Mischievous March Start #4

 It's the last weekend! I hope you all had fun with your new starts. I liked starting some different things and one bigger project I'd like to get a lot of work into next year. This week I kept it simple with another smaller start. This one is even easier since it's monochromatic as well. 

This is my start:

and I know it's difficult to tell much besides a lot of blackwork, but if I manage to finish it by this weekend, you'll see what it was in the next post. That's a pretty broad hint, so I think you know what it might turn into eventually. 

I'm using a Dinky Dyes silk from an Oops pack from years ago, when they were still in Australia, so can't tell you what colour this is. The fabric is a scrap of 18ct aida from Chromatic Alchemy. I believe it's the Nimbus colourway. 

We'll do this again come July for the Olympic starts, so please join in if you're interested in more starts or even working on 17 WIPs in a row. I'll be aiming to post every day and am even debating about doing Maynia, despite the dramatic increase to my WIPs. The only reason I'm considering it is they're going to discontinue the Facebook group after May 2021, so it could be a sort of end of an era type challenge for me. 

I've been looking through my stash and have a lot of smalls I could start and not add to much to the WIP pile hopefully. It would mean taking a month break from Animal Kingdom, but maybe I'd be up for that by then? I'm still enjoying it and am almost done another page. A change is as good as a rest though sometimes, so we'll see. I'm still debating it because the first time I thought about it I started to panic about that many WIPs, but it's a more enjoyable thought now. I still have another month to decide, so watch this space! 

Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Mischievous March Start #3

Here we are, over halfway done! Remember to sign up over at Rachel's blog and check out everyone's great progress and stash enabling starts. :) 

This week I chose another Mill Hill kit from the same series as last week. Here's what it will look like eventually:

And I stuck with similar colours instead of sticking with a Facebook challenge this week, so I ended up with over 500 stitches into this one:

MH19-2011 Patsy Pine by Mill Hill

stitched as charted 3 over 1 with kit threads and fabric, plus a few beads already

I still have some hope these won't take too long to finish since there's not a lot of beading and there are large groups of colours. Patsy is a little darker shade then in the kit because I misread the directions on the thread blends. I think she looks fine though, even if they're always a little creepy without eyes. 

Hope you've all had a good week!

Stay well and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness 2021 - March Edition and February Wrap-Up

I'm finally managing to get myself together enough to post for Gifted Gorgeousness! Hosted as always by the excellent Jo, please check her post to get the links for everyone's posts and check out their lovely works. 

I haven't managed many posts this year so far, but I have been very dedicated to keeping up with the huge HAED I started on New Year's Day, Amazing Animal Kingdom. Another WIP was finished this past month, as well as a bit of work on a few others too. I got a little behind in my stitching for Animal Kingdom while I finished Princess and the Dragon back in January, but I'm almost caught up to where I had hoped to be by now, well over 20K stitches! 

Enough talking, what have I been stitching? 

In Harmony - for DH

In Harmony - kit by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 2 or 3 over 2 as charted, tent and full stitches with kit threads and fabric

I started this one many, many years ago, when I was still into cross stitch kits and unaware of any other options. Shortly after starting this, I discovered this whole other world of cross stitch designers and charts and fabric that I obviously had to try! So this hasn't had a heck of lot of work over the past few years, but will get a fair bit this year. One of the Facebook challenge groups wants you to stitch on your oldest WIP if you don't have a WIP that fits that week's challenges and I think this is currently my oldest WIP. 

When I pulled it out this year, it looked like this:

Kiss for a Snowman - for DD

Kiss for a Snowman - Dimensions kit

stitched as charted with kit threads and fabric and a bazillion French knots!

This one has been hanging around since CJC of 2015 I think. I'm so glad to get it finished off. I'm thinking a flat fold might be a good way to finish it, although I might just frame it as well. It's so nice to finish!

Do Not Meddle - stunt stitching

Do Not Meddle - by Dragon Dreams

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Monaco with charted DMC

I'm so far behind on finishing this one, but I still have some hope it will happen this year. One whole dragon to stitch, and less than half of another isn't too much stitching to do. 

Twilight LeMans - for DH

Twilight LeMans - by Heritage Stitchcraft

stitched 2 over 2, 1 over 2 on unknown 28ct fabric

with DMC as charted

Another one that's been hanging around since 2015 or 2016 and those Crazy January/February Challenges, and you can kind of see the cars now, which have some weird quarter stitches to try and get the shape. Hopefully they'll turn out okay. 

Moon and Back - for DD

Moon and Back by Heart in Hand

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct linen with Gloriana threads mostly

This is a long narrow piece, and mostly words, so I don't think it will take too long if I'm able put a little bit of time into it. Plus I'd like to get it done while DD still appreciates this kind of stuff. I know she might not in another few years. 

And now, the project some of you might have been waiting for, Amazing Animal Kingdom! Last time I showed it, it looked like this:

And now, one full page is done and over 3/4 of another is complete, plus some into another 2 pages, and there's a little over 21K tent stitches into this one so far:

Amazing Animal Kingdom by HAED and Aimee Stewart

stitched 2 over 1 tent stitch on 32ct experiment 19 by Chromatic Alchemy

I'm still pretty happy with this one, and it's neat seeing all the animals appear. There's the cockatoo, a gorilla, a parrot or macaw, a cheetah below that and an elephant is starting to appear with a baby right below it. I'll still stick with it and see how it goes. If I use this as a focus piece, it will take a few years to complete, so we'll see if I can stick with it. 

Stay well and happy stitching!

Tiffstitch

Mischievous March Start #2

 Another new start happened this weekend! I hope you're all enjoying the new starts you've chosen and the frog hasn't been visiting. Don't forget to join up on Rachel's post and cheer everyone else on as well. 

This week I opted for something a little bit smaller, although it's still not a "small" exactly. 

Mill Hill 19-2013 - Cindy Cane

This reminds me a lot of the mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, which is one of DD's favourite books and TV shows once that came out. There's a Christmas special that she absolutely loves, so I thought I might get this one done by Christmas. It will be close to 5"x5" when it's complete, so not very small, but there's not a ton of beads in this one either. 

I managed to get a good start, although it's a bit scattered because of a monthly challenge from Facebook. You have to stitch 100 stitches in certain colours, so that's mostly what there is here, groups of 100 or 200 stitches in the same colour family. 

Cindy Cane by Mill Hill

stitched 3 over 1 with stash threads

A decent start and not a ton of colours really, so a Christmas finish is possible. 

I hope you're all staying well and happy stitching!

Tiffstitch

Mischievous March Start 1

Here we are with another month of new starts! Rachel is a terrible wonderful influence in helping me start my stash, which is good since I've been stress-buying a bit over the last few months. 

I decided to start on one of my newer purchases, from a relatively new designer, Stitching Jules. She has a YouTube as well and is fun to listen to. She talks about her work as a veterinarian sometimes and all her pets and she stitches on a lot of different things, some that you don't often see other people stitching. 

This one is meaningful to me as it was a huge story when I was growing up:

This is Terry Fox. If you drive through most major cities in Canada, most will have Terry Fox Drive, or Terry Fox Road, park, etc. There's a lot of things named after him because he's a very important person in Canadian history. As a young athlete, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma (1977) and lost his leg. He underwent chemotherapy and seeing so many people die from cancer while he was undergoing treatment, as well as seeing how little money was allocated to cancer research at the time, he embarked on a major fundraising idea for cancer research. He started on the far east coast of Canada, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador and dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean on April 12, 1980. He then ran the equivalent of a marathon (~42km/26miles) every day until he had to stop 143 days later when it was discovered his cancer had metastasized to his lungs and eventually caused his death on June 28, 2981. He had run 5373km/3339 miles across Canada and raised millions of dollars for cancer research before he had to stop. He ran every single day, despite snow, rain, ice, beating sun, people forcing him off the road, disagreements with his friends that were driving the camper van he slept in, etc. By the end, he'd created the Marathon of Hope, which still raises millions of dollars for cancer research every year and is held in over 60 countries. Oh, and he was only 21 years old when he started. I don't think he could have imagined the impact he would have on all of Canada, much less the rest of the world. 

This is a big 'un and the rest of my starts will be small, but when I saw Stitching Jules had released this one, I had to get it. 

I'm stitching this on 25ct easy guide and managed to get a little over 400 stitches in:

I hope you've all had good weekends, and good luck to everyone who's joining us in our mischievousness!

Happy Stitching and stay well,

Tiffstitch