Raven Queen progress & Apr/May goals

Finally, an update on Raven Queen! I didn't quite finish the dress but I made some good progress and I'm happy with how she's coming along. :)

Showing off the black stitching first because it's easy to see exactly where I left off last time and how much of this dress is new since last time. 

 I wasn't able to completely fill in the top by the end of April but I made a good effort!

I also made good progress on Peacock Band Sampler but I can't find the pictures I took. Or maybe I didn't actually remember to take pictures? Not sure but I will show it next time. :)

April's goals were: 

• add one band to Peacock Band Sampler - DONE! (actually added two)
• finish Raven Queen's dress - not quite, but made good progress!
• finish Cucumbers - DONE!
• probably no buy of any stitching stuff - bought Tomatoes (Owlforest)

I thought I already had the Tomatoes pattern but alas, no. I bought it to go along with Cucumbers, and it uses the same fabric and threads so no additional expense beyond the cost of the chart. Less than $5 since I got it direct from their website - their Etsy shop is almost 2x the price!

So for May:

add one band to Peacock Band Sampler

finish Raven Queen's dress

stitch half of Tomatoes

probably no buy of any stitching stuff

Starting to feel a bit excited about nearing the end of Peacock Band Sampler! It's really beautiful in real life and everything feels like a breeze after the Jessica band, lol. Should be done soon!

Raven Queen skirt!

It was a lot of work but I got Raven Queen's massive skirt done!

I think there's technically an area of black on the right side, above the dark grey edge, but I don't want to stitch it as charted. It sticks out a lot more than the top of the left side of the skirt and makes everything look unbalanced. Not sure if I want to leave it out entirely or cut it down to a thin border against the dark grey, kind of like how it is on the left side. Need to do more of the dress first to see how it looks. :)

So, one monthly goal down! Except I forgot that I'd already finished the center band on Peacock Band Sampler last month, so that's done too, but I didn't actually do it. You know what I mean. :3

I guess it's back to Pennelate di Magia for now! I think two weeks is enough time to completely stitch one of the flowers. Right?? 

Raven Queen update and Feb/Mar goals

First up, Raven Queen! I did a lot more of her skirt over the past week or so and had a nice time with it. Sometimes big blocks of color are what you need! Here's how she looks now.

I added one darker shade of blue to the skirt's edge in place of the grey that's been used in a few other smaller spots to show folds in the fabric. You can see that in the bottom right part of the blue trim. The grey area was too big and looked unnatural. It works well for the sharper folds on the left, but in this large area it didn't quite work. Luckily there was another blue in the same color family that works great. :) 

And now, goals! February went better than expected. 

• one section of Jessica stitches on Peacock Band Sampler - did the whole damn thing! :)
• one section of central band fills on Peacock Band Sampler - almost finished this too!
• add one flower on Pennelate di Magia - DONE!
• 100% no buy of any stitching stuff - DONE!

So for March...

• finish central band on Peacock Band Sampler
• add one flower on Pennelate di Magia
• finish(?) Raven Queen's skirt
• start my next "small"
• probably no buy of any stitching stuff

I say probably to the no buy because I have a few DMC colors that are running low and I'm not going to force a no buy when I need a basic supply to finish an active WIP. And Raven Queen's skirt might be a bit overly ambitious, but probably not. I'll push myself to get there and if I don't, that's okay. :)

My new start will be Harvest Season: Cucumbers by Owlforest. At 120x88 it's not really a small, but it's smaller than my usual nonsense. :3

Isn't that cute?? I just have the chart, not the kit, so I'll be grabbing fabric and threads from stash. I do have a good amount of Owlforest floss left over from previous thread packs, so I might have a few of the charted colors. If not, no worries, I definitely have something that will work!