And it's Done!

 Yay! I'm so happy to report I managed a finish on In the Gloaming! Despite the trials and tribulations with getting the colour scheme correct to begin with, see here, I've been happy with how this has turned out so far and I'm very excited about the finish. I loved Rachel's idea of etoile for the gate, and it looks amazing. Without further ado:

In the Gloaming by Whispered by the Wind

stitched 2 over 1 on 28ct Mirage by PTP

with DMC 167, 738, 3823 and 3866 as changes to the original colours

I definitely feel like this needs to be a framed finish, and I don't think the dimensions are the same as Witch's Gate, so it will likely have to framed on its own. Likely in black to make it more dramatic I think. If you have any suggestions, please let me know! 

Such a relief to have this one finished. I've added so many WIPs this year that I'm glad to have this medium to large sized one completed. I need to catch up on everyone's blogging again and hope you've all been doing well with your stitching too. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Dark October Plans

Hello again! Although we're well into October, I'm going to let you in on what my plans are/were for the month. I plan to do a Dark October and work on Halloween or black stitching as much as possible. My first priority is to finish In the Gloaming! Here's where it was when we last saw it:

And I'd like to try and progress on Witch's Gate:

There's so much left here that I don't think a finish is possible, but I'd like to get maybe at least one page out of 4 completed. 

And I'd really love to finish this one!

This is the Happy Halloween SAL by Durene Jones that was put out by Lakeside Needlecraft way back in 2017! I would like to finish it this October so I can have it off by WIP and SAL list. 

The other project I'll try and sneak in is the new Witchy Stitcher Cryptid SAL. Have you all seen this one? Lots of black, so it fits for that part as well, but the theme is a bit spooky too. So far the cryptids are all North American, and there's some hope that the Loch Ness Monster will be one of the creatures. If so, I might have to call it Champ after our local lake monster. Supposedly Champ was seen by Jacques Cartier when he first explored the area, so he is technically older than Nessie. :) 

I hope you have all been having a good month!

Tiffstitch

Another Monthly Challenge - WIP Wranglers

This month the Semi-Sane Facebook group is hosting WIP Wranglers. It's mostly a chance to work on a lot of different WIPs, although they have a Christmas theme to it by calling each WIP a "naughty elf" that keeps running away instead of working in the workshop. You don't have to have a bunch of WIPs, but can use up to 20. No problem there! 

As I mentioned before I was hoping to try and finish some more WIPs before the end of the year, and I think that might be possible. I chose 20 that didn't have a ton of work left on them and a couple I'd just like to get more progress on before the end of the year. There are 3 levels to the challenge, easy, regular and hard. You need 20 WIPs because you use a 20 sided die (or an app) to roll to choose which one to work on. You also use a regular 6 sided die and multiply by 100 to find out how much to stitch on each project. 

For the easy level, you halve your stitches, therefore, rolling a 1 becomes 50 stitches, regular means you stitch the whole 100, and hard means you double it. So you stitch 200 stitches if you roll 1. Any guesses what I chose? :) Also, if you roll a WIP you've already worked on once, you halve the required stitches, and it's "wrangled" then, so you don't stitch on anything more than twice.

My list of 20 WIPs is here:

I have the hockey stick marking the ones I've stitched already, because if I have the choice to use any emoji, I'll always pick the hockey stick. :)

My first roll was 16 and 2, so I worked on Frosty Friends #1 for 200x2 (400) stitches. It looks like this now:

Frosty Friends by Dimensions

kit stitched 2 over 2 as charted with kit fabric

I'm not going to add the before pics on most of these because I have a fair amount of photos to show already. Mostly I just had the outline and a little of the half stitch done before starting on this one. 

Next roll was Butterfly Quote for 1200! That was a lot, I'm so used to Pattern Keeper for these larger projects that I struggle with the multi-paper charts a bit now. But it looks good!

Butterfly Quote by Jodyri

stitched 2 over 2 on 14ct fabric with Jodyri threads

Sparkling Citrine, Pink Laydee, Sunshine State, City of Oz, and 2 others, plus WDW Purple Iris?

I definitely need to get more Sunshine State to finish the "butterfly" part, it's nice to get it moving a bit though and some of the difficult cross page stitching is complete. 

I rolled In the Gloaming for roll 3 and 5, and it had 800 total stitches added:

In the Gloaming by WBTW

stitched 2 over 2 with DMC 167, 422, 3823 and 3866

on 28 ct Mirage evenweave by PTP 

I had planned to make my life easier by adding a bunch more of the gate in DMC C3799, the Etoile, but I've misplaced the bobbin, so I did the slightly harder work around where the fence will go. The last row is almost the bottom of the mausoleum, so it's quite far along. 

In between the two rolls for In the Gloaming was Winter by Bent Creek. I had a very small start on this previously, which I'll show since this hasn't shown up on my blog for a long time:

and I rolled a 5, so needed to add 1000 stitches:

Winter by Bent Creek

stitched 2 over 2 with stash threads besides white and 310

on 28ct Feldspar by Chromatic Alchemy

One more roll might finish this one, it's really just the snowman on top and a few details on the penguins at the bottom. 

Happy Halloween was rolled next and it didn't have a lot done either, but with the addition of 1200 stitches, it now looks like this:

Happy Halloween by Satsuma Street

stitched 2 over 1 as charted

on 18ct Fiddler cloth/aida

This is my first and so far only Satsuma Street, although I do enjoy many of her designs. I have a few others in stash, so hopefully will get them stitched up soon too. 

Next up was another one that hasn't been touched in a long time, since the New Year New Start of 2019 I think:

Animal Parade by Lanarte

stitched 2 over 1 and 1 over 1 with black

on 25ct included kit painted fabric

I had only worked on the rhino before, and it's sort of across a page, so I started on the next animal this time. Can you tell what it is yet? It will be easy as I get farther down. I realized after I'd stitched most of the 400 stitches this one needed that I was stitching 1 over 1 instead of 2 over 1 like the rhino. I feel like that's okay though, because I could stitch the next animal to the right 2 over 1, and alternate, or I could leave the rhino 2 over 1 for a little more emphasis on the animal most likely to be extinct first. Suggestions are always welcome!

An old favourite came out next to get another 1000 stitched into it. 

Princess and the Dragon by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 with DMC 310

on 28ct Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy

This only needs about 7000 stitches to be finished! Kind of incredible. I don't think it will be a finish this year, but definitely next year. And you never know, if I get this WIP Wrangling task finished early, maybe I'll pull this out for the end of the year. 

Letters from Nora was rolled next and G is the last one that needs any cross stitch done. The rest only need beads. I rolled a 2, so added 400 to this one:

Letter G from Letters from Nora by Nora Corbett

stitched 2 over 2 as charted

on 28ct Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy

This is the last one in the series of 3 I'm stitching for DD. I need more CC Smoke because I'm out, so hopefully the colour will match what I've stitched already. 

Another one that doesn't come out often, even though it's fairly small, is Twilight LeMans, and it had 600 stitches added to it this time:

Twilight LeMans by Heritage Stitchcraft

stitched 2 over 2 as charted

on 28ct linen, unknown dyer

You can kind of tell these are headlights on a wet road I think now. The far right and left blue are the bottom corners, so a little more in the middle and the bottom is complete. This is probably half done or so.

I don't know if you'll remember this last one, it was started a long time ago and has mostly lingered in the pile of WIPs, not really moving along very far. I rolled my first 1 for this project and added 200 stitches:

Dragon silhouette by Lisbei (ludinthemist.com)

stitched 2 over 1 with Caron Waterlilies Holiday?

on 14ct gold sparkle Aida

I found this one while browsing for dragons and really liked the look of it. It will circle around so the tail almost meets the jaw. It probably needs another 600 or so stitches for a finish. 

And that's all for now! I know that was a long post. I may try and get another one up after just a few rolls if I can. I hope you're all staying healthy and enjoying some good weather. We've had snow enough to build a snowman, but tomorrow will be 8C/47F! So the snow will melt, then we drop down to -14C/7F in a few days. Winter in Vermont isn't consistent anymore. 

Happy Stitching and stay well!

Tiffstitch

September Crazy Domino Event - Projects 4-6

If you remember my last post, then you can read a bit about the event there.

Last time I had worked on Evening in the Shire last. The next project is linked because of The Lord of the Rings, and I pulled out Visit Mordor by Country Magic Stitch. It was last here:

and I was up to 400 stitches, so this is where it is now:

stitched 2 over 2 as charted 

on 28ct Britney Lugana named Feronia by Chromatic Alchemy

This darker lilac is the far left of the project, so it's kind of nice to be at an edge on this one. There is a lot of stitching to go. I wish these were on Pattern Keeper, but I haven't been able to upload them yet. 

My next project was linked because of the giant gate in Mordor to Witch's Gate by Whispered by the Wind. It was last here:

but this is when I was a teensy bit obsessed with finishing Siberian Forest, and I actually used the wrong colour on this part, so I had to frog and restart:

500 stitches makes a sizeable dent though, so it now looks like this:

Stitched as charted (so far) on 28ct Mirage by PTP

The last chart of this set, number 6, is linked to Witch's Gate by the designer, WBTW. Yes, it's our old favourite, In the Groaning Gloaming and if you want to see the story behind that, check out this post and this one too. Basically, Rachel and I changed up colours to ones we preferred, but it took a lot of frogging and restitching to get there. 

What I thought I had done after we found what we liked, was to only leave the colours in the bag that I wanted to use. Turns out, I left an alternate medium beige, and when I started In the Gloaming it was here:

 and then you can maybe tell the lower blocks are a little lighter than the top 2 rows? Yes, I used the wrong colour for 134 stitches, so had to frog again.

But the goal for this one is 600 stitches, so I'll get there in the end. It's just funny that I'm still having thread colour issues with this project. 

Here we are after 600 stitches total, meaning another 470 added after frogging out the others:

That's a decent amount of stitches in, and this and Witch's Gate will come out again in October, so they'll get a little more work done as well. I don't know that they'll be finishes next month, but you never know!

The next few are some "forgotten" WIPs, not forgotten really, just not worked on in a while. They need lots of stitches though, so might be a few days till I get them completed. But it is a holiday weekend and I have 2 days off! Whee! I will enjoy the longer weekend for sure.

Stay well and happy stitching!

Tiffstitch

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge, Start #2 - Punkin Heart

Here we are again, another weekend and another new start! Given the tribulations of the previous weekend, I decided to go with my smallest new start and do some more work on In the Groaning Gloaming some more. Rachel and I haven't gotten sick of it despite all the stitching, frogging and restitching.

Please check out Rachel's blog for her new start too. A few others are joining in as well, though I have to do some checking if anyone has made a separate blog post. Feel free to join in however you're able!

Here's this weekends start and finish:

Punkin Heart kit by Flowers 2 Flowers

stitched 12 strands over 1 except the backstitch with kit threads

This was a very quick start and finish, maybe 30 minutes all told. And that involved finding my needle grabbers to pull the stuck needle out a couple times. They recommended 12 strands for better coverage, but clearly, you should stitch with only 6 strands on the needle and double stitch everything. 

And I frogged back on In the Gloaming to here:

and tried a slightly different combo than we'd had previously, DMC 167, 738, 3823 and 3866. I like it!

In the Gloaming by Whispered by the Wind

stitching 2 over 2 on Mirage by PTP

I hope you all had a safe and happy weekend!

Happy Stitching, 

Tiffstitch

Spring Into Summer New Start Binge #1 - In the Groaning?

This past weekend we started the Spring Into Summer New Start Binge, an idea Rachel and I came up with after trying to decide how to deal with life and the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics. We decided to turn the 17 new starts planned for that July event into a few months long weekend event instead. If you're interested, please join in with WIPs or new starts as well. :)

Rachel and I both had decided to start some Whispered by the Wind charts, and we both had In the Gloaming, so we started with that one:

If you're read Rachel's post, you'll already know this wasn't the simple start with few colours we imagined.

I had started by stitching a black crow on the Friday evening, April 4th:

stitched 2 over 2 on PTP Mirage, called for fabric with DMC 310

Before I started stitching Saturday, I heard from Rachel that the called for colours seemed awfully dark and brownish, not the yellows shown in the photo of the chart. I checked my kit and had a yellow conversion, so tried that and sent a photo to Rachel. 

She had already checked the colours and didn't think they'd work, I thought I'd give it a shot and see if it looked better stitched. Naturally, she was correct and it was just a little too bright. Rachel came up with another combo, so I tried that as well after frogging all of the above except the lightest 3866 and 728, one of the conversion colours. 

Our next combo was 3828, 422 and 728. 

This was okay, but the 422 and 3828 were quite close. So Rachel tried 738 for the 2nd darkest colour and that seems like it will work better. I'm debating about when to switch, right after this upper triangle bit, or after the darker "ruffled" edge on the mausoleum. I'll figure it out. 

I hope your weekend stitching was more successful and had less frogging than ours!

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

People's Choice SAL - April 2020 - Modern Samplers

As many of us have seen, samplers and reproduction samplers have made somewhat of a resurgence in the last couple years. There are some designers that put a modern twist on theirs, so this month we're to show off a modern sampler and you can include anything you think that fits this description.

As always, please check out our gracious host's blog for more details and more really interesting samplers.

I will admit to not being that interested in reproduction style samplers, but I do like some of the modern designs and have stitched one or two ten or so I've come across.

 Welcome by Pine Glen Designs

stitched with DMC, not sure the colours

 One Drink Woman by Kincavel Krosses

stitched with DMC and I've stitched this twice, one with rose wine 

Mario Sampler by Daffycat?

I loved stitching this one!

 Don't Make Me Kill You by Kincavel Krosses

with DMC variegated threads

Pog mo thoin (look it up! ;) ) by Kincavel Krosses

with DMC variegated threads

 Dead by Dawn by Pyro Dog Pins (Etsy)

based on the Evil Dead movie

Specialty Stitch SAL by Durene Jones hosted by Lakeside Needlecraft

stitched with Chromatic Alchemy rainbow thread, no longer available

Hell is Other People by Subversive Cross Stitch

Turns out I like these a lot! There were a few others that I wasn't sure fit, but this is a pretty good list of what I'd call modern samplers. I hope you enjoyed it and check out everyone else's posts as well. 

Also, this weekend is the first weekend of the Spring Into Summer New Start Binge, so feel free to join in with starts or WIPs! I started In the Gloaming by Whispered by the Wind last night:

stitched 2 over 2 on Mirage by PTP with DMC 310 so far

I hope you're all staying well and healthy!

Tiffstitch