just to many people around. Anyway, I while I had some time at home I hermited and stitched. So here we go:

I did some more work on Yule Angel, I am now at 28 000 stitches:

And I worked on Wolf Variant to finish my goal for 2016 of filling in the 100x160 stitches block:

And I also worked on Starlight, finally! I only did 2 columns, but progress is still progress, right?

So, that's it for 2016!

I plan to try another rotation, at least at the beginning of the year. I want to rotate through all my projects once, so I won't feel bad for not working on something for a year. So I will dedicate about one week to every project and I will work on Kriemhild each month for 5 days to get some progress into her. Once I am done with the rotation, I will decide if I continue with it of go back to stitching whatever I want.

The first project for 2017 will be my annual new year start, so stay tuned for that!

I hope all of you spent a nice time with your family and I hope you will make a good start for 2017! =)

Happy 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 - October

Oh my, whenever WIPocalypse is close to the GGSAL, I tend to be late for it :D But here we go!

I have a few updates to show.

First up is my Rheingold by Kinuko Craft, I managed to finish page 5 and made a start on page 6 (yay me, the love for it is not gone!!). So I went from here:

To here:

Then I had a new start (again!), but I am determint to finish it this year ;-) It's "Gwen" from Nora Corbetts Bewitching Pixies. I am doing this 2 over 2 on 28ct Jobelan in Toffee Popsicle (which I always want to call Topsicle... what a silly world...) and the skin is 1 over 1. Unfortunately, it's hard to catch the color correctly, it's way more orange in real life:

As I said, I think this has a good chance of being a finish this year. I have two colors left in the dress, the beading (to which I am looking forward) and the background to stitch.

The last one I worked on is Kriemhild, she is back on the frame since last week. I am going for a row finish. I went from here:

To here:

I have 4000 stitches left on row 3 and I am doing my best to get them done this month (got to move on with my goals). Since a lot of it is sky, so that stitches up quickly.

Ok, then for this months question: What online stitching communities do you enjoy?
Well, obviously I am in blogland, both as a blogger and a blogreader, then I am active on Facebook (mostly the new official haed group and Stitch mania) and I watch flosstube (but not doing it myself).

I think all of those have advantages. With Facebook it's so easy to stay up to date, you go on there, take a quick look or post a quick update, but I am not investing as much time on it. I am not writing long texts or long comments or talk about my life that much (it's so tempting to hit the like button and scroll on...), I don't blog so often, but when I do, I sit down and think about what to write and I take my time to make a post and it's the same time with reading blogs. I am sometimes quite behind on reading all the posts, but I usually take my time to read what people say.
I started watching flosstube a year or so ago, it's nice to be able to put a face to the name and listen to peoples voice. And I can stitch while watching it! :D I sometimes thought about trying my own flosstube, but I can't really imagine filming myself and anotehr weird thing I think about is that I am not a native speaker. I read a lot in english, I watch movies in english and writing in english is fine, but speaking is another thing. I mean, I am sure that I am mispronouncing quite a few things, I have a nice German accent and sometimes I just don't know the word I am looking for :D So I am staying in blogland :D

Ok, that's it for this months update. If you want, you can pay a visit to Measi and see who else did an update =)

Happy stitching =)

My first Nora Corbett - Gwen

Ok, I finally got around sharing an update on my first Nora Corbett design called "Gwen" from her Bewitching Pixies series. I ordered a kit from Polstitches Designs a while ago (along with a kit for Joan Elliotts Enchanted Aurora) and decided to do some Halloween stitching.
I wanted to try something different from my usual Haeds, something smaller :D
So here is where I got:

And this is the full design:

The fabric I use is 28ct Jobelan in Toffee Popsicle (hard to take a picture - it's darker and more orange) and it came with the kit. I am stitching 2 over 2, except for the skin, I am stitching that 1 over 1. I am not sure if it was a good idea to get the kit, I already have tons of floss leftover (like the colors from her skin). I somehow thought this would use way more floss and therefore decided not to use my master set :D Well, I am sure I will find a use for all the floss (just have to be careful, the floss from the kit is european DMC, sometimes the colors are different from the non-eu colors).

This seems to be a nice and quick stitch so far, but after working on this for one week I noticed that I truly miss my Haeds :D Not enough confetti in this one :D

Right now Kriemhild is on my frame and ready for a row finish (go, me, go!).
I can't believe it's already the middle of October, I feel like I still have tons of things I want to accomplish in 2016. One think surely is to finish the row on Kriemhild, then I want to finish Gwen (which should be possible) and my Sheep in the Meadow (which should also be possible). I am sticking to my plan with the dog bookshelf piece, I'm doing 520 stitches per week. Then I still have like 3 projects I haven't touched in 2016 (Yule Angel, Starlight, Eternal Promise) and a few where I planned on further stitching (like Wolf Variant or Ride of the Yokai or Iris). But then there are still two and a half months left this year, so I will see what I can do.
Apart from that I am thinking about 2017. Goals don't really work for me, rotations don't really work for me, stitching without a plan ends up with me not touching a project for a whole year.
So I am think about doing a rotation at the beginning of the year. I could pick a focus piece (like Kriemhild) to work on every month for a few days and then I rotate through all my projects once. So every projects get some love during the year and once I am done with all of them (including a few new starts...) I will decide how to go on. Maybe I will stitch what I feel like for a few weeks, maybe I will start another rotation cycle some time later in the year (the first one is to take about 5 months if I want to work for a good week on everything).... I will keep you up to date =)

Happy stitching =)