Nothing To Show

I actually started something new after Friday's Ohm update, so no progress on the WIP slaying. Oops.

Ohm
25 ct Black lugana
This month's question:
Tell us about your oldest and newest WIPs.
My oldest WIP is Ganesha from 2009.
It's meant as a gift for my parents. It's like a HAED in that a symbol might appear only twice in a 10x10 block, and like a Teresa Wentzler in that everything is a blend. And it's on aida. Sometimes I think I should just restart it. Other times I think I should just chuck it and offer my parents something else. My mum wants Winter Queen and I've been reluctant. I might just give it to her and restitch Winter Queen for myself. I'm much more likely to finish that than Ganesha at the rate I'm going!

My newest WIP is this month's biscornu, which I started on Friday. I haven't stitched much but it's fun so far.

April Wrap-Up

Amazon April was excellent since it resulted in some serious progress on Ganesha.

----->

May Memories, which commemorates something from the past, will be devoted to my oldest WIP, Ganesha. The more things change XD.

Goals for April:
1. Catch up on TAST and The Great Escape. No.
2. Work on Ganesha. Yes!
Pipe dream: Finish two pages of Ganesha Hah! No.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Finished Elemental Dragons.
2. Started and finished Christmyth Wyvern.
3. Started and finished Christmyth Giant.
4. Started and finished Christmyth Mermaid.
5. Started and finished Christmyth Salamander.
6. Started No Late Knight Snacking.

Goals for May:
1. Work on Japanese Octagon Box.
2. Work on Ganesha.
3. Finish No Late Knight Snacking.
Pipe dream: Finish Japanese Octagon Box

Grey Weekend

This month's IHSW was devoted to Ganesha and I managed to fill in more of the grey.
Ganesha
14ct white aida
I thought I'd share my thread sorter for this project since I'm very pleased with it. I don't use thread sorters because I'm too lazy, I just rewind the thread on the bobbin. But about 3/4 of the symbols are blends and it's way too much trouble trying to keep track of them. So this:

It's just a piece of 14 ct plastic canvas with the key taped to it. It took two tries to get the key sized to the right size so that one symbol=one square. As I said, I'm very smug about this XD.

I'm also a bit bored with all (16!) of my WIPs so maybe I'll start something small today...

Herculean Work

Amazon April, aka largest project. Stitch count-wise I think I might have some bigger projects, but physical size-wise Ganesha takes the cake.

And now that I've finished off Elemental Dragons, He is also my oldest WIP. With this picture I have now stitched more on him in this month than I had in the last two years.

Apparently starting those HAEDs have given me a better handle on how to handle serious confetti. Since He's fully gridded I'm going with a combination block by block and cross-country.
It doesn't look like much change since last time, but I've finished off all the black and a good chunk of the background.

Progress Is Progress

And we actually have the appearance of my "real"

project today!

Ganesha hasn't seen a needle since 2009! And this is how he was then

I decided on a two pronged plan of attack. An hour of tackling the boring background (which stitches up pretty fast) and two hours of the main design (which is a confetti filled monstrosity that does not seem to progress!)

This week...

I went back to college and my stitching time dropped horribly.

I got a bit more work done on Ganesha.



And then I got tired of all the thread changes.

Labour Day long weekend stitching!

Or not. My big plans were to do nothing and get some serious stitching done this Labour day weekend. I did nothing, and did not do much stitching. I spent about 4 hours gridding a piece of Aida for Ganesha.

There is a reason I don't grid and it's that it's a pain and takes way too long. But Ganesha needs it. He has too many confetti stitches and too many colour changes in small areas for me not to grid.

So the mindbendingly boring gridding later I started him and got 6 hours in. That six hours involved more colour changes and blended threads than any picture has any right to be. I think he rivals a few TW's for blended threads! And my god (haha) the confetti!!!



A horrible picture taken in the middle of the night with the flash glaring on the white fabric.

PINN Ganesha

At an epic 18"x18" and 250 x 260 stitches (from wall to wall) this is my largest piece to date.

Ganesha, also known by a horde of other names, is the Hindu god of new beginnings, obstacles and the removal of obstacles. He is one of the gods you worship regardless of which sect you belong to. And he's the one to pray to first before praying to the other gods.

After looking for ages for any cross stitch of Hindu gods I found him towards the end of last year. He was one of about 3 designs around at the time. Now PINN has released most of the very major gods of the pantheon... and I'm left wondering if I want a matched set!

Anyway he's definitely a long term project. And by long term I mean about 3 years. Anything longer than that is too long for me to plan for!