Dark Forces On The Rise

Yes, it's me - really! I know it's been a terribly long time. In fact, I think my last regular update - that actually showed progress - was in July 2015, when I had just finished the first row of the pattern.

Since then, I had only pulled it out a couple of times and made about hald a page worth of progress, so by the beginning of this year, Dark Force looked like this:

I'm doing a ten hour rotation this year, and earlier this month I decided to give Dark Force a turn as well. I stitched almost 1.500 stitches (giving up my per-column style since I switched to using Pattern Keeper) and now it looks like this:

I want to try and work on this for at least ten hours a month now. It would be lovely to have another row finish, but I'm not sure that'll work out this year so I'll be happy with just a couple pages of progress as well!

Total progress so far: 28448 stitches/20.66%

August Update Leonore

I didn't stitch on Dark Force this month, but it's okay as I hadn't planned to, I have reached my goal for the year, so everyhing else is a bonus, and I really need to finish some brithday/christmas presents first. I am still checking in, if only to talk about the monthly questions, of which there are two this month.

The first is about our first cross stitch project. Well my very first project was a bread cloth I made for my dad (in pastel pink, I'm sure he loved it lol), which was a stamped cross stitch. I'm not sure if he still has it and sadly, I don't have a picture, but I do have one of my first counted cross stitch, which was a trio of strawberry plants - they were actually supposed to be stitched seperately and finished as a pair of potholders and a jam lid, but seven or eight year old me chose to ignore the instructions and made this instead :D

The second question of the month is about colours, and while I do have favourites (I really like autumn colours, especially gradients from green-yellow-orange, and purples), depending on the use and situation I can gush about nearly every colour. I'm currently stocking up on DMC, going for a full collection, and they are all so nice and shiny!

Leonore's June Update

So half the year is over, and so far I managed to stick to my goals - one column each week. In fact, if I can keep this up, July should see both a page finish (two more columns) and a row finish (two more after that). Maybe once I've reached the right edge, I'll slow down a bit and focus on other things, since finishing one row was kind of my goal for the year, but we will see when I get there :)

As to this month's theme, we haven't planned a real vacation yet - maybe later in the year. This summer, we'll visit my boyfriend's parents in northern Bavaria, and have a few days of staycation. I'll also be going to a big gaming convention ^_^ So for now, my favourite stitching spot continues to be my spot on the sofa :D

Leonore's May Check In

May was a busy day for me stitching wise - we had three holidays/long weekend, which made for plenty of stitching time, so it was no problem to stay right on track with my one column a week goal. I finished page 3, and already started page 4 by finishing the first column - now it's only eight more columns/weeks until I can see the full width of the design and start the next row!

I also realized I didn't answer this month's theme yet - my favourite stitchy gift, that's a tough one! I've received nomerous lovely things, patterns, kits, supplies and other gadgets from friends and family, and I think it would be rude to try and pick favourites. So I'll go the way my heart goes, by always loving the one's I recently use most - that's a lovely design by Glendon Place, called Red Velvet Cake. The pattern and silks were a birthday present by my grandma, and the fabric I bought with a gift certificate I got from my friend Carla. The needleminder was a present from Carla as well, and the q snap I use I got from my friend Magical - a truely gifted project for sure!

Leonore's Dark Force - April Update

Another month, another five columns on Dark Force - I'm working on this slowly, but steadily, and like how it comes along. By now I have reached an area with a bit more color-blocking, so I can finish my weekly column a lot more quickly and actually work a bit more on my other projects as well :)

As you can see I only have three more columns gridded out, so May should see yet another page finish!

Leonore's favourite project

As most of you, I have quite a few projects 'on the go', and I adore every last one of them, so this decision wasn't easy. I love them all for different reasons: Dark Force for how awesome it is to seeing it slowly grow and being able to make out more and more of the picture, Things Unseen for the awesome overdyed threads involved, Cut Thru' Cottage for all the details and how backstitching is bringing it to life...but if I had to decide on only one, I guess I have to say it's the Mystery Band Sampler. A fellow blogger offered to do this mystery SAL for everyone interested, and I joined in on a hunch - couldn't be happier to do so! Each week, we get a new band to stitch, all different kinds of speciality stitches. We could choose between different color themes or rather gradients, and I chose to use the white->yellow one, on a light green fabric, which is one of my favourite color combinations.

These are the first nine bands of a total of twenty...I've fallen behind a bit and will try to catch up the three band I missed this week. It really is fun to experiment with the different stitches, and the colors are turning out lovely (they always look a bit pale on pictures, but much brighter in reality). I'm really learning a lot while stitching this, and might well use it as a reference guide for different kinds of stitches whenever I need them :)

February Dark Force - Leonore

Just in time before the end of the month, but I so wanted to get the latest column done and finally did yesterday - so here is Dark Force after one and a half months of stitching:

I finished page one, and the first two columns of page two, for a total of 7200 stitches so far, and therefor made my goal of one column a week. If you take a step back, you can already make out one horn and part of the head of one of the demon like figures in the bottom right :)

Leonore's January Update

So after a late start on the 13th I gained some ground by focusing on my project and not stitching much else. My main goal for Dark Force was to stitch one block (of 10x10 stitches) a day, which I reached (including catching up the first 12 days of the year) on the 25th. But I wasn't content, because I have another goal which would be so very nice to achieve and that is one column a week. Doesn't sound like much of a difference, considering that wach column is only 8 blocks, but since we are currently in week 5 it does mean I have to catch up one more row. I *might* manage to do just that over the weekend, which is really exciting! So far, I'm at four columns -> 4*8 = 32 blocks -> 3200 stitches, and I really love what I see so far.

A late start...

Though I'm still missing half of the floss (hurry up, post guys!), I really can't wait any longer, my fingers are itching...so, after preparing my fabric yesterday, today will be the day I'm starting Dark Force!

I'll be trying I few new (to me) things with this...gridding (though I decided to grid only one page at a time, as I stitch them) and my own interpretation of parking. It looks like I have most of the colors needed for the corner I want to start in; so here's hoping I'll get in a couple hundred of stitches before the weekend - I have some catching up to do after all!

Leonore