Thursday, December 29, 2016

Etude aux Fraises - finish! :)

As you may have guessed from the title, I have a finish for you today! :)

Please excuse the wrinkles, I haven't ironed this yet. :p


Gotta have a few close up images too... I really love the sketchy effect of these designs. They look just like old botanical drawings (er, which is kind of obvious, haha) and that makes them super classy. I'll definitely be stitching more in this series.

PS - I've already stitched Wisteria if you want to check it out. :3




And how about a mini giveaway? If you'd like the chart for this design, please comment stating your interest! If more than one person wants it, I'll choose at random. The only rules are:

~ Please be a follower of this blog.
~ Please be genuinely interested in stitching this design. No hoarding. :3
~ I can only mail to the US and Canada at this time, sorry.
~ Giveaway closes in one week (January 5).

I'll announce the winner in the next post I make after January 5, so please be sure to check back - I'll need you to send me your mailing address if you've won. :3

And note that two pages (out of four) have been cut/trimmed to make stitching easier. It's still perfectly usable (honestly it's MORE usable this way!) but it's not minty fresh and brand new anymore. :p

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Etude aux Fraises - update #7

Super quick post today, just a progress photo so I can't keep telling myself that I've accomplished nothing in the past week!


One more leaf and some smaller bits to go. Surely I can manage this by the end of the year...

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Etude aux Fraises - update #6 & Sakaki - update #1

Whoops, another week has flown by! Here's my update on Etude aux Fraises:


As you can see, it's gotten big enough that I had to move the qsnap to cover part of the design in order to get access to the rest of the fabric. All that's left now are two leaves at the top, some text, and backstitching all over the project. Hopefully I can manage by the end of the year, but it might be a bit of a push because...

I started a new knitting project! I generally don't knit a lot - I know how to do it, I just don't enjoy it very much - but this is a project I've wanted to start for a while. The pattern is Sakaki by Romi Hill, and I'll be tracking it on my Ravelry page.


Long story short, this is a charity pattern, I had a lovely yarn that's about the same color as actual sakaki leaves, and Romi is my wife's favorite knit designer ever. But... Sakaki is also the last name of my favorite fictional character of all time (of all time!), and I've spent an embarrassing amount of time obsessing over him. So. There was no escaping this project. ♥

It's a simple pattern and I've managed to finish one chart repeat per day since starting, but I don't know if I can maintain that pace if I want to finish Etude.

Well, time to shut up and go stitch. :p

PS: I almost forgot! If anyone has a fitbit and wants to add me as a friend, feel free! :D

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Etude aux Fraises - update #6

Oops, I keep meaning to post and then forgetting, so before I forget again...


I've added quite a bit more already, so expect another update soon. :)

Thursday, December 08, 2016

2017 Stitching Plans!

As usual, it's time to make plans for 2017 that I will totally ignore all year, haha.

~~~

I had big plans for the WIPs I carried over from 2015 into 2016, but pretty much didn't meet any of those goals. :( But I will persist in making WIP goals for next year anyway. :p

I'll put them in order of importance, most to least, just like last year.

- Etude aux Fraises (Enginger) - will be completed before 2017!
- Beautiful Sea Quaker SAL (Ship's Manor) - keep up with SAL
- Beaded Dragonfly Tile (Chatelaine) - finish in Q1 2017
- Chinese Garden Mandala (Chatelaine) - complete at least one part every quarter
- Night (Wentzler) - goal undecided
- Fantasy SAL (Durene Jones) - complete borders
- Transcendence - Sessler (HAED) - on hold
- Air ACEO - Butcher (HAED) - on hold

Seriously, I need to get Beaded Dragonfly Tile done. Now that I'm keeping a bunch of threaded needles on hand for this project, there's no reason to avoid it. I mean, aside that it's stitched on black Belfast... and there's a bunch of over-one... ahem. :p

~~~

Planned new starts for 2017!

I only completed three of my five planned new starts from 2016 (the Bride's Tree ornaments, South Seas Mermaid, and Etude aux Fraises... which isn't done yet but will be!) and I didn't even start the other two! So the first one here is a repeat from last year. The other unstarted one is going to hang out in my stash for a bit and I might add it in later. :3

Rosewood Manor - Summer Quakers
(on Crafty Kitten Vintage Petals, similar to the model)

Ink Circles - Cirque des Coeurs
(on PTP Phoenix with DMC 4170 & white)

Nora Corbett - Wisteria and/or Waterlily
(not sure of fabric for Wisteria, but Waterlily is set!)

And that's it for now. I'm only choosing a few because I do want to focus on finishing projects... I refuse to have a WIP count in the double digits! If I make good progress, then I'll pick more things from my bucket list to start. Maybe I'll do a half year review to see how I'm doing with my goals.

~~~

Also, I'm stupidly toying with these ideas...



I know, I know, I'm the one who was all "I am never stitching a PR design again" but...  I've had fabric for Fairy of Dreams for years. YEARS! And I really love Prosperity Fae too. Sigh. At least the charts are available as PDF now instead of those ridiculously massive single page foldouts.

But I don't own either of these charts yet (I had the paper charts but sold them immediately once PDFs became available), so I'll keep this idea on the back burner for now...

Sunday, December 04, 2016

Etude aux Fraises - update #5

I finally feel like I'm making some good progress here! As usual, backstitching makes a huge difference in how the stitching looks.


I'm working down toward the bottom right now, so next time that area will be complete! :)

Thursday, December 01, 2016

Etude aux Fraises - update #4 (and goals)

First up, some more strawberries!


I feel like I'm finally making some good progress on this piece. It does help that the flower in the background is mostly a single color. Anyway, the color is really off; the fabric is cream and the thread colors are a bit brighter than shown.

~~~

Next up, goals!

For November, I said:

- blog about progress once a week - YES
- finish Bride's Tree Ornament #11 - YES
- start/finish at least three other small projects! - decided to focus on WIPs instead :3
- comb through stash again and pull out things I no longer want to stitch - YES
- NO craft/stash shopping, for real, NO exceptions, even if I sell things! - NO, but...

...I ran out of beads for the Bride's Tree ornaments, so I ended up spending $15 total on beads, several skeins of DMC, and one chart from a designer who seems to have disappeared almost immediately after publishing her first designs. I usually don't worry about charts going out of print and being impossible to find, but in this case I felt it was a real possibility.

For December, I want to:

- blog about progress once a week
- finish Etude aux Fraises
- NO craft/stash shopping unless I NEED something for an active WIP

So there. :p