WIPocalypse August (and July...)

 Ah it has been a while, I was in absolutely no mood to blog in July, so this is my update for July and August and I am even late for August. I am still buried in work, but I decided to get my butt up and write a bit here. Despite all my work I got a lot of stitching done. A good deal has been done in the second half of July, where I had two weeks off from work (and I really needed them). Since the beginning of July I am using Pattern keeper and I am really happy with it. I tried a different PDF reader some years ago and was very unhappy, so I continued to use paper charts. But int he beginning of July I finally decided to dig out my extra-old tablet and give Pattern Keeper a try. After I reset my tablet (it kept crushing when I tried to access my dropbox where I stash my digital patterns), things went rather well and in August I did not only purchase the full version of Pattern Keeper, but also a new tablet (one that has a battery that lasts longer then 3 hours and doesn't take 6 to reload...) and now I am only using the app. So far I imported patterns from Haed, Tilton and Goldenkite and it seems to work well. Unfortunately my Gecko Rouge patterns are all printed charts, so I need to look into that and see if I can get digital copies (at least for the charts that are still available) - especially since Gecko Rouge doesn't have overlapping pages and it's quite annoying to switch between pages.... Anyway, enough rambling, prepare for pictures!

The first thing I want to show is my now framed Cliffside Beacon from the Dimensions Gold petites collection. I am really not that good at framing, but it could be worse:

In July I did another one-per-day challenge, I did not manage to work on my Sloth (Gecko Rouge) every day, but I still got a lot done. I went from here:

To here

And I am at 7 743 out of 23 986 stitches now, so nearly 1/3 done now and added 4 350 stitches!

In early July I picked up Garden Gate by Dona Gelsinger (I had my nails done in lavender [dmc 26 to be precise] then and the color just reminded me of the hydrangeas in this piece...) and I stitched two columns on it. I went from here:

To here:

The second project I worked on Das Rheingold by Kinuko Craft - a project that I started some ages ago and did not work on for ages. But I love the design and hope it won't take another 3 years for me to pick it up again. I went form here:

To here:

I got 4 842 stitches done in July and I am more then happy with that =) I hope to get the first row done soon and that my mojo to work in this is back for good =)

Next I did some work on my Wolf Variant by Bente Schlick. I didn't work on it for a long while, I don't know why because it stitches up in no time and I love the purple colors. I went from here:

To here:

As you can see, a lot has changed. When I started this, I didn't zig-zag my edges (to avoid gridlines) and it has bothered me for a while now with this project. In the beginning I wanted to stitch 100 stitches across and then down (jut for a little change) and then I didn't want to start zig-zaging in the middle of the column, because I am weird. But not I just decided to add another column and now I have a proper zig-zag edge there. On top of that, I also filled in the gap and now I have a nice 110x250  stitches block done. That's quite a bit, but the design is huge and so there is still no sign of the wolf. The whole design has 409 500 stitches, so the 5 800 (!!) stitches didn't really move the percentage on Pattern Keeper ;-) but I thing the progress is more then visible.

After that I decided to work on Kriemhild again, I went from here:

To here:

I am now a bit more then halfway through page 42 and I plan to finish that page in September (and make a start on page 43). I did less then 10 000 stitches on her this year and want to focus on her a bit more. By the way, I did not only encounter the first flowers (very pretty), but I also found her helmet. I have been stitching on it for a while, but it was only in the full shot that I could recognize it (the typical haed-effect). 

Now this brings me to my current WIP, Supersized Ride of the Yokai by Ruth Thompson. Once again I must say how much I love Pattern Keeper, it just makes my stitching more organized and there are less ninja stitches now. Since I am working on 32ct here, organized stitching and starting/ending threads is important to me here. I went from here:

To here:

Since I no longer need to stick to my pages, I decided to stitch 50 stitches high and the current block is 333, so exactly 1/3, across. I already did a good deal on the next row and plan to finish this block before I switch to something else.

This brings me to future plans! I have 5 more Haeds on which I last worked in 2019, so I am on a good way there. Among those are Yule Angel and Noble Spirit, which are typical winter motifs for me, so I guess I will work on them in November/ December. QS Trapped and Whispers are a bit gloomy, so they really fit in autumn and then there is Starlight, which also fits the gloomy time of the year. Then I have 6 more other projects, which did not get any love this year (one is my Christmas Eve, she will come out for Christmas as usual and one was only used to show a friend how to stitch, so it's not really started). After all, I am very confident that I can get some love into all my projects this year. In September I definitely plan to pick up QS Trapped, I might  do some sort of one-per-day challenge on it (maybe not for a whole month, but 2 or 3 weeks also add up). I plan to do a bit of work on Kriemhild and then I will see what I pick up next.

I also have a new start coming! I decided to join the Pandemic by Longdog samplers stitchers! You maybe know that the pattern was available for free at the end of June, I then ordered some fabric (40ct Newcastle Linen by Zweigart in creme) and a couple of threads for teststitching. I decided to try the threads from a German company called Vaupel&Heilenbeck, they have hand dyed cotton and silk. Since the thread is expensive, I wanted to be sure with my choice.

The colors are really hard to catch, in real live they are really vivid. The smaller skeins are silk and the two bigger skeins are cotton.

In the first row you can see the two cotton colors, the others are silk. I am stitching over 2, so it is like 20ct. The cotton thread is a bit thicker and has a slightly better coverage. I was really torn between the red cotton (no 1, row 1) and the re silk (no 2, row 2). The cotton was a bit fresher, the colors reminded me of berries and it has a bit more variation, so in the end I went for that (I did a bit more test stitching with smaller designs from the pattern, but I did not take a picture of that). Testing the threads already was a lot of fun, so I guess this won't be my last time working with these threads. The silk was a bit easier to work with , it's very smooth and shiny. But the red silk varies a bit into brown (very good for autumn) and I decided that a pandemic a tragic enough, so I wanted to stitch the design with happier colors =) The whole process of ordering the threads took ages, but today I got an email that the rest of my threads finally shipped and they will arrive soon =)

Last but not least, if you want to see more updated for August, just take a look at this months (ah well last months) link-up page, where you can find all other entries and information regarding the SAL.

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - February

February has been a hard month for me. My hand is getting worse again and it really puts me down, I was making great progress - getting back into sports, stitching, writing, regaining strength - and now there is hardly a day when I am not in pain =/ I have not been in the mood to blog the last days, not even motivated to read blogs... But today I am giving myself a big kick to get this post up, at least it's still February.

As every month, we have a question: What do you listen to while stitching?
That's easy - I listen to audiobooks. I mostly use audible, I think my library has by now like 120 titles, mostly crime and fantasy novels. I sometimes try to watch some Youtube videos (mostly book tube and sometimes floss tube), but it's more like listening to them, so I guess that counts as well ;-)

If you want to take a look at what the other stitchers did for the month or like to know what other people listen to (maybe for some inspiration?), I recommend taking a look at this months link-up here =)

As for my progress, I worked on two projects this month.
The first one is my Supersized Ride of the Yokai by Ruth Thomson - you may remember that I wanted to get some serious stitching done on it this year. I am stitching this from the bottom up and went from here:

To here:

I am now at 12 050 stitches, so on a good way to my 15 000 mark for this year =)
I really loved working on this, but 32ct is quite demanding, but I wanted to stitch an Asian inspired design. I read "Empress of all Season" by Emiko Jean last week - an Asian inspired fantasy novel I got from my Illumicrate subscription box. The story is set in a world where there are humans and yokai, but the yokai have (mostly) been enslaved by the emperor. The main character Mari is one of the few free living yokai and wants to join the competition to become empress - which is forbidden for yokai. It was a truly entertaining story, but what made the book really special for me was that there were chapters from the gods point of view - describing the creation of the yokai and explanation about the gods. Since I am not that well-read when it comes to Asian mythology, I can't tell you how accurate this was, but it inspired me to pick up my Ride of the Yokai.
Also it inspired me to pick up another book called "A thousand beginnings and endings" which contains 15 retellings of Asian folktales by various authors. As it usually is with anthologies there were some stories I didn't enjoy so much, but none of them were really bad and the majority was really great. After each story there was a short notice from the author about the original tale they chose and why (and where the tale is from and so on).
Anyway, what I am saying is that I seem to be really hooked on this Asian stuff right now - that's pretty new for me. I don't own many Asian inspired books (was never particularly interested in it), but I might pick up "Circle of Shadows" soon (from my Fairyloot box), I think it contains magical ninjas, so I guess it will be fun :D

Well, you are here for stitching, right? Well, I promise I won't start rambling with my second project - my Kriemhild as ever month. I went from here:

To here:

Yes - a full shot means we have a page finish - page 36 is done and dusted! I am now at 159 277 stitches, so a bit over 96k to go. We are getting there!

Measi also announced the start of one month challenge for March. The basic idea (of the version I am doing) is to pick one project and work on it daily (put in at least one stitch). I think about joining in, maybe with QS Paddys Luck, another project I wanted to focus on. I will try to do even more and add 100 stitches per day - due to the fact that the section I am currently working on is not so confetti heavy, I think I can do this. Apart from that I have not made up my mind about which projects I want to work on next month, but I will (hopefully) keep you up to date.

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 - October

Considering how late I usually am for my monthly SALs, I am nearly on time when I am only two days late :D This wonderful SAL is hosted by Measi and you can find the link-up for this month here.

This months question is: How did you begin stitching?
I guess there are two answers for that. I first came across stitching in elementary school, I remember that we had to stitch bookmarks, just a few simple crosses and straight stitches in two or three colors. I created a small bookmark and liked it, but my teacher insisted, that it wasn't finished and forced me to add more things to it. It messed up the "proportions" of my bookmark (in my view) and I didn't (and still don't) like when people tell me when something that I created is not done (had some trouble with some art teachers). It's a bit like "I am doing this for me and I like it and I don't want to change it the way you like it unless it's something I do" or something like that. Anyway, the lady forced me to "ruin" my bookmark, so I didn't pick up the needle again (very consequent girl - I think I was 7).
When I was 18 I was searching the internet for some knitting blogs and I found one blog that also featured some stitching. A lady did the Woodland Enchantress by Dimensions Gold and it was like the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! So I started to look up some stitchy stuff, I cam across the Dimensions kits and Haed and many many more. I found an old cross stitch kit in my mums cupboard and stitched this  (it was horrible - twisted crosses, not centered, the backstitching was awful) and then I bought my first Dimensions Gold kit (Paris Market - go big or go home) and a few months later my first Haed - and now I am here ;-)
Funny thing: I bought the Dimensions kit for Woodland Enchantress this spring and I think I will start das one next year - I just feel like I should stitch her because I owe her that because she was my introduction to this fabulous hobby ;-)


Ok, now for my progress, I really feel like I got a bunch of things done!
First up is an update on my Ride of the Yokai by Ruth Thompson. I finished the partial page I started and decided to add another row.
I went from here:

To here:

I added some 1890 stitches. The crosses are so tiny on 32ct, I always take some time to get used to it.

The next one I worked on is my Kreimhilds Revenge - as every month. I started page 29 and stitches half of it. I went from here:

To here:

So this is another 2230 stiches added to her, next month I will meet the halfway point! Yay!

The next huge project I took out is Crossing the Stream by Golden Kite. It is currently on my frame and I will share another picture next month.
I went from here:

To here:

I added some 1100 stitches so far, it's the getting used to 32ct thing again... but I am fine with it by now and will work on this for a few more days.

I also stitched a small Just Nan design . it's a cute little Halloween Mouse!

It's a bit complicated to take a picture of her, but she is really cute =) It was my first Just Nan kit and it was so much fun, I'm glad I have a few more in my stash ;-)

The last project I worked on is my Mill Hill design called Hydrangeas. I finished all the cross stitching for the blossoms and now I am stitching the leaves. I went from here:

To here:

I hope my November progress will be as good as my October progress, maybe I can finish the leaves and start beading in December, I love beading! =)

I think that's all I have for now! I am well over 5 000 stitches for this month, so I am truly happy =)

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - March

After being so much in time for the GGSAL, I thought it would be good to be a day late for WIPocalypse :D If youare interested to see what everybody else did, you can take a look over here.

I find this months question very difficult - it's about the stitchy blogs, groups and flosstubes we follow. I follow quite a lot of blogs, but if I start naming them here, I guess I will miss quite a lot of them :D There are so many lovely people out there with so many lovely projects. I read blogs to gather inspiration for new projects, motivation to finish my current projects and sometimes it's nice to watch someone who has a lot of projects on the go, so I don't feel bad for my number of WIPs :D

I enjoy watching flosstube (currently not as much, I seem to be addicted to audiobooks these days...), it's nice to hear what people have to say about their projects, I usually stitch when I watch flosstube  ;-) I especially love the videos where people stitch with some music in the background, it's nice and calming =)

I joined some stitchy groups on facebook - Stitch Maynia, the official Haed stitchers group, the Joan Elliot group and I also joined the Gecko Rouge group (did I mention that I joined the Gold club recently? I did and bought another ton of stash there... I'll live on bread and water for a month or so). Since I am having computer issues I am not spending a lot of time at the computer, so I am not that active right now ;-)

Anyway, here we go with this months progress.
The beginning of the month was a bit chaotic, because I messed up my rotation. But I got back on track!
First I want to share my first finish for 2017 - Sheep in the Meadow by Country Cottage Needleworks!

Oh, they are so cute and working with the Weekse Dyewors was so much fun =)

After this, I picked up Cliffside Beacon from the Dimensions Gold petite, another project I want to finish this year. I started this last summer when I was on holiday and I am working on the sky, which is nearly finished.
Here is my Beacon as of last time:

And here is it now:

When I went to the crafts fair, they had this one finished in display and it looked awesome with all the back stitching and french knot flowers look fantastic =)

Then I got back on track and worked on Kriemhild for a week and managed to finish page 25.
I went from here:

To here and since we have a page finish, I took a full shot =)

My new start for March was "In the Moonlight" by Cindy Grundsten charted by Tolton crafts. It's also one of my GG SAL projects, but I thought you might like to take a look at it. Here is the finished design:

I only worked on it for five days because I was quite busy. But this one stitches up in like no time and therefore I am already 3 500 stitches in!

The pattern is "small" for my standards, just 25 pages (16 full, 9 partial) and 112 500 stitches. The plan for this year is to stitch a bit more than half of the first page, 160 stitches across would mean 12 800 stitches and less than 100 000 to go :D since the background stitches up so fast, this should work =)

After this one, I took out my Supersized Ride of the Yokai by Ruth Thompson. I did not get so much done, I started another page on the bottom row and added 1 280.
I went from here:

To here:

Did I mention that I love the colors on this project? So many lovely green colors! =)

The last Haed I worked on is QS Trapped. I worked on this one for the Haed challenge on Facebook and I managed to finish the challenge on Sunday. So this means another 2 900 stitches on this one.
I went from here:

To here:

Actually, I didn't realize what I was stitching until I took a photograph. She has hands, yay! I'm so happy I am done with the challenge, the last part was really confetti heavy and I was so sick of stitching on her every day... Now I will take a break. The challenge runs for a few more days and then there will (I assume) be some time before the next one starts.

I also worked a bit on the cloudsfactory SAL, but I am so much behind... But working on to many different projects on one day is not for me... But progress is progress, right?