A journey ever winding....

 I suppose that would be the case here. There has been so much happening, both in stitching and real life responsibilities, that it would take pages to describe. And frankly I just don't have the luxury of time or the energy to do it. Blogging rather fell to the wayside even more so than hobbies, so I haven't been keeping track of anything here.  But just the same, here are some highlights...

I no longer use Etsy for my patterns, I guess that's a big change. I do not agree with thier policies or some of thier practices /partnerships so that is that.  

   At some point I will be offering my patterns again, but it's something that needs full on concentration,  and currently real life is flexing its hold on me. 

 I do however, get a few minutes here and there throughout my day, and when 2024 began I actually made a resolution that STITCHING be a priority this year. 

With that in mind, I got to work and made some goals for myself. 

One of the first things I did was actually stitching. And I chose my 3rd oldest WIP, Midsummer Night Fairy by Mirabilia. She had very little left to do and so I spent New Year's with a renewed sense of determination. She was finished later that month and will get her own post. But resurrecting an old wip and finishing it was a goal accomplished. The next few goals however, are vastly different 😅

My next goal then, was to organize all my Chatelaine patterns and materials. I've collected the patterns for years, and a smattering of materials for them, but it struck me that some of these have been with me 20 years and still haven't been kitted, started, or done much but have thier cover photos be admired and a few threads in baggies.  

 So then, I organized everything I had to do with Chatelaines; thier charts, materials I had and materials that I still needed for them. I was pleasantly surprised that several were in fact close to "start -able " and these are moving up the que for this year. Fairy Garden Mandela being one, but that shall have its own post as well. 

  I then took my oldest Chatelaine, Persian Iris Garden, and put it on the scroll bars for some progress,  and that shall get its own post too. 

(This post seems to be serving as a sort of checklist for me 😅)

  The next endeavor was to get Pattern Keeper installed on an old kindle and load up what Full Coverage patterns I could onto it. The majority of my Full Coverage patterns are older paper ones, but after hearing about how great Pattern Keeper is, and the recommendations of several friends, I am convinced that it will help. And lol, my old kindle now has a bunch of Heaven and Earth Designs pdf charts in for just such an experiment, that I'm quite looking forward to.  What took a bit longer was recording my progress already done for the projects.

And I still need to figure out all the features of this Pattern Keeper, but it'd be nice to figure out how to load in my older charts, and the Mystic Stitch ones, and other various designers of Full coverage designs. 

 So it is only February and 3 major goals have been tackled already. 

 Goals that remain are rather simple: 

1. Chatelaines are the priority this year, to kit up, and get started. The Gloriana situation being what it is, I will simply look for a substitute if it can be done. Waterlillies, Thread Gatherer, and whatever else come in a wide range of colors so I'm sure there's something close. I'm also going to rely on my old method of getting materials to get the project started and kit as i go. 

2.  Ann Medd Sampler

This huge sampler is already started and has progress. I love working on this one, and she has permanent residence on my floor stand until completion. The lighting situation where that floor stand is currently, needs improvement. The goal for this one is progress. She tends to be a "summer project" just due to her position as furniture lol, and not being portable.

3. The Hannah Alexander Mucha Disney Princesses 

These too are a joy for me, and huge projects. What I'd like to do is complete my collection of these charts and continue progress on the ones started. I'm only missing a few of the Disney Princesses in the series. And I think there was a Sailor Moon series in the works last I checked...

Miscellaneous: 

In this category are "Consider the Lillies" sampler, "Seven Sheep Sampler" and various other ones that I'd like to see progress on.

March Lavender and Lace Celtic Ladies:

As per my custom, I will be devoting a priority to get progress on these during the month of March 

A New Release...

So much has been going on this past year, and already in 2018! But for simplicity's sake, let's start with the present, and the past can be talked more of in another post.
What is currently in the works, is this fun little witch, now available at my shop, EyeoftheMagpieByKate on Etsy.

 So naturally what follows is stitching the model of this design, and Brunhilda was started on January 15, 2018. And here is her fabric/threads preview...

And what she currently looks l like now...

And now that it's Hermit weekend, hopefully that means some major progress. I'm so ready for Hermitting! So... I will check back with an update on how she grows, but thank you for joining me on the journey with her ☺

At Long Last...

.... and so many of you have been so patient for this conversion. I wish to thank you all for your continued encouragement, and Marilyn for her brilliant job designing her LL Celtic Ladies. The following info is 3 main sections. First is the Conversion of the Colors Used to create the "Arwen" -inspired project, it is broken down into sections of her outfit, as you will see. You will need the original chart of "Celtic Summer" to complete this project. And of course, you may use these pictures here in this post.

Next is the design Modification, or the Conversion of her dress to look more authentic to Arwen's Coronation Gown;  and the Crown she wears.

Last but not least, this page of Info goes along with the Sleeve and Crown. Be sure to read all directions carefully, and I look forward to seeing more of these beauties in the stitchy world

January 2017

So January, the month of Resolutions (Lol I dont have any!) Organization, and Plans... So with 2 out of 3, let's start with the Organization idea....
 My biggest issue with my stitching is that, with so limited a time to work on it per day -if any- it HAS to be organized and easy access. Now add in a very mischievious young cat with lol, no brains, memory or sense of boundaries, well it also has to be packed away at the end of every work session or risk being destroyed. So Im ever on the hunt for a good way to store wips on qsnaps so I can just grab and go, and the materials just live in a bag for whichever project. The trouble Ive run into is more and more of my wips are growing into bigger qsnaps, and a storage solution for that (that wont take over the whole bedroom) is where Im at now. So hmmmm. Perhaps another "under the bed'' plastic tote, but the one I currently have takes up so much room I cant fit 2 there, but if I could find something of that sort it'd work. But I havent yet. And I must. Soon. So that's at the forefront of my January to-do list. What HAS been accomplished in the name of organization is getting some patterns organized- namely the Hannah Alexander Mucha Disney Princess charts, and the freebie SALs from Snowflower Diaries and the Brooke's Books Advent animals. Now that they are all organized and have binders to live in it's much easier to plan out and work on these, which brings me to the Plans stage :) .
Ah Plans.....
That magical little word that holds such promise, plans are always great to have, and mine seem to have the added glamour of always changing due to the "whatevers" that pop up. For that reason I dont usually make long term plans regarding what I'll start (or even, gasp! finish) so usually if I can think a month ahead Im doing great. But what has been on my mind these last few months is I would like to get some things going in 2017. Aside from the demands of the Etsy store I would like to take on 2 specific stitching goals. One is to start doing some xmas type projects, such as ornaments in particular, and use some of the bazillion patterns in the stash for said items, or the samplers and scenes therin also. The other is those Mucha Disney Princesses...

They have long been my collecting goal, and there are only 3 remaining to be charted. I do hope though, that Pinky will chart up other works of Hannah's, because they truly are gorgeous. But if not then so be it, at least I found Disney Princesses in a style that appeals enough that I'd stitch it. That said, I only have Merida started, Esmeralda, and now Ariel and Elsa, are waiting to be started; with Tiana, Kida and Anna the next to collect thier floss. My goal for 2017 is to get the complete set, and thier materials rounded up. Beads, I might go a different route than Mill Hill and get hanks or kilos if that is cheaper (no doubtedly so!)
I plan to keep the tradition of Guilt Free January going, so some of these may see a start in the next couple weeks.
Beyond these two ideas I have not made any other goals or plans for the stitching, it's very much as it happens in my spare time. That said, January has seen some great progress on 3 wips and 1 new start.
  First wip was my Ireland conversion of LLCeltic Autumn.

This was the project for the last week of Dec, and saw the most time on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day morning, which is why I include it here. Already I am glad that I did not jump the gun and release the Horse chart yet. As you can see, my original horse design didnt "fit" with the Celtic Lady, and I had to change the leg accordingly so this horse doesnt look like a giraffe! So it is, the odd perspective of the Celtic Ladies having very short torsos and super long skirts was a challenge to adapt my horse to not look stupid standing next to them, and normal horse conformation had to be re-thought on how it could even work. Simply put, it is much easier to just design a stand -alone thing than it is to mesh things together, but this is where Ireland's horse lives lol, so he'd better look alright ;). Now I just have to fix and frog the leg to look right.

  The 2nd Wip

was Victoria's Sampler's "Gingerbread House" that had a bit of progress and the discovery that I miscounted somewhere, Ugh, no suprise being it was started in Dec when the holiday madness was rampant lol. So it waits to be fixed now. It's stitched on the recommended fabric with DMC instead of silk and I love how it looks so far. Or rather once it's fixed ;).
  The 3rd Wip was Mirabilia's My Lady's Garden. I love this project but had a hard time getting into it this round. I usually work on it when I miss my sister (cuz it's for her when finished) so it saw some progress on Xmas and the day after.

  And the new Start was done on New Years Day, and it is Mirabilia's "Gypsy Queen", on a 28 count linen that I dyed myself with a random mix of all the dyes I had. So it's very "carnival" I think. She has had a modification, and back when I started her in May '16 (but was scrapped due to wrong color fabric) I had decided that she, and several others were going to be a makeshift "set" that I would do, and display together. So GQ is a musician now and has a tambourine. Im still searching for the perfect bling to make it authentic, but it seems what I had in mind isnt in style for jewelry parts anymore, and so I need to hunt or adapt something more easily obtained. But here is what is happening so far with her, and I love working on her.

  So January has been off to a great start in stitchy adventures... and I must needs embark on another.... :)  Thanks for stopping by!

So 2017 has begun, but let's see how 2016 ended...

...and there's so much catching up to do in the Blogger world! Facebook, FlossTube, and Instagram seem to be eating up my internet update time, but yet I do love blogs and thier in depth approach at thoughts.
So 2016-- What an adventure! I started creating my own patterns, opened an Etsy store for those said patterns, (EyeoftheMagpieByKate) and have been crazy busy managing it all on top of the usual chaos of life. Stitching outside of the pattern models took a hit rather, but it was a wonderful adventure with 2 finishes and several others on the go. So here is a pic of finished "Pocketwatch Pixie" by Kate Frederick, and framed also by myself...

And here is the finish of "Hope" also by Kate Frederick. This particular design was done in an effort to show solidarity with Standing Rock, and the proceeds were donated to the Water Protectors.

Thank you to all who have assisted in thier efforts to keep our water clean.
     Other designs released in 2016 at Eye of the Magpie Designs were "King Cedric of the North" , "Hexus Arachnis," "Every Witch Way" and "Princess Aurora of the North." (All designs available at my Etsy store). "Princess Aurora" in particular was alot of fun, because I decided to involve other stitchers to vote on her name in my Youtube channel. As you can see, "Aurora" got the most votes and the voters were entered in a drawing. I really liked how much fun that endevour was so will probably give it another go in future....
But in the meantime, some pictures of these designs....

And they take turns still as projects that need attention, but December did not see ANY stitching happen, it was far too nuts with holiday prep and painting orders the first weeks of that month. However, Xmas day I did work on My Lady's Garden, but only for a few moments. I will show pics of her in the January stitchy post, and then New Years' weekend was very stitchy but I will save all of that news for the January update ;)...

June and the monsoon...

Late again it seems, with an update :/ ! It seems videos are easier to do so thats been what my updates are lately.. But here it has been very hot n humid, followed by thunderstorms every day for over a week here. Perhaps it is monsoon season and El Nino is at work again...? So needless to say with such a scrambled routine there's been no horse training, no gardening, and no work happening that cant be done inside shelter in between deluges. We're rather rained out but I know it makes stuff grow, and July can be very dry so hopefully this acts as insurance...
  Anyway, with so much indoor time I did get to some stitching :D so there was rejoicing in that cuz I have alot of catching up to do. Last month was The Maynia event, which was to start 15 projects during the first 15 days of May, in the Stitch Maynia facebook group. It was alot of fun, although I did not start 15 things. As fun as it was, the challenge for me was to put the new start aside in order to start the next new one- I am used to and prefer to, spending more time on new starts when I get to have them. Now that June is here I hope to spend more time on a couple of the starts that I did do in Maynia. One of them being Mirabilias Sleeping Beauty, stitched on 28ct opal linen by Silkweavers, I hope it works out for her, I should know in the next couple hours of progress if it will or not...

        And then there was also the Snowflower Diaries collection that got started, this one is March. And why it was chosen is simply cuz I had enough colors to do so, but I still need to get some colors for the others in the set. They are so cute!
  The main focus has been a design of my own, and she is the Pocketwatch Pixie. Right now Im waiting for her kreiniks and beads but once they arrive I hope to push her to a finish. She has several sisters that are waiting in the wings so this needs to happen. Here is what she currently looks like, and Id say the hard stuff is done, only her skirt, wings and the watch are left.

  June also features Summer Soltice so Lithia is due to make an appearence for that. True to the nature of the LLCeltics, she'll probably capture my attention for awhile so Im just planning for it now ;).
 Hopefully June has a ton of progress to show at the end, keeping my fingers crossed for that anyway... and now since it is currently raining, again, I hope to see what has been going on in the blogging world since Ive been absent...
  Thanks for stopping by :)

Spring Update

So much happened this spring as far as the stitchin was concerned! For one, the world of Flosstube on youtube is a daily growing thing, and I just keep finding more and more people to discover on there! It's also where the majority of my progress has been posted, which sadly means blogging took a hit for awhile, but I hope to keep up with the 2 ventures.
  But should anyone be interested, here is the link to my channel there  Kowgirlkate Paints Aplenty
and there are plenty of awesome needleworkers to be found on youtube if you search "flosstube" on the searchbar of that site.
 But back to blogging lol. March was a spectacular month of working on the LL Celtics, Ireland and Scotland were the main focus peices, and Lithia got her skin finished, and Samhain got her beads figured out. Ireland had the most progress of all, all the beads in the top motifs are completed, and the horse is finished except for his legs and tail, so that was a major win. Scotland had a major frogging session and a bit of a rechart on the horse there, but all got fixed and sorted and ready for the next session. Of course pictures are needed lol!

Funnily enough, Easter was in March and I didnt work on Ostara, how pathetic is that lol. I had thought about it, but every qsnap I owned was full and for a one day thing, well it just didnt happen. I decided instead to finally start the Merida that day since the fabric mystery was over and I had made a choice what she would get. I do love working on her! The fractionals arent near as bad as what I thought, they are mainly in her belts and her hair, and looking at the other patterns they have some but nothing too serious. And there's hardly any confetti from what Ive studied the charts so far, blended threads yes, but the only confettie is very mild where 2 symbols meet, in order to make the transition look smoother. Very do-able, not like a HAED or TW. I do know that since I am doing mine on 28ct that I will need full size (11 o) beads instead of Petites, which is fine. But here is a pic, and she is on 28ct "Vintage" lugana from my lns, so Im guessing that's from Wichelt or Zweigart cuz they dont order from hand-dyed fabric dyers like Steph or Leslie and such. The color is a cool (not warm) tones similar to DMC 842. And here is Merida so far.

Now that April is here I have so many plans that I hope to get going on before warm weather puts a crimp on my stitching time. I still have big plans and hopes that stitching wont suffer this year though.... Thanks for stopping by :)