December WIPocalypse

Time for the December (and a bit of November) WIPocalypse!

Huh.  Wow.  It's been a while!

I haven't really stitched much (at all?) for the past couple of months, so it's not like anyone has missed anything.

I went to my professional National Meeting at the end of October/beginning of November and it's been a crazy ride since then.

November also had a weeklong trip to Puerto Rico (San Juan and Culebra with a side trip to Culebrita), and then an interview with a fantastic institution more than a thousand miles away.  Then a lot of weekends and craziness at work.   I have a new trainee, so I'm trying to get her up and running because I've had even more interviews (here in NC, and other states).  It's been nuts.

Here, have a picture of one of the favorite beaches in Culebrita

And then just so busy with the holidays and everything else.

I took my stitching with me to the National Meeting, fully intending to finish Fantasy Sampler this year, and kind of dropped that, so I'll just push it to finish next year.  I think one big TW was enough this year anyway.    I have a bunch of other stitching I had put on the list, intending to stitch and never got around to those either, and I'm OK with that.  It's supposed to be fun, right?

I've started working on a pink pussy hat project for the women's march on Washington (or whatever they're calling it now).

And in the meantime, Mona had a birthday! (this past weekend, actually) :)

I almost picked up some stitching the other day, and then I threaten to quilt and then I just end up buried under the covers playing a video game.  Rough life :)

So I'll start off by answering the November question

What pattern (or designer) is on your must-try-to-stitch bucket list?

Coincidentally, I set up a "Bucket List" page on my blog a couple of months ago, so there's plenty there.

My biggest lemming was the Joan Thomasson Russian Fairy Tales needlework piece, so if I have to pick one, that's it.   So beautiful!

The real fun is this month's question, which is the recap.   I love recaps!  Also, I had a pretty damned good year, if I do say so, myself.

Recap your accomplishments for the year! (Your finishes, your final before/after photos, etc).

I started with 18 WIPs and I'm down to 11.
I was hoping to get down to 9 by the end of the year (or at least the final WIPocalypse for this year) and I'm sure I only missed it because I stopped stitching for a bit.   That's cool, because I still feel super accomplished!

First I finished Thanksgiving Fairy

Started here!

Finished Feb 14

Then I finished Celtic Knotwork Ferret

Started here!  Kinda... All of the black outlining had been complted.

Finished February 17

Next came WWCKD?

Started here (where I left it in late December)

Finished March 25!

And then it was Cloudsfactory's 2015 Mystery, the Through the Stars Zodiac Sampler

I had stalled out after March here...

But then I knocked it out of the park! I intended to pick up the one/month pace but rushed it :)

Triforce of Badassery, a gift I intended to give in 2014 (oops!) was next :)

Started here! There's a miscount in there that drove me nuts!

Finished August 27 In time for the birthday!

And the last of my WIPocalypse finishes was Egyptian Sampler, a TW!

Started here after a UFORR...

Finished October 7!

I also decided to "let go" of Phoenix by DracoLair.   I had bad feelings associated with it, and to be honest, just went ahead and gave up.  Very little had been done on it (one weekend's worth), so I just picked out the stitches and figured I can use the fabric for something else.
My Epic RR is almost done!  I've finished all of the bands/work for everyone else's RR and now I just need to finish my band and it will be complete (this will be a high priority for 2017)

Desert Sunsets has seen some progress (not as much as I'd like, but hey!)

Started here... I think I started it because I was sick and wanted something easy and it was within reach

I actually have more finished than this, but I knew that if I waited until I remembered to update the photo....

and Fantasy Sampler made some good progress.

Started here

I feel like there was more than that! haha.

I have everything else I finished in 2016 listed as well, my personal rules for the WIPocalypse dictate that only pieces that were already in progress at the end of the prior year "qualify" for my WIPocalypse.  That means awesome stuff like Tapestry that I managed to pull off in a year (whut!) don't really count in my mind.

I fully intend to participate in next year's WIPocalypse as well and I've joined the FB group :)

So that's all for now, hopefully I'll have something new and interesting soon or an update or something.  I'll be going to the not-inlaws for Christmas, so I might be hiding in the corner working on something if I'm lucky.    There's usually a lot of hockey watching at the mom's house and movie watching at the dad's, so hopefully I can keep myself out of the way and entertained.