2025 WIPocalypse Intro

 My name is Cathy.  I am married, two grown children and 2 cats.  Retired in 2023. We enjoy camping and hope to travel alot in 2025.

I am starting the year with 13 wips.  Pictures are on my 2025 WIPocalypse tab.  

I participate in the Magazine Monthly Challenge acrostics and Brringo in January and ABCingo in September.  As part of my January Brringo board I will have 4 new starts.

I will have other new starts scattered throughout the year.  I do not want to have more than 20 projects being worked on.

I am also participating on 25,000 stitches in 2025 with Full Coverage Fanatics.  I will also do the Tour de France challenge with them this summer.

I want to finish Dandelion Fairy Kingdom in the first half of 2025.  I only have 4 partial pages to go.  Then I will start kitting up another full coverage piece.

I tend to stitch larger projects so I am trying to add starts of projects that are small to medium.   

In 2024 and 2023 I was not buying any new patterns as I have so many in my stash that I still want to stitch.  I like to stitch projects that everyone else is not stitching.  I have bought a few patterns this month off Etsy.  It is hard not to buy new patterns when so many new ones catch my eye. I will see how I do in 2025.

December WIPocalypse

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

 

I started 2024 with 14 wips.  I had 8 new starts and 9 finishes.  Here are my finishes for 2024:

Gathering Pinecones.  This was my oldest WIP started 9/8/2001.  It languished because I had trouble with the specialty stitches.  Finished in February.

 

Give Thanks to God Sampler.  I finished this one in March

What a Hoot Owl Teapot.  Finished in February

Sari Doll was finished in April

Moonlit Owl Mill Hill Kit was finished in May

Joy Seasonal Heart was finished in August

HC Anderson Fairy Tale SAL.  I kept up with the monthly installments and finished this one on 12/7/24

Owl #7.  I changed up the colors on this one myself.  Finished it 12/11/24.  I will be stitching 2 more in 2025 as 2 more Great nieces/nephews are due in 2025.

 

Folk Reindeer was my last finish of 2024 finished on 12/20/24

 

In 2024 I started QS Magic Island by HAED.  I finished 2 pages this year. One of the fairy's faces is starting to show up.

This is what it will look like when it is finished.

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom starting point for 2024.

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom ending photo.  I finished 8 pages in 2024.  I have 4 partial pages left and it will be finished in the first half of 2025

Butterfly Fairy Night starting point for 2024

Butterfly Fairy Night ending point.  I had wanted to finish this one in 2024 but didn't make it.  I did make some good progress adding 3,138 stitches this year.

Crane Paradise starting point for 2024.

Crane Paradise ending point for 2024.  I had wanted to finish this one in 2024.  The bottom section is almost fully covered.  I did add 8,008 stitches in 2024.  Possible finish for 2025?

Jolly Snowman by Joan Elliott starting point for 2024

Jolly Snowman ending point for 2024.  Added 2,711 stitches in 2024

Homestead Harvest starting point for 2024

Homestead Harvest ending point.  2,623 stitches added

Gnomes at the beginning of 2024

Gnomes at the end of 2024 1,114 stitches added

Hello Autumn at the start of 2024.

Hello Autumn at the end of 2024.  1,500 stitches.

Unplug & Go Outside by Emma Congdon a new start for 2024
 

And here is my progress  4,226 stitches. 

 

I finished my December acrostic, the SAL and the other goals I wanted to meet in December by 12/22/24.  So I decided to put aside my daily stitching on my full coverages and work on some other larger/medium projects that needed more progress.  Here are the projects I worked on for the rest of the month during my afternoon and evening stitching times

Hedge Hog Kit by Riolos at the start of 2024

Hedge Hog at the end of 2024.  4,011 stitches added.

Autumn Sampler at the start of 2024

Autumn Sampler at the end of 2024.  4,383 stitches added.

Princess & the Dragon by Teresa Wentzler at the start of 2024

I really enjoyed stitching on this one.  I added 3,351 stitches in 2024

Funky Cats was a new start in 2024.  This is what it will look like when it is finished.

And here is my ending point for 2024.  4,338 stitches added.

Here are my orts for 2024. 

And I always put them in a plastic ornament at the end of the year.  I have quite a collection of these ornaments

2024 was a good stitching year for me.  It was my first full year of retirement and I did get alot of stitching in with a total of 123,660 stitches.

I will start 2025 with 13 wips.

November WIPocalypse

 This month's question is:

How do you begin planning for the next year with your stitching? Tell us your process.

Throughout the year I look thru my patterns and magazines to keep my stitchy bug going.  If I see a pattern that I really want to stitch I put a sticky note on it and move it to the table in my craft room.  Then I look at the marked patterns regularly.  When I get the urge to kit something up I pick from one of the marked patterns.  So throughout the year I am slowly kitting up new starts. I try to keep a balance of small, medium and large.  I tend to do alot of large projects that take many years to complete.

In the past I have made new starts in January as part of Brringo and in September during ABCingo (all part of the Magazine Monthly Challenge group).  In 2023 and 2024 I only did new starts in January.  I like to keep my WIPs at 20 or under.  So for 2025 I have decided to spread out my new starts during the year. 

This month I did not get as much stitching done as I did in October.  Here is my progress:

Butterfly Fairy Night  I continue to work on this one making adjustments as I go to work around the counting errors.  165 stitches

Crane Paradise  Working on another flower  553 stitches added.

Princess & Dragon 176 stitches added

Folk Reindeer.  Just need more border and backstitching and it will be done.  Will push for a  finish in  December

Hedge Hog more greenery done.

HC Anderson Fairy Tale SAL.  Finished the November installment - Goldy Locks and the 3 Bears.  One installment left and this one will be done.

Unplug & Go Outside 305 stitches added

Funky Cats added 372 stitches

 

Owl #7.  I restarted this one and changed up the colors.  Going for a more realistic coloring.  I have the fabric ready to start Owl #8 after this one.  Then at Thanksgiving baby #9 was announced.  I have until June to finish that one.

Here are my full coverage projects:

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom.  I finished page 25 on 11/20/24 and made a small start on page 26.  This is the last row of partial pages.  About 3,300 stitches a page.  I will be pushing to have this one finished in 2025 hopefully during the first half of the year.

QS Magic Island.  I am getting close to finishing page 2.  I would like to get this page finished before the year ends.

In December I hope to finish Folk Reindeer, HC Anderson Fairy Tales SAL, Owl #7 and page 2 of QS Magic Island.

October WIPocalypse

 Question of the Month:  How do you organize your WIPs and stash?

I keep all of my WIPs next to my bed as I stitch at night in bed.  They are in ziplock bags.  Some are stored in a Stitching with the Housewives bag and some in a basket.

I do fully kit up each project keeping the floss for that project in the zip lock bag or if there is alot of floss in a bobbin box for that project.

Floss not currently in use for a project is kept in plastic floss boxes on bobbins. I also have two plastic boxes that are normally for scrap booking that I keep all of my kits in.

 

I have two small boxes of fabric and I keep all of my patterns, magazines etc in 3 large tubs in closets.  This picture is of two of the tubs.

Here are the projects I stitched on this month.  No finishes but some are getting closer to being finished.

Butterfly Fairy Night I continue to plug away on this one.

HC Anderson Fairy Tale SAL I finished the October installment.  I will do the back stitching which is minimal when it is all done. Only 2 more parts and this one will be finished.

Folk Reindeer working on the border.

Crane Paradise. The bottom of the project is all flowers and leaves.  This is a dense section.  I did make good progress on it this month.

I started this one too high.  I am going to re-start this one.  I also decided to change up the colors on the owl when I restart it.  The baby is due in December and I like to have these finished so I can give them at Christmas.

 

Autumn Sampler I finished up the Turkey block.

Hello Autumn I worked on this one for the O My Gourd challenge in the Magazine Monthly Challenge group.  I added 836 stitches

Homestead Harvest.  Finished the pumpkin and more work on the grass.  I have decided to just stitch the center panel.  I will have to remove part of the side border when I finish the portion I want to stitch.

Unplug & Go Outside.  Page 1 is finished and I have started on page 2.

Funky Cats.  I enjoy stitching on this one.  The colors are bright and lots of block stitching.

Hedge Hog kit.  More greenery and berries.  I am enjoying working on this one.

I have 2 full coverage projects.  Dandelion Fairy Kingdom I stitch on during the afternoons.  I try and stitch on this one daily except for the weekends.

In October I finished up page 24 and have page 25 more than half done.  This leaves me with 5 partial pages.  I am hoping I have enough fabric left to stitch them.  It might be close and I might have to take it off the scroll rods and use my hoop to finish it.

QS Magic Island is my second full coverage project.  I am halfway done with page 2.

Once Dandelion Fairy Kingdom is done I will make this one my daily stitch and start another full coverage.

October was a good stitching month.  I am now at 100k stitches done for the year.  This is the most I have done in one year and I have two months left.

November will see us spending a week in Florida visiting family.  I will take a few small projects with me.  Probably the Owl and the HC Anderson SAL.