Stitching bug is back!!

After months of feeling rather "meh" about stitching, my bug is back! I'm not sure why, but I suspect it has something to do with a challenge I joined on the HAED face book site, but whatever caused it, I am thrilled. All I know is that as soon as the day-to-day stuff is done, stitching is on the top of my list of things to do, so lots of stitching has happened the last week.

I do have a couple of SAL check-ins, but there is cross over in my projects so you'll be getting a twofer.  The HAP SAL is hosted by Stacy at Crossed Stitches and is designed to help us focus on those huge projects we may be stitching.  YOTA is hosted at Pull the Other Thread and is a WIP focused SAL.  The piece they have in common is Shakespearean Fantasy by James C. Christensen as charted by Heaven and Earth Designs (HAED). I am very pleased to say that I have a page finish!!

Stitched on 28-count antique white Jobelan with DMC 1 over 1

If you take all the stitches I have put in, I probably have two pages done but that block of black (with a few other colors) is a full page plus a couple blocks from the next.  My stitching style with this type chart is changing from cross country to parking so the next few pages are going to be a little strange looking as I make the transition.

Part of the reason for the transition is Christmas Presence.  I have spent more time than I care to think going back and filling in stitches that I missed while going cross country. I have finished two columns and hope to finish another one today.  When I put it up last night, it was here:

Stitched on 28-count antique white Jobelan with DMC 1 over 1

Because I am normally a one-color-at-a-time stitcher, I am using a low-tack tape to mask off the columns to the right of the one I'm working on so that my eye doesn't wander.  It looks funny but it does keep me focused and has the added advantage of pulling off the cat hair that has worked its way into my stitching.

The other reason for the switch is that I started Its About Time (the lack of an ' in the title is driving me crazy as I don't think the "its" is really supposed to be a possessive) by Ciro Marchetti and, again, charted by HAED using the parking method and it is sooooo much faster and easier than cross country. I was able to finish this:

Stitched on 28-count antique white Jobelan with DMC 1 over 1

in a little less than an hour with no missed stitches. I also saved time on the gridding as I am only doing the horizontal lines. I figured that if I was working on one column at a time I really didn't need the vertical lines.

Other than working on the three HAEDs, I also started and finished the November block for The Sampler Life's SAL.  It's Sampler Motif from Wendy KC Designs. It was charted for, to me, very spring time colors, so I switched them up and went more fall-ish. The colors are more muted than the photo shows.

 

Now that I have finished my small for the month, Sunday mornings will be devoted to the Plum Street Samplers Sunday Mystery SAL.  The HAEDs are put away for a while and I will be spending the rest of today and tomorrow afternoon working on Chatelaine's Secret Victorian Garden.