2017 WIPocalypse wrap up

So here's the yearly wrap up for the WIPocalypse, which isn't as much as I expected originally, but a new job, move, house projects, etc. will do that to you.  Which is to say, yes, it's less than I expected, but I'm certainly not upset about it.

I always use WIPocalypse for existing WIPS (as of  Jan 1) only, so that left this original list:

1. Epic RR
2. Fantasy Sampler
3. Deco Spirits  - TINY bit of progress!
4. Desert Sunsets - PROGRESS!
5. BoInk
6. Freshwater Pearls - PROGRESS!
7. Celestial Dragon
8. Stained Glass Zelda  - Progress.... of a sort?
9. Fortunate Traveler 
10. Enchanter 
11. Chinese Dragon 

My goal was to finish at least three of these, I was looking at Desert Sunsets, Freshwater Pearls, and Fantasy Sampler as my big three finishes, but I finished none ;) 

That's not to say I didn't get anything done, I did get a few things finished/done/framed, and they're in the "Finishes" tab, I just don't consider them part of my WIPocalypse SAL.

So here at least is the progress:

Deco Spirits - I started on the Air block.  that's it!  But it's something ;)

Desert Sunsets:

I started approximately here with one:

I finished it!

And I started and got a good bit done on the second (excuse the fuzzy photo, I'm too lazy to take another).

I'm absolutely confident that I will finish this one this year, mostly because I want to pass on the patterns to a friend.

Freshwater Pearls saw the most amount of progress this year, from this:

To this:

I might get this one out of the way this year, we'll see.   

And I decided to not continue with Stained Glass Zelda.  I did not get very far on the piece, and I'd like to keep the fabric for future use (hey, I use good fabric, no reason to waste it, and there's not enough done on the piece to bother adopting it out, imo).

So until next time, which should be in about a week! :)

November WIPocalypse

So here we are with the November WIPocalypse report  -  I've managed two months in a row, crazy!

This was where Freshwater Pearls was last month:

And this is where it is this month:

There's actually a little bit more than that done, but I didn't take an updated picture.   I just got one thread done in that blank spot towards the middle.  I'm trying to finish out that bit of beige so I can get to the crab and move on down to the final third of the piece.   I still have fantasies of getting it done this year, but we'll see how that goes.

And then this weekend, I started working on the last of the Desert Sunrises/Sunsets.   I count all three of my pieces as one big WIP, and I have this fantasy idea that I'll get this done quickly and sweet talk Annette into taking them with her on her final sojourn to Nick's

Most of the floss used in this piece is blended.  This is one of the two? three? symbols/colors that's not.  It's just plain ol' 352, but it actually spans the whole width of the piece, so hopefully I got that counted alright and I can use that as the base.   To the left of the center of the piece, it looks like it has little "knots" along the line.   When stitching it, I counted by fives and would do a full cross after 5 stitches.  I learned to do that with Teresa Wentzler pieces - counting out and doing a full cross each 10th when going across a border or long stretch like that.  Fives worked better for me in this piece, the way I was highlighting (it's an older hand drawn chart without the thicker 10 grid lines).  This piece does not have as much coverage, so I'm hoping to get it done in a quicker fashion than my last desert panorama.

Question of the month:

What finishing style have you never tried but would love to do?

And this is where I give a big ol' shrug.   I'm not sure, by in large because I just finish things if I like the way I've seen them finished or if I think of something interesting.   I have fairly decent sewing skills, so I don't mind finishing into stockings or bell pulls.   I enjoy 3D finishes such as biscornus or Just Nan's little mice.   I've done some of my own framing, though I would rather pay someone else because I'm not quite as skilled.   I'm thinking of doing some flatfolds in the future, though?

#WIPWednesday with Freshwater Pearls

When you're home all day with some sort of undefined funk (not flu, not sinus, but yuck anyway), you sit on the couch and do nothing.  Except maybe stitch.

So here's where I'm at!:

I sing a song that goes something like this when I'm working on this piece:
"This is the beige that never ends,
It goes on and on, my friend..."
Etc.

October 2017 WIPocalypse

I skipped last month's, oh wow, two months'! WIPocalypse because I felt like I didn't have much to report, but I do now!

I've pretty much cleared out my planned rotation except for my 2016 biscornu (which I'll get to, eventually) and Fantasy Sampler.   My current idea is to get one TW done/year, but Freshwater Pearls started screaming at me, so I went ahead and packed it up to take to my conference in mid-October.   I did a bit of stitching on the plane to Austin, and have been working on it in the evenings while Netflixing, so progress!  I also did finish one of the Desert Sunsets by Fireside Originals.  The one I have left is probably half the stitching of the one I just finished (it uses a lot of the exposed fabric for the sky, yay!). 

So here's where Freshwater Pearls was (literally untouched re: stitching since June 2007!)

And here's where it is

That beige/sand is KILLING ME.  So boring.  And annoying with the confetti of other beige in there.

And here's where Desert Sunset II was

And here it is completed!  (Link to the post with the finished photo, and a few extra)

August Question of the Month – How do you get yourself out of a stitching drought?

99% of the time, I'm not so much in a stitching drought as 'busy doing other things,' for example: gaming, gaming inserts, video gaming, working on the house, painting, quilting, doing anything else :)  So basically, I get myself out by getting bored or done with whatever I'm into at that given time.   I was playing a crap ton of Diablo III instead of stitching because of the new season, then I had had enough and went back to stitching :)

Now, if I'm feeling like trying to make myself stitch again, I look at pictures; or rather, when I'm reading through other blogs or FB groups and I see something I'm working on or want to work on, it might get me back in the mood, more than the other thing I'm doing :)

September Question of the Month – Which floss (or color of floss) do you absolutely adore and want to stash constantly?

Wine/Burgundy reds are my favorite.  I might have an overflowing drawer of 498, 816, and 817.  I didn't even have to think twice, I knew those colors.  I have a lot of silks I don't need in that color schema as well ;)

Fun fact:  the last four digits of my pager at work are 3042, which is, of course, a standard TW color.  I said something to the department admin about DMC floss color codes, turns out she's a stitcher and we had a good laugh about remembering extensions by DMC color in our head (/digression)

October Question of the Month – How did you begin stitching?

I've told this story in a prior post, but I'll share again!   I was spending Spring Break my sophomore year of high school with my aunt and uncle in a nearby town.  My family is fairly craft with a lot of crocheting, sewing, plastic canvas work, etc.    I needed a thick gold cord for the project I was working on and they were kind enough to take me to a (now out of business) cross stitch shop in the town next door.   When I walked in the door, I saw Teresa Wentzler's Castle Sampler on the table.  I literally bought everything I need right there and then.   Turns out, that was a hell of a first bite into cross-stitching, and I bought another kit (which had blended threads and quarter stitches, too! though not quite as much of it) and started my foray into stitching.  25+ years ago.  Wow.

I still have scraps of the original lugana I bought that I've been using over the years, and that was the one and only time I bobbined my floss, so if I run across a bobbin, I know it's from that project.  So much fun.

State of the WIPs - 2014

I decided to do a "baseline" post about where the WIPs are at, as I'm starting out.

I've got the new Deco Spirits and Halloween Fairy updates already up, but what about everything else that's been languishing?

Well - here's a rundown, some dates are approximate - I had a lot of WIP pics on Webshots, but that photo hosting site got rid of personal accounts a while ago :)

F(s)WP

I feel the need to make up silly acronyms.

Also? Here's the before:

and the after pic:

My current obsession, Birthday Gifts and Plane Flights

It's time for a stitching post.

First, I forgot to share what I got for my birthday (4/14). I have an Ergo stand!

It's so awesome. I love this stand. It goes this way and that. I have to be a bit careful with it, though, because the arms of the couch are way high and the seat is very deep, so I tend to sit indian style with the stand pulled way up. Or, I lounge sideways on the couch (legs stretched out) and have the project pulled over my lap.

So then you'll want to know why I have the holder at the top of my piece instead of the side, which is the usual way. Well, there are two things going on here: 1) I don't always have it at the top when I'm working on q-snaps, it just depends on how I am sitting as to how I set up the stand (the dogs like to sleep with their head on the stand's leg/s, so I've got to make sure I've got it right, or I'll have some cranky dogs when I try to move the stand, and 2) I stitch funny. Seriously, check it out:

I stitch from the traditional "left to right" way as far as the picture is concerned, but what I really do is stitch from bottom to top. So the top of the piece, its off there to the left (what would be W on a map). But I stitch from left to right (S -> N). But as you notice, I read the chart the correct way. So the chart? That's how I stitch and how I see my stitching, I just stitch sideways (basically, turn your stitching counterclockwise 90 degrees, and stitch that way, and you get how I stitch).

So why don't I still just attach the q-snaps at the side and rotate the q-snaps so that it sits right? I usually do. I just hadn't changed the orientation of the stand from when I was working on Fantasy Sampler, which is on scroll rods. So the only way for me to get the stand to hold that correctly is to actually attach it at the top.

And in other news of the stitching, here is my "before" of Freshwater Pearls (That name always cracks me up, because clearly, it HAS to be saltwater with the sea weed, shells, and crab and all):

It twas a freebie pattern given away by DMC a few years ago ('96) And here it stands now:

When I started it a couple of years ago, I figured that I would work on the shells and then fill in the rest, so that's why I got the sand dollar done first, followed by the shell, and then started on the spirally thing. But then recently, I looked at the chart, drew in guidelines every 20 stitches (more or less on the borders) and I figure that I work on it, left to right, square by square. I usually don't leave parked threads, so I stitch whatever symbols are in the square, and I'll go outside of the square to finish off symbols (but not always, as is shown by the dangly threads). That's why my highlighted stitching isn't completely constrained by the grids I drew. Sometimes, the next symbol is too far away, so I just dangle the thread and park it near the area where it next appears so I stitch over the loose bits. Basically, I just march across the canvas.

I cannot stop working on this piece. I feel so consumed by it. And not only do I desperately want to finish this thing (and I've got a long way to go - this thing is HUGE), but I'm thinking about doing it *again* over one whilst I happily stitch away on it. It's whole stitches and colors (seriously - no tweeding), so it would be easy to do (well, technically). But I'm thinking this would be faboo on some small count fabric.

I think I've lost my mind.

The worst part is, I'm neglecting other stuff to play with this piece. That's bad. But I love it! I've haven't had this much pleasure stitching in a long time. I've got to get back to the UFORR and a couple of obligation pieces before I disappear, but I think I'm going to JUST SAY NO to any more obligations until I get this thing done. Much love.

And stitching with the stand is even more fun than stitching without. I keep thinking of the 100 other patterns I want to get to, and I've even *gasp* thought about stitching another large Crossed-Wing. That's all we needed right, some sort of Snowy Egret: redux.

I almost forgot to add. I got my tickets for HERSHEY!! woot! CATS, here I come!!!