WIPocalypse Check-In, January 7, 2018

In the event that you are not familiar with WIPocalypse, it is a yearly challenge by Measi's Musings where Melissa, the blog owner states:

"The WIPocalypse was a stitch-a-long playing up on the joke that the world will end in 2012. It’s short for Works In Progress Apocalypse."The goal of the WIPocalypse is to make progress on your projects. How you go about this is your choice."

Since then, there have been WIPocalypse SALs each year and this year is the start of WIPocalypse 2018. 

Each month there is a "Question of the Month", an incarnation of “Stitcher Blogger Questions.” This was started on WIPocalypse in 2015 and continues. 

Also, in Olympic Years, there is an optional "Stitching Olympics Challenge". The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held February 9th to February 25th, and there are three options for “events” to challenge us in pushing forward on our WIPs during the Games. These options are:

• Rotation Relay – rotate through as many projects as you can during the Olympics (for those who like to work on a bunch of different pieces)
• Endurance Race – stick to ONE piece for the Olympics, and see how far you can push that one piece toward finishing (for those one at a time stitchers, or anyone else who wants to do some serious focusing on a particular piece)
• Celebrate the Nations (stitch only in the colors of the Olympic rings on your WIP pieces, OR… your nation’s flag, OR… on some sort of piece that is reflective of where you live, eg. Americana pieces for US residents).

I have participated in WIPocalypse since it's inception in 2012, answering monthly questions to the best of my ability, and reporting on my progress (nil in 2017) on my WIPs and even on a few UFOs. I have never chosen to do the Stitching Olympics Challenge in that none of my WIPS seem to fit the options except the endurance one. Also, I find it hard to stitch and watch the Olympics at the same time so I tend to choose one over the other. 

OK, enough of an introduction. Now for the January check-in.

The question for this month is to "Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!"

You can see who I am by reading my "bio" on the right in this blog. 

This blog shows all of my projects that I have photographs of, dating back to the early 2000's. I am an eclectic stitcher in that I will stitch any pattern that intrigues me: scenic, abstract, realistic, even the occasional "cute" (although that is not my favorite style) and in many different stitchery styles: needlepoint, cross-stitch, free embroidery, knitting (although no so much of late), and quilting (mainly crazy quilting). I like to use different stitches in all my needlework and also like to embellish with beads, charms, buttons, etc. I tend to enter challenges and keep on entering until I simply run out of ideas (example: the Bead Journal Project, 2010 - 2015 and the Crazy Quilt Journal Challenge, 2012 - 2015 being the main ones in my stitching history). 

I have four projects in my project bag at present in various stages of completion, all of which came to a screeching halt when I broke my wrist in the fall of 2016. They are:

• ​Elizabeth Almond's "Save the Stitches" blackwork sampler, started in late February of 2014 and put away in April of 2015
• "Palm Tree Elegance", a Dimensions needlework piece in my travel bag (I only stitch on this while traveling, in hotel rooms, etc.), started in November 2010 and put away after the last road trip in July of 2016:
• "Biltmore", a kit I purchased at the Biltmore Estate in July of 2014 and stitched on briefly in the coffee shop at that estate. I have stitched on it once or twice since then but made little progress from my sole published photo - in fact it has regressed a little since much of the work I did in that coffee shop had to be frogged. This piece also lives in my travel bag:
• and finally, "Love Is.., an intended first anniversary gift for a niece which has missed that deadline and may not make the second as well at there ate I am going. Started in September 0f 2016 and was put away when I broke my wrist, brought out briefly in February of 2017 as a test run of my wrists ability to hold the frame, and put back after an hour and less than four backstitched letters (and/or frogged letters!):

Please note:

1. I am NOT counting some UFOs that are still in my list from 2010:

• "Antique Rose" napkins
• "Angel of Love"
• "Celestial Angel"
• "Map of England and Wales"
• "Harvest Sampler"
• "Nature's Song" (excerpted from a larger chart)

2. I am NOT counting all the finish-finish pieces that I recently put altogether in a LARGE bin in my crafting space.

3. I am NOT counting all the kitted up kits and projects that I have stashed in my stitchery cupboard (I dread to think how many are in there), in another travel bag (at least ten, maybe more) and my in-house project bag (at least three needlepoint pieces and several more cross-stitch pieces). 

I mean, a girl has to have some limits! 

​Anyway my goals include getting as much of those first four listed WIPS done in 2018 as possible.

• This year, I may try for the "Endurance Race" and I have that Elizabeth Almond blackwork piece still languishing, half finished, in my project pile, as a good candidate.
• I will TRY to finish that "Love Is.." sampler for my niece sometime before her FOURTH anniversary (linen and silk, and it is stitched on linen)!
• I WILL stitch on Pal Tree Elegance on a road trip this coming summer, but am pretty sure it will NOT be finished.
• Biltmore...not so sure!!

And my biggest goal of all is to clean up and reorganize my stitchery space. I have shown detailed photos here of the before, and I will post detailed before-and-after picures of each step in my monthly WIPocalypse reports (here's hoping this attempt at reorganization, which entails my dining room and my paper crafting space as well as my stitchery space - doesn't take more than one month but one never knows what one will discover while sorting (I have already discovered two uncashed checks while sorting papers on my dining room table!)