May Achievements and June Goals

Goals for May:
1. Finish a Mill Hill ornie. Violin is finished.
2. Start something big. I started Mediterranean Mermaid and haven't put her down.
3. 20 hours of Autumn Winds. Not a single stitch.
4. 20 hours of Cinderella. 3 hours at the start of the month before I started MM.

Goals for June:
1. Finish the last Mill Hill ornie.
2. Finish Mediterranean Mermaid.
3. 10 hours of Autumn Winds.

Voila! Violin!

I didn't post this yesterday because I had the faint hope that I would have time to cut it before the end of the night. Alas, no. I still haven't cut it out, so here it is in all it's finished but not finish-finished glory.

This month was the violin. Like the mandolin, I couched the "strings" instead of backstitching them. The one of the bow was nerve-wracking because I wanted it to be tight but not so tight that it was bending the paper. But it came out well, so it's all good.
Next month is the last of this series: Trumpet

Title	Violin
Designer	Mill Hill
Start date	May 5, 2015
Finish date	May 9, 2015
Total time	5.5 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted
Beads	MH 330, 2011, 2022, 2055, 3043

Stitch From Stash - May

Month: May
Spent: 0

Carryover: 75.85

Those who remember my May 6 shopping spree may be wondering why I'm claiming 0 expenses... That's because it turns out that SFS has an exception for birthday gifts or gifted cash for stitchy stuff. I received cash for my birthday and was told to "treat yourself to something fun". So I spent a chunk of it on stash, put some in savings, and bought a lovely sweater (yes, in spring. I guess I'm ready for next winter?)

So how much did I actually end up spending? $305.82 on enough fabric, Kreinik and beads for 13 projects and 4 new charts. I have no excuses for not sticking to the budget for the rest of the year!

Hello Mermaid

Following my recent shopping blitz (not all of which has arrived yet), I started one of the things I kitted up.

This is Mediterranean Mermaid. She's actually pretty small. I was very surprised when I went to cut the fabric because I always had this idea in my head that all Mirabilia mermaids are huge, but she's only about the size of the Nora Corbett flower fairies.

Mediterranean Mermaid
32 ct Summersky Lugana
Looking at the chart her tail and fin are almost entirely Kreinik and beads. She's stitching up so fast (especially after Cindy's Dress) that I'm tempted to keep on working on her.

Never-ending Dress

I've been plodding along on Cindy's dress when I haven't been working on this month's Mill Hill. That's ready to be cut out, so hopefully I'll have that to show soon.

But until then, here's another fold in the never-ending dress:

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana

Making Extravagant Plans

Remember when I said I was going on a mad shopping spree this month? It didn't turn out quite as grand as I imagined. First I decided to go through my charts to see what projects I really, really, really wanted to stitch in the next few years. Then I did a lot of math (there were spreadsheets involved!) and looked at all my leftover fabric to see whether I had any that would work for the projects. And then I went through all the Kreiniks and Mill Hills required for all of them to see which ones I already had.

I narrowed it down to 13 projects and was able to assign fabrics for 9 of them.

So this was everything I picked up: That's fabric for 3 projects and most of the Kreinik and Mill Hill for the rest of them. Archangel was an impulse pick-up I won't get to for a while.
What do I need to pick up: a bunch more Kreinik, Mill Hill, another glow-in-the-dark DMC, 2 charts, fabric for 3 designs and whatever else I feel like randomly grabbing.

For the curious, the tentative projects are:
AAN - Recipe for a Magical Night
Papillon Creation - Alphabettisimo
Lizzie*Kate - Boo Club (yes, several years after everyone and their cat have finished their version)
Victoria Sampler - Canadian Hearts
Jim Shore - 12 Days of Christmas
Joan Elliot - Summer Fairy, Autumn Fairy, Fire Goddess, Swirling Peacock
Teresa Wentzler - Peacock Tapestry, The Castle
Mirabilia - Mediterranean Mermaid
Ink Circle - Cirque des Coeurs
Samsarah Designs - Steam Punk Sea Serpent
Patricia Ann - Romance

And I already have Ink Circle's Cirque des Carreaux and Teresa Wentzler's Tradewinds fully kitted up. And I have Mirabilia's Cinderella, MAIA Misaki, HAED Autumn Winds and PINN Ganesha as WIPs.

Wish me luck?