WIPocalypse May and a bit of stash

Welcome to June and the WIPocalypse update that should have happened two days ago :D But this means that you are going to see two more projects here ;-)
10 people already signed up for last months update, you can find all the links here .

June is already the start of another of the monthly challenges for WIPocalypse. I had a lot of fun and got a lot done during the last challenges, so I am joining in again. For this month I want to work on QS Paddys Luck by Joanna Bromley this month, it's such a lovely and colorful project! Unfortunately I completely forgot that this challenge was scheduled for this month, so I am currently one day behind, but I will just make that up today. I am doing my usual thing, one square per day. Here is my starting point:

I am starting a new row of pages here, so my daily stitch count is 77 or 100 and I hope to get 4 columns done (meaning that I have to do 2 extra squares during the month).

As for this months question, we are to talk about a project on which me love to stitch. This is a hard question for me, because there are so many projects on which I love to stitch. I really enjoy working on the Mill Hill Buttons and Beads kits (reminds me that I should start another one soon... I think I have a companion piece to the Hydrangeas design I did a few years ago).

This reminds me that I should really get this framed, I actually found like 5 frames with a matching size (I think) when I tidied up the living room :D
I am currently working on The Potting Shed by Aimee Stewart and it's one of those projects where I can't stop working on. I love gardening, so I really love the design and working with all those colors is a pure joy. I especially love the designs by Aimee Stewart, they are so full of small details, I can't wait to get to all those lovely flowers on the potting shed:

So far I am in the middle of page 3, so I still have a way to go. This month I went from here:

To here:

The yellow thing seems to be a lamp and I found the first window, I am so much looking forward to stitching the ornaments there. I did 3 and a partial column so far (2640 stitches) and I already made a start on the next column. Since I can't put this down, I am staying with this project until the third page is done =)

Apart from this, I worked on two more projects this month.

First up is another column on Kriemhild, I wanted to return to her by the end of last month, but I was unable to put the potting shed down. So I only did one column, which is still better then none. But I hope to have a page finish by the end of this month. I went from here:

To here:

The red thing there is a flower by the way! And there are more to come =)

The third project I worked on is Cliffside Beacon from the Dimensions Gold Petites collection, I went from here:

To here!

I am done! Yay me! I am really no good at french knots, but some of them don't look so bad. The backstitching on the fence also took ages, but it adds so much to the design and I am happy with my result. I already ironed this and I ordered a frame for it, so I will hopefully have this framed for the next update.

While I was looking for a frame for Cliffside Beacon, I found a frame for another project! Some years ago I finished Gwen by Nora Corbett and since then she lay in my cupboard. So I took the chance to iron her, to frame her and to put her on my wall:

So I am very happy with my progress for May and hope to have another ffo the next WIPocalypse =) 

I wanted to do a stash update earlier in May, but as usual I just forgot about it, so I am going to show my new charts now =) I think it has been a while since I did an update on my new purchases, so this might be a lot now.

First up are a few charts I bought from Tilton Crafts. Shelly does a lot of limited editions, where she only gets a licencing for a small amount of charts (I think around 35). So I got

Hedwig (I love Harry Potter!)

One of the Mandalorian designs, because I love baby Yoda:

And I bought four of the Lord of the Rings charts:

And last but not least, I bought two WonderWoman designs (by Daniel Kordek)

Then I won a giveaway in Nene Thomas crossstitch group on Facebook (some of you know that after she left Haed, she did her own crosstitch charts). I think she still does the giveaways every few weeks (and one right now, until the 12th) and you can pick any chart from her site, so maybe some of you are interested in that. The group is called "Nene Thomas Art in Crossstitch" (you can also see a few of the stitched designs there, they look quite good). Anyway, I took the chance to pick one of her epic designs (the big ones, what else?). I chose Sekkerostoya:

I think it's amazing, but it's also huge (550x895), so I need to plan this before starting it :D 

And yes, I also got a few new Haed charts during their last sale =)

Here is QS Patchwork Quilt Room by Ciro Marchetti, I love the flowers, the color and that tea set!

 Gardeners Paradise by Dona Gelsinger (max color). I guess I don't need to explain this...

 And Ladybird in the Meadow by Lucy Pittaway, it's so cute!

So I think these are my new charts for now, I love them all! I don't even know which one to start next. I am drawn to the Patchwork Quilt, but I also love the second Wonderwoman or the Arwen&Aragorn  chart... Gardeners Paradise is great, but I am already stitching the companion piece (Garden Gate)...  Ah, we will see! I am trying not to start them all at once ;-)

I think this is all I have to show for now =)

Happy Stitching =)

WIPocalypse May

Well, long time, no see, but now I'm back in blogland. I just opened my blog-reading-thing on my computer and holy cow! I don't even know where to start catching up! So I am going to promise you the exact same thing as every month - I'll catch up on all your posts and will be a better follower and blogger in the future ;-)
Well, things just went over the top here. Due to my chronic pain I applied for a treatment in hospital and they were like "yeah we are going to send you a questionnaire and you fill it in and sent it back and then we will get back to you", so I answered all the questions and sent the thing back to hospital, on the paper it said that it could take up to six months due to high demand, so I prepared to wait. I got a phone call on Friday the 12th, talked to the doctor (not a secretary or something) and she told me that it would be best if I could come to hospital for "a few days" and the secretary would get back to me. About 30 minutes later the secretary got back to me and asked me "ah well, can you get here on Monday 15th for some first test and from the 23rd on we have a bed for you". That was fast. It's like you can get a treatment immediately or you have to wait for 6 weeks. So I ended up in Hospital after Easter Monday and "a few days" resulted in 16 days of therapy for chronic pain.
I am really glad that I did this, I mean going to hospital sucks (especially if one of your roommates is 75, dement and slightly racist and half the time you are like "if you were just 30 years young, I would simply punch you in the face for all the rubbish you are talking"....), but this treatment helped me a lot. The finally diagnosed me with CRPS, so no more random visits to random doctors, they improved my medication, so I am not feeling so dizzy anymore (we cut back on the strong pain killers) and I have less pain. Also I feel more active again, the strong pain killers made me tired all the time and half my evenings I spent on the couch recovering from my daily activities. I could not really do sports (20 minutes of yoga finished me off) and a lot of days I felt so tired in the morning, I was close to throwing up. I am not able to run a marathon, but I can do my all-day activities (go to work, meet friends, go shopping, do house or garden work) without feeling awful for several hours. I even started on sports again, which I missed so much! I also talked to my doctor and in about 2 weeks we will try to cut back on the medication once more =) Most of all, I am way me optimistic now and I feel like I am back on track again.
Anyway, I got home in the middle of May and I just took a while to settle in again and start stitching again, so I decided not to push myself to blog. But I really and honestly hope and think that I will improve in the future ;-)
Also, I have the official allowance to stitch! The doctors told me that one of the ways to beat CRPS is a lot of interaction with my hand, my body and brain need to get used to using my hand again, so stitching really is a therapy for me now ;-)
Unfortunately I feel like I don't really have a lot to show, but here are my updates.

The first one I want to show is my work on "Danielle" by Sarah Butcher. I absolutely love this design, the colors always make me happy and I really don't get why I skipped this WIP in 2018. All the more a reason to pick it up and I went from here:

To here:

I did a total of 2 400 stitches and managed to finish off page 3 and make a start on page 4.

The second WIP I worked on is QS Paddys Luck. You know I wanted to finish up the first row of pages, but I didn't manage to do so. I didn't really enjoy stitching the tree, but since it's really not much to finish the row, I will do so for the end of June =) But I still went from here:

To here:

I only did 800 stitches, but they took ages! I'm so happy when the tree is done, the rainbow was way more fun to stitch ;-)

Last but not least is Kreimhilds revenge, which is currently on my frame. We are still stitching brown and sandy colors, but we are getting there. I am still working on page 37, one and a half columns left there and I will finish those before I move to something else (I hope, I feel a certain itch to stitch something more colorful). I went from here:

To here:

She is getting a hand! it looks so amazing and real =) I added a total of 1 830 stitches, not as much as I wanted, but still something - right?

Talking of more colorful stitching... Michele is running another challenge on Facebook, the idea is to make a new start and stitch one page. On the one hand I have more than enough WIPs, on the other I recently bought a new chart:

It's called "Garden Gate" by Dona Gelsinger and it's amazing! You know I love working in the garden and this contains hydrangeas, which are my favorite flowers =) This was released when I was still in hospital and I already felt better and really optimistic, so I spent a few hours online looking at things I want to do "now that my hand got better again". This was released together with another Dona design called "Gardeners paradise" and I had a hard time deciding, but the hydrangeas got me ;-) So as soon as I got home again I bought this. I even have a matching piece of 32ct murano in light green to go with this and I have all the colors and I even printed the first pages of this chart. So I am pretty sure that I will start this soon =)

so this is all I have for this month =)
Happy stitching =)

1-Stitch-a-day update and some new stash

I am taking part in the one-stitch-a-day challenge this month. As the name suggests, it's about doing a stitch per day or stitching daily in general or on one project on which you want to get something done. I decided to pick one project and instead of doing one stitch, I am stitching a whole square on the pattern. The project I chose is QS Paddys Luck by Joana Bromley, I started this in 2015 and so far I only did 2 pages. My goal is to finish the first row of pages this year and since it is a nice and colorful spring design, it was perfect for this month. Here is where I started:

And this is where I currently am:

I nearly managed to stitch on this daily - I didn't get anything done (on any project) on the 15th. I went to a crafts fair on that day and by the time I got home I was completely done from running around all day. We had some friends visiting in the evening, so I really didn't have energy or time to stitch. But I made up for it by stitching two squares the next day. Also I stitched an additional square, so by the end of the month I will have done 4 complete columns. 

After that I will be only 2 000 stitches short of my row finish, now that sounds like something I can do in June! I can't say if I will just continue with the one square per day or push through - but I will definitely keep this "method" in my mind, it is so motivating to see this grow over the weeks =)

As I mentioned, I went to a crafts fair last week and I also bought some stitchy stuff there. I planned on not buying to much, on the one hand I am not getting much done with my injured hand (so I went for some smaller designs, I didn't feel like buying something big and you gotta buy what makes you feel good - right?), on the other hand I wanted to spent less money with the wedding drawing near. The first thing went great, I only bought 4 smaller kits, but I still spent a lot of money on various stuff (I really needed to buy a bonsai, it sparked joy!) Anyway, here is what I got:

First is a small bird kit from Alisa, it was so cute and soooo cheap, I could not walk by:

The second kit I got was also on sale, a friend of mine actually debated if he should buy it or not (he had a bunch of other kits on display) and I told him that if he didn't buy it, I would because it's to adorable to stay at the shop:

I was eyeing some more kits at that seller, but I really wanted to buy some kits from Liebevolle Kreuzstichentwürfe, I got two of their kits last year and already stitched one and I was/am so enchanted by their designs and then we agreed on something like "let's take a look at the Liebevolle Kreuzstitchentwürfe stuff and if they don't have stuff we want, we can always go back to the first seller" and well, none of us went back because we spent all our (remaining) money. I decided to go for a small design with a seagull (I love seagulls) :

I definitely plan on stitching this one this summer, I'm getting summer vacation vibes by looking at it =)

The second kit is a bigger design that consists of 9 smaller designs. I bought the matching frame (they had this stitched and framed on display and it looked so good), the frame was actually more expensive than the kit, otherwise I would have gotten another kit ;-)

The seller told me to place the mat on the fabric before stitching and mark off the squares, so it really fits. I have some of those fabric markers that disappear when in contact with water and I think that should work. This is my first kit of this "framing type" and I am really excited =) I will keep you up to date!

Last bot not least, here is my most adorable bonsai! I hope I can keep it alive ;-)

It's a Fukien tea tree (due to Google translate) and the guy who sold it told me this would actually flower, even more than once a year. I forgot to ask him when, but I guess/hope I will find out ;-) I had to get that little panda to go with the tree as well. So far the tree seems still healthy, but then I only have it for a week ;-) 

Apart from that I bought a bunch of smaller thing - soap, honey, some gifts for friends, some earrings (as every year) and so on, all in all it was a wonderful day and there is always so much wonderful stuff to see, I am already looking forward to next years fair ;-)

I hope to be back next Sunday with an update for WIPocalypse, so until then,

Happy stitching =)

IHSW and tons of stash!

Yes, you did not misread the headline! I managed to take part in the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, yay! I was a pretty good hermit in Saturday, where I spent all day stitching, and I was a fairly good hermit on Sunday, where besides stitching I went for lunch with a friend and had my first book club meeting (which was awesome), but before and after that, I stitched ;-)
The link-up, along with an awesome update on Joyszes "Yexian" can be found here.

I originally wanted to pick out my focus piece Kreimhilds Revenge, but since it was St Patricks day on Saturday, I decided to pick up my QS Paddys Luck by Joana Bromley and that was exactly the right choice, so much fun! Why didn't I work on this for so long? The last update is from the end of July last year!

Anyway, here is where I started:

And here is where I got by Sunday evening:

I added some 1 100 stitches, I hoped for more, but the confetti in Paddys head slowed me down. By now, I finished this column and there are 560 stitches left for a page finish, which I will surely get done for the WIPocalypse update at the end of the month.

And this brings us to the second part of this post! I went to crafts fair last week and bought some pretty goodies there and then also my Gecko Rouge Gold Club kits arrived. I chose the voucher as my half year reward, so I am able to choose various items instead of one kit. I got the following two kits:

This is "Paddy the Rat drinking Guinness in a Quiet Pub" by Tanya Bond - I choose 18ct for this one. I already have the matching needle minder. There is a companion piece called "Ronald the guard drinking Carlsberg", which I also find very cute. I was close to buying it ;-)

This is the second kit I chose "Lil' Hamster Playing Bagpipes" by Amy Lyn Bihrle. I'll do this on 25ct magic guide fabric. It's soooo cute =)

And here are the things I bought at the crafts fair:

This is a Maia kit called "Geishas". I am usually not into Geisha motifs, but this one was so beautiful and colorful, I could not resist. This is my first Maia kit, I think it uses Anchor floss (which is common in Germany, but I never used it before) and is worked on 18ct Aida. I feel a great itch to start this!

This is the second kit I got, another design by Eva Rosenstand. I have seen this design online and I absolutely loved it, but it was really expensive (I think about 190 Euro). And then I found this one on sale for 60 Euro, so I bought it right away :D It's very big and very pretty ;-)

These are two smaller kits I bought from a German designer called "Liebevolle Kreuzstitchentwürfe", they have a lot of seaside designs, they had a lot of stitched designs on display and so I decided to get two of them for a try. After all, some smaller finishes can be very motivating =)

I also got two magnets to make into needle minders:

And I also bought a pair of earrings:

This is from a German shop called "Schokoklunker" . They have a lot of amazing jewelry designs, most of them are chocolate themed items and they look so real! I was pretty torn between getting this one (Spekulatius is very famous for Christmas here - it's a sort of spiced cookie and I am not sure if it has an English name) and a pair of Oreo cookies ;-)

I also bought a couple of other things like wedding cards (I am invited to several weddings this year), a birthday present for my nighbor and a couple flowers for the garden (I have two weeks off around Easter and hope to get started on gardening - right now it's to cold for flowers). I am also expecting another pair of earrings, I saw it last year and was so much looking forward to getting it, but it was already sold. But it's already on it's way to me and should arrive here soon.

Well, this is a long post, longer than I thought. And I think I will try and not buy any more stitchy stuff for a while, I have sooooo many lovely non started projects ;-)

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - March

Here we go for another GG SAL update. I could have sworn, February just turned into March, but it looks like March is already half way over! And I am two days late for the SAl, so if you take a look at the link-up there is already plenty to see ;-)
I was super busy during the last weeks, my students had their exams and we spent ages correcting them. Luckily only 540 students turned up for the exams (the students are signed up for the exam automatically and most of them don't turn up - our list had 1096 students on it), but it still took a lot of nerves to go through it all. Now there are just some oral exams to do, but we think we can finish them in one day. And after that, I have two weeks off from work, yay! I'll stitch and start working in the garden then =)

But back to topic - my progress for the GG SAL. I managed to work on two project and have some stash to show (I got some kits for my birthday and since I was to busy to drive to a "local" shop (80km one way), I order a few things online)..
Let's start with my actual stitching.
The first thing is - just as last month - my Map  of Middle Earth. I managed to get a page finish on this and went from here:

To here:

So I added 2 000 stitches since you last saw this one. 6 pages done, 54 to go.... I hope to be able to finish another page this year. If I stitck to my plan of doing roughly 1 000 stitches per month, this should not be a problem ;)

The second project I worked on is my Candy Cane Santa Stocking - yes, he's finally back! Not to much progress on him, but every stitch done is a stitch closer to gifting this to my fiance. I went from here:

To here:

You can see that I am now working on background now and since it's only half crosses, it stitches up rather fast. I just need to pick this up more often.

And since I don't already have enough on the go, here is some stash I got for my birthday =)

First up is a small kit by Dimensions Gold - it's from the petite collection. I think it's very pretty =

The second kit I got is also from Dimensions Gold. I loved this when it was released, but it was quite expensive here and then sew and so had it on sale, so I got it =)

The third kit I got is a Mill Hill beaded kit called "Geranium". I am currently stitching "Hydrangeas" from this line, I am close to finishing all the stitching and looking forward to get to the beading =)

And once I am done with my Hydrangeas, I will stitch this one =) It looks like so much fun =)

That's all I have for this month.
Happy stitching =)