Year End Wrap Up

I didn't do this last year because of my lost mojo hiatus but I remember doing it in 2011 and it was pretty fun. So stats ahoy!

A quick look at everything I stitched this year:


And a look at numbers:
Total finishes: 15
New starts: 13
Pieces started and finished in 2013: 10
WIPs at the start of the year: 12
WIPs at the end of the year: 9
WIPs that didn't see a single stitch last year: 5
Oldest WIPs: From 2009

Fastest finish: 5 hours
Most time consuming piece: 170.5
Pieces that took 10 hours or less: 7
Pieces that took between 10 & 50 hours: 4
Pieces that took between 50 & 100 hours: 2
Pieces that took over 100 hours: 1
Total hours stitched in 2013(approximately): 731.5

I'm in disbelief over 731.5 hours. I can't believe I stitched so much, specially since I've been convinced I was in a slump for the first half of the year. Previous years for comparison:
2010 - 825
2011 - 635.5
2012 - 687
2013 - 731.5

I have lots of plans for next year: doing WIPocalypse (since some of my old WIPs fill me with shame), StitchingFromStash (because I really need to stop buying more stash), Smalls SAL (because I have so many little pieces of fabric that I need to use up and I just keep starting big things).

Here's hoping that 2014 is an year filled with stitching for us all!

Here Be Dragons

I started the Light and Shadow series by Firewing Design and finished them up pretty quick. I wanted to use up some of my leftover overdyes so I stitched them over one on 28 ct and they came out very tiny. I went with two threads that had very different variegations and two that were more subtle. And I went two silk, two cotton. So mixtures everywhere :)

Taking a good picture where you could clearly see the variegation but keeping it small enough that it wouldn't be so easy to count right off the picture was tricky (and I'm not sure I quite got the right balance so I hope these are ok).

Stygion - Waterlily Umbria	Fulgent - Waterlily Oasis
Lambent - Dinky Dyes Rosella	Umbral - Dinky Dyes Desert Sands

Title	Stygion	Fulgent	Lambent	Umbral
Designer	FireWing Designs
Start date	December 3,2013	December 9,2013	December 13, 2013	December 18,2013
Finish date	December 9,2013	December 13,2013	December 17,2013	December 20,2013
Total time	7 hours	8.25 hours	6.5 hours	6.75 hours
Fabric	28 ct antique white lugana
Floss	Waterlily Umbria	Waterlily Oasis	Dinky Dyes Rosella	Dinky Dyes Desert Sands

Fun With Blackwork

I love blackwork: the geometry and symmetry please me but I'm never sure what to do with it and I usually end up making biscornus. So I was very happy to find Tanja Berlin's free blackwork project, which is a little different and not biscornu-suitable.


I started it back in February of last year when it was still a mystery and only part one was out. But then, in classic "me" fashion, I put aside after a truly horrendous counting error that meant half of what I'd stitched had to be frogged. Since it was black on white I thought that the leftover black fuzz would be too obvious to overlook so I just put it away and pretended it didn't exist. But after discovering how useful a lint roller is (something I'm sure everyone knows but I didn't) I thought I'd give it a try. It worked and I decided to put a few more stitches in and then sort of forgot to stop.


The original project is meant to be a greeting card holder which I have no use for. I don't send physical cards and never get any. So I've decided to turn into a key holder. This is supposed to be used as individual pieces to separate the cards, but I changed it to a band because I thought it would work better for the key holder. Whether I actually get around to making the key holder is something best not discussed LOL


I really liked stitching the animals. And while the bands in between look intricate and complicated they were really very easy. The instructions are incredibly detailed and very well done.


And speaking of things that need to be finish-finished: I actually have a set of smalls that I finished last week and haven't posted because I wanted to shock everyone by actually having them finished. I, uh, don't think that's going to happen so I'll be posting those sometime soon.

Title	Blackwork Mini Mystery Project
Designer	Berlin Embroidery Designs
Start date	February 11, 2012
Finish date	December 28, 2013
Total time	17.75 hours
Fabric	32 ct White Lugana
Floss	DMC 310

Hot Off The Q-Snap!

Here's Why Hoard Gold? I just took her him off the q-snap. I love backstitching on Dragon Dreams patterns because it's so easy and the result adds so much clarity.


The chart calls for Anchor Marlitt threads, which are these awful slippery monstrosities. I stitched a giant chunk of the dragon while cursing every moment and then put him away for two years. Several satisfying hours of frogging later I started again with DMC. Since Jennifer has a standard palette that she reuses I felt pretty confident that I could come up with a good substitution.

Here it is, just in case (and in case I want to reuse it at some point lol):

Anchor	->	DMC
890	->	319
1030	->	320
1032	->	367
1058	->	368
1072	->	3371
1077	->	676

Title	Why Hoard Gold?
Designer	Dragon Dreams
Start date	November 10, 2013
Finish date	December 22, 2013
Total time	36.75 hours
Fabric	28 ct White Jubilee
Floss	DMC conversion of my own

Getting Close

I was out of town recently so very little stitching for far too long. I did manage to finish all the cross stitch on WHG and started some very small projects that I'm having trouble taking photos of, so just WHG today. Hopefully I can finish it before the end of the year.