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

Year End Wrap Up

Now in it's second year! 2010, 2011, 2012 (on hiatus), 2013

This year's finishes:

And a look at numbers:
Total finishes: 18
New starts: 20
Pieces started and finished in 2014: 17
WIPs at the start of the year: 9
WIPs at the end of the year: 11
WIPs that didn't see a single stitch last year: 8
Oldest WIPs: From 2009
WIPs to discard: 4

Fastest finish: 3.5 hours (Pearls & Rosebuds Biscornu)
Most time consuming piece: 231.75 hours (Egyptian Sampler)
Pieces that took 10 hours or less: 7
Pieces that took between 10 & 50 hours: 8
Pieces that took over 100 hours: 3
Total hours stitched in 2014(approximately): 646

Previous years
2010: 825
2011: 635.5
2012: 687
2013: 731.5
2014: 646

Looking at the numbers I'm shocked to realize that almost everything I stitched this year was a new start. The only pre-existing WIP I worked on was Deco Spirits. I kept thinking that surely Egyptian Sampler, at least, must be an oldie, but it was my New Year's Day start. I've also decided that there are some WIPs that I just hate working on and it's time to accept that I will never finish them. As such 4 projects will be exiting the house with today's trash. Farewell Hardanger Angel, Blue Moon (2nd try! It's just not meant to be), Sampler Bookmark and Ocean Biscornu.

Looking forward: I'm going to start making monthly goals again since I think it does help me have a better idea of what I'm working on. I really, really, really want to start finishing up my old WIPs and assembling some of the smaller finishes languising in my Finished Drawer.

General Goals for 2015:
1. Finish Celtic Autumn
2. Finish at least one page of Autumn Winds
3. Start and finish one of the following: Cirque des Cadeaux, Cinderella or Tradewinds
4. Finish-finish at least 6 smalls

Goals for January:
1. Finish a Mill Hill ornie
2. Finish all DMC stitching on Celtic Autumn

I hope everyone has a great stitching/knitting/crocheting/crafting year next year!

Last Biscornu Of The Year

This is not actually the last finish for the year. That was Sheep Needleroll. I finished Winter Biscornu by last week but didn't post it.
It's a bit plain since I didn't stitch the second side. I realized 90% in that I had gotten mixed up and the tops of half the stitches were in a different direction than the other half. And the berries all face the same direction instead of being symmetrical. I thought about frogging; then I though about who would actually be looking that closely; then I thought about my perfectionist streak; then I gave up. I still finished assembling it, but it's going to be the black sheep of my biscornu collection.
Speaking of my collection. These are all twelve biscornus I stitched this year for the Smalls SAL. I won't be stitching biscornus next year. I have some Mill Hill ornies to knock off and then I'm not sure :)
My yearly stats post will be up later tonight.

Title	Winter Biscornu
Designer	Ancsanapló
Start date	December 15, 2014
Finish date	December 20, 2014
Total time	8 hours
Fabric	28 ct black lugana
Floss	As charted

Purple Sheep

On impulse I joined hohla's latest freebie SAL. Since next year is the Year of the Sheep/Goat/Ram in the Chinese Zodiac she designed this cute needleroll in celebration. It was one of those SALs where you have to send a picture of each part before a deadline to receive the next part. It was pretty fun even though Christmas almost made me miss a deadline.
I used leftover floss from Shepherd's Purse by Shepherd's Bush, which I finished back in 2011! Why yes, I am a packrat, however did you guess ;)
There were tons of specialty stitches but none were new to me. Satin Stitch, Straight Stitch, Double Herringbone and Rhodes Circles in the bottom.
The sheep is composed of lots of little Jessica Stitches and one big modified Jessica.
The bottom is Double Herringbone, Norwich, and partial Rhodes Stitches.

I've never made a needleroll before, but there are so many good tutorials so I think I'll be fine. Admittedly, this is me, so it's probably going to wait for ten years before it actually gets assembled lol

Title	Sheep Needleroll
Designer	hohla design
Start date	December 17, 2014
Finish date	December 27, 2014
Total time	11.5 hours
Fabric	28 ct black lugana

December SFS

Wrapping up this year's SFS, I didn't buy anything this month.

My spending for the year was $83.03. I bought 1 chart and fabric for that chart. The rest was all floss that I ran out of.

It was very helpful in keeping track of what exactly I was buying. I was pretty focused on finishing off old WIPs so I didn't spend as much this year. If I'd tried SFS two years ago I'm sure I would've failed immediately. I was a bit of a spendthrift that year. This year was focused on starting/finishing some of the things I bought then. I'm planning on doing this again next year. There are bonuses based on the size of finishes but since that sounds like too much work to figure out I'm just going to stick with the $25/month and use the freebie month.

More about Stitch From Stash here:

More Skirt

Continuing on with Celtic Autumn's skirt. I'm enjoying the orange and bored by the cream/white.

Celtic Autumn
32 ct Antique White LuganaI also want to start something new, but I'm trying to satisfy the need with a biscornu and hold off until the new year. I want to stitch something almost violently colourful but I can't think of any design that fits.

Ladies Take A Bow

Deco Spirits are done! As seen in this terrible terrible photo. They look a lot more vibrant in person.
I made some changes. I switched out the DMC metallic for Kreinik. Some of the metallics are supposed to be blended with regular DMC but the first time I tried it the cotton kept fraying madly so I just gave up. Instead I just stitched the metallic and added a top half-cross in the cotton.

Title	Deco Spirits
Designer	Mirabilia
Start date	October 6, 2013
Finish date	December 9, 2014
Total time	202 hours
Fabric	32 ct white lugana

Orange and Green

I finished a bit more of Celtic Autumn's dress. I've been switching between this and Deco Spirits and the next colour to stitch is white for both. I'm not really feeling like it. Maybe I'll start this month's biscornu instead.

Celtic Autumn
32 ct Antique White Lugana

November SFS

Squeaking this in 20 minutes before midnight!

A bit of spending this month as I picked up $9.55 worth of DMC.

Spending so far is $83.03
I have $191.97 banked.

I guess technically speaking I could use December as my freebie month and go crazy...

More about Stitch From Stash here:

Red And White (And With A Button)

This month's finish is an Aurelle biscornu, but I don't know which one and I can't find a link to it.
I'm determined to use up this piece of red aida and I just use white because it's such a lovely contrast and I never have to think hard about colours.
Both sides are the same but with the bottom lacking the giant motif at the centre.

Title	Unknown Aurelle Biscornu
Designer	Aurelle
Start date	November 2, 2014
Finish date	November 5, 2014
Total time	11 hours
Fabric	16 ct red aida
Floss	DMC B5200

November TUSAL

It's the New Moon and so it's TUSAL time.

This month's TUSAL has oranges and cream from frogging Celtic Autumn.

The Importance Of Proper Planning

After finishing Ohm I decided to start Celtic Autumn, the companion to the Celtic Spring I finished three years ago. (I didn't realize that it's been three years!)

I was stitching along merrily and happy with my progress.

But then I wondered by there was almost five inches as the top border. My borders are normally three inches for things I plan to frame. I couldn't figure it out and went to bed.

And then I sat up and smacked myself on the head. I'm planning on only the stitching the lady and had cut the fabric for that. Do you see where this is going? Yep, I started stitching from the centre of the entire pattern. Cue almost two hours of frogging and then restarting. Luckily most of the ripped out area should be covered by the skirt. But I still can't believe I made such an amateur mistake!

Celtic Autumn
32 ct Antique White Lugana

Grab Your Dancing Shoes

Ohm is done! It took me just a little over 100 hours and I enjoyed every minute of it.
It's really a design that looks good at a distance but incredibly garish close up. So no close ups :)

Title	Ohm
Designer	Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks
Start date	May 7, 2014
Finish date	November 10, 2014
Total time	100.75 hours
Fabric	25 ct black lugana
Floss	DMC as charted

75% And A Bit

I finished the third lady from Deco Spirits and started on the last one. I think I might finish it by the end of the month. Definitely by the end of the year.

Deco Spirits
32 ct White Lugana

Squeezing In

Unlike my usual habit of finishing a biscornu a few days before posting I finished this two weeks ago, and almost forgot to post it today.

This is Papillon Creation's Magic Carpet freebie.
I like it, but I still feel like the colours all bleed into each other too much. You can barely tell that there's orange and blue in the flowers.
The overlapping fly stitches were pretty fun.

Title	Magic Carpet
Designer	Papillon Creations
Start date	September 27, 2014
Finish date	October 14, 2014
Total time	18.5 hours
Fabric	28 ct black lugana
Floss	Dinky Dyes Aquamarine, DD Cloudy Sky, DD Desert Sands, DMC White
Beads	MH 2002

October SFS

Another month without any spending but more through Michaels not having several colours of floss than my restraint. Ohm is on hold until they get restocked or I decide to head out to my LNS.

Spending so far is $73.48
I have $176.52 banked

More about Stitch From Stash here:

October TUSAL

I forgot to post my TUSAL jar yesterday.

The green is from where I mixed up 702 and 704 while stitching Ohm. While it's impossible to tell because of the design style I still felt odd about leaving the mistake in, so I went ahead and frogged it.

Continuing Ohm

I got a bit more done on Ohm. And I'm still enjoying it, so more Ohm pictures for the foreseeable future. yay?

Ohm
25 ct Black lugana
I took at all the smalls I need to finish today. There are so many of them and it was very disheartening. I have no clue how you frequent finishers do this! There's measuring, cutting, lacing, assembling and adding all kinds of ribbons/ricrac/buttons/pompoms. I get so overwhelmed just thinking about it and go back to stitching on my WIPs because it's so much less thinking and decision-making involved. What are your secrets? Tell me and save me from this growing pile of smalls-that-need-to-be-finish-finished.

More Ohm

I made visible progress on Ohm. I'm debating just sticking with this until I finish it. It's just so much fun to work on.

This is what it looked like when I picked it back up:

Ohm
25 ct Black luganaAnd this is what it looks like now:

Washed Out

I started October's biscornu last month and was about an hour in when I realized that it was October and I wasn't stitching a Halloween biscornu. But then I realized that I don't have any Halloween themed patterns suitable and continued on. This is Papillon Creations' The Magic Carpet (it's available under "Free Charts" on the right). It was when I went back to get a link that I realized that the pattern is from Scheherazade, which I finished two years ago!

The Magic Carpet
28 ct Black LuganaI'm using Dinky Dyes Aquamarine, Desert Sand, Cloudy Sky and DMC white. Unfortunately it's not just the flash washing the colours out. The colours do look that washed out in person. On the other hand, I'm already done one side!