This month's discussion topic is:
"How do you begin planning for the next year with your stitching? Tell us your process."
Laughing out loud here because I don't "plan" my stitching. I buy on whim, I star on what feels right at the time, and I stitch - on rotation is there is more than one piece in progress (and there usually is). When a piece is finished, I may select a replacement (which may be a new start or it may be a return to a languishing WIP) for that slot in the rotation or I may alter the rotation to reflect the number of pieces in progress. That's it. It's all on a whim!
~~~~~WIPs~~~~~
What I stitched on in October:
1. Fox & Rabbit's Patreon "Temperature Chart" for the year 2023. Stitched on 28 ct. "Star Sapphire" Gobelin (although it looks more pale green than "sapphire" to me) using DMC floss. I'm stitching the day's low on the left side of the hearts and the high on the right side. All temperatures are based on the recorded highs and lows from an online "past weather" temperature chart for near-by Bowling Green, Ohio (we don't have a reliable outdoor temperature thermometer for our home so I'm assuming same ZIP code, similar temperature, although that isn't totally accurate). I am pretty much keeping up with the days, waiting until I have at least five days of temperatures charted to stitch each session. I spend the rest of the time on the border and the hangers. The picture below shows temperatures through October 26, sans hangers for the last few days...
2. Fox & Rabbit Mystery SAL for 2023, "Royal Gardens". Stitching on 32ct Lugana "pale green" (this isn't an accurate color in this photo) using Threadworx Overdyed Floss 1048 "Woodland Green". (I am still considering adding a gold thread to any crowns that appear in the "garden"). I have finished the January installment (sans border outlines and two areas of backstitching) with two major stitching errors that I have to fudge around (because I didn't notice them until several rows of stitching and was NOT going to frog weeks worth of work to "fix" ).
I have started on the borders, parts of which were in the January, February, March, and May pattern releases. Since I have so much of the pattern in hand (through October, with November due this coming week), I am setting the borders on each side and then trying to finish the stitching in the center of the pattern, from left to right, top to bottom. I hope that this approach will result in better progress.
3. Stitchonomy SAL for 2023 "Kingdom's of Life". All I have finished so far (the frame, the bacteria and the plants) were shown in previous posts. I am doing some color editing on two installments before I proceed. No progress this month.
4. Stitchonomy Halloween 2023 SAL. I am a member of the Pattern Club and have received and stitched the patterns for all installments so far but, until participants not in the Pattern Club have received their patterns (one week later), I cannot show my progress of any parts they have yet to receive, and so I am not yet counting this as a completed project. Therefore, all I can reveal is the frame: stitched in DMC 310 (two strands) on the kit 14-ct AIDA (a sort of brownish olive green), and the piece up to and including part 29:
~~~~~
That sums up my October stitchery progress.
For the first time in a LONG time (maybe ever), I have multiple WIPS languishing unfinished: Elizabeth Almond's "Save the Stitches", Glendon Place's "Hope & Strength" which needs beads, Stitchonomy's 2022 "Christmas Banner" which needs beads, and Stitchonomy's "Kingdom's of Life" which needs editing (Fox & Rabbit's "Royal Gardens" and "2023 Temperature" are the only two pieces currently in my rotation.). Adding to this "horror", there are at least two Christmas SALs coming up, one which I have already signed up for and one which is due as soon as the Halloween SAL is completed.
