End of Year Wrap-up --- and plans for 2012

I thought 2010 was a low productivity year with only 17 completions but 2011 has it beat! I had 32 completions  (1 of which was a long-standing UFO) but most (25) of the completions were small needlepoint stitch exercise pieces. I did manage to hold off on starting a new piece until a current  WIP was finished. I did complete the 2011 Bead Journal Project (although each piece needs to be "finished" into a wall hanging). And my seven entries in the county fair won 5 blue ribbons, 1 red and one white (I actually made my entry fee back!)!  I am a full-fledged, non-quilting member of the local quilt guild (and their webmaster as well!); maybe one day I will actually quilt something! So I guess I didn't do so badly after all.

I end the year with 2 WIPs: "Sewing with Mama", a Candamar kit, designed by Sandy Lynam Clough, which has all the embellishment stitching to go, and "Palm Tree Elegance", a Dimensions needlepoint kit, which I worked on briefly, again while on a cruise.

I have four UFOs still in the cupboard:
"Angel of Love" - started before we moved to England in 1992!
"Celestial Angel"  - started before we moved to England in 1992!
"Map of England and Wales" - started in Saudi
"Nature's Song" (excerpted from a larger chart) - started in Saudi

to say nothing of that ancient crewel-work pillow (I'm sure the moths have done in the wool by now) and all the top work on six or seven needlepoint pieces that all predate 1992! And a slew of piece-worked tops from quilting classes in Saudi...

And then there is my Round Robin piece from 2006 --- I still need to finish that off. As well as two BJP years, and a slew of Bargello and Learn-a-Stitch needlepoint exercises! Finishing is my weak point, as you can see...

So 2012:

In addition to "Sewing with Mama" (and "Palm Tree Elegance" on next year's cruise!), I have re-upped with the Bead Journal Project; signed up for challenges at Take a Stitch Tuesday 2012, the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2012, and the 2012 WIPopalyse; as well as signed up for a year-long online course for "Kimono - Revisted" at Silver Needle Society. There are still Learn-a-Stitch mini socks to do (five, I think), and there are the ongoing exercise pieces in Janet Perry's Bargello and Stash-Busting Clubs…

So many from Cross Stitch Crazy have joined the WIPocalypse 2012 Challenge that the theme over there (and therefore here) will be WIPocalypse as well! In addition to my regular weekly progress reports, there will be specific WIPocalypse postings on the full moon of every month and special postings for TAST 2012 (Tuesdays), CQJP 2012 (monthly), Kimono-Revisted (monthly), and BJP 2012 (monthly, I hope!). Blogging will be keeping me as busy as stitching, I fear!

This sure doesn't leave me a lot of room for starting anything "new", and that could become a problem because I've been feeling a case of start-itis coming on for a month or two now...

Last completion of 2011

Learn-a-Stitch Mini Sock "Double Cross":



I used DMC Variations 4120 and 4077,  and DMC 307, 353 and B5200. I was thinking citrus but it came out more like "Dreamsicle"! Funny how mixing yellow and white with one variegated thread makes it look so differently!

WIP myself into shape, Week 52

There is a WIP --- it's one of the Learn-a-stitch mini socks, about 60% complete, but I don't have a photo. However, I do have two more completions:

Learn-a-Stitch Mini Sock "Byzantine":



where I used WDW "Celebration" (4123), DMC Variations 4240, DMC Satin S553, and DMC 312, 552 and 553.

Learn-a-Stitch Mini Sock "Laid Stitches":



where I used DMC metallic silver (5283), DMC Variations 91, and DMC 595, 3808 and B5200.

I'll get back to that WIP after the appliance repairman comes and goes  and will probably posts a photo tonight or tomorrow.

Bargello Club 2011 - a finish

Cup Cake 2 ...

When Janet Perry sent out the instructions, she said that she found that Cup Cake 1 looked naked and needed a background, so she provided a second model with a Darning background. So this is my version: A chocolate (DMC 938, 3031 and 839) cupcake with yellow icing (DMC Varuations 4077, DMC Satin S744, and DMC Pearlescent Effects E746)  - does lemon go with chocolate? -  and a white (DMC blanc) background.

So I'm caught up with Bargello Club --- a sure sign another is in the mail! 

Another stash-buster

This is another Janet Perry "Learn-a'Stitch" exercise, called "Alternations". Shopping my stash, I used WDW "Morris Blue" (2109) and "Snowflake" (4125), three shades of DMC blues (597, 598 and 3808) and a DMC metallic silver (5283):

A Stash busting Stocking

It's a Janet Perry design in her Learn a Stitch series --- called Potpourri I:


Stitched on 18-ct mono canvas using Weeks Dye Works "Noel", DMC 561 (dark green), DMC Variations 4210 (red variegated) and DMC 30326 (red rayon), all "shopped" from my stash...
Here's hoping I can get it to load in my photo album without losing any more thumbnails!

WIP myself into shape, Week 51

and nothing to show for it --- Christmas is getting in the way of stitching!

Anyone have any clue as to why my photos are disappearing and will NOT reload from my computer? I haven't heard from customer service and it's bugging me!

Problems with this blog

For some reason, photos are disappearing from both blog posts and photo albums... in a somewhat random manner. The ones with issues are the 2011 album http://thatyankstitches.multiply.com/photos/album/19/My_2011_Stitchery, the Bargello Club album  http://thatyankstitches.multiply.com/photos/album/22/Janet_Perry_Bargello_Club_2011and two blog posts here: http://thatyankstitches.multiply.com/journal/item/209/Two_of_the_bonus_Bargello_pieces_complete and here: http://thatyankstitches.multiply.com/journal/item/204/WIP_myself_into_shape_Week_31 (After half an hour and five attempts, I managed to fix a third blog post...)

Attempts at reloading the pictures are failing. So if you are looking at my site, apologies! I have a request for help into customer service --- who knows how long that will take...

Cupcake I, the December Bargello Club entry

Think devils-food cake cupcakes with butter cream icing...


There's a "second" model in the instructions with a background but I need different colors to work that as my canvas is white and white next to that white icing won't work, I think.

The last Bead Journal piece for 2011...

December "Holidays"--- done in turquoise (since that is the birthstone for the month) and adorned with a rather pathetic free-form poinsettia!

WIP myself into shape, Week 50

Nothing to show for this week. I worked, off and on, on the December BJP and it's not ready yet...

WIP myself into shape, Week 49

Sewing with Mama! --- 

the background stitchery is finished (unless I fond a missing stitch when doing the top stitching, that is... that often happens). I even got in some of the blending filament work (Cross stitched a pair of scissors near the sewing machine needle) and all the French knots (pin heads on the pin cushion to the right of the machine, because they used the same blending thread as the scissors,  as well as attached to the machine arm, and four on the sewing machine balance wheel, just because!)! Now to decipher the very cryptic backstitch. straight stitch, and couching directions since all the lines on the stitching chart are of the same color, weight and thickness, one has to be able to determine just what constitutes an item like "heavy" straight stitches on the sewing machine, etc...

I suspect it will sit this weekend through since I did a thorough count of kitted up pieces: 8 Learn a Stitch stockings from Janet Perry, one Bargello Club piece, two Stash Busting Club pieces, and the December BJP await! And the messages and tutorials are already flying in the Kimono-revisted class. I did get the the "Frog Pile" framed and the Christmas gift box lid assembled through. The exchange is December 20, so they need gift wrapping now!

WIP myself into shape, Week 48

Working on the printed "fabric" to the left --- driving me nuts as that is where I need to do a LOT of fudging due to the one counting mistake I made way back in August - a counting mistake which has compounded itself as time passed! Still, that piece is pretty abstract and fudging won't make much of a difference (I hope!). 


The second installment of the Stash Busting Club arrived yesterday and I haven't even kitted out the first one yet! AAACK! These are larger pieces than the Bargello Club studies and all have purposes which are not my usual stitching goals. We shall see if I can convert them to my purpose. And December BJP is calling out to me --- maybe this weekend, after Christmas cards and the like!...