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…