December WIPocalypse and YOTA - 2014 Recap

Before I get started on my recap, Happy Birthday to DSister! I was digging through pictures but couldn't find any of the two of us when she was a baby.  The closest I got was this one:

It was taken Easter 19-something-something when she was 2 and I was 4 or 5 depending on when Easter was that year.  That foliage behind us?  I think it's honeysuckle that got a bit out of control.  The year after this picture was taken, a chicken took up roost in it.  No we didn't live in the country, we were only a few miles from the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman - we figured she was someone's Easter chick that got away (or was allowed to get away as it wasn't cute any longer). We fed her graham crackers and named her Chicken Licken.  Unfortunately, chickens are not good house pets so when we moved to Michigan, we couldn't take her with us.  So one weekend, we caught her, and found a nice farm that took her in.  I am sure she spent many long, happy years wandering around the farm yard doing whatever chickens do and died peacefully in her sleep of extreme old age.

So besides my sister's and DBIL's birthdays and their anniversary and Christmas, December means - recaps!!  As it's the first Saturday of the month and a full moon, there are two recaps, WIPocalypse and YOTA.  Fortunately they are both WIP focused SALs so it is great that the final post for 2014 for both of them falls on the same day.

I had five pieces on my WIPocalypse/YOTA list this year.  I am really pleased with the progress that I made on all of them.

Santa's Magic by Mirabilia went from here:

To here:

Enchanted Swans by Just Nan started here:

And was finished on January 3rd:

Elegant Doily by Kayann's Kreations went from this:

To this:

The section shown in the before photo is on the left in this photo

I had a bit of a switch up with my Chatelaine piece.  I started with Serengeti and went from here:

To here:

Before it was put away in favor of Secret Victorian Garden.  SVG went from this:

To this:

The lower right section in the before photo is the upper left in this one.

And finally, Three Tulips by With Thy Needle and Thread went from here:

To a finish on April 10th:

So two finishes from my list and good progress on the other three. I don't know if either of these SALs will continue into 2015, but I will continue with my WIP reduction plan. 

Speaking of 2015 SALs, Gifted Gorgeousness, DESIGN and A New Stitchy Start 2015 are still taking sign-ups.  Heather at Stitching Lotus has announced that she will continue with the Smalls SAL for 2015 and is taking sign-ups and Mel at Epic Stitch has a page up, although sign-ups are not open yet, for Stitch from Stash 2015A. Clicking on the SAL's name should take you to the sign up/information pages for each one.

Secret Victorian Garden went on the frame today and I may take a break from the rotation, honestly I have been rubbish at doing any stitching the last couple of weeks so I don't think it will make too much difference, and just leave it on the frame for the rest of the year. I am also gridding fabric for three, yes three, HAED starts (two fairly smalls ones for HAEDs and Shakespearean Fantasy) and am finding it rather relaxing so will throw that in every so often also.  I do hope to have one more small finish this year, but am not really pushing too hard as I have a ton of holiday crafting and baking to finish up over the next couple of weeks.

March WIPocalypse

There's a full moon which means no not werewolves it is time for my WIPocalypse post (this will be very picture heavy).

    is hosted by Measi.  If you click on the dragon badge you should be taken straight to the information page.  This is my third year participating and it has been a wonderful incentive to work on my WIPs.  This year topics have been added for each month and this month's topic is to show my favorite stitching place.  My favorite place to stitch is this:


From the balcony of the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel in Hilo, Hawaii

However, my reality is:

This is my corner of the den.  Everything is right there within easy reach and I can see this:

With a slight turn of my head to the right I sometimes see this:

but more frequently it is this:

And that is my stitching place and my computer place and my storage place and the cat's bird watching place.

As I mentioned last month, I have four projects left from my original WIPocalypse list:

Mirabilia's Santa's Magic:

In February it was here:

And as of today, it is here:

Kayann's Kreations Elegant Doily went from here:

To here you really have to look to see the additional eyelets that were done on the left side:

Thanks to an unexpected day off from work, With Thy Needle and Thread's Three Tulips had the most progress.  It went from:

To:

And a final showing of Chatelaine's Serengeti, that went from here:

To here:

Yes, this is going to be the last showing of Serengeti for a while.  I have put Chatelaine's Secret Victorian Garden into the rotation as it is closest to being finished and I am hoping to either finish or get it very close to finished before the end of the year.  So from now on, you will see:

 



IHSW, YOTA and TUSAL

I was traveling for work and didn't get home until last night, so I am a bit late posting for ,  and YOTA. 

My IHSW post is really easy - I did H but didn't do any S!  Probably my worst IHSW.  Fortunately there's another one coming up in a few more weeks.

Plenty of stitching did take place this month, just not on IHSW so lots of threads were added for TUSAL:

The cats took exception to something that was outside and knocked the jar off the table when they had to get whatever it was, so the threads are no longer in any order, but still a very pretty combination.

I was able to stitch on each of the projects on my YOTA list this past month, there is more progress on some than others, but they all saw some progress so a good month.

First up is:

Santa's Magic by Mirabilia.  It went from this:

 

To this:

Serengeti by Chatelaine went from here:

To here:

Three Tulips from With Thy Needle and Thread started February here:

And ended the month here:

And finally, Elegant Doily by Kayann's Kreations went from this:

To this:

Three Tulips will be going on the frame this afternoon for its turn in the rotation.  We are under another winter storm warning for up to 12" of snow, sleet and freezing rain through tomorrow night, so I may have a bit more stitching time than I had anticipated for this week.

February WIPocalypse

I hope everyone in the path of the last storm made it through okay.  We had about 7" of snow then a 1/2" of ice and then another couple of inches of snow.  It is a bright and clear day and it has warmed up into the high 40s so a lot of the snow is melting.  They're calling for rain and snow overnight and into tomorrow.  I am joining the chorus of "I am ready for Spring!!" that seems to be so popular right now.

I went in to Michael's today to pick up some reading glasses Yes, reading glasses at a craft store, they have a bunch of really fun colors and patterns and for $2.99 USD a pair I can let my inner child play without guilt

Speaking of inner child, as I was waiting in line to check out, I found these pens:

 

The two on the left are Mary Engelbreit and the one on the right is from Kate Spain.  The best thing about these pens?  Other than their bright colors and fun shape?  And that they were only $1.00 USD each?  They will not walk away from my desk at work!!!  Well they might, but the list of possible culprits will be fairly short as I can rule out the men. 

 

I'm sure Michael's was totally underwhelmed with my total purchase today.  ESPECIALLY since I used a 40% off one item coupon.  Hey, I was not going to waste a perfectly good coupon!!!

 

But onto WIPocalypse.  Measi over at Measi's Musings has hosted the monthly WIPocalypse since 2012.  If you're interested in reading more about it or joining up, click on the dragon

 

This year she has provided us with questions to go along with each month's check-in and I am really enjoying getting to know more about everyone.  This month the question is: How many projects do you generally feel comfortable having in progress at a time? and then a bit about our rotation habits.

 

As far as how many projects do I feel comfortable with?  It has been so long since I felt comfortable with my WIP list, I really couldn't say.  I have narrowed my rotation down to five pieces and don't feel too overwhelmed by that so, I'll say five but reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

 

My rotation habits?  Well, I started out as a strict OAATer (one at a time) and could not understand how anyone could have more than one project going at a time.  Somewhere along the way I discovered how you could have more than one project going at a time.  The problem was, while I was finishing a fair number a year, I was starting many more and ended up in the situation that I am in now with 32 projects in various stages of completion.  I am NOT comfortable with that, hence my joining so many SALs that focus on WIPs.  I have tried various rotations from screaming to very strict 10 hour per project. I found my old rotation sheets the other day.  This is how I used to run my rotation:

Each little square represents an hour and each block has two rows of five squares each.  It was a good way to work when I had lots of stitching time and also helped me answer the question of "How long did it take you to stitch that?".   Then I moved, started the CC crazy commute  and lost the majority of my stitching time.  Ten hours could take me weeks to do as I get maybe an hour total during the workweek and varying amounts of time on the weekends, so I went to my current rotation which is one week.  A project's week starts on Sunday and runs through Saturday.  Whether I get one or one hundred hours of stitching time, on Sunday morning the project is switched out.   I first set up the rotation with every one of my known UFOs in it.  That proved to be too many as I was stitching on each project maybe three weeks a year.  So this year I narrowed it down drastically.  I had originally planned on having only four projects in my rotation  made sense as that would have me stitching on each project at least once a month but when I got Three Tulips for Christmas, I HAD to start it so I gave myself a fifth slot for that - I will move the Lizzie*Kate Mystery Sampler that The Hubs gave me for our anniversary into that slot after all I do have to reinforce good behavior don't I? when the Tulips are done.  Each project in the rotation has an index card and I keep them all hanging on the bulletin board over my desk.  Some have just the name of the project, others, like Three Tulips, have the current project and the one I want to slot in next.  Generally, once a project is finished, I randomly pick a new one from the WIP list and add it to the rotation; however, this year, as I am participating in the Just Nan SAL, there is a dedicated Just Nan slot, that I am fairly certain will continue as a dedicated slot even after the official end of the SAL.  I am also thinking of having a Santa slot as I have a fair number of patterns featuring the Jolly Old Elf and given the time it takes me to stitch a Chatelaine I think that slot could already be considered dedicated!   Eventually I would like to have my WIP list down to no more than five as I first mentioned.

 

If you have stuck around through all that, thank you!  Now, the pictures!! 

 

I have three projects left from my original WIPocalypse list and was able to stitch on all three of them this month. 

 

Santa's Magic by Mirabelia went from this:

 

 

To this:

 

 

Serengeti by Chatelaine went from this:

 

 

To this:

 

 

And finally, Elegant Doily by Kayann's Kreations went from this:

 

 

To this:

 

The "cussin jar" in the background is for The Hubs someday I am going to be RICH!!

I have finished almost half of the eyelets in this piece.  This has one more full day on the stand so there should be lots more eyelets come tomorrow night.

I have stitched on other pieces, but I am trying to focus my posts a bit more and they weren't on the WIPocalypse list so they don't get talked about today don't fell too sorry for them though as they will all get their chance in a post!!



It's February!!

Here's hoping that February proves better weather-wise than January did!!  We are supposed to enjoy temperatures in the 50s for the next few days and then back into the messy weather.  Oh and Happy Year of the Horse a day late.

As it's the first Saturday of the month, it's time for my YOTA post.  YOTA is a WIP SAL hosted at Pull the Other Thread.  Another no pressure and no stress SAL, simply stitch on your WIPs, take photos and post on the first Saturday of each month!

Since the last posting, I have finished a round in my rotation and worked on the following WIPs:

Elegant Doily  by Kayann's Kreations.  This was started when DSon was still in high school he turned 30 last summer - you can do the math.  I don't think I will have a finish on it this year but progress is good my goal is to finish it before DSon turns 35.

I stitched all the eyelets on the right side and a few more but this one is really hard to show progress pictures of.

Chatelaine's Serengeti was up next.  It went from this:

To this:

Santa's Magic from Mirabilia had another week on the frame and went from here:

To here:

And finally With Thy Needle and Thread's Three Tulips is on the frame right now and I went from this:

 

To:

 



My screen is showing really weird lines but they don't seem to show up when you click on the photo. This will stay on the frame through tonight so there should be more progress to show in my next post.