January WIPocalypse

This month's WIPocalypse question is: Question of the Month:  Tell us about the oldest WIP you have in your stash.

My oldest wip is now Jolly Snowman by Joan Elliott from Cross Stitch Gold December 2010.  I started stitching this one 12/26/21.  I did work on this one twice this month for BRRINGO.  My goal is to finish it this year.

For BRRINGO I also worked on the following projects:

Stock Car #3 was worked on twice.  I do have to use magnification to stitch on this one.

Harvest Corn was worked on once

Suncatchers was worked on twice.  Second turtle appearing.

 Summer Pig Storybook Animals from Treasures in Needlework Fall 1992 was a new start.  I am just doing the round center piece with the pig in it.  There are 3 more in this series.

And here is my start

 

 Princess & Dragon was worked on twice.  I would also like to finish this one this year.

Gnomes was worked on once

 

Queen of the Sea was worked on once.

Bright Owl Quintet from Cross Stitch n Needlework Sept 2014 was a new start.  This will be my 10th owl.  I am changing up the colors again.  This was a new start and here is my progress.  Baby is due in February.

Owl Faces was worked on twice.  Starting Owl Face #4

 

This is another new start from the leaflet Southern Magnolias.  I am doing Swag II.  The large piece has a huge flower pot.  This smaller piece has all of the beautiful flowers and fruits and no flower pot.  Stitching it on 14ct Cobblestone with called for DMC.  

And here is my start.  Worked on one day.

 

Autumn Sampler for this piece I had to add 6 motifs.  I added 6 acorns.

One of the prompts was stitch on something green or something you had to frog or a frog.  I had this cute frog kit that I picked up for fifty cents.

 And here is my start

For this prompt we were to stitch on a new to us designer that we had not stitched on before.  I have never done a Nora Corbet.  This one was in my pile of kitted projects Moonlight Laguna Mermaid from Cross Stitch & Needlework July 2014.  It does call for some specialty floss but I pulled DMC colors that I hope work  

And here is my progress

 Hello Autumn was worked on once.

Funky Cats was worked on once

 

QS Magic Island was worked on for BRRINGO and it is also my daily afternoon stitch.  Getting close o finishing page 8.

 

QS Porthole of Fantasy I finished page 2 and almost finished page 3 which is a partial page.

 

I also had an unplanned new start on Jan 1.  This one had been kitted and I had wanted to start it last year but never got it started.  It is Country Bird from Cross-Stitch & Needlework Sept 2014.  Here is what it will look like when finished

 

And here is where I got to:

 

I did stitch on this one a few times during the month.  Stitched on 14ct Fiddlers Cloth a scrap I had.

 

I worked on all of my wips except for Homestead Harvest.  I have found a mistake in the large white house.  I thought I could fudge it but that is not working.  I am going to have to frog quite alot.

 

With all of my new starts in January (6) it brings my wip total to 20.  This is the top end of where I like to be.  Maybe I will finish one of the small pieces in February.  I did get alot of stitching done in January.  It was so cold and snowy here that we did not venture outside much.  I just sat and stitched and did 2 jigsaw puzzles.

 

I plan on doing the Magazine Monthly Acrostic in February and they have a pop up challenge  Phebruary Phil In.  

 

 

 

 

 

January WIPocalypse Intro

 I have been participating in WIPocalypse since 2012.  At the beginning of the year we are to introduce ourselves and share any plans we have.

I am married with two grown children.  I live with my husband and one cat.  I am an old fashioned stitcher.  I do not use Pattern Keeper etc.  I use paper patterns and my magnetic board.  In the past few years I have just started buying PDF patterns but I print them when I am ready to kit them up and stitch.  I also keep my floss on bobbins.  I like to have each project fully kitted with its own floss.

 

Plans for 2026 include:  Participating in Brringo with the Magazine Monthly Challenge Group and doing their monthly acrostics and any pop up challenges.  I also will be doing the 26,000 stitches in 2026 with the Full Coverage Fanactics.

I hope to finish two of my older wips this year - Jolly Snowman and Princess & the Dragon.

Jolly Snowman by Joan Elliott

 

Princess & the Dragon by Teresa Wentzler

I do have at least 5 new starts planned.  Some of them will be started as part of Brringo in January.

Here is my empty Ort Jar and my 2025 ornament full of the 2025 orts.

 

 I am starting 2026 with 14 WIPs.  I like to have 20 wips at the most.  I have a 2026 tab for my WIPs and it has been updated with starting photos.

 

December WIPocalypse

 The end of December and the year is over already.  This month we are to recap our stitching progress for the year.  2025 was a good stitching year for me.  I had 11 finishes which included some large projects that had been on the go for a long time, a few medium projects and alot of smalls.  This is the most finishes in one year I have ever had.  I am a slow stitcher and by steadily plodding along I was able to finish these large projects this year.

 

 

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom finished in April

Crane Paradise was finished in July

Butterfly Fairy Night might not have been as big as the other 2 but it was certainly a larger pain to stitch on.  After 11 years and many mistakes I finally finished it in November.

Then I had 2 medium finishes:

 Hedge Hog Kit by Riolos was finished in June and now hangs in my living room.

 Unplug & Go Outside was finished in May.

I had 6 more small finishes which are shown on my 2025 WIPocalypse page.

During December I also did the Magazine Monthly Cross Stitch acrostic.  Here are the projects I worked on for that:

 

Princess & the Dragon was worked on twice for the Challenge and I brought it out 2 more times.

Owl Faces was worked on once for the acrostic and came back out another time after that.

Raccoon Teapot was worked on once for the acrostic and I kept it out and finished it on 12/15/25.  Last finish for 2025. 

 

Once I finished the Acrostic I rotated thru my projects and added more stitches to them.

 

 Jolly Snowman was worked on.  This one is now my oldest WIP.

 Homestead Harvest put in more windows and more of the white house.

 

Gnomes was worked on.

Funky Cats got more stitches

QS Porthole of Fantasy getting close to finishing page 2.

 

 Harvest Corn was also worked on.

Autumn Sampler working on the centerpiece

Queen of the Sea more scales added

 

Suncatchers one turtle done 5 to go

 Stock Car #3 closing in on a finish

 

Hello Autum

QS Magic Island finished page 7 and started on page 8
 

In December I managed to work on all of my Wips.  I started the year with 13 wips, had 12 new starts and 11 finishes ending the year with 14 Wips.

 

Here is my year end jar of Orts.  Ready to be emptied and ready to be filled up for 2026.

 

 

For Christmas my daughter got me some needle minders.  This is the first time one of my kids has gotten me a stitching item.

 

 

In January I will be participating in Brringo with the Magazine Monthly Cross Stitch group and have a few new starts planned for that event.  I also have plenty of projects ready to start in 2026.  Trying to keep it a mix of small and large so I can see some finishes in 2026. 

 

November WIPocalypse

 This month's WIPocalypse question is: Question of the Month:  Which specialty stitches do you find easy? Which ones do you find extremely difficult or are too nervous to try?

I don't like specialty stitches.  I have a hard time looking at how to diagrams.  I am left handed and can never get my stitches to look like the charted ones.

Here is what I worked on this month:

 

For the Magazine Monthly Acrostic I worked on:

  

Suncatchers

 

 Stock Car #3

 

 Raccoon Teapot and I also took it with me to Michigan for a quick overnight trip

 

Funky Cat

 

Butterfly Fairy Night and I kept it out until I finished it on 11/21/25.

I started it on 9/11/14 and I am glad it is done as I struggled with it.  I think because of all the mistakes

I will eventually make it into a pillow.  I have the Day one done and that one only took 2 years.

 

Then I worked on the following projects:

 

QS Porthole of Fantasy working away on page 2.

 

QS Magic Island top of page 7

 

More of page 7 after I moved the scroll rods

 

Hello Autumn

Autumn Sampler

Queen of the Sea

Magazine Monthly Challenge had a pop up event - 2025 Turkey Trot.  You had to stitch on a piece with a bird on it and put in at least 500 stitches.  I chose Owl Faces and made good progress on it.  Added 1,061 stitches

 

I also bought 2 patterns from Pigeon Coop Designs.  They had a sale.

 

 

For December I will be working on the Magazine Monthly Acrostic, my two full coverage pieces and whatever else I get the urge to stitch on.