WIPocalypse February

Well, it looks like it's already time for another WIPocalypse. I don't have much stitching to show since I am still working on the Middle Earth RR (1500 stitches to go!).

First up is a very tiny update on Danielle, I stitched half of page 2 before putting it away to work on Middle Earth.
So here is Danielle as of last time:

And now:

More of her gorgeous hair! I truly love working on her and can't wait until I get back to her!

Since I had the desire to stitch something else than Middle Earth I picked up QS Paddys Luck by Joanna Bromley for a few stitches (850 to be precise). I didn't track when I was working on it (I think it was 3 days?) so there are no stats for that one ;-) Paddy always on my QSnap so I hope it will get a few more stitches from time to time.
Here is Paddys as you last saw him:

And now:

I love to stitch this. A lot of block stitching, but the colors are just amazing. Unfortunately you can't see all the lovely sparkles, it's really beautiful and always cheers me up =) I also noticed that I am missing a few color for Paddy, lol. I started him 9 months ago and never bothered to check my supplies. But I ordered the missing colors and hope they will arrive before I get in trouble ;-)

As for this months question: I can't really answer it since I don't have any finished pieces in display in my home. People usually notice what's currently on my frame and they are always like "wow, this looks like a painting" and then the usual questions like "when will you finish" and "isn't this frustrating?" follow :D (no, none of my friends stitch...)

Anyway, I hope to have more to share next month =)
Until then,
Happy Stitching!

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - February =)

So, I am just one day late for the GG SAL :D I'm getting better at this :D But I have a ton of updates to share with you.

The fist one I want to share is a Round Robin I am participating in. A lady (Chelle) on Facebook started the Map of Middle Earth, but she didn't get along well with the confetti in it. She wants to give the map to her son and his girlfriend (once it's done), so she called for suggestions and somehow this ended up with being a round robin. So the Map of Middle Earth is traveling around our earth so we can stitch the project that Chelle wanted to stitch for her son in her place =) I think this is a lovely thing and I am so happy that I am part of the fellowship =) I plan on finishing the third page before sending it on. During the last two weeks I barely stitched on anything else, lol.

Here is my starting point, page 3 was started by Saskia from the Netherlands, who sent this to me:

There were a ton of stitches on the right hand of the upper row done as well, but I somehow just took a picture of the part I am working on.
So here is where I am so far, 5 rows and a bit done (nearly 4000 stitches):

I must confess that I am nearly sick of it, lol. But I will finish that page. I took out another project (Paddys luck) because I simply had to work on something else for a few hours. Lucky me, this page doesn't have to much confetti (compared to for example page 4, haha..... Esme will enjoy it...), so it stitches up fairly quickly. I plan on sending this on this month and due to my current progress, this is possible.
What is really funny, is the comparison to my own Map of Middle Earth which some of you may have seen last year (also for the GG SAL and it will return once I can stand stitching another map, lol). For example, my map uses TONS of 3771 (I think I have some 30ish skeins?) and this version uses none at all! The colors are completely different, Chelles map look more brownish and well, like a map drawn on really old paper, but my map looks more orange. The mane colors on Chelles map seem to be 402 and 436, my map doesn't have a lot of 436, but uses 3771.
And then I remember when the supersized version of the map came out, that were totally different colors again.... (I think in the end there were a light version and a darker version...) So many different versions of the same chart, I found that quite confusing :D

Anyway, what I also noticed is that I made the right choice by starting the XL version of the chart. I had the "normal" version at first and got RAKed with the XL version when it came out. I remember that Michele made a bigger version because not all the writings were clear and good to read. My map may have thrice as many stitches (normal: 151 650, my XL version: 421 500) but I hope the writing will be clearer. But we will see, I should reach some of the lettering soon!
When I am done with the map, I will sent it on to Esme in the UK and I will post another picture then =)

I have another project I am stitching for someone else. Chelles project started a discussion about stitching a piece together and then selling it for charity. One of the projects was "Dog bookshelf" by Randal Spangler. I signed up for it I am stitching a puppy, yay! The idea was that everyone should stitch one book and I got the book on the right, Barkleberry Finn.
I started this last year and hope to put more work into this soon. I hope to speed up once the map is sent on. Here is where I am:

Most of the puppy is done (just a few stitches in the ears are missing). Isn't he cute? =)

And then there is one more project I have worked on. It's my Candy Cane Santa I am stitching for my boyfriend. It's on hold since the map arrived, so he still has no face. But he looks like he has some kind of asian smilie  face :D

He is a lot of fun to stitch and I will definitely concentrate on his face next!

If you want to see more updates for the SAL, head over to Jos place and take a look at the link up =)

Happy stitching =)

Danielle and Paris Market

Here is a small update on Danielle, not much since my frame is now occupied with something else (which you will see for the GG SAL in a few days). But I did some 2000 stitches on Danielle. Unfortunately I managed to hurt my back, so there was not much stitching on my frame during the last days. But it's better now.

Here is where I am now:

I really love working on this, the yellow colors are so beautiful =) I never enjoyed stitching the background so much ;-)

Here are my stats so far:

Total stitches: 255 150
Total stitches done: 7200
Stitches in 2016: 2000
Stitching days: 6
Average stitches per day: 333
Stitches left: 247 950
Days left to stitch: 745

My stitches per session seem to be less than on Wolf Variant. I am not sure if this has something to do with the fabric count, I sometimes feel like I am slower on 28ct, but I feel like the coverage is better.

But Danielle is going away for a while now. Since so many people are in a finishing rush I feel the need to put some work into Kreimhild, so that maybe one day I will have a finish, too :D I guess I will return to her for a page or so when my GG SAL project travels on ;-)

I have also been a good girl and took out one of my Dimensions UFOs. I don't really know how much I worked on Paris Market but I put in a couple of threads and at least it felt like some progress. Here are my before and after pictures:

There is a lot of tree there so I am stitching on that from time to time while I stitch the house on the left. It's actually nice to stitch something in hand and I still love the design. The Dimensions projects are so different from my Haeds, it's a nice change. I will try and pick this up a few times during the month. 

Apart from this I have started one of my Mill Hill Santas, but he doesn't look like much so far. I will share a picture when there is something to show. 

I am off to bed now, I am still taking pain killers and they sort of knock me out. 

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse 2016 - January

We had the first full moon of 2016 last night, so here is start up post for WIPocalypse. As last year, Measi is asking questions every month and I will try and answer them.

As it is the beginning of the year, this months task is to introduce yourself, your projects and your goals for 2016.
So this could be a long post.

Lol, I forgot to introduce myself:
My name is Johanna and I live in the north west of Germany with my boyfriend. I am 25 years old and I am currently doing my phd in maths. I have been stitching since 2009. At the beginning this was just another hobby besides knitting but since  2010 I am completely addicted to it. I started my first Haed in 2011 and my collection is growing since then.
Apart from stitching I like to read and then and again I like to crotchet or knit. I recently got some coloring books (fun, but not as much as stitching!). I like to listen to audiobooks or music as I stitch and I am spending way to much time on youtube (flusstube) and facebook (various stitching groups).

Concerning goals I want to say that I don't plan on setting goals on all my projects, the big plan is to pick up all my projects during the year and work on them. I have a few ideas on what I want to accomplish on some projects and I will tell those ideas as I go by. So if nothing further is added, the idea is just to pick it up some time and work on it for a few stitches.

Also I started to track my progress by writing down when I stitched at a piece and how many stitches I did. I will try and continue with that idea for a couple of projects and share my experience at the end of the year.

But now here are my projects:

First up is Kreimhilds Revenge by H D Johnson (Haed). I'm 20 pages in and I plan to do serious business with her. She is my oldest project and I absolutely love her and I really want her finished (this century...). So I plan to stitch at least the four page of row 3:

Here is my start on her for 2016:

Das Rheingold by Kinuko Craft, we are still struggeling. One day my love for this will reappear...I will try and finish the page I started in 2015 (page 5 I think)

Here is where I left off in 2015:

Yule Angel by Anne Stokes, Still just background to show. It's 7200 stitches to the end of the first row, so I'm going to do that in 2016 and perhaps get a few stitches into the second row:

Starting point for 2016:

Starlight by David Hoffrichter, a lot of confetti, but very beautiful (need to pick this up soon).

Here is where I am now:

Eternal Promise by Matt Stewart. I just love Lord of the Rings and hope to make some good progress on it this year. I plan on finishing the page I started in 2015 (page 3 I think) and some more..

Current progress:

Wolf Variant by Bente Schlick, such an amazing designs. I already did some work on it this year. I am currently stitching 100 stitches wide and moving down. I plan to finish the 100x160 block this year (so I fill in the gap):

Starting point of 2016:

And now:

QS Paddys Luck by Joanna Bromley - such a cute design! I haven't worked on this for ages since my Qsnaps are packed with other things, but I hope to get a good bit of it done this year. The plan is to finish at least the page I started (first one).

Current status:

Danielle by Sarah Butcher - I never enjoyed stitching background so much. The colors are beautiful and I love the green leafs. She is currently on my frame and I plan to stitch at least page 2 (on which I am now working).

Beginning of 2016:

And now:

Supersized Iris Keeper by Josephine Wall.My first Supersized pattern (it's was once a tiny little storykeep). She is such a joy to stitch and I want to finish the first row of pages (about 3 pages).

And here we are now:

Last but not least, my newest addition to the WIP pile:
Supersized Ride of the Yokai by Ruth Thompson!
It is my biggest project, having nearly 730 000 stitches. Many of my other BAPs are just one third of this and even Eternal Promise, which was my biggest project up to date, seems to consist of "only" 440 000 stitches... This Journey will surely take some time, I did one page to far (started on first of January). I really can't say what I will accomplish this year. I feel like I need to put in 10 pages or so to finish this one day, but then again I am not yet used to 32ct and I don't want to ruin this for me by forcing myself to work on it. It would be amazing to reach the halfway point on my first row (consisting of partial pages), but if not, that's fine as well.

Here is the first page done:

I have a couple of other project on the go, which I am not including in this SAL (I'm suing them for other SALs and I don#t want to share one and the same update various times a month...)

I will continue working on my Map of Middle Earth, Wolf Kiss and my Candy Cane Santa Stocking as a part on the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL, on which i will update on the 15th of each month.

I will work on my two Dimensions Gold pieces Aurora Cabin and Paris Market during the UFO week (maybe one of them will become a bedtime project). I will update on them at the end of the month or the beginning of the month.

I also plan on stitching a few Mill Hill kits (I finished my first one today but the picture is crappy). I will just pick up the next kit once the current kit is done and then I am stitching what calls to me, so I don't have a real plan for them (can't even say which ones will be stitched).

As for plans concerning new starts... Starting the supersized Ride of the Yokai was a big thing. The project is huge and I need to add another 20 years to my life expectations to get this done. So I will try and not start any more huge projects this year. I will frequently start smaller ones (such as the Mill Hills), but I don't want another BAP on the list. I plan on starting smaller designs such as Quickstitches so I will have a finish from time to time to keep me motivated. One QS I always wanted to do is Trapped by Melanie Delon:

It is 225x190 stitches, so a total of 42 750 stitches. It's in my stash and printed and all kitted up for ages now and I guess it will make it to the frame this year.
Another thing is SK Trick or Treat by Randal Spangler. It was one of the reward charts from one of the freebee SALs (2013?). I have the big version in my stash as well, but this would be a BAP again. So maybe I will go with the Storykeep for starters. It's about 23 000 stitches and I don't seem to have a picture O.o But since I always wanted a Halloween themed project, this one might appear in October.

The big rule for new starts is that they need to have less than 200 000 stitches (so less stitches than the majority of my projects are lacking). I also want to try and start things that have been in my stash for a longer time instead of buying new charts and never stitching the old ones...
Noble Spirit by Jody Bergsma is in my stash and I really love it. With 163 100 stitches it would be fine to start:

Just in case you haven't noticed: I love designs with a lot of blue and purple...

Or maybe Nuakas by M C Escher, I alway wanted a black and white, it's "just" 114 300 and I guess I don't need to mention that Eschers pictures are amazing ;-)

But right now my need to start something is satisfied and those are just ideas(by the way, I got them all in 2013), so I will see what the next year brings.

Phew, that is a long post! I suppose the next updates will be smaller posts :D 

If you want to check out the other peoples post, feel free to take a look over here, you can also sign up your own updates for this month there :)

Happy Stitching! 

Update on Wolf Variant and Haed challenge

I worked on Wolf Variant during the last days and used this project to participate in the Haed challenge that is currently hosted on Facebook. 

The goal was to do 1000 stitches consisting of 10 blocks of size 10x10 and they had to be arranged diagonal to each other (so doing them all in one diagonal was fine or as I did, a checkerboard pattern or anything in between). 

Here is my checkerboard pattern:

The stitches added up pretty fast, I did this in just one day (ok I was really exhausted in the end because I was like "ok just one more square...") The idea behind this was to try a new way of stitching that was something between cross country and parking. You also get to see what is to come up in the pattern (like a small window to your picture). The effect is not that visible here because I was working on the background but I have seen a lot of WIPs that looked amazing.

It was a lot of fun to try something new and I can only recommend joining in the challenge (as far as I understood, you can still sign up for the challenge, it runs until March 15th, sign up is open until some time in March, but I am not entirely sure about that). 

I might have been fun to do the squares but it was a bit tricky to fill them in afterwards. If you use waste knots like I do, it's not that easy to find a suitable place to start and end you threads. I ended a few of my threads on the back of my work (which I don't like because I have my pattern and my flossbobbins-in-use lying on my frame, so I have to put everything away first before turning my frame). But in the end I did it:

My stitching is now 100 stitches wide and I am working on the second row of pages. I did a total of 11800 stitches so far (5000 during this month!).

I am also trying something new this year: I am tracking my progress. At the end of each stitching day I write down how many stitches I made. I calculated my stitches per stitching day at the end of my rotation and I calculated how many days I need to keep on stitching until the project is finished. So here are my stats now:

Total Stitches: 409 500

Total Stitches done: 11 800

Stitches in 2016: 5000

Stitching days: 10

Average stitches per day: 500

Stitches left: 397 700

Days left to stitch: 795

So there are 795 days to stitch on this, I though this would be worse :D I mean that's less than two years. The only problem is that this is not my only project but it makes me think that if I decide to make this a focus project, then I would actually be able to finish this :D 

I am not yet sure if I will do this for all my projects, I just wanted to give this a try ;-)

I put Wolf Variant away for now because I need to stitch something that is not blue, lol. I took out Danielle, on which I haven't worked for ages (she was calling to me most). I guess I will have something to show on her for WIPocalypse in a few days.

Happy stitching! =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - January

Well, it looks like the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL is continued in 2016 =)
I didn't manage to post for this every month in 2015, so I am trying again for 2016 ;-) My pile of projects suitable for the SAL has grown somewhat.
I will surely continue working on my Map of Middle Earth (on which I want to do 12000 stitches this year) and my Wolf Kiss, but this months post introduces a new start.

I started a stocking for my boyfriend. It's a kit called "Candy Cane Santa Stocking" from the Dimensions Gold Collection. I showed it a few posts ago:

The plan is to get this finished in time for Christmas and I think I can do it.
This is where I am so far, I started it just a few days ago and it stitches up fairly quickly:

It's a good part of Santas beard so far and I hope that I will be able to show you his face next month.
This is worked on 16ct Aida with multiple strands of floss, so I am using my new laying tool on this. I really enjoy working with the laying tool, I think I found a good rhythm and the stitches are super even, which make the coverage real nice.

If you want to see the other peoples work for this SAL, take a look over here and if you want to participate, you can do it here.

I'll be back in a few days with an update on Wolf Variant and the current challenge form the Haed group on Facebook.

Happy Stitching =)

Ride of the Yokai - page finish!

Just a quick post to show you my first finished page on Supersized Ride of the Yokai. I started at the bottom left, so this is actually page 154. It's only a partial page of 2200 stitches. I will return to this next month to stitch another page. But here it is:

And Michele sent out the chart for the Christmas raffle 2015. It's once again an amazing chart, a part from A Stitch in Time by Aimee Stewart: