January WIPocalypse

WOW!!  My last post struck a chord with a lot of stitchers!!!  I was frustrated when I wrote it and needed to get it off my chest before I did something silly like throw the piece under the next train. I certainly was not expecting the response I got.  Lots of horror stories out there, but I think the winner of the worst is Natasha at A Stitchers Ramblings that has a chart with only three symbols for the entire thing - one square and two different sized circles!   I would probably burn it before I finished the piece.

It's cloudy and I can't see it, but calendar says there is full moon out there today and so it's time for WIPocalypse!!!  WIPocalypse? You ask?  Yep, WIPocalypse, it's hosted by Melissa over at Measi's Musings.  She started the SAL in 2012 as a way to finish all finish some make progress on our WIPs before the world ended in December.  Well the world didn't end at least as far as I can tell, but who knows maybe it did and we're all really living in some alternate reality - that sounds much too much like one of those philosophy questions we used to get in school and my brain is really not up for that discussion right now but a lot of WIPs were actually finished and a fair number had progress made on them.  As it was so successful, she graciously continued hosting last year despite the small issue of becoming Mom to the very cute Max and all the time *that* entails and again this year.  If you're interested in participating, click on the dragon logo and it will take you to the sign-up and basic information page.

This year she gave us some general themes for our monthly posts. This month we're introducing ourselves and discussing our plans and goals.

I think most of "me" is in that little blurb up in the right hand bar, but I'll do it again anyway - I'm Susan and I live in northern central Virginia as opposed to southern northern Virginia which starts about 20 miles up the road.  I have lived here for about six years.  I lived in New Hampshire for the twenty-one years before that and all over before that as my father was a career Army officer and my first DH was also career Army.  The family here is made up of The Hubs and three spoiled rotten cats I suspect that spoiled rotten cat is a redundant statement.  DSon still lives in New Hampshire and, no, I don't get to see him as often as I'd like darn jobs!!!  I have been stitching for close to thirty years I blame my addiction on my Mother as she told me all about this neat "new" craft of cross stitch and how she thought I'd enjoy it well, I never do things by half and jumped right in and have not looked back that part I can't blame on anyone but me.  In addition to cross stitching, I enjoy paper, bead and fabric crafts and am teaching myself to knit (again), I also do a lot of reading and am always open to trying new crafts which usually gets me in trouble - see above comment about "halves".

I have five projects on my list this year.  I expect a couple of finishes, but am really only looking for progress on these:

• Santa's Magic by Mirabilia
• Enchanted Swans by Just Nan
• Elegant Doily by Kayann's Kreations
• Serengeti by Chatelaine
• Three Tulips by With Thy Needle and Thread

You can see the January 1st photos in the 2014 WIPocalypse and YOTA projects tab up there at the top.  As I finish a project, I will randomly pull a "new" one from the WIP list over there on the right hand side of my blog except for the Just Nan piece, it will be replaced by another Just Nan piece as I am participating in that SAL too.

So far, here is what I have accomplished on the WIPs since the last full moon I have stitched on other pieces, but they aren't on the list and will show up in other SAL posts.

Santa's Magic had a fair bit of work done on it:

Here is the before:

And here he is now:

As did Enchanted Swans:

Before:

And after.  Yes, this is a finish!

Elegant Doily saw a little bit of work.

This is a close up of the section on the right on the before photo

And finally, Serengeti is on the frame right now.

This weekend is the first International Hermit and Stitch (IHSW) weekend.  I have a new small going into the frame tomorrow, Serengeti will be worked on Saturday and Santa's Magic will go back onto the frame on Sunday.  If you are interested in promoting stitching over less interesting things like housework this coming weekend, click on the little hermit crab in the right menu bar and it will take to Random Ramblings and give you all the information you need to participate.

Thank you for sticking around until the end of this rather long post, I promise, they are not all like this!!