Mittwoch, 16. November 2016

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - November

And here we go again, after being super in time for WIPocalypse this month (yay me), I am a day late for the GGSAL (boooh me).
But at least I am still on my way to post every month for this SAL, just one more post in December and then I can be proud of myself for sticking to this ;-)
If you are interested in the SAL and want to see what everybody else did this month, just pay a visit to Jo, who is hosting this SAL.

So here we go!

First up is my work on the Dog bookshelf piece. I went from here:
To here:
 And it's finished!!! Yay, finally! There was an awful lot of confetti in that funny decoration stuff on top, but I made it (though it kicked me off my weekly schedule of doing 520 stitches per week...). The thing still needs a bath and then it can go on it's way soon. To be honest, I was quite sick of it in the end, I really spent a lot of time on it and after all the confetti, the black was easy but boring to stitch.

I also picked up one more project, not Middle Earth though. That will surely be back next month!
I picked up the Candy Cane Santa stocking I'm stitching for my boyfriend and I went from here:
To here:
Doesn't he look creepy, peering over my Qsnap like that? :D It's really fun to work on him again, I will try and fit in half an hour or so a few times a week. No chance to get him done by Christmas, but there is also Christmas in 2017 (and 2018, 2019... lol).

Anyway, that's all I got for this month.

Happy stitching :)

Montag, 14. November 2016

WIPocalypse - November

Oh my, what's this??? WIPocalypse update on WIPocalypse day! Yay me!
To be honest, I wondered about when the next date would be a few days ago and was sort of prepared to post today... But anyway, here I am! And I feel like I have super much progress to show =)

First up is my lovely Kreimhild, I managed to finish the third row of pages!
I went from here:
To here:
There was quite a lot of confetti in the trees, I actually think they were the most confetti heavy thing so far, but I think they look stunning. I really hope that I can get this on the frame one more time this year, I think this would be a great feeling to start the next row of pages. I also think there is only one full page of sky left here!

Ok next is Gwen, I planned on finishing her in October, but then I got stuck with Kreimhild (I finished the third row on the 30th) and just put Gwen on the frame for a few days.
I went from here:
To here:
I can still not really capture the fabric color, but it's getting closer (at least more orange). I finished the cross stitching in her dress and hat and added the fence. So I need to do the cross stitching on the flowers, backstitch her upper body and add beads. It's still weird to stitch something with so little color changes, after a few days I just feel the need to get back to a Haed...
I think I will put her on the frame once I am done with my current part on Eternal Promise.

Yes - Eternal Promise is back! It has not seen the light of day - or the LED spots of my living room - for a good year, how could this happen? Anyway, I am working on it.
I went from here:
To here:
There is an awful lot of confetti in the trees, but they look amazing!  And the blue frame is so much fun to stitch, there is some confetti in the flowers (and you can't see the sparkle), but it's fine. The plan is to add a total of 4000 stitches to it (5 columns), this would finish page 3 and make a start on page 4. So far I did 2400 stitches (3 columns) and there is a partial column left on page 3.
As you can see, I also started feathering my edges - I didn't fear column lines as there are many changes of color, but they don't hurt and they make counting far easier (especially if you park your threads somewhere "far away").

The last thing I worked on is my Dimensions Gold Petit kit called "Cliffside Beacon" which I started back in Summer. I got a few stitches in now and then and when I took it out for a picture yesterday, I thought that I might as well add a few more.
I went from here:
To here:
The sky stitches up quite fast - it's only half crosses. I am filling in some of the gaps then and again, always nice for a little change.

Ok, those are my updates for now. I still have two projects I haven't picked up this year (Starlight and Yule Angel) and I really hope that will have changed in time for the next WIPocalypse update (at least one of them).

As for this months Question: What pattern (or designer) is on your must-try list?

Ok, there are a few. Mostly it's non Haeds (there are some "must-stitch" things there, but since I have stitched a couple of Haeds, it's not something new to try).
First up is Golden Kite. I really love their designs, they have a lot of antique artwork. For a long time I was scared by the price, but I finally gave in and bought 3 patterns on sale (which put them to a reasonable price). I am starting one designs next year, it's called "Crossing the Stream":
And it rather similar to a Haed because it's full crosses only, full coverage and in this case a solid colored design. They carry a lot of designs that feature blended colors and I definitely have to try that (and hopefully admire the effect). I would really love to stitch "Beauty with Parasol":
But I need about 280 skeins of floss for that, so I did not kit that up so far (maybe I should try and find a floss fairy or kit this up bit by bit...).

The next I always wanted to try is a Gecko Rouge pattern, I really like their style and I also found quite a few I like. I love the artwork by Gillian Mowbray, especially "A Lighthouse Evening"
I don't know what it is with me and lighthouses these days... But I truly love this one, the colors are so pretty!

Apart from that, I would like to try stitching something like Death by Crossstitch, You know, just one color and (mostly) full crosses. There are a lot of things I like about the designs, but I never felt the need to stitch an alphabet (but then again I see so many people work on this and it looks so amazing! I also found a beautiful piece of 32ct murano in a pale green, I think this would go along well with some color changing thread... But then I haven't seen someone stitch this 1over1 on a count as high as 32...we will see...).
Also on the must-try list is a Joan Elliott, she has so many pretty designs and it's something different from my Haeds...).

Ok, that's it for this month. The Link-Up is not yet set up (look how early I am on this), so I will add that later.
In the meantime you may visit Measi at her place, she is hosting this SAL.

Happy Stitching =)