June Gifted Gorgeousness

Oh boy, I'm late...it seems to become a pattern that I want to 'just finish one more thing' before making these posts, but this time I just felt ma attention slipping away from my original plan and on to other things, so I guess it'll just have to wait until next month. I have enough gift-related projects to show as it is, anyways!

For one, I did stitch to smalls for birthday cards. You've already seen the little bunny, but I also stitched a little otter (it's a chart from Lesley Teare and I think it was released on the Crossstitch for Charity facebook group).

Then I finished and finished-finished the blanky Panda for a friend's friend's daughter. I haven't finish-finished the Hippo yet as the Panda actually had to be done earlier, but I hope to get to that soon (I just don't enjoy the sewing together part!).

My main project is, of course, still the Mermaid. it's till progressing slowly and it's now clear that I won't be making the deadline of my dad's birthday party (which would have been July 6th), but I'm sure he'll still like her with a 'little' delay. Anyways, I still have a fair bit to go, but it feels like I'm slowly closing in on the page finish of page 3.

Despite not having finished the Mermaid yet, I still had a new start. After my dad, my mum, too, is turning 60 (next year in April), and I wanted to get a headstart on her present - a Mirabilia, and, even though it's my first one, it should go a lot faster than a TW! I'm talking about Lady Justice, and I managed a few stitches to start her this week. Lots of pretty greens to finish that skirt!

I also have a few more knitting/crochet projects in the pipeline, the first of which I'm hoping too start tonight sooo hopefully I'll have more to show next month (and hopefully I'll be more on time, then, as well!).

Fully Finished Gallery - June

I know I am terribly late, but I had finally coaxed myself into trying a more 'daring' finishing method, and it took me a few days to get it done :D But now, without further ado, I present you my first ornament finish!

I finished the stitching last year for Halloween, and now it was finally time to get it done. I loosely followed this tutorial, but did a lot of improvising where I was missing the right material. First I cut two circles from sturdy cardboard, then, missing the right kind of batting, I put some filling material on the circles and ironed thin interfacing over it. I laced both the stitching and the backing fabric tightly on the back, made a braid from some cheap craft yarn for the hanger, and glued both sides together. Lastly, I sewed across the edges, because I didn't quite trust the glue AND I love me some beads, which I added in the progress. It's far from perfect, but I do like it and I already learned a few things I could do better next time!

And for this pretty complicated (for me at least) I also had a super simple one - for a friends birthday, I stitched a little freebie by Maria Brovko, and glued it to a card using double sided tape. (In fact, I made another one, but that has yet to reach its destination!).

I am irrationally proud of my self. Maybe that's a good sign for next year?

Finish it in 2019 - June Checkin

Here we are and back for another month of the 'Finish it in...' SAL! I'm linking up with my friend Magical for this one. My list at the beginning of June looked like this:

1) The Mermaid
2) Half Granny Shawl
3) Reindeer
4) Wuffi the Dog
5) Whacky Witches in Stitches
6) March Fobs

and I worked on three of these projects, finishing one. I picked up the Half Granny shawl for about an hour and a half, which was just enough to put in the remaining two rows (before I ran out of yarn) and weave in the ends. I used 3 balls of yarn (each 400 meteres) in total, and it's huge and warm and cuddly - jsut what I wanted!

 I made decent progress on the Mermaid and just finished the second page, meaning all the cross stitch in the upper half is done, and then some. I also worked on Whacky Witches, finishing the upper left block.

I should have realized this last month already, but the Mermaid is the only one of my original list that isn't finished yet! I am making good progress.

So that leaves the 'giant knitting/crochet project' slot open on my list, and I'll be filling it with Viajante - my lovely big scarf-hoodie-cowl thing that I've been meaning to finish for years! It's a gorgeous, rich, dark purple that makes it terrible to photograph (at least when I'm trying to blog in the middle of the night), but believe me when I say there is quite a ways to go yet:

For the last two weeks or so, I've pulled it out to get at least one round in each day, and I think at that rate I might just be able to finish before the end of the year...but maybe I can speed tings up a little!

So here's my new list:

1) The Mermaid
2) Reindeer
3) Wuffi the Dog
4) Whacky Witches in Stitches
5) March Fobs
6) Viajante

May Stitchy Pie

Another month over, and it's time for a new stitchy pie! I have to say, May was pretty productive for me - I tried to focus on the Mermaid, and while I did not quite manage my goal of at least 10 hours a week, it was close. I also got in a good deal of crochet and a little knitting:

You've already seen most of these projects...or you will be seeing them very soon. What I haven't shown recently were Snowwhite and the Pumpkin Doodle. Both came out to play for some Magical Stitches Homework, the former for 200 stitches in yellow, the latter for 700 stitches on project #17 on my WIP list:

I already made a good start for June, so hopefully it'll be just as productive!

May WIPocalypse

I'm a little late because I was waiting for the May part of the Blackwork SAL; and then I had to stitch it, and then I wanted to finish some other stuff...that last part didn't all work out, but at least I am here now before May is quite over!
The question this month is Where do you love to shop for stash?, and sadly, my answer hasn't changed all that much over the last years...I love shopping for stash in real stores, but I don't really get to do that unless I'm traveling. We have a few yarn shops in town, but not really anything stitchy. Online, there are a lot of awesome stores, but the two I want to mention are https://www.lakesideneedlecraft.co.uk/ - most of you probably know it by know, but Kate is absolutely awesome and has an amazing selection of crafty goods. And then there is https://www.unconventionalxstitch.com/ - Jody has graduated from Etsy and launched her own website, complete with a discount system for repeat customers. I do love her patterns!

Now for my ongoing SALs...I did stitch the May parts for the Blackwork and Mamluk SAL, and loved both of them:

 

And I worked on the Temperature SAL too. This is caught up to last weekend - I think this week might have had a couple yellow days, and I am excited to add them soon:

 

Looks good, right? What doesn't look so good is my WIP count...I just made it back to 49 (+0), where I started, by finishing Early Morning Santa, Ambarussa, the Spring SAL and the Crocodile, but starting the Hippo, the Panda (next one in the lineup - I started it despite still needing to sew the Hippo together) and a new little cross stitch for a friend's birthday. Maybe I'll get a little more done in June, but I already have at least two new starts lined up, so I better get cracking!

Last but not least, our lovely WIPocalypse-master Measi has called another focus challenge for June and July - stitch every day on a project of your choice. I'll continue focusing on the Mermaid, working on her everyday for both months (or until she's finished, but somehow I don't see that happening so soon!). Here she is right now - page 2 finished, page 1 is still missing three shells in the border, and I made a decent start on page 3. I hope to have at least three pages finished by the end of July!

May Gifted Gorgeousness

Can you believe we're halfway through May again? Me neither! I have been busy, though, and have quite a few things to show for this month's Gifted Gorgeousness check in.

First of, a finished the Ambarussa moebius loop in blue. I reallyl ike how it turned out . it's just as soft and pretty as the red one, but thanks to the new 'cast on' I tried out, it's stretchy all the way through and even more comfortable. I think I'll need to make another one for Felix sonn as well, but this one is a very late Christmas present for a good friend.

I also finished the crocodile blanket doll! It only took me ages, seeing how I already finished the head and body by late March, but Ambarussa got in the way and vacation time and now it's all done. I am very pleased with how it turned out and enjoyed working with the yarn too (Scheepjes Stone Washed - mostly cotton with some artifical fibres for effect).

I already started the second animal from the same book - this one is a hippo. I already finished the head and ears and I'm now working on the body, and I think if I stick to it, I might even finish it next week! Those two are gifts for the grandchildren of a friend of my grandma, but I think I'll have to make more from the book too, they are all really cute and fun.

And last but not least, I've been working more on my Mermaid...I fully finished the cross stitch on the upper right page, only need to fill in the border to do the same for the upper left, and I worked on her tail too! Her butt is sitting smack on the intersection of all four pages, so there was a lot of page-juggling, but I think I managed it without any noticeable mistakes.

May Fully Finished Gallery

I'm back to finish-finishing, and although I still haven't touched my older finishes, I'm back up to date with my more current finishes! In fact, there were two stitchy ones (and two more on the crochet side that you'll see in a few days). One I already showed you, my Early Morning Santa - a beaded ornament on perforated paper, backed with felt:

The other one I just finished today - I made my Spring Mystery SAL into a biscornu, which is probably my favourite way to finish - whip stitch, a beaded edge, it's just so fun to make, even though it's not super creative!

My focusing on bigger projects this year leaves me without a lot of finishes, but I still hope to be back with something next month :)