WIPocalypse - June

Oh my, June is just flying by. And it seems like I am starting most every post with this sentence. It's really crazy, time flies by and I always feel like I didn't accomplish anything because it feels like getting up, going to work, go home, eat dinner, stitch for 2 or 3 hours and then I pick up a book and go to bed, lol. I'm not getting much stitching done, just about 200 stitches per night. I am working on Danielle, trying to finish page 2 (which I started at the beginning of the year) and I think it's on the frame for two weeks now and I am not done with it (see below).
The weather has gone insane here, it switches between a lot of rain and even thunderstorms and now it's terribly hot again and there are more thunderstorms to come. This weather just makes me tired all the time...

But as for my WIPocalypse progress!
As I mentioned, I am working on Danielle by Sarah Butcher. I did 3 columns so far (well, I did an additional 70 stitches) and there are 490 stitches left on the page, so it should be done by the weekend.
Last time:

And now:

Did I say that I am absolutely in love with this one? It's so pretty!! I love the colors =)

I also did finish the Haed challenge, so Trapped went from here

To here:

So that's pretty much what I did last month. I stitched a lot on my projects for the GG SAL and I also stitched a Mill Hill kit (which I didn't take a picture of) and on Paris Market (of which I didn't take a picture either...). 

As for this months question: Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in Summer or in Winter?

Well, that's definitely Winter :D There is nothing better than snuggling up on my couch with a cup of tea and some stitching. I don't like to much heat, it makes me tired. I also spent a lot of time outside taking care of my garden. Maybe I also need more smaller projects I can take outside with me ;-) 

That's all I have for this time, 

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - June

I just wanted to share a quick update for the GG SAL this month. The Haed challenge screwed up my stitching schedule, so I only worked on two projects this month. I hope to be able to show some progress on Wolf Kiss and my Dog Bookshelf piece next month as well =)

So here we go! I picked up my Map of Middle Earth and finished the column I started lat month and got one additional column done. 1300 stitches left to finish page 3, I hope that will be done next month.
Before:

And now:

22 000 stitches done in total, 400 500 to go (I'm so excited that this counter will go below 400 000 next time :D ).

The second one I worked on is my Candy Cane Santa Stocking by Dimensions Gold. He still doesn't have eyes, I still think it's funny. I worked on the green stuff and the background. This only got 2 or 3 days of stitching, so I am very happy with my progress (it's mostly half stitches).
Before:

And now:

Well, that's it for this month. If you are interested in taking a look at what everybody else did for the month, take a look over here.

Happy stitching to everybody =)

Haed challenge finished and an update on Paris Market

I finally managed to finish the Haed Challenge no 2 last night, yay! It took ages to fill in all the dark colors and I am so happy it's done ;-) I never thought that I would mind stitching dark colors so much. I still love the design, but I definitely need something different (with more colors) for a while now :D The dark colors are ok here because it's a QS with "just" 40 000 stitches, so I will finish this one, but I will keep this issue in mind for bigger projects.

But here she is, with 7600 done now:

I think her eyes look rather fine, may it was just the missing background colors that made her look funny. I did a total of 80 colors there and for some nights I just had to pick up something else, so I went for Paris Market by Dimensions Gold:

I did quite a bit on the Restaurant to the left, added a few lengths of thread to the tree and made I start on the flowers on the lower half of the project. The flowers are so much fun, I guess I will work on this more often now ;-) Since this is my oldest WIP, this would actually be quite nice :D

I haven't figured out about what to stitch next, perhaps a few stitches on Middle Earth (well that's not exactly colorful) for the GG SAL or Danielle. We will see ;-)

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - May edition

Oh my, I somehow thought I had a few more days until WIPocalypse, but it looks like the full moon is here again.

I don't have a lot to show this month. I have been working a lot  and spent a lot of time reading or getting my garden ready for summer ( I got a huge amount of flowers, some peppers and some chilis. I also bought a cucumber but I think I killed it... I am an absolute noob when it comes to gardening... Will get a new cucumber soon and try again...), but I do have at least two updates for you.

As I explained earlier (I think) I got a bit confused by working at to many projects at once (really having 3 or 4 projects out and working on various pieces a day because I felt like I needed to get some progress into all of them), I decided to try concentrating on one project. The first one I finished was a small Mill Hill kit (I just can't take a good picture of it, the beads look so crappy! the pictures just don't do it any justice at all) called "Eastern Star Santa". I started him in March and while I was making up my mind with my project chaos, I finished him (just 2 or 3 evenings).
Then I decided to pic up QS Trapped for the second Haed Challenge, because this is my next deadline (June 15th).

So I got from here (last month, 30 colors in)

 To here(52 colors in)

I decided to work on two colors that are used in the background a lot so I have the feeling of making progress now. Her face is now as good as done, just a few colors outlining her cheeks are missing. Her right eye looks a bit odd, I think I screwed that up somewhere... I seriously don't know where I went wrong and how to fix it will all the threads running on the backside... I just hope it will work out in the end...

The big plan is to focus on this piece until it is done. If I really need a day or an evening off, I will work on something else (like tonight when I will finish that started column on Middle Earth), but I will try and finish the challenge.

Since last WIPocalypse I also did a bit more work on Kreimhild, I finished page 22 and I am sooo close to the magical 100 000 stitches mark. Just one and a partial page left until the row is finished, so I will return to her very soon to do that.

Here is what you last saw of her:

And now, with her arm finished (at least for this row):

This months question is
What did you work on last year at this time and did you finish it?

Ok, about one year ago I handed in my master thesis (on 12th May to be precise) and celebrated it with two new starts - QS Paddys Luck and Danielle. Of course, I did not finish them, lol.

I already picked up Paddy this year and here is where he is at now:

He has 8 columns done now, which brings him to 6400 stitches. The color are so joyful, I should definitely pick him up again!

As for Danielle, I made a start on page 2 (half way done):

The big problem with this is, that I decided to got for the DMC E5200. I think that floss would be ok on 25ct, but on 28ct it's a pain. So I thought about restarting this and using Rainbow Gallery. So I decided to try and frog it (if the alternative is to start all over, I can first try rescuing it... it can't get worse). It is a super slow process, but so far it's working out. I am so happy that evenweave is so forgiving, when it comes to frogging.... I will let you know the outcome of this adventure no matter what happens ;-)

So that's it for this month. If you are curious about how everybody else is doing, just hop over here and take a look!

I guess my next update will again be on Trapped, so we will see how her face is working out soon.

Until then,
Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - May

MAy is already halfway over, so it's time for another GG SAL update. This SAL is kindly hosted by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching. If you don't know her blog yet, it's surely worth a visit and if you want to have a look at the other entries for this month, you can do it here.

So here is my update:
First up is a last update on my Robin, I framed him an gifted him to my Bfs mum (she was very happy). I decided to go for a green frame:

I am super happy with it and I really love the design. I might even stitch this again for myself.

The
next one I worked on is the Candy Cane Santa Stocking. I stitched Santas Hood and added a missing stitches in his face. He still doesn't have eyes because I think he looks funny that way. I started working on the background as well.
Last time you saw him:

And now:

I also worked a bit on the Dogbookshelf piece and added a few rows.
Before:

After:

I hope that I will be done with page 2 next month, it's time to get this finished!

Last but not least I worked on my Map of Middle Earth. I didn't get much done this month, just 700 stitches, but progress is still progress, right?
Before:

And now:

This is all I worked on this month.

Happy stitching =)

Kreimhild page 22 and a framed robin

I am happy to announce, that I managed to finish page 22 on Kreimhild - yay me! I think she looks super lovely and after a short break (will work on Middle Earth until the 15th) I will pick her up again and and finish the third row (just one page and a tiny partial one). So here is her now:

And her stats:
Total stitches: 255 600
Total stitches done: 99 525
Stitches in 2016: 9548
Stitching days: 24
Average stitches per day: 398
Stitches left: 156 075
Days left to stitch: 392

It took me 13 days to finish this page because I am working on several projects at once. I am trying to work on the dog bookshelf piece and the Christmas stocking for my bf and also on the Haed challenge. I'm trying to get some order into this because I feel like I am not getting anything done this way. I now working on the stocking from the 1st to the 15th of each month, from the 16th to the end of the month I am working on dog bookshelf (which will hopefully be done soon) and during the weekend I am trying to squeeze in a few stitches on Trapped for the Haed challenge. So my progress will hopefully get back to normal soon. Or at least a bit. Since I am working 30 instead of 20 hours now I don't spent so much time stitching anymore (mostly around 2 hours) and so my progress suffers. But at least I get more money to spent on stitching stuff :D *already placed an order*

I also managed to get my Robin by Eva Rosenstand framed. I picked a nice green frame an my bfs mother loved it. Here it is:

I love this one so much, maybe I will stitch it again for myself ;-)

I guess my next post will be for the GG SAL (with work on my stocking and Middle Earth).

Happy stitching =)

Updates on Kreimhild, Trapped, Aurora Cabin and Paris Market and some new stash

I have a couple of updates to show you today. I have been working on quite a lot of different projects lately because there are a few I want to get done soon.

Kreimhilds Revenge is still on my big frame and she is coming along really nicely.

Here is what she looks like right now:

Page 22 is a bit more than halfway done and I hope to share a page finish soon =)

Progress is not as fast as usual because I am also working on QS Trapped for the Haed challenge and I stitched a good amount on the dog bookshelf piece (hasn't seen love for far to long and it's time to get it done) on which I will share an update for the GGSAL.

As for Trapped, I did 45 colors on my 1 1/2 pages so far. I still find those mysterious single missed stitches everywhere and I think I screwed up her right eye (couldn't even figure out what went wring there, I just hope it will be ok in the end). Here she is:

I did not really enjoy stitching those scattered single stitches, I have been carrying my threads over such huge distances, my backside is a true mess. I could imagine doing cross country again, but not the entire stitches on a page if they are so scattered. But I will finish this challenge no matter what ;-) There are huge blocks of color to come now. I must admit that stitching with the same color all the time is a bit boring, but at least it gives me the feeling of making progress ;-)

I also did a bit of work on my Aurora Cabin, which I haven't picked up for ages (I think I didn't work on it in all of 2015...). I did some work work on the right tree (it's really huge, but a lot of fun to stitch).

Here is my current progress:

I really don't know why I haven't worked on this for so long, I really love it, I just forgot about it... But I will try and get some progress in in 2016.

I also put a few stitches into Paris Market, I think I did a bit of work on the trees:

Not much progress, but every stitch counts, right? ;-)

Edit: Lol, I forgot about my new stash! I just couldn't resist the 50% Haed SAL and ended up with 7 (!) new charts for me and I took the chance to sent out two RAKS.
Soe here we go!
As many of you already know, Cherie Gerhardt (Mystic Moon Media) did some Harry Potter themed artwork and the four house crests and since I love Harry Potter, I had to buy them all. So here are
Bravery (Gryffindor)

Cunning (Slytherin)

Loyalty (Hufflepuff)

And Wisdom (Ravenclaw)

I also got Distant Musings by Annie Stegg, I have been eying this one for ages, but I somehow never got it. But now it's mine. Isn't it gorgeous? =)

And then I got another chart by Jane Starr Weils, I absolutely need to start one of her designs! I chose Red Poppies:

The last one I got is QS Tree Swallow by Meredith Dillman. I am truly fond of birds these days and I saw a WIP of this and just had to get it:

I'll put a few stitches into Kreimhild now. 

So, until next time,

Happy stitching =)