WIPocalypse - June

Hello lovely people =) Time for another WIPocalypse-update. The original posting date was on Sunday, but I did the one-per-day-challenge and so I wanted to wait with my update until the end of June to show my final update. So if you head over to the link-up page for June now, there are already a lot of entries there =)
I only have like one goal for this year - work on all of my projects! And I dare say, that I am on a very good way there =)
I even bothered to make a list with all my Wips by now, because I tend to forget some of them and indeed, I added a few to the list that I forgot about. So I am now keeping an excel sheet up to date with information like how far along I am and when I last worked on the project. Let's see how long I can keep this up to date ;-)
What I really wanted to say is that I have 31 WIPs on my list now, counting Cliffside Beacon (which I finished last month) I have 32 projects for the year and I worked on 15 of those (including Cliffside Beacon), so I guess that's a good quote. My stitch count so far is 46 142 and I am super happy with that as well =)

But let us now look at some pretty pictures because my stitching month was (somehow) very productive.
First I continued my work on The Potting Shed by Aimee Stewart. As of last month, I was halfway through page 3:

And I finished that page in June:

This is really one of the projects where I can't stop stitching, the colors, the little motifs, the whole design - I just love everything about it =) Even now I am so eager to pick this up again, but thinking of my rotation made me put this down and work on something else ;-)

I also did a bit of work on Kriemhild by Howard David Johnson. I went from here:

And I finished page 41, this also means that you are getting a full shot:

Oh I love her so much and we are getting closer and closer to a finish here! There was an awful lot of confetti in her shield and the thing looked pretty weird when I stitched it, but taking a look from afar, the shield looks perfect to me =)

And now the biggest update for this month! I did the one-per-day-challenge in June. I picked QS Paddys Luck by Joanna Bromley and my plan was to stitch one square per day.
Unfortunately, especially during the beginning of the month I really messed this up. No matter how hard I tried - and I did try everything from setting a fixed time to work on this to working on this for something like 30 minutes or so - I was not able to do this. I had no choice.... So here is my starting point again and I was hoping to get 4 columns done:

And then things just escalated and I could not stop stitching, that rainbow just stitched up in now time and so ended up with stitching all of page 5 - a total of 5005 stitches ;-)

So say hi to our new friend ladybird and Paddy is also getting his favorite shamrock now ;-)

So these are all the projects for June. Measi is suggesting to do another one-per-day-challenge for July and since my June was so successful, I am on for another round. I picked a new project to work further on my rotation plan. So it is well beyond time that I worked on one of my Gecko Rouge projects, so I took out Sloth by Eya Claire:

I really love the design because I love sloths (I even have a Slotherin t-shirt with a sloth on a broom....), but somehow I am struggling with this projects. I am not sure if this is the 18ct or if I just never really got into it. To investigate the last thought, I am doing this one-per-day and I started yesterday with my first square =)

So that's it for this month, I hope you are all safe and healthy,
Happy stitching =)

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 June

I am nearly in time for WIPocalypse. who would have thought that could happen! But here I am :D This wonderful SAL is supposed to inspire us to stitch on our projects as if it's the end of the world (and that new projects, just imagine the world ends and you never started one of your favorite projects???) and is hosted by Measi, you can find the link-up post here. 

This months question is about our stitchy spot. I usually sit on the couch when I stitch, it usually looks quite messy ;-) To the one side I have my floss boxes (currently four, I think I pwn a whole set of DMC by now), my Millennium frame in front of me and to the other side I have my laptop and an ort jar. I also have a pillow in the back, it's just more comfortable for me.

I usually looks like this :D I mostly listen to audiobooks (therefore I need my laptop close by), watch flosstube or TV (which is in front of me). I try to have anything I need close by, so I don't need to get up all the time :D

As for this months progress!
The first thing I worked on is The Potting Shed by Aimee Stewart, such a beautiful and colorful summer design! I got carried away and finished the first page =) I added 2800 stitches to this one and went from here:

To here:

I absolutely love it!! =) I can't wait to get back to this ;-)

The second project for me was again - as every month and you are probably sick of it by now - Kreimhilds Revenge by H D Johnson. I started page 27 and stitches half of it.
Last time:

And now:

You see the dark thing in the corner there? It's a part of the rock and it means that I am done with the sky-only columns on this row ;-) You can't imagine how happy I am about that :D I am at 117 630 stitches or so, so less than 9000 to go to the halfway point (I did some 12 000 so far this year)!
So stay tuned for next month, she will be back again and maybe we see some more of the actual Kreimhild then ;-) I plan to finish page 27 in July.

The third project I worked on was my Mill Hill kit called Hydrangeas, I already talked about it and finally, there is something to see:

My own Hydrangea is in bloom by now, I just love to see them open up and change the color from green to violett to dark blue ;-) I absolutely need more Hydrangea patterns in my live :D

Last but not least I started my first Diamond Painting. I chose "Dragons Keeper" by Renee Biertempfel. It's 525 stitches wide and 339 stitches high, so it's not that big of a design. But since the canves is 10ct, the canvas is huge! I made a start on page 1 and did some 2000 diamonds:

It goes way faster than stitching and it's pretty, but it does not compare to stitching ;-) after working on this for an hour or so, I just feel like doing some actual stitching ;-) But I think the design will look great as a Daimond Painting, just as a reminder, it should look like this:

That's it for this month =)
Happy stitching =)

The potting shed - page 1, new start and stash

It has only been a few days since my last post for WIPocalypse and at the end I mentioned that I wanted to pick up the potting shed by Aimee Stewart for a few days and that's exactly what I did ;-)
I just felt like stitching a summer design and Aimees designs are so beautiful and colorful and you all know that I found my love for gardening.

So I took the potting shed out and finished page 1:

It has a lot of confetti, but it is so much fun to stitch! It was not that easy to put this down, but I want to add a few stitches to my Kriemhild (about 3 columns of sky to do!), but I will surely pick this up again before the summer is over ;-)

Another lovely spring design I am working on is a Mill Hill Buttons and Beads kit called "Hydrangea". I love Hydrangeas, they proably are my favorite flowers. I have three by now, one from last year (blue, it's coming into bloom right now) and two I got this year (red and white-pink). I have already spent some time looking for Hydrangea patterns, there are a couple by Dimensions and so I might get some more some time.
This is what my Mill Hill kit will look like one day:

I started stitching the background and this piece is making trouble. It's sort of funny by now...
 First I ended up miscounting, so the piece is not centered, but since I won't run out of space and I plan just to clue this to something for framing, I think it's not that bad.
Second, all my MH kits are stitched with 3 strands, so I just started stitching with 3 strands... But it should be 2. I noticed this when I was already a good deal in, so I decided to continue with 3 strands, I have all the colors in my stash and I just mix the threads so there should not be any dyelot issues.
This, I started stitching on the wrong side of the perforated paper... The correct side is yellow colored, I am stitching on the off-white... Lucky me, I'm doing three instead of two threads, so you won't see the background...
Fourth, I miscounted... I noticed this when I was adding the second yellow color... But I decided to just fix this along the way and it should be fine now....
Anyway, all problems are not that bad, but how unlucky can one be with a single project?
Despite all the trouble, this is what I did so far:

I can start the actual flowers now, yay!

Ok, that's it for stitching my WIPs, here are some new future WIPs!
I bought three Haed charts since the beginning of May. I don't think I showed you the chart I got in the middle of May during the Haed fullprice support thing.
I got "Snow white fog" by Bente Schlick, I requested a color expansion for this one, I just love it and want to be sure that the deer is visible. I requested about 150 colors and the chart now has 126. Fun fact: thanks to the color expansion, the chart now features 4 stitches of white (3866) :D

Then I had to buy two charts during the speed sale. I was really good at resisting, Michele posted that the sale would end some time during the next 24 hours (it was in the afternoon here in Germany) and when I went to the website the next morning, it was still going on and I was like "ok, that's a sign or so". I was so happy stitching the potting shed, I had to pick up another Aimee Stewart design.
I went for the Secret Garden Bookshelf and since I am a mad girl, I went for the Supersized Max color version of this! It just has so many details and I want them as clear a possible! I don't know how I will manage this, I can only fit a Supersized pattern on my Millennium frame if I go for 32ct, but I think with all the confetti it will be hard to push the needle through. For a max color I would probably prefer a 25ct, so my frame is 10 inches to short. One idea is to stitch this sideways (which I haven't tryed before and I imagine to be weird), another one is to stitch this with a Qsnap (I need to see how heavy this is and get a big grime guard to get the fabric out of the way) or get a costum frame, maybe an Omanik frame (they are cheaper and faster than Needle Needs). I will find a way!

The secong pattern I bought is called Aofie by Pat Brennan. I think he is fairly new to the Haed family, but he has a few stunning designs. Aofie was released just a few days ago and I had to get her. I think she has something magical to her and I love the colors, they are really calming. With just under 180k stitches, she is one of my "smaller" designs... I really need to stop buying all those supersize patterns..

Isn't she gorgeous?? If I didn't have sooo many WIPs and new starts already (and not even through my rotation), would start her right away!

But that's it for me now, I hope everyone had a wonderful stitchy weekend!
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!