WIPocalypse 2016 - December 14

Checking in here WAY late, but I forgot to check on the full moon date!

Anyway, the final question for 2016 in WIPocalypse is: "Recap your accomplishments for the year! (Your finishes, your final before/after photos, etc)."

So here goes. No photos ...

My finishes in 2016 were scant becasue I was working toward finishing two massively BAP/WIPS.

• One got finished: the "Tropical Seas" colorway of "Roll Your Own Mandalas", which was completed in August...
• The other BAP didn't even get touched: "Save the Stitches" by Elizabeth Arnold, which languishes in the state it was on the January 2015 Wipocalypse!
• Another piece I stitched on during 2016 was my tavel needlepoint, Palm Tree Elegance", which was left with finished borders in July...
• In August, I started a birth sampler ("All Creatures") for a grand-nephew and it was completed and sent off in September...
• In September, I started a belated wedding sampler "Love Is" and left it half finsihed in October when I broke my wrist...

So, all i all, not a very outstanding year for stitchery!

My wrist is recovering, slowly, but I don't think I'm up to hand stitching or holding my Q-Snaps with my left hand quite yet. Still, I have hopes that that wedding sampler will make it to my niece before her first anniversary... "Palm Tree Elegance" may not have much opportunity for stitching since we don't have any road trips planned for this coming year. As for "Save the Stitches" - well, it may languish a bit more because I am being tempted by others to do a SAL on the Long Dog sample "Cardinal Points". The chart, 18ct fabric and threads are on order so we shall see if I am up to it...

WIPocalypse 2016 - November 14 (SuperMoon)

This moon's topic is "What pattern (or designer) is on your must-try-to-stitch bucket list?" I can't say that I actually HAVE a stitching bucket list. I have stitched at least one pattern from each designer that has caught my eye, sometimes more,  and I have stopped buying patterns as my stash is definitely a SABLE.

Another WIPocalypse has come and gone and, since the last, I have not stitched at all. Basically, I am typing here one-handed so I apologize for any and all typos (one-handed typing is NOT accurate, especially as that broken arm keeps wanting to  help)

I fell (slipped on a hardwood floor) on the 18th of October, landed on mt left wrist and broke the distal end of my radius. I had surgery for an open reduction of the fracture and insertion of a plate on the 25th (OUCH!), had the dressing, stitches and cast removed on November 4 (cast was replaced with a brace), and started occupational therapy on November 9.  Clearly, I have not been able to stitch since my last post. I have no clue as to when I will be stitching again... therapy is a demon and I tend to crash and sleep the afternoon after; exercises are boring and slow and I basically hurt in places I didn't know one could hurt. 

It looks like my belated wedding sampler will be even MORE belated.

Weeks Forty (October 6, 2016), Forty-One (October 13) and Forty-Two (October 20, 2016)

I was not stitching much in these three weeks, and when I did get back in the “mood”, I got stopped in my tracks with a broken arm! I’m scheduled for surgery on October 25 and have follow-up on November 4 so I suspect I won’t be stitching much in the coming weeks either.

This is as far as I had gotten on “Love Is…”:

I have had to drop out of an ornament swap and clearly stitching on this sampler, “save at the Stitches” or any other stitchery is out of the question for a while. I can “type” one-handed if I am slow and carefully check my spelling so I may post even with no progress. 

See you on the “other side” of surgery!

WIPocalypse, October 16, 2016 - The Hunter’s Moon

This month’s theme question is “What online stitching communities do you enjoy?”

Well, I do belong to a number of online communities and some of them are stitching-related. 

I am still enrolled in the Cross Stitch Crazy forumhttp://crossstitchcrazy.yuku.com, a closed group which is now more active in private Facebook group. I am active on the Facebook page, not in the Yuku forum any more. Having been a member of this group since the days when it was tTHE most active group on the late lamented iVillage, I feel that I know most of the people in it and feel most comfortable there. 

I am enrolled in, but inactive in, The Stitcher’s Village. I receive the newsletter and read it through but rarely participate in the forums and do not post in the galleries. I used to but as the format changed over the years, keeping up with it became more trouble than it was worth to me. 

I am enrolled in six needlework groups on Stitching’ Fingers. I receive occasional notifications, usually from the crash quilting group, but again, rarely post. It also went though a “reformatting” a few years ago and I find it hard to follow threads the way they are formatting, have found and even harder to participate for that reason. (The last I heard from Stitching Fingers was in September and the moderator/sponsor was bowing out and saying the site might close by December if no-one else came forward.)

I am also a member of Craft Bubble 2, a successor to Craft Bubble which went under some years ago. It covers all sorts of crafting but does have a needlework section in the current version. Again, the change in format has pretty much put me off and I rarely visit.

I know that I am still considered enrolled in a few others but since I never go there, I can’t remember the forum names, and in the event I get an email notification, I can’t remember my user names or my passwords so I can’t get in without a big hassle. 

I am no longer active in the Quilt Journal Project or the Bead Journal Project (which has also moved to a closed Facebook group). I decided to opt out of their challenges this past year to recharge and rethink my interest in these needlecrafts.  Primarily, however, they were just a place to post progress on the yearly challenges and not really a community, per se, in the way that Cross Stitch Crazy was/is.

I do subscribe to a large number of newsletters, thanks in part to having been a member on the now defunct iVillage.com, where I was a community leader on a cross-stitch forum. Most are from online and redbrick shops and that is how I keep up with what is new in the field. 

And I subscribe to a number of blogs written by other stitchers as well. While I don’t always comment, it feels to me like more of a “community” feel on a blog these days than on forums. Guess I have evolved form the days when I preferred forums to blogs! ;-)

Basically, I find that online stitchery communities have less to do with stitching and more to do with a) public galleries of one’s work and/or b) small talk about all things going on in the lives of people I do not know. Simply said: a lot of time for little return on the investment, in my opinion. And based on the lack of recent activity on some of these forums, I think others must feel the same way. 

~~~~~

Last WIPocalypse, I was:

• planning to have the birth sampler framed and sent off to my niece = DONE. She received it and liked it
• hoping to start on a wedding sampler for a different niece = Started but it’s embarrassing. I haven’t stitched enough to blog in October. I just seem to dislike this WIP so much. But I shall persevere!
• hoping to maybe get out “save the Stitches” and make some progress there = NOT done. The stitching mojo needs some real work!

Here is where  the wedding sampler, “Love Is…”,  now stands. Not quite halfway…

This coming month, I will continue to plug away as the wedding sampler but I make no promises!

Week Thirty-Nine - September 29, 2016

I took the birth sampler in last week to be framed and it was ready on Saturday:

Husband mailed it off to our niece on Monday and it should be there by now…

I am having to force myself to work on this wedding sampler/belated gift. It is all in red on white and it is all backstitch. Each letter has to be started individually so as to not have loose ends showing through, which is using an awful lot of floss. What is more, it is just plain tedious counting. Still, I have finished a third full strand of floss (I suspect the pattern is being a little skimpy when it called for only two skeins of the variegated ad I can see running out of the first skein VERY soon… with not even two lines of the sampler finished!) and here is where it stands right now:

I will keep plugging away at this as I really feel that, once started, it MUST be finished. But it won’t be my favorite-ever stitched piece.

Week Thirty-Eight - September 22, 2016

Having completed the birth samplerand taken it off to the framer, it was time to get to work on the wedding sampler. I chose “Love Is” by X’s & Ohs (by Jo Gatenby). It is the passage from 1 Corinthians (13:4-8a) that I read at my niece’s wedding back in April (before I took a flying header off the podium and sprained my ankle!). I thought it would work in the variegated red DMC floss called for and chose 32 ct white linen as my fabric.

However, this is as far as I’ve gotten in the last three days:. 

I hadn’t realized how much of it was backstitch, in two strands at that! And it is a constant stop and start, complete with waste knots, in order to keep that red thread from showing behind the white linen. I think I shall HATE this before it is done!

WIPocalypse 2016 - September 16

The discussion topic for this WIPocalypse period is “Tell us a story about the journey you took through one of your completed pieces.’ Sadly, I can’t answer this as, for me at least, what I stitch doesn’t necessarily reflect a story about me or it’s stitching. It just is/was… It may have traveled with me (usually a needlepoint piece) but that is just in case I am left alone in a hotel room while husband is out on his conference duties and I need something to fill the time if I’ve run out of reading material. My traveling pieces may take years to complete (for example, the last completed traveling piece was “Butterfly Beauty”, started in May, 2005, stitching completed in May 2006,  and finally finished as a pillow in January 2012!) and may have been all over the country and even on a cruise or two. But it doesn’t reflect any specific “journey”.

In my last WIPocalypse report, http://210920746822434353.weebly.com/my-stitchery-journal/week-thirty-three-august-18-2016-and-wipocalypse  I had proposed the following goal - to finish the birth sampler and send it off to my niece. Well, it is finished (except for blocking and pressing, that is):

Once framed, THEN it will be sent off to my niece… So I didn’t meet that goal… but I came close!

My next project is a belated wedding sampler for another niece. I need to kit it out, my plans for today. 

The long-term WIP onboard is the “Save The Stitches” blackwork sampler, designed  by Elizabeth Almond (in the works since February 2014). I MAY or may not get it out and work on it. 

Week Thirty-Seven - September 15, 2016

I set myself a goal to try to have the birth sampler ready to frame by the end of this week. So, once I finished all the cross stitch, I set right in to the backstitching and now have all the basic backstitch and French Knot bits done:

All that remains is the personalization, which I will have to chart out before starting.

Meanwhile, that wedding sampler  (for the wedding last April!) I ordered needs to be kitted so I can start on that. It’s only one color so it ought to move along nicely… just need to decide on fabric and color.

Saturday will be a day lost to stitchery — home football game!

Week Thirty-Six - September 8, 2016

Some progress made this week on the birth sampler, mainly on the single-stranded cross stitching of the grass and waterr, despite one night of stitching foregone in favor of binge watching the last series of "Lewis"! Only three more pairs of animals to stitch (one is started) before the backstitching. Man, do I ever dread that!

This coming weekend is going to be a real test of my mojo since there is quilt guild tonight and the Friends of the Library book sale and the Volunteer Firefighter’s “steak out” on Saturday. That means at least two days where I won’t have the energy or time to stitch. Sure am hoping to get this done and to the framers as the kid is already a week old!

Week Thirty-Five - September 1, 2016

What a week! Here I was, stitching away on the birth sampler for a great-nephew who was supposed to be born next week. Naturally, he must have heard I have deadline issues because he was born on August 30! And I am nowhere near finished. Oh well, at least I have all the data needed to finish the sampler when the overall stitchery is finished!

Here is where I stand so far - only three more rows of the sea to do in the single-strand cross stitching and a flag on the flag pole and the I can move on to the left half.

Oh, by the way, I’ve been calling it “Two by Two” and I got that wrong, it’s “All Creatures Birth Sampler”, a “lite” version of “Two by Two”! Good thing it's a "lite" version too! I'd NEVER have attempted the full-blown version for this deadline!

Back to the stitching grind-stone — there’s a lot of green grass on the left that will probably take several days (all that space in one color! AAARGH!) and several pairs of animals before I can move on to the backstitching!

Week Thirty-Four - August 25, 2016

Well, I didn’t get as much stitching done this past week as I had hoped. A big kerfuffle about someone hacking my Apple Store account took all of Friday on the phone and back and forth to Federal Express. And Wednesday night was filled with tornado warnings, tornado watches, sever thunderstorm warnings and heavy downpours. Both event tended to put me off my stitching “stride”, as it were.

But I did get some stitching done and the full cross-stitching right-hand-side of the birth sampler is nearly done:

 (what remains to be done in cross stitched water using single instead of double strands… And of course, there is copious backstitching and a few French knots on another set of charts…)

I hope to do better this next week! But then, I always say that, don’t I?

Week Thirty-Three - August 18, 2016 and WIPocalypse

The WIPocalypse topic for discussion this month is “Have you ever read any fictional books that involve embroidery?  If so, give us some recommendations…”

Yes, I have although I hate to say that most needlework-related fiction uses knitting - and a few years ago, quilting - as a theme more than traditional embroidery. In fact there is even a sewing circle-themed mystery series… But I digress.

There are three needlework authors in my “library” and I have read many of the books listed here. 

I can highly recommend the Needlecraft Mystery Series, all in paperback (a few in hardcover) by Monica Ferris (pseud. of Mary Pulver Kufeld), set in Minnesota.  The books include clever (albeit cozy) plots and well-developed characters and includes needlework patterns. (Note, even she has gone over to the “dark side", with her latest boom a knitting themed one!)

• 1.  Crewel World (Berkley, 1999)
• 2.  Framed in Lace (Berkley, 1999)
• 3.  Stitch in Time, A (Berkley, 2000)
• 4.  Unraveled Sleeve (Berkley, 2001)
• 5.  A Murderous Yarn  (Berkley, 2002)
• 6.  Hanging by a Thread (Berkley, 2003)
• 7.  Cutwork (Berkley, 2004)
• 8.  Crewel Yule (Berkley, 2004)
• 9.  Embroidered Truths (Berkley, 2005)
• 10.  Sins and Needles (Berkley, 2006)
• 11.  Knitting Bones (Berkley, 2008)
• 12.  Thai Die (Berkley, 2008)
• 13.  Blackwork (Berkley, 2009)
• 14.  Buttons and Bones (Berkley, 2010)
• 15.  Threadbare (Berkley, 2011)
• 16.  And Then You Dye (Berkley, Dec. 2012)
• 17.  Drowning Spool (Berkley, 2014)
• 18. Darned if Your Do (2015)
• 19. Knit Your Own Murder (2016)

I am a little less prone to recommend the two series I have on my iPad. The first is The Embroidery Mystery Series by  Amanda  Lee (aka Rebecca York), set in Oregon. To be honest, I can't remember if I have read any of these even though they are in my "read" file":

• 1.  The Quick and the Thread (Signet,2010)
• 2.  Stitch Me Deadly (Signet, Feb., 2011)
• 3.  Thread Reckoning (Signet, 2011)
• 4.  The Long Stitch Good Night (Signet, 2012)
• 5.  Thread on Arrival (Signet, 2012)
• 6.  Cross-Stitch Before Dying (Signet, 2013)
• 7. Thread End (2014)
• 8. Wicked Stitch (2015)
• 9. The Stitching Hour (2015)
• 10. Better Off Thread (coming Dec. 2016)

The other series I have on my iPad is the Mainly Needlepoint Mystery Series by Lea Wait, a cozy series set in Maine. I have the first three and have read the first one.  

• Twisted Threads (2015)
• Threads of Evidence (2015)
• Thread and Gone (2015)
• Dangling by a Thread  (2016)
• Tightening the Threads  (coming in 2017)

Last month, I had low expectations for my stitching this month. My mojo was gone and I was struggling to put in even minimal stitching. However, I DID manage to complete the "Roll Your Own" mandala series (Ironically, on the day the county fair I had been aiming for ended! Maybe next year!

Instead of moving on to the "Save the Stitches" blackwork sampler, I took my own advice and started something new. Even though it has a deadline of early September, I took on the Bothy Threads "Two by Two" birth sampler and, even though it is full of fudging because of counting errors, I am making some progress on it:

It is a break from all that blue and that, along with stitching on 14ct AIDA, helps. I wouldn't call it a cure for my lack of stitchery mojo but maybe it's a start...

So next month, my plan is to have finished this piece and send it on to our niece. 

Week Thirty-Two - August 11, 2016

Since I completed the last of the “Roll Your Own” mandalas, it was possible for me to get a start on something new (I simply am not ready to get back to “Save the Stitches” yet) so I pulled the Bothy Threads “All Creatures” Birth sampler kit from my project bag and got started.

Only got the two zebras done in three nights:

This may take longer than I wish! Of course, it didn’t help that three of the colors might just  as well have been “white on white”! Even on AIDA, that’s hard to see…

Oh well, it isn’t blue!

Breaking News! A COMPLETION!

I have finished something! Woo Hoo! I couldn't wait until my usual check-in to celebrate!

Here is "Return", completed:

And here is the complete series, ready to frame (man will that cost a fortune --- the stitched portion of the fabric is a little more than  a half yard!

This started out as an online SAL, organized and moderated by Tracey Horner of InkCircles There are 9 Roll Your Own mandalas. I decided I would do them all on one piece of fabric ("Iris Garden" by Silkweaver, 32 ct Jobelin) in the "Tropical Ocean" colorway.

There were a number of preset colorways available or one could design one's own (hence the name, "Roll Your Own"). Since I'm not that comfortable with designing color schemes, I opted for one already posted. "Tropical Ocean" consists of 12 DMC threads in four color groupings: Bright Green - 3850, 3851 and 959; Teal Green - 3847, 3848 and 3849; Delft Blue - 798, 809 and 747; and Navy Blue - 823, 311 and 312, all outlined in black - DMC 310.  

I started it the week of January 21, 2014 and finished on August 8, 2016! Talk about a BAP!

Week Thirty-One, August 4, 2016

The end is in sight! I finished color 11 and am a little more than halfway through color twelve (the last color) in “Return”, the last of the nine mandalas in “Roll Your Own”!

The only open areas are now the top two and the top motif on the left (the bottom motif on the left is partly finished.) which appear to be the very palest blue. The floss color is almost exactly the same color as the fabric background!

I didn’t make my start of the year goal to finish in time to enter in the county fair for 2016 (it’s going on now, in fact), but it will be eligible for 2017. I might even forego the county fair and take a shot at the state fair (Both my neighbor and my husband are promoting the latter action and since the State Fair and the County Fair happen at the same time, I have to choose 0ne — I van’t do both!).

So, by this time next week, I expect to be able to show you the finished piece! That feels SOOO good!

Week Twenty-Nine, July 21, 2016 and Week Thirty, July 28, 2016

As I said last week, I haven’t been stitching much of late. I partly blame the heat — my room isn’t as cool as much as the rest of the house and it’s been darned uncomfortable holding that yard+ of heavy fabric to stitch on. Also, my stitching mojo is pretty week — has been for a year — and any interruption (a trip to Michigan to see a historic home on Wednesday, guests for dinner and the evening on Saturday - although we did watch a great movie “Spotlight”) tends to put me further off my stitching schedule. Still, I did “force” one night of stitching this week and finished off color 9 (of 12) in “Return” of the Roll Your Own mandala series. What is more, I have roughly 25% of color #10 done as well…

With the weather forecast of more 90+ weather with high humidity to come (and no relief from rain), it’s highly unlikely that I will be productive. We can hope, though…

WIPocalypse 2016 - July 19 (two days late)

It was WIPocalypse on Tuesday and I didn’t even realize it! AAACK! 

The topic for discussion was two-part: 

“If you are participating in the Olympic Challenge, tell us about your plans – which type of challenge you’ve selected, the pieces you’ll be stitching on, etc.  If you are not participating in the challenge, tell us how this year’s stitching is going for you so far, and if you’re meeting your stitching goals so far for the year.”

What is the Olympic Challenge?  I wasn't sure so I had to look it up... “August 5 - 21: Olympic Challenge (rotation or distance or Olympic colors) The Summer Olympics will be held in Rio and will run from August 5th to 21st.  [WIPocalypse will] be hosting a challenge for everyone stitching on their WIPs to run for the length of the Olympics with three different “competitions”:  a rotation challenge (for those who like to work on a bunch of different pieces), a distance challenge (for those one at a time stitchers, or anyone else who wants to do some serious focusing on a particular piece), and a color challenge (stitch only in the colors of the olympic rings on your WIP pieces, OR… your nation’s flag).”

Well, I probably will avoid the Olympics like I have avoided politics this year. It’s just getting to be too much for me and I hate how I feel when all this brou-ha-ha is going on. Anyway, I don’t really fit into any of the three categories for this competition (I’m not doing a rotation this year, I can’t really “focus” on my mandala piece any more than I have been, and there is no way I’m stitching in Olympic colors) so… No, I won’t be participating in the challenge. 

As for how this year’s stitching is going for me…I guess I have to say that my stitching goals for 2016 are NOT being met so far this year.  Not that I made any realistic goals — I was hoping to finish at least one of my two BAP WIPs in time for the fair this summer (registration was the first week of this month) and, not only did I do NO stitching on “Save the Stitches”, but I’m still three colors away from finishing “Return” and therefor the “Roll Your Own” mandala series.  I simply have lost my stitching mojo and when I do stitch, I feel like I’m forcing myself to do so. I think that starting something new would be a good break from all these BAPs (and the color blue) but I can’t find any project I’m totally enthused about. I have found two charts that would work for a wedding gift (belated - the wedding was in April) and a birth announcement (early September), but both have the dreaded feel of “deadline” attached to them and I’m lousy when it comes to HAVING to stitch. Even they may never get done. Perhaps a long vacation from stitching is in order… but the again, it was that horrible prolonged layoff in early 2015 when I had that terrible cold/sinus infection that set this lack of mojo in place so I don’t really know. If anyone has any suggestions on how to remotivate, I welcome them!

Week Twenty-Eight, July 14, 2016

It’s hot here in NW Ohio. VERY hot. And all the rain seems to be bypassing us. I suppose I should be grateful since most of that rain comes equipped with high winds and hail but, still, the humidity should at least spawn a thunderstorm or two, don’t you think?

It’s been too darned hot to stitch, especially on “Roll Your Own” with all that spare fabric, so I really didn’t get in a lot of stitching this past week. I’m only about halfway through color #9 (of 12) in “Return”:

I did get the charts I ordered though — one a belated wedding gift and the other a birth sampler. startitis will have to be in full force once I get “Roll Your Own finished” since that birth is expected in early September… Maybe I’ll put “Return” on hold and start the sampler this week, just to take the edge off. After all, there is no rush to finish “Roll Your Own” for the fair — registration is already past and the fair is in less than three weeks…

Week Twenty-Seven, July 7, 2016

When I reported in last week, we were in Louisville, KY, at the National Hermerocalis Society National Convention and the hotel room was less than salubrious re stitchery. Not a comfortable sitting situation and the lighting was atrocious. I was thankful that I had my needlepoint traveling kit with me as it was way easier to see the weave than cross-stitch would have been. Still, I had to bring out my magnifying glass to check sometimes to see if, indeed, that was a stitch that needed to be put in!

I put in three days of stitching and the third color in the inner border is now roughly 75% complete (the two sides and the top):

When we got home (Sunday), we had houseguests arriving — they got here roughly 30 minutes after we did - so there was no stitching for the next two nights. But I did manage to pull out “Return” of the Roll Your Own Mandalas and complete color 7 (of 12) and roughly 50% of color 8:

An eye appointment, and the likely dilation of my eyes, means o stitching today, but I hope to be back on track with “Return this coming week. 

Week Twenty-Six, June 30, 2016

Sitting here in a hotel room in Louisville, KY, where even the bathroom light are less than 20W, there is only one flat surface in the room to put my laptop (a tint round table with legs in all the wrong places, and a large “leather” chair with no wheel that is too high of the table!), and no free breakfasts (so I’m drinking the in-room swill that passes for coffee). Oh, and it has a HUGE balcony (overlooking a parking lot and an airport runway) with NO FURNITURE on it! Needless to say, this blog post will likely be very short, as my back will not tolerate much more of this!

I did stitch this past week, a little at least. I am finished with color #6 and  a little more than halfway through color #7 (of 12):

Needless to say, there will be no cross stitch in this hotel room, because even though I did bring my portable Ott light, there is no place with a plug close enough to where I can sit and stitch that will allow me to place the light, so... But i do have my traveling needlepoint piece, “Palm Tree Elegance” with me and it will take center stage, at least until we depart the lovely Airport Hotel and Conference Center. (See Louisville, you say? Well, this place is in the middle of the most awful spaghetti junction of interstates you may ever have seen and Louisville proper is at least more than 10 miles from here. Can’t walk anywhere and I don’t drive my husband’s car so…)

See you all next week!

Week Twenty-Five, June 23, 2016

After making my WIPocalypse report for June, 2016, I decided to “force” myself to put in at least two hours every night until this report was due. And I was successful, completing color #5 (of 12) and a little more than 50% of color #6 by last night:

If I could keep up this pace, and it we weren’t traveling for the last weekend of June, I possibly could get “Roll Your Own” ready for framing and entry in the 2016 county fair. But I doubt my resolve, I really don’t want to make any mistakes (when I hurry, I often end up frogging as much as I stitch) and a road trip and hotel room are not suitable places for good progress on this BAP. So don’t expect good progress next week!

WIPocalypse 2016 - June 20 (and the first day of summer!)

This full moon, we are asked: “Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in summer or winter?” And I have to answer that there is probably no difference. I stitch at night for the most part, with my daylight-quality lamp, so longer days in summer don’t really make a difference amor the shorter days of winter. I stitch indoors so temperature is not an issue. There are different demands on my time and impacts on my mojo with each season: I really can’t stitch effectively when I’m suffering from a full-blown sinus headache (winter colds and summer allergies bring that on) or a nasty cough (winter colds again), winter holiday events take away from stitching time as do summer road trips, etc. But all in all, I think it balances out.

Last WIPocalypse, my goals were stated as: “to keep plugging away on “Return” and see how far I can get this summer”. Other activities on my agenda were:

• My vegetable garden - It is doing fairly well, considering the heat and lack of rain, which means daily soakings from the hose are in order. 
• My paper crafting is up-to-date -  although new challenges keep coming in weekly so that is a never-ending battle. 
• Reading - I’m stalled out on a new book on my iPad, but the upcoming road trip to Louisville may remedy that. 

As for “Roll Your Own”, last Wipocalypse, I had  the outline of “Return” just barely started, Now, that outline is complete as are three (of twelve) fill colors and the fourth color is roughly 75% complete:

Pretty good considering I probably only stitched two nights a week on average since the last WIPocalypse. 

Here is where the entire piece is today:

Given issues with my quilt guild website, I’m thinking of creating a new one on Weebly and I intend to put some of the hotel time in Louisville in on that, to say nothing of my traveling needlepoint piece. Still, that trip is only for six days (including travel time) so there is plenty of time left in the next reporting period to make some progress on “Return”. I’ve two charts on order - one for a late wedding gift for one niece and the other for a birth announcement for another (startitis is lurking in the corner) and since I don’t expect to get “Roll Your Own” ready of this year’s fair, I may just start one of those if it arrives before we leave. 

So we shall see in July just how far “Roll Your Own” has come! Can we say “Keep on keeping on!”?

Week Twenty-Four, June 16, 2016

Color # 2 is complete and color #3 is 25% done on “Return”! 

Progress is slow but sure - counting all these partial patterns is always an issue with me, and I always seem to miss one out and only find it one or two colors on. 

It's been too darned hot to stitch, especially for early June. I dread what July and August will be bringing if this continues...

Meanwhile, I so have a case of start-itis — even though I don’t have a pattern picked out that appeals to me. Maybe it’s not so much start-itis as “tired of all this blue and green”!  Road trip in two weeks and the needlepoint is back out, Maybe that will cure the issue…

Week Twenty-Three, June 9, 2016

I really didn’t feel like stitching this week but I forced myself to put in roughly two hours per night for three nights and got almost all of color #1 (of 12) into “Return”. 

It’s a very dark blue so it may be hard to see against the black outline, but there’s only one small line in a motif in the upper right corner to go (and a missed black stitch in the same corner ) and then I’ll be ready to move on with color #2!

Quilt Guild tonight and husband’s garden is on a tour on Saturday so there will be some interruptions to stitching…

Week Twenty-Two, June 2, 2016

Outline complete! I didn’t make it by the end of May like I had hoped, but it was all down to a massive frog that crept in while I wasn’t looking (the entire left side had to be redone due to a miscount!) which lost me a day. Still, now “Return” is ready for it’s color!

And here is the final layout:

Now, if only I can keep up the progress on this. 

Week Twenty-One, May 26, 2016

Two more nights of stitching after the WIPocalypse check-in and here is where the outline for “Return” is now. 

One page of six (top left corner) complete and parts of pages 2 and 3 (top center and right). A lot of Ripping (I always seem to miscount somewhere along the way) but not too much, so long as I don’t push the stitching to the last two strands from a six-strand-length (that is when my eyes start to rebel and I miss holes, etc.).

I still don’t expect to make the deadline for registering for the fair this summer, but at least it looks like this piece will soon be in the “to be framed” pile! Then the decision will be either to finish up “Save the Stitches” or start something new, smaller and NOT in blue and green! 

WIPocalypse 2016 - May 21

This month’s WIPoclypse discussion topic is “What were you stitching this time last year and have you finished it?”

Well, last year at this time, I had three  projects “in progress”:  the “Roll Your Own” Mandala series (the “Jan” mandala”), the “Save Your Stitches” blackwork sampler (I was at block 13), and a crazy quilt block for my Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal project combination . The one I was actually stitching on the WIPOcalypse report day for 2015 was …none of the above! I was fighting a serious, long-lasting respiratory illness and simply had stitched for  almost a month. 

Did I finish any of these? Well, sort of. 

• I finished “Jan” (in August of that year) and subsequently “Revenge” (December, 2015) and “Rematch” (May 2016) of that same series, but there is still one mandala to go, so the “Roll Your Own” piece is still a WIP. 
• I finished the blocks for the Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal wall hanging but it is not assembled into a wall hanging yet.
• I haven’t put a single stitch in “Save The Stitches” since April 2015!

Not a very good record of finishes, although there were several small pieces (A memory quilt block for a friend, an exchange Christmas ornament,  and three place mats for a quilt guild charity - Meals on Wheels) in the interim. My stitching mojo definitely has gone walkabout…

Last month, my goals were to “do better “ and in a way, I did as I finished “Rematch”   http://210920746822434353.weebly.com/my-stitchery-journal/week-twenty-may-19-2016 and got started on the outline for “Return”, the last of the nine mandalas in “Roll Your Own” (although, since I thought today was the report-in day, I have to admit that the stitching done on this outline is probably better saved for the next WIPocalyose, since I stitched on both Saturday, the 21st, and Sunday, the 22nd)

 The stitching mojo is still in hibernation — I feel as if I am forcing myself to put in a hour a day (or every other day, more like) but I am plugging along.

Next month? Well, “do better” still applies. I need to keep plugging away on “Return” and see how far I can get this summer. I know it won’t be done in time to enter in the fair (That is usually late June, early July) but maybe next year? 

Meanwhile, I planted my veggie garden yesterday (six different tomato plants, two eggplants, six summer squash and a row of bush beans) and it is going to take some of my attention this summer, as will my paper crafting (two challenges were issued today… and more are coming by the end of the month). I am reading again (two more books in the Maggie Hope series by Susan Elia MacNeal and I have several series of television programs on DVR that I MUST catch up on during the summer hiatus. Also, there is a road trip in the books for the end of June (the American Hemerocallis Society annual convention, this time in Louisville, KY), so I am going to be busy between now and the next WIPocalypse check-in!