Villa Mirabilia progress

Cannot... finish... projects!

"Seriously, what is wrong with me? I was just revising my WIPocalypse projects and realised that I have three I could finish in mere days. Feasting Frenzy and the Permin butterfly kit are just a few backstitches away from being done, while Lady of the Thread needs only a few missing crosses. I thought with all these other projects and SALs going on it would be easier to let go of my finished pieces, but no! Honestly, I have no idea why I'm doing this."

I wrote the lines above...two and a half years ago. It seems like ages ago. I have finished all those projects but the issue still remains. Little Wings and Isabella's Garden are but a few hours away from being completed and I cannot seem to be able to bring myself to finish them. Why?

It's not like I would run out of things to stitch. I have over 30 projects in my WIP pile. Might be 40 or 50, I no longer keep count.

What is wrong with me? I have this unfightable urge to create, I love seeing the project go, when I am a week or two to go, all I ever think about, all I wanna do, is stitch. And then I reach a point where only the last touches need to be applied, and that is the point where I freeze. I can not touch it. I can't even bear looking at it. But why?

Several times I have tried to force myself. I sit down with the project on my usual spot. And I panic. I get nauseous, I can't breathe, my hands are shaking. I get physically ill. And it annoys me. I like thinking I'm rational. I'm logical. I'm an adult. I yearn for a finish. I want to wash and press them, I want to get them framed and show off to the world. But I am unable to.

Does anyone else get like this? Do you know why? Can I just not let go of my projects?

On the fence

After a week or so of stitching a bit whenever I can, I have made some progress on the fence and now you can see where the second little birdie is going to be. I had to force myself to do every stitch, it was so dull, colour and otherwise as well. I sort of lost my stitching mojo and I thought that if I find no joy in stitching, I should make myself do the joyless bits, like wooden poles and backstitching, the kind of tasks that normally ruin the stitching process for me. I did tire of this piece eventually, and went on other adventures, of which I will discuss in detail next week.

Boring bits

I know I told you how I was gonna work on the Lanarte kit I started a year ago, but didn't actually get around to post pictures. This was taken after a day or two after I picked it up again. Did work a bit more on the wooden fence in the background, stay with me, I will blog about it soon enough.

Red speed stitching

WIPocalypse sign in

February 14 – Topic: How many projects do you generally feel comfortable having in progress at a time?  Tell us about your one-at-a-time or rotation habits!

LOL. Comfortable. I am very comfortable with the idea of drowning in WIPs. Cross stitching is my favourite hobby, and I am quite certain it has saved me and changed my life for the better. I'm not going to ruin it by setting goals or deadlines or limits. That's not a hobby, that's work. So whenever I feel like starting a new project, I start it. I stitch on whichever WIP itches the most in my mind. I love the whole process, from staring at a chart and drink in the sight, to daydreaming about working on it; gather all the materials, pick or even dye the fabric, do the occasional conversions, experiment; stitch, photograph, blog, stitch, photograph, blog, until the eventual happy dance when I can start daydreaming about framing or other ways of finishing an item. I love all of it. And I'm done apologizing for it. No rules. No habits. No deadlines. Just the joy of stitching.

Update in pink

Tulip sampler SAL

Here is a progress picture of my latest project, a folk art style sampler of tulips. The chart was designed by a Hungarian lady, it is available for download on her blog in four languages, if you want to join the SAL, just click here and you can start stitching!

I'm working on 36 ct white evenweave, 2 over 2 with various hand dyed threads. I'm using more colours than what the chart calls for, simply because I may not have enough floss to finish the design with just one skein of each, and I can't afford purchasing more floss at the moment. Yep, still unemployed. But I'm stitching and positive.

Pink troubles

I continued working on the Villa Mira lady's skirt, but hit the breaks when I reached the bow it is a very bright pink colour I don't like and so avoid whenever possible. I am not familiar with the pink palette. So when it dawned on me that the 600 and 601 shades of DMC look identical, I became uncertain. Is it the lighting, did I make a mistake when I wound my floss on the bobbins, or are those colours simply that close to each other? Am I even gonna see any difference on the stitching? I didn't have Internet access for most of the holidays. I thought about contacting my stitchy friends, but I didn't wanna disrupt their family holiday time with such trivial things. So I jut put it aside and worked on my other projects. After all, there is no shortage of those! Here's how far I got:

Fly away already!

I've been busy like a little bee. One of my goals for the holiday season was finishing Little Wings. I feel like I've been working on it since forever. I started off real well, making crazy progress day after day on that huge green dress. Then I hit a bumper on the road, with the little girl's dotty dress, the confettis of hair and the backstitched vines. I still got it out every now and then, stitched a bit on those annoying parts and put it away wishing I'd never have to suffer the irritating task of threading my needle for no more than just three stitches. In the meantime I was aware that I am about a week of devoted stitching away from completing it. So I made it my mission to finish until next Monday. I am doing really well too. Mentally, I am at the point where I hate even looking at it and keep wishing I could stitch something else, but I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel and it makes me itch to go ahead and just finish it already.

Little ladies

My recent projects: the lovely pair of Lavender & Lace little girls, Emma and Isabella. I have started working on Emma's Garden ages ago, and I am still very nervous of touching it, as I dyed the fabric myself and I'm not a hundred percent sure I did a good job at it. Plus I am anxious in advance about the lace stitching at the bottom. Not like I can do anything about it, it's not like I even know what size 12 cotton looks like, so I cannot practice on a separate piece of fabric. Whatever, I will cross that stitch when I get there. ;-) Anyhow, I resumed working on it last week. It is done on 28 ct linen, 2 over 2. Isabella, however, is stitched on 32 ct marbled Zweigart linen, and she's done 1 over 2 to give her a more delicate look. I was a bit unsure about doing them in such different ways, but then I remembered that the designs are pretty different anyway. Isabella is a full body drawing while Emma is seen only from the waist up, so it's not like I could stitch them as a series like the Celtic ladies for example. I keep reminding myself that I should stop being such a perfectionist. I keep worrying what the end product will look like and beat myself up about every single x that doesn't look flawless. Fortunately I have learned to recognize when those moods are coming and I can remind myself to concentrate on the moment and just enjoy each coss as I stitch them. I will get there in the end.

Getting closer to the stars

I spent some time working on Stargazer recently. I didn't realize there would be so many beads on her dress too! I'm wondering if I could add them as I go, but I stitch with a hoop, as your expert eyes can probably see on this photo below, so I am not sure if that is a good idea. Also, I have decided to do her skin over one for a more sophisticated look. I really love it so far! I hope to do more on her during the holidays. Who knows, if I really get down to it, I may even finish her this year... although, knowing me, it is highly unlikely.

The skirt keep growing

I am still very much under the spell of Nora Corbett, when I am not stitching Mirabilias, I am looking at others' progress pictures online or staring at my own charts, admiring my fabrics and planning conversions. So, same stitchy lunacy as usual. Most of the time I'm working on Villa Mirabilia, with the ever growing chequered skirt I love so much. I also decided to do her skin over one. These are my latest pictures below. This week I am working on Stargazer, I will post on that in a few days. 

Mirabilia madness

Nora Corbett has a hold on me. Her designs are amazing and I just cannot stay away from them.

So she released Persephone some weeks (months?) ago, and I just had to order the chart immediately. I had a bit of extra money so I got the embellishment pack as well. I already picked a wonderful hand dyed fabric by Stephanie and bought the DMC floss required. No hand dyed floss yet, as the fabric I chose looks very different from the original. Therefore I will stitch the lady before I decide what colours I should use for the background pattern. Long story short, I have her kitted up and she is patiently waiting her turn.










 Then they released Red, which not only looks amazing, but she also reminds me of Ruby from the TV series Once Upon A Time. I love that series and Ruby is one of my favourite characters.

(SPOILERS!)

You may already know that I have a thing for werewolves. So for me Red has an extra special meaning. I don't even have the chart yet, but I bought a piece of 32ct grey marble linen and most of the floss. That is how nuts I am for this chart.

It was then that I realized that as much as I like finishes and try to make myself stitch smaller designs, my true calling is Mirabilia, as these designs give me the most joy, and I feel happier working on them then I feel finishing anything else. So, after years of futile efforts of not making more WIPs but concentrating on finishes, I finally embraced my nuts-for-Miras side and started working on Villa Mirabilia. It is my absolute favourite design and had it kitted up for years. I didn't start on it because its size scared me and I kind of assumed it will become a UFO. But now I had enough of waiting. I work on VM and every single stitch makes me happy. And, at the end of the day, that is all that matters.

Summer Tree progress

I think it's about time I shared some progress pictures of the SAL of Abi Gurden's Summer Tree of Stitches. I am two branches behind, but I love my tree and enjoy learning every single new stitch. I just cannot get enough of them.

Cute kit

This is a kit by Lanarte that my mother picked for herself. She really loves small birds, especially song birds. All winter long she makes sure they have enough food in the bird feeder in our back garden. And a very busy feeder it is too! Every time I visit, there are a big bunch of feathered friends feasting. Which is why I gave her the Dimensions birdhouse I stitched earlier this year. I hope I can finish this kit before Christmas! 

Below is the progress I made in a month.

Roll Your Own progress

I am still working on the Candyfloss square by Ink Circles. I am almost done with the top half. The rayon floss I use for the edges looks great, it gives the design a very stained glass look, but I admit it is very difficult to work with and significantly slows my progress down. I still love the design, but as I said previously, right now I have Mirabilia fever, so it is not my number one project.

In the meantime, Tracy has released the sequels to this mandala, and I signed up to buy all six designs. I even picked the colours for the next one and put my first stitches in it. I call it Summer Bride. The photos below are awful, I picked a light yellow piece of aida and some lovely warm shades of Anchor floss. But with bad lighting and a phone camera, it looks like this. I will take another picture later.

More Tree of Stitches photos

Finally downloaded the close up photos I took of Tree of Stitches in progress! Here are a few, and at the end, you can see the beaded beauty. She's already off to the framer's. Can't wait to get her back!

October in November

It's time for the October edition of the WIPocalypse report. Do not adjust your clocks and calendars.

Kit by Vervaco

Progress and S.E.X.

I've been stitching a lot lately, obviously I cannot show you the secret project, but I can inform you that it is growing steadily and I even started another minor secret project I am about to finish and reveal. Here are my progress pictures and a photo of my recent purchases. Yes, I've been a bad girl and increased my stash yet again.