WIPocalypse Check-In: April 28, 2019

This month's topic for discussion is:

"Talk to us about your longest-running WIP or UFO."

I had to go back into my files to find the longest running WIP... it is a round robin I participate in on Cross Stitch Crazy, a long gone forum on the now defunct iVillage. I started in January 2007. I stitched it on full yard of Silkweaver's 28-ct Jobelin, in the "Carol's Meadow" color.  It is a 12" x 12" square stitched with a knot garden in "blackwork" from Stitchin'spirations ("Brandon", designer Sally Rudkin) . The outlines of each individual garden plot were stitched in two strands (over two) of WDW Juniper (2158) while the blackwork fill and the plants around the outside were stitched in one strand of Caron Waterlilies "Distant Hills" (153). The garden "fence" was stitched in two strands of DMC 310 (black); the four urns at the central "gates" on each side were stitched in one strand of DMC  356 (terra cotta) and the pineapples at the remaining gates were stitched in one strand of DMC 61 (a variegated yellow-brown) with leaves in the WDW Juniper.

I sent it out to on its rounds (five other participants) with patterns for 18 possible Victorian house designs, all Nancy Spruance Victorian miniatures from three brochures: 3 copies each of Victorian Side Streets, San Francisco Scenes and Cape May Victorians, to be placed in the squares defined by the running stitches. In addition, I included a copy of fences, gates, urns and lamp posts (from Spruance's Victorian Miniatures pamphlet) which could be substituted for the embellishments shown in the house charts.

​When it came back to me in August 2007, it had five houses stitched:

And I have never gotten around to finishing it. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure "how" to finish it, other than adding at least one more house to the bottom right.  I know I have the house patterns somewhere -- that is only a matter of digging them out. And I had thought to make four blackwork motifs for the four corners but that wouldn't work if I don't compete the six "lots" on the sides...

What to do?

​~~~~~

So on to my progress in April - and yes, hard as it may be to believe, I did make progress this month! That would make it to months running of stitching and...

​A finish!

Well, sort of.. it still needs to be "finish"-finished (probably framed).

May I present "Palm Tree Elegance", a Dimensions needlepoint on mono-canvas, started in 2010, put into UFO mode in 2016 when I broke my wrist, and started up again this March:

---

I absolutely HATED the idea of backstitching this huge piece in hand (no frames here) and put it off for three days but, in the end, it only took an hour (not counting the untangling - the floss for the backstitching that came with the kit was NOT quality like DMC or Anchor, was too long and tangled terribly - and the juggling of the chart to see where the stitches were supposed to go...). The chart only called for one strand so I'm not even sure you can see it but it is backstitched on the leaves, trunk and on some pot details.

WIPocalypse Check-In, March 31, 2019

This month's question for discussion is:

"What newer designers and product creators (fabric or floss dyeing, etc) out there have you discovered and recommend?"

Well, given I have taken over two years "off" from stitching, I have to say I am not really following designers/stitching products these days so I haven't discovered anyone/anything new, nor would I dare to recommend any.

~~~~~

In March, we were challenged to do one stitch a day minimum, every day and I decided it would be one way to test my hand's endurance (it cramps badly after about one hour of trying to grip objects) and get back into a stitching routine.

Because I can't see that one stitch blackwork a day makes much sense and I wasn't sure I could guarantee more than that, I decided to go with my travel needlepoint and see how far I could take it. Since there is at least one road-trip/long weekend away form home in March, this made especially good sense (in my mind at least).

Here is the starting point:

Yes, it is going to HAVE to be blocked. Hand-held mono-canvases, especially when using basketweave, skew badly when I do needlepoint. 

The outer and inner borders had been completed as had a  portion of the middle border before I started.

After seven days, and 1570 stitches (minimum daily count was 145, maximum was 387), the middle border is now complete (with less than one half or a single pre-cut strand of the called-for color left! Whew! This is an OLD kit and I don't have any yarn in my stash of left-over needlepoint yarns that matched that color!):

Daily stitch counts - Week One: March 1 - 308, March 2 - 358, March 3 - 307, March 4 - 154, March 5 - 145, March 6 - 219, March 7 - 387

Weeks 2 (were I forgot to take a photo) and 3 were spent on the pot and the palm. After an additional     2005 stitches (maximum 272, minimum 15), I had all of the pot done except for the small pale circle (which is also a background color so I thought I'd hold on it until I got to that color) and all of the palm except the reddish areas on the leaf bases.

​There will be backstitching on both the pot and the palm but I will leave that to the very end, perhaps after blocking the piece, as it is clearly VERY distorted by being hard-held while stitching.

Daily stitch counts - Week Two: March 8 - 272, March 9 - 277, March 10 - 194, March 11 - 271, March 12 - 121, March 13 - 109, March 14 - 54 Daily stitch counts - Week Three: March 15 - 52, March 16 - 57, March 17 - 15, March 18 - 142, March 19 - 115, March 20 - 248, March 21 - 168

Not bad, if I do say so myself, since I had a really nasty sinus infection/cold (which had the focus-destroying  symptoms of mild fever, hacking cough and persistent headache) during those two weeks; and the three days in the hotel at the end of week 2 were hindered by a busy schedule AND terrible lighting. Still, I gulped down masses of DayQuil and Alavert and made it a point to stitch at least one strand each night.

Now to the background...

​Week four was essentially dedicated to the first and lightest of the three background colors, although there were a few stitched on March 28 that started color two... The weekly stitch count was 1511 (maximum - 315 , minimum - 25):

Daily stitch counts - Week Four: March 22 - 25, March 23 - 257, March 24 - 162, March 25 - 289, March 26 - 315, March 27 - 161, March 28 - 302

The final days of March were spent on the background... where one side of the second color was completed... A three day total of 826:

Daily Stitch Counts: March 29 - 262, March 30 - 304, March 31 - 260.

..., and a monthly total of 5969 stitches! ​

WIPocalypse Check-In: February 24, 2019

This month's discussion topic is: "What do you listen to while stitching?

Well, I may be strange, but I usually have the television on as more-or-less background noise. I stitch in my bedroom where I have a television/DVR set-up  and I have found I simply cannot focus on stitchery if there is no background noise.  I only pause in my stitching when something catches my attention on the program (kind of defeats the purpose of DVRing a program but...)

~~~~~

Again, no stitching this month. No excuses, just no stitching. I hope the next month of one-stitch a day in the month will jump-start me (in between tax prep, that is)

WIPocalypse Check-In - January 28, 2019

A day late and a dollar short, as usual. I should have posted this yesterday.

Anyway, this month's question is: "What SAL’s are you participating in this year?".

​Well, not exactly participating but, like in the past two years (2017 and 2018), I am collecting the monthly patterns for the sampler SALs at Linen & Threads.

And of course, once I get my motivation going and confidence revved up, this WIPocalypse.

But, sadly, the motion vacation/confidence part isn't going yet so I didn't get anything done this month... not even sorting of DMC threads (SAAAAD!)

WIPocalypse Check-In: January 6, 2019

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 2019.

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

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 2017/2018) on my WIPs and even on a few UFOs.

This year, there is a twist in that in the months of March, June/July and October, we are challenged to stitch at least one stitch a day every day. This challenge is inspired by a 100 Day HAED Challenge via Facebook that Melissa did in 2018.  Melissa says it worked amazingly well to make great progress.  She says it’s simple, takes only a few minutes, and will help push along that project you keep avoiding or just need a little extra focus to move forward. Here's hoping this works as I plan on trying to jump-start my stitchery which has been non-existent (except for the purchase of a few kitted-up charts I simply couldn't resist from Michael Powell and Glendon Place!)

*****

Now, on to list the four WIPs (trending toward UFOs as they have languished for over two years since I broke my wrist in 2016...).

• 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 - no shown here (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 (on the left, below: I dread to think how many are in there) and (on the right below) 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 woman has to have some limits!

Anyway my goals include getting as much of those first four listed WIPS done in 2018 as possible.  And maybe start a needlepoint piece or three...

• This year, I will try the "stitch a day" exercises. All four of those WIPS are good candidates  but I don't think I will do a rotation --- that is where I went wrong in the first place, pre-wrist break, with all those BAPS in rotation and no smalls to keep my interest going!). 
• I will TRY to finish that "Love Is.." sampler for my niece sometime before her FIFTH anniversary.
• I WILL stitch on "Palm Tree Elegance" on two road trips and one cruise scheduled for this coming summer, but am pretty sure it will NOT be finished. 
• "Biltmore" will be on the road trips and cruise but I'm not sure I will get to it - light in hotel rooms and on cruise ships sucks when trying to stitch beige on ivory! That is why it has been frogged at least once!

My least attractive goal of all is to sort and put away my DMC floss and, if time allows, make some sense of those kits and kitted charts in the cupboard shown above.

​And I will try to be a better stitcher by putting away all finished materials once a project is done instead of piling them on the table to "deal with later" (That is what got my stitching space into such a mess, after all!). How' that for  New Year's resolution?

WIPocalypse Check-In, December 2018

The topic for December is to " "Recap your accomplishments for the year!"

​Well, if you have followed me at all this year, you will know that my only accomplishments for the year were a few months of organization, which fizzled out when it came time to sort floss...The progress reports are in the following posts:

January: The before pictures and starting to clear cutting table surface and floor space.  This was my most productive month when it came to organizing. Beads, yarns, tools, fabric - all were consolidated, sorted and stored away.
February: Charts.  This took a lot of time and the progress wasn't that apparent but it meant my charts were at least in some order.  
​March: Floss (speciality) Quite a few thread brands ended up in their own boxes; not sorted by color, name or number, however. 
April: Floss (more speciality)  Everything but DMC was now packed away. Sadly, Anchor needs sorting and DMC is a hot mess... but my cutting table was the most accessible it has been in over a year!

I faded out here*, and never got the DMC or Anchor flosses sorted, nor did I work on the kitted-up charts in my cabinet which badly need sorting. My quilting fabrics require refolding and sorting as well and I think it's time to downsize that stash (especially the magazines!)

​*Technically, I continued to organize but my emphasis shifted to paper crafting supplies which were also a mess. I have summarized this progress in my other blog, here. I mention that here because my stitchery and my paper crafting occupy the same general space and were heavily intertwined in how the space was used. So any progress in creating room for product was of benefit to stitchery storage as well.

~~~~~
As for starts and finishes on actual needlework, I didn't place a single stitch. My left had still cramps after holding a hoop or frame from more than an hour and my mojo is stalled. I hope to change that this next year because there will be three trips (two road, one cruise) where stitching will be the best way to pass the time in hotels/staterooms. Here's hoping!

WIPocalypse Check-In, November 25, 2018

Oops~ I almost forgot!

Question of the Month: What new stitches or techniques did you learn this year? Sadly, none. Can't learn much new stitchery when one isn't stitching! Maybe next year.