Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - January

January is already halfway over, so it's time for a short update for the GG SAL. I wanted to post on Thursday, but then I was so close to finishing page 9 on Middle Earth that I decided to do that first and so I am posting today. I only worked on Middle Earth this month, but I did 2 500 stitches during the last week! I mus add that since we are nearing the end of the row, there is not much confetti and this stitches up in no time. I went from here:

To here:

Nevertheless I am super happy with my progress and I am so excited that I am starting the last page on the first row next month.
Just like last year, there is a monthly link-up and you can find the one for January here.

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse 2020 - Introduction

Happy new year, I hope you all made a good start for 2020!
We had a lovely celebration with our friends on the 31st. I think we are getting old by now. Back in the days we felt ill at the end of new years even due to to much alcohol and party and now we feel ill at the end of the day due to to much food :D We ate like a ton of raclette and potatoes and muffins. We stayed overnight at our friends house and since we had so many left overs, we had raclette again for "breakfast" (more like brunch) and I think I am done with cheese for a few weeks now ;-)

But for the first WIPocalypse post a short introduction is in order. Well, I am Johanna and by now 28 years old and I live in Germany. I studied mathematics and I am currently doing my phd (which I hope to finish this year). I live with my husband and he is studying computer science (about to start his master thesis now). Apart from stitching I love to read and when I stitch I usually have an audiobook playing (or booktube). I also know how to knit and crotchet, but I enjoy stitching a lot more.
I started blogging in 2011 and joined the WIPocalypse in 2012, I think took part nearly every year and hope the SAL will continue for the next years. Most of my projects (and stash) are from Heaven and Earth Designs, but I also own a bunch of charts and kits from Dimensions and Gecko Rouge. I prefer the bigger designs, but I also own a ton of Mill Hill beaded kits and ornaments. I fear I am really bad at blogging these days, but I update my instagram far more often (feel free to follow me @lady_stitchalot ). I always plan to post here more often and I also plan that for this year, I am just not sure of this will work out ;-)

Well, this is all I have to say about myself now. So what did I do in the last week?
On the non-stitchy side I read a lot, I dug out my Kindle again and have been glued to it since Christmas (I think I read like 5 books since then). Apart from that I had a first try at making my own soap (yesterday), it definitely looks very promising so far, but the soap needs to rest about 4 to 6 weeks until you can use it. I will keep you up to date ;-)

On the stitchy side there is my new year start =) I decided to join the crowd who stitches some version of Aimee Stewarts Once upon a fairy tale! I decided to go for the supersize max colors version, so it's 999x714 stitches and 239 colors, oh my! I decided to go for 25ct lugana because I fear there is going to be a lot of confetti (and I had a suitable piece of fabric in my stash). Here is what this will (hopefully) one day look like:

And here is where I currently am:

I decided to stitch this in rows (I sometimes just need a little change) and so far I stitched 3 rows or 1950 crosses. I am stitching this 1 over 1 as usual. There definitely is a lot of confetti, but I really enjoy it and plan to continue with this project for a few more days.
I also finished the first package of beads on my Mill Hill ornament and plan on finishing this in the nest days (just can't put down my fairytale).

This brings me to the plans for 2020... Ah plans usually don't work out for me. The thing about 2019 that made me most unhappy was that I did not work on all of my projects. So I think this will be my goal for 2020, work on all of them. I will try and rotate my projects more often and therefore I will now have a focus piece for the next months, at least not for the WIPocalypse SAL. I plan on concentrating on my map of middle earth for the GGSAL to finish the first row, after I am done with that I will probably decide for another focus piece for this SAL.

So that's all I have for this time. The link-up for this month is already up, since I am a lot more on time than usual, it's not that crowded yet, but I am sure this will change soon ;-)

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - Year in review

Well, it's the 31st of December and 2019 is nearly over. We are celebrating the new year with some friend and we are leaving for their house in a bit more than an hour, so I will try and squeeze in my end of the year report for WIPocalypse. The original posting day was on Sunday, but since I did a fair bit of stitching in the last days (I am having some time off from work), I waited until today with my check in. But a couple of other people already wrote their entries, so be sure to check those out here.

So how was my year? It was not always easy, especially the trouble with my right hand and all the pain and medication, but the situation improved a lot after I went to hospital to get treatment for chronic pain and I am off my medication for several months now, sometimes I still have a bit of trouble (lifting heavy things, opening jars and writing on a blackboard for more than an hour in [almost] one go), but I am very optimistic that things will go back to normal gain.
On the sunny side there was my wedding in September, certainly one of the best days in my year and life and even though the time before was quite stressful, it was worth it all. Also our honeymoon in Greece was wonderful. We spent a lot of time with friends and family (even the situation with my mother in law improves - no socks for Christmas, she finally got it!) and my phd thesis is working out as well.

On the hobby site, I am fairly happy with the amount of reading I did in 2019 (134 books, including like 20 audiobooks) and I read a lot of fantastic books. There are only a few books I didn't like at all and I think only one or two books I did not finish because really didn't enjoy them. Please don't ask me how many books I bought, I can just tell you that it's way more, lol :D
On the stitchy side, I worked on 16 of my bigger projects (out of I think 27) and I am currently stitching an ornament) and I did 68 182 stitches on my full coverage projects (54 582 on projects for WIPocalpyse and 13 600 on projects for the GG SAL). I only had 2 new starts (3 if we count that ornament) and no finishes (what else?) and I bought 5 new charts and (I think) 6 kits, so I have been a good girl!
But you are here for some pictures, right? So let's have a look at what I did. I am just following the order in which I made note on the projects (like stitchcount) in my journal, it's approximately the order in which I worked on them

First up is my 2019 new year start Noble Spirit by Jody Bergsma. Since I started this in January, I don't have a before picture. But I did 4500 stitches and here is my progress:

Second is my focus piece Kriemhilds Revenge by Howard David Johnson. I did 20 097 stitches on her and finished the 5th row of pages in early December. At the beginning of the year she still looked like this:

And now:

Number 3 is one of my supersize projects - Ride of the Yokei by Ruth Thompson. I did 1 860 stitches and went from here:

To here:

Number 4 is one of my Quick stitches - QS Paddys Luck by Joana Bromley. I finished the first row of pages by doing 5 440 stitches. Before:

And now:

Number 5 is Starlight by David Hoffrichter. I did 1 680 stitches and went from here:

To here:

Number 6 is Danielle by Sara Butchere, I did 2 400 stitches on her and went from here:

To here:

Number 7: Garden Gate by Done Gelsinger, also a new start for this year and therefore no "before" picture. But I stitched 2 400 little crosses on it:

Number 8 is my second supersize project and actually not a haed, but a Golden Kite: Crossing the stream. I did 3 350 stitches and went from here:

To here:

Number 9 is again a Quickstitch, this time  QS Trapped by Melanie Delon. I finished the first row of pages and did 5 200 stitches. Before:

and now:

Number 10 is again by Melanie Delon, but it's Whispers. I stitches 4 960 stitches and went from here:

To here:

Number 11 is Yule Angel by Anne Stokes, I don't think I shared my progress for December yet, but I did  2 695 stitches on her and guess what? I found one of her wings! I went from here:

To here:

Now here are some projects on which I did not count my stitches. Number 12 is Cliffside Beacon from the Dimensions Gold petite collection. I went from here:

To here:

Number 13 is Miss Christmas Eve by Mirabilia. I put her on the frame on the 25th and since then I did some work on her skin and her head. I did the first stitches with the Caron Waterlilies and the colors are just gorgeous! I went from here:

To here:

And I am throwing in that Mill Hill ornament I am stitching, I started this some time before Christmas. I already did all the crossstitching, so the beading fun can begin in the new year!

It is called "Woodland sleigh" and I think I own all the sleigh ornaments form the collection, they are so pretty! I will definitely bead this in the next days and it will look amazing then! 

The other three projects on which I worked are Wolf Kiss by Dimensions (not counting the stitches here), In the Moonlight by Cindy Grunsten and charted by Tilton crafts (1 600 stitches) and my Map of Middle Earth (12 000 stitches), but I worked on those for the GG SAL and shared my final updates on them last week. 

Well, those are the things I worked on. There are a buch of projects on which I did not work and even more on which I would have liked to work more, but considering my health issues, I am super happy with what I did and I am super optimistic that I am going to stitch a storm in 2020 =) 

I must confess that I did make a few goals at the beginning of the year, but when I realized that the issue with my hand would slow me down, I decided to forget about them and just work on what I felt like working on. I wanted to make a start in row 6 on Kriemhild, but at least I finished row 5, so that was a close one. I also finished the first row of pages on both Paddy Luck and Trapped (but did not finish the next page on Trapped). I only stitched one instead of two pages on Crossing the Stream and Ride of the Yokai has only 12 500 stitches instead of 15 000 complete and Cliffside Beacon is still not finished. But those things don't really bother me, I did my best and that is what counts.

Since we need to leave for our friends house soon, I am ending this extra long post now and hope you are all as happy with your year in review as I am. I hope you all have a great 2020 and a lot of health, happiness and stitching time =)

See you next year =)

GGSAL - Final update for 2019

Oh my, it's already the 23rd! First I didn't have time to make a post and then I completely forgot about it and now it's the evening of the 23rd! Good news is that all preparations for Christmas are done, I finished my Christmas baking and wrapped the last presents. Honestly, I am not really in the mood for Christmas, I mostly feel stressed out and just want to relax for a few days.
But now I got my butt up to do this finals update on the GG SAL for this year. You can find this months link-up here.

I only worked on one project for December - again. And again it's my Map of Middle Earth, but I managed to do another 2 000 stitches, so I reached my goal to do 12 000 stitches on it this year.
At the beginning of the year, my map looked like this:

And now:

So all the writing in the first row is now done and it's only 8 000 stitches to finish the first row. I plan to focus on this piece during the first months of 2020 with the goal to finish this row soon.

Since this is the last update for 2019, I want to do a short recap on what I did during the year. Apart from Middle Earth I also worked on my Dimensions project called "Wolf Kiss" and went from here

To here:

And I am pretty happy with that progress. I really should work on this more often (I say that every time), after all it stitches up in no time. There really isn't much left to finish the first page (the pattern only has 2), so I hope that I will work on this more often in 2020.

I did a bit of work on In the Moonlight. We had a bit of a bad start because I had to restart this and that didn't help with my motivation. But I got the piece out once and now I stitched up to the point where I was before I had to restart it. I went from here:

To here:

It's not much, but I hope that stitching up to my previous progress will help me working on this more often in 2020.
I did not work on Candy Cane Santa at all, he somehow slipped by. I hope to change that in the next year.

Considering the fact that I was very ill for the better part of the year, I am still happy with my progress and since my health is improving every day, I am confident that I will get much more done in 2020 =)

Since it's nearly the 24th, I am taking the chance to wish everyone a happy holiday, to those who celebrate it a merry Christmas and I hope you all enjoy a lovely time with your family =)

WIPocalypse November

After being on time last moth, I really needed a break and decided to mess it up again for November. I somehow thought November had  31 days, so I thought that I had an additional week and today would be the official WIPocalypse day... Ah well... I am not really ready for December yet. I am not in a Christmas mood (even though I went to a Christmas market last Friday and spent a ridiculous amount of money on food and drinks) and yesterday we bought a last-minute advent wreath (there were not so many left, but we found a pretty one). We don't have any decoration up yet, but we lit the first candle for breakfast and it was pretty festive =)  I started to collect the first presents for Christmas, so I am making progress!

But back to topic, this is supposed to be about stitching ;-) I made a fair amount of progress since last month, looks like the end of the year in sight makes me speed up! I worked on three projects.

First I still hast QS Trapped on my Qsnap, since I started late with the one-per-day-challenge, my challenge ran until the 6th November and I kept my pace of one square per day. I was pretty close to finishing the first row, I think like 1 600 stitches, so I decided to do those in November as well. So I went from here:

To here:

So I did 2 880 stitches on this one in November, even more than in October =) I am super happy that I finished this row, I originally wanted to finish the next page on the second row as well for this year, but I think I am trying to work on a few more of my other projects instead. I did over 5 000 stitches on Trapped and I think that's a good amount of progress.

The next project I worked on it Whispers by Melanie Delon. It has been quietly sitting on my WIP-pile for ages now and when I took it out and started to stitch on it, I just couldn't stop. So I stitched a full page in just 10 days! I went from here:

To here:

I still had trouble putting this down, but I had to do a bit of work on my Map of Middle Earth for the GGSAL and afterwards I put Kriemhild back on the frame, so I put it away after one page. But I plan to work on it again early next year.

The third project was - as mentioned above - Kriemhild by Howard David Johnson. I still have a row to finish there and did a fair bit towards that already. I went from here:

To here:

I did 3 columns, which means that I still have 3 columns left to stitch. I am using this project for the current Haed-challenge, so I need to finish those three columns until Christmas, which should not be a problem.

So I did a total of 10 150 stitches in November, oh my! This might explain why I only read 5 books :D Well, I listened to a lot of audiobooks (mainly the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Institute by Stephen King), so it's more like 7 or 8 books for the month ;-)

Last but not least there is this months question, about which new techniques I learned in 2019: eh.... none :D
But maybe someone else picked up something new, only one way to find out: Check out this months link-up to see all the other updates!

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - November

Oh my, it's already the middle of November, where did this year go? It's only 5 weeks until Christmas and 6 weeks to the end of the year. I feel like I still have tons I want to do this year, so many books I wanted to read in autumn and now it's winter, so many projects I still want to work on or on which I haven't met my goal this year... I usually start organizing my presents for Christmas quite early, I normally make a list in November and pick up most things at the end of November and then I am done with my shopping in early December. But this year I haven't really planned anything so far (well I have two books on my list that I want to give to my mum - she is always "easy" because she reads a lot, but usually she doesn't buy hardcovers because cost twice as much, so I always pick up one or two hardcovers for her).
But back to stitching! I worked on one project for this GG SAL and - as almost every month - it's my Map of Middle Earth. I went from here:

To here:

So I finished the column from last month and added another columns . Middle Earth now entered the Iron-H, lol. Since I want to do 2 more columns to meet my yearly goal of 12 000 stitches, I am keeping this on my frame for a few more days, I want to do at least 500 more stitches before I put it away until the middle of December. I also have that Santa Stocking lying around somewhere, so it would be nice to pick that up as well for Christmas ;-)

I am directly heading off to my frame again, Middle Earth is calling and I can't wait to get back to my current audio book, which is "The Institute" by Steven King. I am listening to the German translation because it's narrated by David Nathan and I absolutely love him! So all I have left to do is point you towards this months link-up, so you can take a look a how everybody else did this month.

Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - October

Guess what? I am on time for Octobers WIPocalypse! So far only two people signed up for this month, so I really am an early bird ;-)
This months question is again an easy one - rotation or one project at a time? Well, as you can see/read, definitely rotation! I do have a few focus pieces (currently Kriemhild and Middle Earth), but in between I rotate my other project on an irregular basis, it just seems to be the best for me. I guess I will try a rotation plan again next year to swipe through all my projects and we will see how that goes (last time I managed to stick to this plan for like 5 months).

As for my progress for this month, I have two projects to show.
First up is my work on the One-per-day challenge. Since I started late on this, I will continue for a few more days. So far I went from here:

To here:

I finished page 3 and did a total of 2320 stitches so far and I am pretty happy with that. There are about 2800 to finish the next page and finish the row and I hope to do this for my November update. Since there is a lot of background here, this stitches up really quickly and it's pretty easy to do my 100 stitches a day. And by the way, since it's October I am super happy to use that extra cute needle minder! I don't remember where I got it, but it so adorable =)

The next project, that is also still on my frame, it - as always - Kriemhild. I went from here:

To here:

There are only 15 stitches across, but they took quite long. Her hand was pure confetti, but at least it is finished now and I think the confetti is getting better now. There are 60 stitches across to finish the row and I really want to do this before the year ends. But looking at this picture, I must say that I am once again overwhelmed by the detail in this chart, the rock looks so real!

So that's all I have for this month. My plans for next month are to finish the row on QS Trapped and add at least 3 columns to Kriemhild, who will stay on my frame for a few more days. I want to change projects towards the weekend and maybe work on Whispers for a few days, it's such a perfect project for gloomy days.

Happy stitching =)