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.

September WIPocalypse

 Question of the Month:  How did you learn to stitch?

My Great Aunt gave me stamped pillow cases and dresser scarves for my 8th birthday.  My Mom showed me what to do and away I went.  I moved onto crewel work after that and finally started counted cross stitch in the 80's.

This month I participated in ABCingo with the Magazine Monthly Cross Stitch Group.  I tried to put projects I wanted to make alot of progress on more than once Crane Paradise was on five times.  

Crane Paradise before I started ABCingo

 

Crane Paradise after 5 days and 1,681 stitches added.

Autumn Sampler worked on for one day.

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom nearing completing page 24

Funky Cat 273 stitches added

Gnomes 148 stitches added

Hedge Hog I worked on this one twice.  

Butterfly Fairy Night.  Worked on twice.

Princess & the Dragon was worked on twice.

QS Magic Island I continue to work on page 2

Jolly Snowman by Joan Elliott was worked on twice

HC Anderson SAL by Cloudsfactory.  Finished the September part.

Unplug &Go Outside added 276 more stitches.

We went camping twice in September.  I took my HC Anderson SAL to work on.

August WIPocalypse

 Question of the Month:  Do you belong to any stitching groups or guilds (either in person or virtual)? If so, tell us about them.

I belong to Hoosier Stitchers on line and they have monthly meet ups but they are too far from my home to attend.  I also belong to Facebook groups - Full Coverage Fanatics and Magazine Monthly Challenge.  I participate in different stitching challenges in both groups.  Of course I also participate in WIPocalypse.  I have been participating since 2012.

Here is what I worked on this month:

Crane Paradise.  I added 590 more stitches.  I have now taken it off the scroll rods so I can stitch on the bottom.  I will go back to using my hoop.  I want to really work on this one alot in the remaining months of 2024 to hopefully get it finished.

HC Anderson Fairy Tale SAL.  I finished the August installment - the Emperors New Clothes.

Hedge Hog Kit.  Working on the greenery.  I enjoy working on this one.  I just worry I will run out of the acrylic threads.

Joy Seasonal  Heart.  I left off the word border and finished this one on 8/9/24

Folk Reindeer.  I think I have all of the reindeer stitched.  I just need to do the border and backstitching.

Butterfly Fairy Night.  More stitches added.  I will have to fudge the arm as I got off on the lower butterfly wing.  Now I am on track and doing ok stitching on the evenweave I just have to make alot of adjustments to make up for prior stitching issues.

Spent some time on Autumn Sampler.

Bright Owl Quintet.  This is Owl #7.  I started it on 8/13/24.  I stitch one of these every time a new great niece or nephew is added to the family.  I attended my first gender reveal party this month and I will have a new great nephew in December.  I also found out that another great niece or nephew is due in April of 2025.  So once I finish this one I will start on the next one.

Unplug and Go Outside.  I am almost done with page one.

Gnomes.  I worked on this one 3 times this month.

Jolly Snowman by Joan Elliott.  Added 203 stitches

Funky Cats.  Lots of block stitching in this one.  321 stitches added.

Homestead Harvest.  I worked on this one for 2 days.  I am thinking about just doing the farmhouse panel and leaving off the bottom quilts etc.  I was drawn to this one because the farmhouse reminds me of my grandparents farmhouse.

QS Magic Island I am working on page 2.  I hope to put this one on the scroll rods in 2025 once I finish Dandelion Fairy Kingdom.

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom  I made good progress on page 24 my last full page.  I work on this one almost every day during the day.  My other projects I stitch on at night in bed while watching tv.

August was a hot month with no camping.  So I did spend alot of time stitching and made good progres on my projects.

September I will be participating on ABCingo with the Magazine Monthly Challenge group.  I have twelve different projects on my  board.  We are also back to camping this month as my husband has recovered from surgery. We have 2 camping trips planned.