January Achievements and February Goals

Goals for January:
1. Finish a Mill Hill ornie. Yes!
2. Finish all DMC stitching on Celtic Autumn. Yes. And I was about halfway through the Kreinik when I ran out and my LNS is out of stock, so I need to wait for it to be ordered in.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Started and finished Midnight.
2. Started Cinderella.
3. Started Mill Hill Harp.

Goals for February:
1. Finish Mill Hill Harp.
2. Finish the castle and trees in Cinderella.
3. Finish Celtic Autumn if the Kreinik comes in.

January Smalls SAL

I'm not taking part in many SALs this year, mostly because I'm getting too lazy. But I am sticking with Smalls SAL since it encourages me to dig out my smaller projects that I could normally ignore.

This month's finish is Mill Hill's Drum. This is a series of six and I'm planning on stitching all of them. Hopefully by July I'll have some idea of what to stitch for the second half of the year.

Stitch From Stash - January

Month: January
Spent: 14.95
Earned: 6

Carryover: 16.05

I bought one fat quarter of 25ct white lugana, so I'm not bothering with a picture.

I'm not quite sure I've got the calculations for my "Earned" amount right, but this is how I counted it:
$2: Mill Hill
$4: Midnight. The actual stitch count is 66x192 which would be ~113x113 if it was a square. But since there has to be at least 75% coverage and I don't think this design was 75% I downgraded it to the next lowest category.

In something that bodes ill for the rest of the year, I've already picked out my February purchase. Did you know that The Victoria Sampler Hearts series is now available as a chart instead of as kits? I've been holding off on buying the kits since I wasn't willing to spend that much money on something so tiny. But I spotted the International Hearts chart at my LNS when I went to buy the fabric. The owner actually told me that there wasn't one for the Canadian provinces and territories but I checked online on a hunch and it does exist! I'm a bit surprised she didn't check herself. Lost that sale since I'll be getting it online now :)

Cindy

It's still January. There's still time for a big start :) This is my start on Mirabilia's Cinderella. (I didn't realize that her website had been updated! It's so much easier to navigate now. And there's a search function!) I plan on heading up to the manor and trees because that looks like the most boring part.

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana

Midnight Ends

I've been listening to some very good audiobooks lately so I raced through Midnight at a ridiculous pace.
The border was an absolute pain to stitch. Most of the flowers are composed of 2 colours and then there are all those random single stitches. But it was a small border and I still have memories of Teresa Wentzler borders, so it wasn't the worst one I've ever stitched.
I love the sun. It's so cheery and those eyebrows are fantastic.
Probably one of the best things about this is that as it's a bellpull I know exactly how to finish it! Now I just need to dig out my finishing fabrics to find something suitable.
All in all this was different from most of the things I've stitched recently and it was a very nice change. Now I'm returning to ladies in extravagant dresses :D

Title	Midnight
Designer	Lavender Wings
Start date	January 5, 2015
Finish date	January 14, 2015
Total time	39 hours
Fabric	28 ct purple lugana
Floss	As charted

Impulse Start

I was digging through my stash looking for the fabric for Tradewinds when I came across this light purple fabric and thought that it might be perfect for Midnight by Lavender Wings.

It's the perfect size, so I started it. It's so full of confetti that I have to change my needle every three stitches. It's stitching up pretty fast though, so I haven't got tired of it yet.

Midnight
28 ct unknown purple LuganaI can't find the designer's website (I think she's retired) and all the pictures online are tiny, so here's a quick picture of the cover.

Beat The Drums

First start and finish of the year!
I'd been mentioning here and there that my New Year's Start was going to be Alphabetissimo by Papillon-Creations. I hadn't bought the fabric or floss because I was waiting for the Stitch From Stash break week. Due to various reasons I didn't get to the store in 2014. And when I saw that I had worked on only one WIP last year I couldn't start something huge. I felt too guilty.

So I started and finished one of the Mill Hill kits I was planning on stitching. I actually have only the charts which were generously donated by someone whose name I've forgotten because I'm forgetful like that. That lovely angel sent me all six charts in this series because she was done with it. (If that was you please speak up so that I can feel less ashamed!)

ETA: While randomly clicking though my blog I've discovered that these were gifted to me by Berit (who sadly is not blogging anymore) five years ago! And that I had planned to finish them as a cube. I can't believe I've had these charts for five years!

The kits use DMC so the floss wasn't an issue. As for the beads, I only had the gold, so I substituted a random green, blue and red. I'm going to wait until I can't fit any more on the paper before I start cutting. And yes, I stitched it way too close to the edge. My miserly tendencies caused me to briefly lose my mind :)

Title	Drum
Designer	Mill Hill
Start date	January 1, 2015
Finish date	January 2, 2015
Total time	6.5 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted
Beads	2011, 2055, 3002, 3043