Sunday, January 24, 2016

2016 The 1ST Wipocalypse of the Year

Hello all, I am so happy to be sharing with you all in this new year.

For the first month of 2016 our Questions is not really a question but more a who are you and what are you planning for this year.
Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!

I am an avid stitcher that loves to have a needle in my hand whenever I can. I usually have 4 projects going at once and sometimes up to 7. I rotate about one project per day but for some I just can't put it down after a single day so I push on with it for 2 maybe 3 days. This usually happens when I am close to a finish or completing a particular area of a project. I have no one particular designer or style that I like to stitch. I am all over the map with the things I stitch. MOST of my projects are made as gifts for family and friends, but this year I have decided this is the "Year Of ME" I want to stitch the entire year things that are devoted to be items I will keep. People that know me have laughed when I tell them this. They all are placing bets on when I will cave in and see a project and say ooohhhhhhhh that would make a perfect gift for.....I know this is bound to happen but I hope that the majority of my stitching will be projects that I have bought for myself.

Just this week I have got my WIPs up to 4 projects that I am currently rotating.
#1 is my HEAD Christmas Cottage by Dona Gelsinger I want to put alot of time in on this The end of 2015 saw me finishing the first to rows, this means I am a bit over 25% finished. The pattern says 64 pages but that is a bit miss leading there are 48 full pages the other 16 pages are just partials. Regardless of all that I have quite a way to go and I want to complete at least 1 full row this calendar year. This is a fun stitch as there are areas of confetti mixed in with large areas of solid colors so I get a good combination of stitching all in one project.
#2 is my Glendon Place Whooligan's Hangout this is a fun stitch to do, it is easy to work and just goes together so well. I am combining this with another pattern as I have an image in my mind of how they will look together. I hope my imagination is as good as the actual product. I want to make it a surprise to the first time I show the full piece will be when I get to the end.
#3 is a Mill Hill Santa. I do not usually do Mill Hill because I do not like beads. It is just a personal thing, normally I convert the beads to metallic thread but this one is so cute that I am going to muttle through and do the kit as is, beads and all. 
#4 is Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Again I do not normally do kits but I have had this in my stash for many years. I bought several of the Disney designs and my intent is to complete a group of the characters and then make myself a quilt.  The progress picture is where I am currently but I am working on her today so I will be a bit farther tonight.

So this is my update for this full moon. I look forward see the other stitchers work and continuing on with my own work. Hope you are all doing well and that this New Year will bring health and happiness.

Monday, January 18, 2016

New Starts and some Progress reports

Hello Everyone,

Well we are on the way with a New Year. It has not been the best start. I caught a nasty chest infection and I have been home trying to get relief. The cough was bad enough that I finally went to the doctor and she gave me cough syrup and antibiotics. So far the cough is still here but at least the syrup is helping me to at least sleep.

So as far as stitching is concerned I have a couple of new starts and I am working on the other 2 WIPS. The first is the Mill Hill Beads Santa. I have made nice progress. His beard is coming on and looks good.I also got some of Santa's hat worked.

I then started on Glendon Place Whooligan's Hangout. I am going to add this into the Frank's Family Portrait. I think the two of them are going to compliment each other nicely. I kinda want this to be a surprise so I am going to show updates but I am keeping the full reveal for the end. I hope it turns out as well in stitching as I have it in my imagination. 

 Another new start is a Disney kit that I have had for years. I want to stitch several Disney characters that I want to finish and then make a quilt. This is a project for myself so no time limit on when these characters are going to be finished. 


I am a bit funny, I try to always start in the middle of a project and then I work to the face. I like to finish the face and then they can watch me stitch the rest of the project. It motivates me to keep going and get it finished. 

So I now am back up to my perfect rotation number. I hope that I can feel good enough to get back on track.

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

A New Year

Hello everyone, Welcome to the New Year a time for fresh starts. Both in our personal life and our stitching life. It was a wonderful holiday season and I am thankful for the time we had with our kids and friends but it is going to be nice to get back to normal......Whatever normal is..(HEE HEE)

So I have had time off to do nothing but visit and stitch and I was able to finish the second row of my HAED before the end of last year (2015). Admittedly it was New Years Eve but still . That means I am a little over 1/4 of the way finished. I figured it out and I have done 71,000  of the 252,900 stitches, give or take because I do not stop a color at the end of a page I keep going until it ends or the color stops. 
 

2015 in review. I had several stitching resolutions and some I completed while others I did not get too. I wanted to complete the last 4 of the Cottage of the Months for my daughters collection. DONE I had wanted to complete 4 squares of the quilt I am making for my son. I got 2 DONE. I wanted to complete the Frank's Family Portrait on my own dyed fabric. It is about 1/2 done. And I had 3 projects that I did not get to. However I did start and finish 20 projects and I finished 3 projects that were in progress at the end of 2014. So I believe that it was a successful stitching year. Along with all of that I sewed 3 wallets, 4 mice, and 11 owls. I have worked a bit on hubby's blanket which I plan to have done before the end of January.

I am starting on my New Years Resolution, I always stitch for others but this year I would like to stitch for myself so that is my only resolution- do projects for ME. Finish Frank's Family is one of the first projects. There will also be time spent on my HAED Snowman. I am going to work Santa until he is finished and hope that the beads are not to bad..... There will be many snowmen worked this year with fun and creative ways to finish them. So a selfish year of ME,  ME,  ME. At least that is the plan as of now, all my close friends are taking bets on how long it will be before I see something and decide it would be the perfect gift for someone.