What's your favourite flower?

 I have two for your to chose from! For my next rotation, I got botanical. I started by stitching up a Hyacinth - my friend Ashley has designed a series of flower patterns based on the Animal Crossing series, and I won one of them in a contest on deviantArt. She was unsure about the contrast in some of the colours, so I promised to stitch the red one up for her, and I did. Isn't it pretty?

Isn't it pretty? I took the picture in naturel light (hence the shadow) to show how well the contrast actually showed up. This one will be going to Clare who is collecting flower for a Christmas tree bouquet sometime soon.

Stitching up this little flower only took me five hours (almost exactly), so I used the remaining time to work on WIP I had only made a tiny start on (back in May, I think). It's a kit from a Ukrainian manefacturer I found on amazon, but I have since discovered that they have a whole website full of stuff and it's all amazing! The one I got is a little cactus, and I am about halfway done with stitching it:

The kit came with a colour pattern (blurred because copyright and stuff), lots of little baggies with beads, and a wooden template to stitch on - yes, wooden! The quality - who precise the wood is cut out, and all of the holes are placed - is super impressive. And just look at that little wooden bobbin the thread came on! So cute and fun.

The finishing supplies are equaly impressive, and I hope to be able to show those to you next time - another 5 hours or so should see this one finished I think :)

August Gifted Gorgeousness

 It's time for my favourite SAL, The Gifted Gorgeousness, hosted by my favourite SAL hostess, Jo! And once again, I have a nice selection of projects to show! So let's dive right into it. 

My main gift project is - and will remain for some time - the Zoe Box, which I'm stitching for two friends's wedding. I just uploaded a post about my latest progress in total, so here I will just repeat the picture of the last section I finished - the sides of the box are all done now (and yes, I know these critters are upside down - they are supposed to be!):

I am also SALing Morning Meadow, I pattern I one in a giveaway a while back, with Jo. This is my progress 7 weeks in - I have two more bands to stitch this week, then beads, and then I will try to make a dedicated post about the sampler as a whole! Probably should start thinking about how to finish-finish it...

Another one I already showed you, but I am stitching Magical's Bookmarks of the Month as emergency gifts, so those qualify! And the July one (August one is on the list for next week) was a real pretty one, too:

I just remembered - another repeat picture, but I finished these crochet-emojis from a kit my brother in law gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago (when he wasn't my BIL yet). I have since added some loops and they are now making Felix' drumset a little more fun to look at ;) 

And of course, after these were done, I had to start another crochet project - another gift for a baby, or rather for the big sister of a baby. Our neighbors had a baby boy in July, and I will start his gift in a bit, but I'm also making a horse ragdoll for his big sister who loves horses:

I finished the head and I thought I had almost finished the body, but then I discovered a mistake I made (and repeated) for the last couple of rounds so now my count is totally off...so I spent some time today working backwards and have about three more rounds to undo before I can make progress again! Hopefully, I'll get that done and start working on the legs next week.

Zoe Box - 40 Hours

 I finished my second rotation on Zoe this month, and - *drumrolls* - I actually finished the complete inside of the box! Granted, there was nowhere near as much stitching as on the outside, but I am still very pleased to see how quickly this is coming together. At this rate, I'll have to worry about gathering the finishing supplies much sooner than I thought I would! 

So, the inside of the box had one long row of tied oblong stitches in DMC Coloris going all around, a repeat of all the critters (but standing on their heads, as this part will be folded during the finishing), and some more of the pretty sequins. For the most part, I managed to finish one season every day I worked on this! Here are some close ups:

          

(putting pictures next to each other is just as much of a pain in the butt as it was on the old blogger, it seems) and one picture of the whole thing:

I also stitched the outline of the lid part of the box (but no picture as that doesn't show up well), so I can dive right into the interesting part again next time. Lots of leaves and more oblong stitches...not sure if ten hours will be quite enough to finish it, but it should see a good bit done! But first, a new rotation with some small, fun projects - see you soon!

August Fully Finished Gallery

 So...I'll have to start this post with a confession: I didn't quite meet my self-imposed quota (of two finished objects per month, that I promised to Rachel in January) this month. I even bought a frame for the 2019 Temperature SAL a couple weeks ago, but Felix has been busy and just hasn't gotten around to framing it, and so I decided rather than pestering him to get it done before the cut-off date for the SAL, I'd just bite the bullet and promise three finishes for September. Let's see how that will work out!

So I only have one meager finish to show, and that is one you already saw - the Bookmark of the Month. I decided against adding felt to the back - the plastic is stury enough, the backside rather clean, and I wanted to preserve the transparent look around the edges and not bulk it up. So it looks just the same as last time, but I love the look so I don't mind sharing it again!

So that's a short post for today; next month I hope to have the next bookmark, the Temperature SAL, and one more as of yet undecided finish to show :)

Dark Forces - August Rotation

 Dark Forces got its August rotation pretty early in the month - I finished right after the first rotation on Zoe, and actually finished within a couple of days this time.

Last time you saw them, I was here - finished all the black on page 7, plus a hand full of blues:

This time, I filled in a couple more blues on the spooky face, which looks a little more complete (but no less scary) than before, but mostly I moved on the the helmet again, finished a large chunk of off-white (so might need to zoom in to see that it's actually there) and also a fair amount ouf lighter blues. 

I added a total of 1,482 stitches which brought me to a total of 23.78%. Seems like I can stitch just over one % in then hours - I really don't want to do the rest of the math, though!

Next month, I'll move further across the top of the helmet, so that should fill in nicely. Bur first, another rotation on Zoe!

Zoe Box - 30 Hours

 The first weekend of August, we had a friend visiting, and one of our plans entailled watching the entire third season od Stranger Things on Netflix. We did (amongst lots of talking and lots of great food) and I made good use of that time to work on the Zoe Box. Last time you saw her, 20 hours in, she was here - cross stitch finished on the outside of the box, plus the stems and a tiny start on the backstitch:

Ten hours later, this part of the box was all finished! 

So I finished the backstitch, added beads and sequins and all those fance specialty stitches. Don't worry, I brought some detail shots to show you!

The autumn panel features, aside from that *oh so cute* squirrel, some ribbed spiderweb stitches which were a pain to stitch - like ten minutes each - but have a great effekt! I do love trying out new stitches.  

Summer has regular spiderweb stitches, but done with coloris, and the effect is quite stunning. Also a pretty butterfly!

Spring isn't quite as impressive critter-wise, but I still love it with all the vibrant colours. I also wanted to point out the rice stitch in the bottom, that runs across the entire width of the box - coloris and silver PTB on top of it. Great effect and so easy and fun to stitch!

And last but not least, the winter panel. Not a lot of stitching altogether, but that little robin is probably my favourite of the critters after the squirrel. Also a lot of sequins (such a fun adition) and beads (love that matte colour) in this one.

I am really enjoying the project and the amount of progress I am making. This was by far the biggest and most heavily stitched part, but there still is quite a bit left to do. Before my ten hours were out, I made a start on the outline of the box inside, but that's not really worth showing yet. As there is much less stitching involved in that part, I have hopes to actually finish it in the next rotation slot, though!

The People's Choice SAL: Freedom

This month on Jo's multi-topic SAL, the subject chosen by the people is 'Freedom'. I expect to see lots of red, white, and blue from our US friends, but for us Europeans, we have to think a little more outside of the box!

For me, freedom, especially this year, also means the freedom do travel whereever I want to. The German passport is one of the most 'powerful' in the world, meaning there are tons of countried we can travel to without having to request a visum, and I've done a fair share of traveling in the last couple years. However, with the added repsonsibility of talking care of my grandma (who relies on me and my husband more and more), it's been harder to get away, and now with the pandemic, of course it's become an impossibility alltogether. I still like to remember, so today I'll be showing you just a couple of the projects that accompanied me on my trips!

I remember working on this Bunny Biscornu by Joan Elliott while sitting across from my best friend in Leipzig, Germany a couple of years ago, when we visited the bookfair together!

Satsuma Street's Halloween Cat accompanied me on a business trip to Torino, Italy, and I remember stitching on it in the evenings in my hotel room, as well as on the train ride there and back. A wonderful trainride straight through the beautiful Swiss alps, I might add!

This one I brought with me on a business trip to Melbourne, Australia. I was there for a conference and worked on it on the plane and also during several presentations I attended!

Although I have many, many more 'travel projects', I'm going to end with 99 - not only is it a very international project all by itself, depicting bottles from all over the world, but also my most well-traveled one! I started this on a trip to Ireland in 2017, took it with me to Australia later that year, and to Californa in 2018. Such wonderful memories!

Summer Blog Hop: Stitching Friends are Friends Who Count

Year and year again, Jo entertains us with several new and fun blog hops throughout the year, and this year she has though of something very special: Each of us was assigned a stitching blogger we had to research and now talk about them, as well as show some of our own stitching that we thing they might like. I hope you'll have fun with my little entry - if you enjoyed it and want more, here is Jo's kickoff post linking to all the participants: click.

My stitching friend lives in England and every day, she takes the bus to work. How - besides blogging, working and riding on the bus - she still finds the time to practice a myriad of crafts, I do not know, but she does. Her blog is ful of wonderful projects, not just cross stitching, but also quilting and, most excitingly, pyrography. While exploring her blog, I've also encountered some delicious looking food pictures!

My stitchy friend has been blogging for many years, starting in 2013. She seems to like to participate in SALs with her friends, and I've seen her name came up on several of Jo's blog hops before. She has a special love for dragons, so that is what I'll be sharing with her for this SAL - some of my own scaly friends! A big one, and a small one:

Now if you're interested to learn more, hop over to A Patchwork of Crafts! Or visit Jo's Blog to read about all the other participants.

The July SALs

Hi lovelies! Still working on getting these blog posts caught up, as I actually finished my July SALs on the first day of August this time (and only because I needed to wait on the mean temperature for July 31st!). I had a bit of a stitching marathon to get there, but I am quite happy with the results!

First, there was the Blackwork SAL. As usual, this one stitched up quickly, especially as I only stitched one full cross (one of my favourite patterns so far!) and one little square this month.

Next up was the bookmark, and that thing was huge this time! Over 2000 stitches, and yet I finished it in less than five days. The pattern was repetetive and I could get into a bit of good old mindless stitching. It's also done on transparent plastic canvas and really cool in my opinion! I'm still debating backing it with stick-it-on felt, but I think it'd take from the transparent look, even if I cut the holes in it. And the plastic is pretty sturdy to begin with!

And last but not least, the temperature SAL. July was hot hot hot, so there is a lot of orange here! On the last day I almost got to use a new colour, but not quite. But it will make an appearance for the 1st of August - hopefully the last new colour of the year since everything left is just *way* too hot or too cold!

July Crafty Pie

I got a fair bit of crafting done in July, with a pretty fair distribution across my different crafts (stitching still got the lion's share, of course). There even if some sewing in there - I had to make a new tag for that, as it's been so long since I did any!

Project-wise, I was pretty spread out, but mostly because I got a lot of finishes:

I was a little worried that I only managed two rotations (one on Zoe and one on Dark Forces) this month instead of my usual three or four, but I totally forgot about Morning Meadow, which took up another eleven hours! I also stitched up another one of the Mini Mysteries, plus a cute back that Magical graciously provided:

On the knitting side, there were the two small scarves I showed for July's Gifted Gorgeousness, and in terms of crochet, I pulled out the Kanata Kerchief Tank, which is almost done - I'm in the process of sewing it all up, so hopefully there will be something to show soon. I also pulled out a small set of crochet emojis that my brother in law gave me a couple of years ago, and finished them.

They were fun but I don't really know what to do with them now! For the moment I added some strings and loops so they are hanging on Felix' drumset.

Since I am having this week off, I made a great crafting start to August, I'm almost done with my second rotation of the month - let's see how much time I can add to that clock!

Dark Forces - July Rotation

Time just passes me by this year and suddenly I have ten (approximately) blog posts to write! I am off work this week without any grand plans, so maybe I'll actually manage to get caught up on stuff blog wise for once, who knows ;) In any case, towards the middle of July I was working on Dark Forces (somehow this rotation took ages and threw me off for the rest of the month. But it's okay now!)

So, last time you say Dark Forces, I had just started page 7:

For my latest rotation, I went out of my usual 'pick the top-most-left-most colour' order because I needed black stitches for a challenge. I ended up finishing all of that plus a couple of the blues afterwards, for a total of 1.544 stitches, which brought this to a total of 22.7% finished.

I'm actually working on this one again right now - THAT'S how many posts I have lined up - and I'm currently filling in a couple of the rogue blues but after that there will be some nice blocks for that helmet and that should go pretty quick - so hopefully another 1.500 stitches? Fingers crossed!