YOTA - July update

Well, here we go =) It's time for YOTA and as usual I didn't manage to post on YOTA-day (Saturday)  ;-) I haven't been at home during the weekend and had therefore no access to my computer.
We were suffering from an enormous heat wave here in Germany (we hit 40° Celsius which is due to google 104° Fahrenheit) over the weekend wich some thunderstorms in between (the weather is freaking me out right now...) so I didn't get anything done.
Saturday was the worst day, I stayed at my boyfriends house because they have a garden and the air is better there. In the morning we decided to buy a small pool (best decision we ever made, lol) and spent a few hours driving around to get one (they were sold out everywhere, but we finally got one with all the required stuff) and set it up and it was really nice to cool down ;-) The weekend is going to be sunny as well, so I guess I'll spent another few hours in the water again =)

But now for YOTA! I am still focusing on QS Theatre of the Absurd (didn't put a single stitch into Paris Market or Aurora Cabin). I am fairly happy with my progress, some 760 stitches. I am kind of speeding up with this one, so there is a good chance to get this finished this year =)

Before:

And after!

If this months progress is as good as last ones I will be truly happy. At least I am ready to face the confetti again ;-)

If you want more information on the YOTA SAL or join us, please pay a visit to Pulltheotherthreads place, she is hosting this SAL and her blog is surely worth a look or two =)

WIPocalypse - July

Well, July came way faster than I thought it would. The temperatures are rising (it's really hot here in Germany and it will get even hotter) and I finally get to start working. I must admit that it was quite nice to have a few weeks off, but now I am also looking forward to start working now =)
I spent my last weeks at home (mostly reading and stitching) and now I am ready to get back to university again ;-)

As for WIPocalypse, here is what I managed to accomplish this month.

First I managed to finish the first page on Danielle, she is very nice to work on. The confetti is real fun after so much block stitching on Kreimhild.
Here is Danielle as of last months update:

And now:

I also managed to stitch one page on Kreimhilds Revenge:

Before:

And now: 

As for this months question: 

Reality or Fantasy? Which do you prefer to stitch? Figures or Abstract?

Well, that's hard to say. I guess I prefer fantasy, but I also like a realistic style (like my Kriemhild or on Yule Angel). I actually like Faeries and things with pointy ears or wings, I love working on designs that are somehow "magical". But I prefer a realistic style. I don't like the comic or manga style (I love to see people working on the FoF designs or the Hannah Lynn designs, but I can't really imagine stitching them myself). Designs that look like painting are fine for me as well (like Starlight does) =)

Abstract designs are very interesting as well and I love to see people working on them, but for my own stitching I prefer to stich a person or an animal.

But at the very end, it's still up to the design itself, some artwork just calls to me to stitch it =)

I'm not entirely sure what I will work on next. Maybe I will pick up Yule Angel for a few stitches to show you my "new" technique to avoid gridlines (you can't really see it on Kreimhild because the floss color is so similar to the fabric color) and then I will give some love to Middle Earth. 

My next post will be YOTA, I'm not sure if I will manage to post during the weekend, but on Monday I should definitely manage ;-)

Kreimhilds Revenge - page 18 is done!

Here I am with a page finish, yay!
I guess I have not properly introduced Kreimhild on this blog, so I will do that now (my apologies to all who already know everything about her, this might get boring for you).

Kreimhild's Revenge is an artwork by Howard David Johnson. In private I always call her Kriemhild.

This is the first Heaven and Earth Design I bought and my addiction started with her. I came across Heaven and Earth Designs in the second half of 2010 and was fascinated, I spent hours looking through the designs and fell in love with this lovely lady. I bought the chart in February 2011 and started kitting up. I finally started stitching in late March 2011, that's already more than 4 years ago! 

If I was to pick my first Haed again, it would be her again ;-) I feel a bit guilty because I have been working on her for so long, but I only did 18 pages so far:

There were times when I nearly lost my mojo, mostly because the sky seemed to go on forever. I really hope that my mojo to work on her will last a bit longer so I get a few more stitches in. 

I'm working her on 25ct ivory Lugana (my all time favorite fabric), 1 over 1 full crosses. The design is 450 stitches wide and 568 stitches high. In large format this means 64 pages. I did 18 pages so far, so 80429 of 255600 stitches are done. So there is still a bot of work to do ;-) 

I am taking a small break from her to finish the first page on Danielle (I need a bit of confetti) and will return to Kriemhild to stitch a bit more. There are one and a half page of sky to stitch until more of her hair will come into view =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - June edition =)

Well, this month, unlike last month, I have some progress to show for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL. I put a few hours into the Map of Middle Earth and did some 2200 stitches on it. Considering how big the project is, this is not really much, but I think that if I can put in around 2000 per month, I will slowly by steadily get this done one day ;-) And after all, progress is still progress.

So this is Middle Earth as of mid-april when you last saw it:

And this is where I am now:

There are now 12000 stitches in, so still a way to go ;-)

I am also trying a new technique to avoid gridlines when working on big blocks of color. I'll explain this in my next post (which will be Kriemhild's Revenge), because you can see it better on that project. But you can already see that there is a sort of zick-zack line instead of a strait edge ;-) Up to now, this looks like quite promising.

WIPocalypse and YOTA - June is here!

Well, here we go with another combined post on YOTA and WIPocalypse. My big goal for next month is to do the WIPocalypse post on WIPocalypse day and the YOTA post on YOTA-day, lol.

I'm going to start with my progress on my WIPocalypse pieces since this was first. I added my new starts to the list, so there will also be some updates on them from now on. But let's start with this months question:
Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in summer or winter?
Well, I guess that's summer. I spent more time knitting in winter, so I have less time for stitching ;-) I'm not sure if I really make more progress, but at least it feels like that ;-) 

I guess I haven't shown you my progress on Wolf Variant which I made some time during the month. I decided to stitch the page below the first page next instead of moving to page two. I will try and work a bigger row which will be some 200 stitches high. Otherwise I won't really see anything of the wolf while working my first row. I made a start with adding some 1600 stitches.
Before:

And after:

This a actually my biggest project (up to now) so I will try and pick it up quite often ;-) 

Next up is once again my new start "Paddys Luck":

And Danielle, on which I have worked since my last post. The first four columns are complete, the butterfly is nearly done and I really love it :) I already started the next column and will finish it before picking up something else 

You can also see the start of one of her gorgeous wings =) I am really excited about this =)

Well I guess that's it for WIPocalypse. I must say, that I am really happy with my progress for this month. I'm not sure if I will be able to, but it would be amazing to get that much done in June as well ;-) 

After Danielle I will stitch on Middle Earth for a few days so there will be an update for the gifted Gorgousness SAL in a weeks time. And after that I will take out Kreimhild once more =)

So here is my update for YOTA. I once again decided to battle the confetti on QS Theatre of the Absurd and put some 500 stitches in. Not as much as I wanted, but I really spent hours on this one! I guess it took me two hours or more to fill one tiny square.... I will continue with the started column and I am confident about being able to finish it for next time because the squares to come are not that confetti heavy. 

Before:

And after:

The flute player (or whatever he is doing there) is officially done now, there was so much confetti in him, so I really hope it will get better. Four columns and the started one to go!

Well, I see you in a few days with an update on Middle Earth and Danielle =)

Time for new starts!! =)

Well, my master thesis is done, I may now officially call myself "Master of Science". The last weeks were very stressful, but in the end it was worth it. But I am quite happy that it is all done now and I have a bit of free time before getting started on my PHD =)
And what does one do if one has free time? YES- stitching!

Ad that works best if one has a few new starts ;-)

First up is a quick stitch I started. I have eyed this from time to time since it was released, but somehow I never bought the pattern. I originally planned on starting Danielle (scroll down) after handing in my master thesis, but my fabric hadn't arrived, so I decided to go for something else. I bought that pattern that evening and started it right away.
So here are the details: The design is called "QS Paddys Luck" by Joanna Bromley. It's 195x277 stitches, which makes a total of roughly 54000 stitches. I am again stitching the large version of the chart, so it is 16 pages long. I absolutely love the cheerful colors and it is really fun to stitch!
Here is how the finished design will hopefully look like:

And here is what I got so far, some 3000 stitches into the first page:

I decided once again to substitute the Kreinik with Glissen Gloss Rainbow R000. There is quite a lot of sparkle already, but unfortunately you can't see it in the picture. I am working this one on 25ct Lugana in ivory.

But this is not my only new start! I also started another BAP called "Danielle". The moment this was released, I knew I had to get this and stitch it. This new start was somehow chaotic. I ordered some 28ct Lugana in vanilla at first, but then I got an email that the color was no longer available (I didn't get it at first, because it got lost in my spam folder), so I went for off-white instead. It took a few days longer than expected for the fabric to ship. Then I wasn't home, when it was delivered and had to wait another day! 

Then I finally got started on it, when I was some 300 stitches into the pattern I noticed, that two colors had the same symbol! So I wrote an email to Michele and she sent me new version of the chart right away. I was just checking the other symbols, when I noticed that the symbols for two other colors where nearly identical (I couldn't tell them apart in the chart), so I wrote another email and Michele once again changed the chart for me. Did I every say, that she is absolutely brilliant??

The recent trouble was, that I was missing a color. I searched everywhere until I noticed that I just labeled it wrong (with a colornumber that doesn't exist...). I hope I am done with chaos on this project now ;-)

But I guess most of you wonder, what it is, that causes all the chaos and is still worth the trouble ;-)

This is Danielle by Sarah Butcher:

I am so in love with this design and I enjoy every stitch so far. The Design is 450x567 stitches, which makes a total of 255150 stitches. It's 64 pages in large format and I am just some 1300 stitches in so far. I am really looking forward to working with all those colors =) I decided to try something new and used DMC E5200 as a substitution für Kreinik. I just made a few stitches with it so far, so I can't say much about it ;-) 

Here is what I did so far:

I love stitching the yellow colors, it's quite different from my other projects (they tend to have may blue and purple colors) and stitching that butterfly is real fun =)

I also got another new chart during one of the last sales.

I guess most of you noticed the new supersize patterns. I think the true detail of the bookshelves by Aimee Stewart and the designs by Josephine Wall comes to life in those huge projects. I only got one so far but there are many that are calling to me.

I went for "Supersize QS Ships and Shells" by Josephine and it really is the supersize version of a quick stitch (lol, I just love the name). The original QS is only 175 stitches wide, whereas the supersize is 999 stitches wide, so the detail gained is breathtaking. I haven't figured out how to get this one on a frame (I'm going to do some experiments on 32ct), but one day this will be stitched:

I also thought about getting the supersize version of Goddess between Realms, but the original version is already quite big (over 700 stitches high) and so I decided to stick with the version I already have. But many of the Wall pieces are rather small (considering the amount of detail), so the supersizing really gives a lot more detail. I guess I'm going to buy a few more of these huge designs in the future ;-)

But I will continue stitching on Danielle now, I just can't put her down =)

WIPocalypse and YOTA - May edition!

Well, I know I am rather later with this post, but I have been so busy with my master thesis, that I didn't find the time and energy to make an entry. I fear I won't be able to do a post for the gifted gorgeousness SAL because I didn't work on any of my projects so far.

Well, as for WIPocalypse:
Last months event from the Stitch Stash and Honking Rakateers Club was to work on as many WIPs as you can, so I did my best to change between projects. Therefore I have a bunch of pictures to show =)

First up is Rheingold, which is tending to become an UFO because I really don't feel like working on it. I added just 700 stitches and made a start on page 4.
Before:

After:

Next up is Starlight. I always love to work on this one, it's full of confetti, but the result is just amazing =) I added just one column because most evenings I was to tired for the confetti, but I will surely return to this soon. I made a start on page 3 and added about 1000 stitches:

Before:

And after:

I also put a bunch of stitches into Yule Angel. It was really nice to work on something with almost no confetti and to make fast progress, so I stitched the rest of page 4 (about 3200 stitches)
Before:

 And after:

I am currently working on Wolf Variant by Bente Schlick, because this was calling to me most, so the next update will be on that one. 

So for my YOTA updates, I put some 400 stitches into QS Theatre of the Absurd. Since I will have a bit more free time soon (especially this month), I hope to get a few more stitches in for next update. Here is my lastest photo on it:

I also took out Paris Market because it is my oldest project and added a few hundred stitches. 

Before:

And after:

I also got a bunch of new charts, but I guess I will show them next time when I have some progress to show on Wolf Variant. 

I ordered some fabric and threads for a new start, so the next post might also be on that.

I am really sorry for not commenting on your blogs right now, I am just so busy. I hope to improve in the future ;-)