Weeks Seven and Eight, February 19 through 26, 2015

While week 7 was yet another week with no stitching. I did make it to quilt guild and found out why I will NEVER EVER submit one of my quilts (assuming I ever complete one) for judging! There may be no "quilt police" but there sure are rules and rules and MORE rules!, most of which I NEVER come close to following! But otherwise, it's tax season, we are changing accountants, and I was buried in receipts and the like. I got the package to the accountant on Tuesday , the 17th ((although there was a late arrival 1099-B which was delivered on Monday, the 23rd) and now I await the final verdict. Keep your fingers crossed! 

The rest of my crafting time in Week Seven was spent on papercrafting: a card for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge (Paradise), challenge, and tags (three, count 'em, THREE) for the Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge #22! All are shown on my stamping blog... 

In Week 8, I did get back to stitchery, thanks to International Hermit and Stitch Weekend. I pulled out the crazy quilt block I had prepped for the January edition of the 2015 Crazy Quilt Journal Project, and changed direction straightaway! It is now the February block, and will also serve as my 2015 Bead Journal Project piece as well.

On Monday, I pulled fabric and planned out my January bock and on Wednesday, I assembled the basic block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project and the Bead Journal Project. I selected beads and threads and am ready to stitch:

In the evenings, I also pulled out some stitching!!! I got out "Bride" of the roll Your Own Mandala series, last touched  in early January, and finished up color #8 (of 12 total):

While I may not have my mojo back entirely, it looks like stitchery is now back on track and I hope to make good progress in the coming week!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, February 20 - 22, 2015

I finally dug out some stitchery over the weekend and put in several hours embroidering and beading a crazy quilt block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project 2015. I had originally intended the base block to be for January but, it took a turn and I made it into my February block (January will be started as soon as I acquire some foundation fabric!). Since it is reasonably heavily beaded, I also want to make this my Bead Journal Project entry for February. ( I was undecided on whether or not to do BJP this year, given time constraints, but decided that I would return to my dual entries like the ones I stitched in 2012. Might as well kill two birds with one stone and I do miss the beading!).

Week Six, February 12, 2015

Yet another week with no stitching. I did make it to quilt guild and found out why I will NEVER EVER submit one of my quilts (assuming I ever complete one) for judging! But otherwise, it's tax season and now I am buried in receipts and the like. See you when I emerge, hopefully victorious!

Week Five - February 5, 2015

A whole week with a sinus headache and cough. Not the kind of week to do anything that requires focus, and stitchery is surely that! So nothing to report...

WIPocalypse 2015 - February 4, 2015

This month's topic for discussion is "How do you overcome that feeling that you’re in a rut with a particular project?"

I'm afraid I have no answer for this one. At present, I am in a rut with two big projects: 

• "Roll Your Own Mandalas", of which there are 9, and I had planned to do all nine on one piece of fabric; I am stalled at #3, "Bride"!
• "Save the Stitches" blackwork sampler, where I have the entire piece outlined but have more than half of the filling stitches to do

It doesn't help that, along with these big pieces, which are, of necessity slow going because they are so big, I have committed along the way to several smaller pieces that have deadlines: Crazy Quilt Journal Project, Bead Journal Project, and Take A Stitch Tuesday. And while the last of these (TAST) is pretty straightforward, the other two require some introspection and creativity which I am finding increasingly difficult.

I expect my solution is to take a short vacation from all of these. This year, that vacation was a two week cruise *and* an overlapping sinus infection (with accompanying headache and cough) which pretty much killed my stitching mojo. Since returning to cold and snowy Ohio, and recovering, more or less, from the sinus issues, I have been paper crafting instead. 

Needless to say, I have little to report since the last WIPocalypse report in January. Another color has been stitched into "Bride" and a base block for the Crazy Quilt Journal Project/January 2015, has been assembled Other than that, nil, nada, zilch, zero! I'm hoping that, by the next WIPocalypse, I will have my mojo back and will have progress to report for my stitchery!