January Update

It's been a busy couple weeks since my last post, and I finally have time to get another one up! I hope you've all had good stitching successes, whether it be meeting goals or finishes or just being able to stitch as much as you want. 

I've managed some good progress on Triumphant Ride and 2 finishes of WIPs over the past 2 weeks. I'm quite happy with that, although I always wish I had more time to stitch. Fortunately it's been -10C most days, so it's a good excuse to stay in and get some stitching done. 

First up, here's how Triumphant Ride looks now:

Triumphant Ride by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Vincent by Chromatic Alchemy

This has been very enjoyable so far and it's nice to just use black sometimes. This is almost 4500 stitches into this one of slightly over 50K total. If I can manage 1000 stitches per week I'll actually finish this one this year. That almost never works out, so we'll see how it goes. 

I managed a finish on Simply Christmas!

Simply Christmas by WBTW

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Lazurite by Chromatic Alchemy

with Soie Cristal green, WDW Turkish Red and Caron Snow Canary Yellow

This was a very pleasant, relaxing stitch. The repeated motifs and pattern made it a nice one to work on after long days at work. The Caron Snow isn't too difficult to work with either and adds a nice sparkle. The original pattern calls for more gold colour, but I thought the lighter colour worked here. 

The second project I finished is by Handblessings:

Soccer Player by Handblessings

stitched 1 over 1 on 22ct Sky by BeStitchMe

with WDW Lavender and Ultraviolet

Another nice, almost monochromatic finish. Hmm, I couldn't be trying to avoid anything complicated this month could I? I like that these often have the option to add longer hair to somewhat tailor them to the recipient. I haven't made a Valentine's gift for DD yet, so I'm wondering about using this if I get it finished. 

I worked on one other project so far, Mini Winter Magic. It used to look like this:

and I managed about 1000 stitches:

Mini Winter Magic by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Monaco

I'm working on filling in the right side first to try and get that whole side finished, then will continue on to the left. You'll see this fairly often in February because I'm going to try and work on it every day during the Olympics! It would be amazing to get another full coverage project finished this year. It's been a couple since the last one. 

I hope you're all staying well!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

New Year, New Start(s)!

I hope you've all had a good start to the New Year and thank you for all your lovely comments throughout the year! A very big thanks to all the comments on my 2021 round-up post as well. 

As at least 2 of you guessed, that lovely fabric, Vincent by Chromatic Alchemy, is for another silhouette. It is the sequel of Princess and the Dragon, called Triumphant Ride:

It's charted by Charting Creations if you're interested and is a little over 50K stitches. It fortunately works in Pattern Keeper, which makes these so much easier to work on. I won't say frog-proof, but much less likely to make an error with how they're charted. 

Here's how much I managed, a little over 1K stitches:

Triumphant Ride by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Vincent by Chromatic Alchemy with DMC 310

In case you're interested in the fabric, I don't believe Sam can make this any more because of how she had to change up her business over the last couple years. Perhaps sometime in the future. 

The needle minder is technically just a magnet that Santa brought and I put a strong magnet on the back to make it into a needle minder. 

I also started a 2nd new project on New Year's Day 2022 but don't have any progress photos yet!

A third new project I started for Jo's Facebook Ornament SAL from the JCS Ornament issue. I think the group is called JCS Stitch Along if you search for it, or use the link above. This is the January ornament:

The Robin's Gift by The Little Stitcher

stitched 2 over 1 on 18?ct Nimbus? by Chromatic Alchemy

stitched with stash threads, including Etoile (red gift) and DMC metallics (snow)

This was a fun little stitch. I changed up the colours to whatever I had hanging around in my stash threads box. Whenever I use any variegated or non-standard DMC threads I put them in a bobbin box and use them for these small ornaments. There are some leftover kit threads too in there sometimes. The green gift is one of the DMC variegated threads that had such wild shade changes, but I folded it in half and made it look more reasonable to my eyes. 

I haven't even posted this on FB yet, but I will Jo! :)

Lastly, I dug out a WIP that I started last year to work on till the end of the week:

Simply Christmas by WBTW

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Lazurite by Chromatic Alchemy

with Soie Cristal and WDW Turkish Red

I have so many WIPs to choose from and have a sort of loose plan of working on 1000 stitches of Triumphant Ride per week, maybe the 2nd project too, and then spend the rest of the week on either a WIP or SAL. I have a lot of those to work on. I chose this one for a couple reasons. One, it was nearby on my stitching stand and not put away like some of the others, and two, it's a nice, simple repetitive pattern that is easy to get some progress into each evening. This is only a couple days of work and I didn't even have the top row done before. There are 5 total rows of the green "stars" with red ribbon between them, and lastly will be some gold accents. They will likely be with PTB if I have some around. That's a pretty easy metallic for me to work with. 

I think I start the new week on Saturday so I'll work on this again tonight and then likely put it away for a bit until I get at least another 1000 stitches into Triumphant Ride. I haven't decided if I'll pull out the same WIP each week until it's finished or switch it up. I wouldn't mind having some more of these finished this year because I have a big project planned for next year. 

And I'll leave you wondering there. :) I hope this New Year brings us all less stress and more stitching!

Happy Stitching and stay well,

Tiffstitch