Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - July

So here is my tiny update for this months GG SAL, you can find all the updates here. Not much stitching going on these last days, but Middle Earth is still on my frame and I plan to work on this for a few more days, so I hope that I have more to show next month ;-)
I did like 440 stitches on Middle Earth and went from here:

To here:

I am actually pretty close to a page finish, just about 1 500 stitches and I definitely want to do them for next month =)

Health news: after feeling dizzy for a few days, I went to see my doctor and we decided to try without the pain killers - yay! The process takes two weeks where I am reducing my daily dosis, I already went down to 50 percent and therefore had a pretty bad weekend which I mostly spent in bed. But I hardly have any pain and the dizzyness was gone after the first day, my head certainly feels less foggy. My doctor actually said that the dizzyness was just a sign that my body requires less medication and therefore it's a good sign. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to be rid of
this stuff and be able to enjoy a good glass of wine :D

Wedding update: We bought our weddingrings! That was a hard decision to make, in the end we went for something completely different :D Also we decided on a budget before we went shopping and I was pretty confident that in the end we would fall in love with something super expensive and already wrung my mind around how much we could afford and now guess what - we didn't even half the budget! And then my sister decided to buy a pair of earrings to go with my dress as a wedding gift, so right now I feel like the richest girl in the world :D

And another dumper: My computer decided to die. It was completely fine last weekend and when I opened the thing on Sunday, the system was dead. All my stuff - gone! I am happy that I store my patterns in my dropbox, but most of my progress pictures are gone =/ I think I have an old backup somewhere from a few years ago, but the whole thing is pretty annoying. Fortunately, only the system was broken and we were able to reset the computer, so it's working again. I still need to install a new feedreader and collect all my blogs again, I really need to get my butt up to do that...

Well, this is all I have to tell you for this month =)

WIPocalypse June

Hello lovely fellow stitchers,
I didn't make it to post on Sunday and then we were out of internet for two days, so I am making this post today. But you have to look at the positive side of things - I have an additional update for you because I am doing the One-per-day-challenge and already worked on this challenge for two days.

This being the June update means that we are to take a look at our goals for the year and see how we are doing. I honestly don't really want to take a look, I fear I am far from accomplishing anything this year. But if I remember correctly, I didn't put my goals to high. Anyway, let's have a look.

First up is my Kriemhild, she is (as every year) my focus piece and I try to work on her every month and that's what I did (even if I missed one WIPocalypse, I still worked on her). My plan is to finish the 5th row of pages and make a start on row 6. I am not yet done with the row, but on a good way. I also made some progress on her during the last month. Last time I was at the end of page 37:

Which I finished earlier:

And I made a tiny start on page 38:

And she is also still on my frame and I think I will add another column or two before switching to something else. Since January I did 10 083 stitches on her, so we are on a good way. I am joining the next Haed challenge on Facebook, which is to put in 10k stitches between now and 24th December, to finish the 5th row on pages would be 10 010 stitches. If I do about half a page per month, I should have this done by the end of November.

Next up is QS Paddys Luck, which you recently saw. My goal was to finish the first row of pages and that's what I did in June. Last time you saw Paddy:

And now, the first row in all it's glory:

I did a total of 5 440 stitches on Paddy this year and I am very much looking forward to start the next row because I can get back to stitching the rainbow again.

The next one is QS Trapped, on which I didn't work at all. I think this would be a good project for another one-stich-a-day challenge, but I still have a few months to try that (maybe in August or October?)

Next up is my Golden Kite called "Crossing the Stream". I have 3 pages done and want to stitch at least two pages this year. I have chose this project for the one-per-day challenge, which means that I want to work on this daily and stitch one square (at least). If work on this through the month, I should be able to stitch (at least) one page. I already worked on this twice and went from here:

To here:

Indeed I stitched two squares today because I loved working with the greens so much. So a total of 270 stitches done with a lot more to come =) I will share some updates on this one on my Instagram (@lady_stitchalot), not on a daily basis (I guess everyone would be sick of this after a week), but I will share a picture every few days. If I remember, I will also update on Facebook and maybe do a midmonth update here as well.

My second Supersize project is also on the list. I want to get Ride of the Yokai past the 15 000 stitches mark. I already did a bit of work on this one and I have now 12 550 stitches done, so I added 1 860 stitches to it. Another round of working on this should do the trick.

Last but not least there is a project I want to finish, which I actually "want to finish this year" for like 3 year now, which is since I started it. You see how well it works. I am talking about Cliffside Beacon from the Dimensions Gold petite collection. I went from here:

To here:

I just forget about this project all the time, but I vow to put a few stitches into this in July!

That's all the goals I posted at the beginning of the year. Another "plan" was to stitch from my stash this year (which is huge), well this didn't work out. As mentioned last month, I got a new pattern called "Garden Gate" by Dona Gelsinger and I started it =) I wanted to give the Haed challenge a try, but I didn't have a chance to stitch a full page by the end of June, but I still got half a page in:

I still have a long way ahead of me until it will look like this:

I am stitching on light green 32ct Murano, 1 over 1, full cross. All the confetti takes ages to stitch, but the result is so lovely and a real joy to stitch! I did 2 400 stitches on this one so far =)

As for my stitch count, I am currently at 31 633 (including my work on Middle Earth, which I share for the GGSAL and not counting my work on my Dimensions projects) and I worked on 11 different projects so far, if my count is correct I have 26 projects in total running, so still a way to go!

So all that is left for me to do is to share this months link-up with you, so you can check out more lovely projects!

Happy stitching =)

Ihsw/ row finish on Paddy/ new start

The third weekend of the month is the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend where you are supposed to hermit and stitch. Most of the time I don't manage to join because I have a lot of stuff to do at the weekend (don't ask me what - the weekend just fly by!). But this month I managed to set some time aside and even got some stitching done =)

I could have done more, but I spent a lot of time reading and I decided to get Instagram and spent some time there. I decided to make an account because I hope to post updates more often and so far (I only added a few pictures) it's really easy and quick to just post a picture at the end of the day. I hope that by taking and sharing pictures I feel more motivated to blog and I definitely want to continue blogging. But if you are interested on (hopefully) daily updates on my stitching, feel free to find and follow me, I go there as lady_stitchalot ;-) I'm also sharing a few updates on my reading and my garden there, while this blog will stick with my stitching.

Anyway, back to topic. I managed to work on two projects this weekend.

The first is my QS Paddys Luck by Joanna Bromley (Haed). I only had a bit left to finish the first row of pages. I worked on the project for a few days before, so the first row was nearly done when the weekend officially started on Friday. 

Last time you saw Paddy:

Before Ihsw:

And now:

So since the last time you saw it, I added 1 200 stitches, but only about 300 where done for the Ihsw (did that on Friday).

On Saturday I decided to do some further work on my latest new start - Garden Gate by Dona Gelsinger. I started this a few days ago, but I only did 800 stitches. I am working on 32ct Murano and the amount of confetti is a bit complicated and takes ages (I think I am below 100 stitches per hour), but it looks awesome and is very addictive. The first picture show my first 800 stitches, which I did before ihsw and I must apologize - the colors in the picture are awful, the second update looks way better.

Before:

And now:

I am stitching this on a light green fabric, I think it's fitting for such a lovely garden design:

I think I will stitch another row before switching to something else, I really love this. I am currently listening to Stephen Frys Mythos while I stitch, so I am sort of glued to my frame anyway and hope to finish the next column during the week ;-) 

I originally thought about joining the Haed-challenge on Facebook, but I am obviously not getting the page done for June 26th, but I don't really mind, I am doing my own pace with this ;-)

So that's what I have to share for this month.

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - June

And it's time for another GG SAL update! I fear I missed making an entry for May, I didn't have anything to show anyway. That was the first month in ages where I missed making an entry, but I was just so occupied with my health situation (which is improving - I went to see my doctor on Tuesday and we decided to try and reduce my medication again) and then the month was already over. But I am back on track now =)

I only have a small update for this month and it's not Middle Earth! I just didn't feel like working on that, when I work on something on a longer basis I sometimes just need a break for a month or two. So I decided to take out Wolf Kiss by Dimensions! It has been ages since I worked on this and it was a lot of fun. This one stitches up really fast - on the one hand it has only a few colors (I'm so happy that I don't need to stitch all that back...) and on the other hand this is done on 14ct so stitches look like a lot more progress. 

Here are my Wolves like you last saw them:

And here is where I got to:

The second wolf has a (nearly) complete face now! As always I am totally impressed on how much depth you can get with just a few colors and full crosses! I didn't even work on this for to long and once again I am thinking that I really should work on this more often... To many projects, to little time...

As every month there this a link-up at Jos place and since I am late (as always) a good deal of people already signed up - so there is plenty to see ;-) 

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 =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - April

Just a quick update for the GG SAL (which was due 4 days ago).
Thank you for the well wishes regarding my MiL - she is doing sort of better, which means that she thinks that she is completely fine and can do anything and most of the time we are worried that she might get herself hurt by doing something she is not supposed to do, we had another long and exhausting discussion about driving a car when you take strong medication (and the leaflet says that you really shouldn't drive a car), but she won't listen to anybody (not the doctors, not her family and certainly not "her children"). Well, we are visiting her on Easter Sunday, I hope there won't be to much drama. While I am visiting my parents on Easter Monday, I am spending today and tomorrow with some friend and woooosh, weekend is over. On Tuesday I need to go to hospital for a few days due to my (by now chronic) pain.
I met the doctor on Monday and she was really nice, Due to the Easter holidays a lot of doctors were having some time off, but never the less she took a lot of time to listen to my problems, all the examinations, all the doctors I went to, how I am coping with the fact that I have pain all the time and so on. She said it would be the easiest thing was if I could come to hospital for a few days, they have one or two more examinations (for one of them you usually wait like 2 months - I am doing that on Tuesday... benefits of going to hospital) and start some treatments, also they want to take a look at my medication, I am feeling very tired and dizzy and sometimes have trouble to concentrate and she thinks with a few adjustments they can reduce these unwanted things. Another goal is to finally find out what is wrong. She says it sounds like crps to her, but the problem is that it is a diagnosis by exclusion. But then so many things have already been excluded and the whole process of me running to yet another doctor to check something just needs to end. Therefore I am sort of happy that I am going to that hospital, the doctor was positive that she can help me and so am I.

Well, this was a pretty long text on my unwell-being, so let's move the nicer things in live - stitching!
I only worked on one project for this month and that is my Map of Middle Earth. I originally wanted to do 2 000 stitches in celebration of the GG SALs birthday, but I only managed 1 000, which is still better then nothing and moves us to the 60k mark. I went from here:

To here:

It's getting really complicated to take a decent picture of this - after all it's 60cm (about 24 inches) wide by now!
Well, that is all I have for this month, last but not least you can find this months link-up here.

To those of you who celebrate Easter, I hope you have a wonderful time with your family and a few nice days off =) And I hope that everybody gets a few stitches in, I am planting myself outside in the garden now, the sun is finally back!
Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse March

I always feel extra bad when my WIPocalypse post moves to the next month. I was just so busy over the weekend, you know all those adult things like grocery shopping and cleaning that you just don't have the time to do during the week add up then a day is gone. My future mother in law broke her shoulder like two weeks ago and we went shopping with her (it could be worse, she doesn't need surgery and she is healing well, but she can't drive and lift things and so on). She is taking a lot of medication, especially pain killers (no was around them sometimes) and she is acting a bit odd these days, she just can't keep her thoughts in order and when you talk to her she keeps mixing things up... I really hope this will get better once she is of the pain killers, shopping with her was really exhausting and took ages... After we were done, we went to pick up some plants for the garden and after I planted them, the day was nearly over and I was completely done... I didn't feel well on Sunday, so I didn't manage to put up a blog post (again). Anyway, my garden is looking better now (especially since I picked up some more extra ugly decoration - I own two beer drinking frogs now, my neighbor was really impressed when she saw them) and I am getting this post done now!
The link-up for this month is already pretty crowded, so it's really worth taking a look over there to check out more updates :)

This months question is "What newer designers and product creators (fabric or floss dyeing, etc) out there have you discovered and recommend?". Well, I didn't discover any new designers since last time, I tent to stitch the same stuff every time... Maybe because of the trouble with my hand, I didn't buy to many new things and didn't spent so much time researching new designs and designers...

But now we are coming to my progress for March. March was a funny month, I took part in the 1-stitch-a-day challenge and except for two days, I really managed to pick up my project QS Paddys Luck every day. I decided instead of doing one stitch, I am stitching one square per day (130 stitches for the first 8 days and 100 stitches for the rest of the month). There were a lot of days where I didn't stitch on anything else, so I didn't feel like making to much progress over the month. Apart from Paddy, I worked on two other projects, but first I want to show my progress on Paddy. I went from here:

To here:

I added 100 extra stitches so I would have 4 columns (and a partial) done by the end of the month. In total I did 3 430 on Paddy, I didn't realize it was so much! 100 stitches per day really add up! I am also just 2 000 stitches short of a row finish here, so that is one goal for April =)

The second project I worked on is Starlight by David Hoffrichter. I didn't stitch on this for ages - you know I love the design, but due to all the confetti it is really slow to stitch...
Before:

And now:

I finished page 4 and it took ages. It really doesn't look like much, but especially those small bubbles were confetti hell. I was sort of happy when I was done with the page, which makes me a bit sad because the result is really great. I did a total of 1680 stitches, which is still better than nothing ;-)

The third project for this month is - just as every month - my Kriemhild. The plan is to do half a page per month, but I only managed to stitch two columns (and a total of 1520 stitches). I went from here:

To here:

I plan on doing another column before I put it away to hopefully catch up with my progress. In fact I hope to be able to finish page 37 for next month. 

This is all I have to show for this month. Maybe I will also start another small Mill Hill kit, I am wondering if I might still have one of those beaded eggs (whenever I order Mill Hill kits, I pick up a ton and then I forget about them...). 

So until next time,

Happy stitching =)