December WIPocalypse

 Here are the projects I worked on in December:

Butterfly Fairy Night.  I am working from the bottom up to the wings that I had stitched with many mistakes.  Sometimes I was over 3 or over 1 and struggled to do it correctly over 2.  I have now gotten it under control and the bottom portion is correct.  I am hoping I can get it to meet up and that it will not look out of alignment when it is done. 1,988 stitches this year.

What a Hoot Owl Teapot is getting closer to a finish.  There are several more in this series I would like to do. 2,109 stitches this year

Jolly Snowman by Joan Elliott.  Made good progress on this one this year.  Will continue on with this one next year.  1,264 total stitches this year.

Autumn Sampler 2,494 stitches done this year.  

Gnomes.  Doing the back stitching on the first Gnome.  1,228 stitches this year.

Crane Paradise working on the last crane on this page.  Then the bottom pages which have alot of flowers. 3,033 stitches this year

Hedge Hog kit by Riolos.  739 stitches this year

Princess & the Dragon.  Still one of my favorite wips.  2,643 stitches this year.

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom.  Started page 19 December 1st and I almost finished the page in December.  I was thrown off my schedule of 4 full pages and a partial page in a year due to my broken wrist earlier in the year.  But retirement has helped me to almost get caught up. 26,741 stitches this year.

Now we are to recap our stitching year.  Even though I had a slow start with a broken wrist I did manage 8 finishes:

I did stitch on all of my WIPs this year and final progress photos are on my WIPocalyse 2023page.

I had 5 new starts and I am ending the year with 14 WIPs.

I stitched 271 days and a total of 63,212 stitches

Here are my Orts from 2023

I am looking forward to 2024.

November WIPocalypse

 Here is what I worked on this month:

Autumn Sampler was worked on for 2 days

Crane Paradise.  Finished the middle crane and started on the next one.  Lots of white and greys so it is hard to see the progress.  I am hoping to finish this one in 2024.

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom.  I try and stitch on this one daily.  I still have some places to fill in on page 18.  Hoping to finish this page today.

Gnomes. I almost have the first Gnome done. This is a piece of fabric that I coffee tea dyed myself.  It is showing pretty close to the true color.

Hedge Hog.  Found I made a counting error in the top portion.  I am not going to take it out since this is acrylic threads from the kit.  I am worried I will not have enough to complete it.  So I will try and fix it as I go.

Homestead Harvest.  I took this one off the scroll rods a few months ago.  The fabric is really soft and it was hard to keep it taut in the scroll rod. Using my hoop for now.  Looks much better from a distance.

What a Hoot Owl Teapot.  The colors are much brighter in person.  Hope to have this one finished in early 2024.

 

Butterfly Fairy Night.  I went to my LNS this month and got the missing threads.  I am continuing to plug away on this one.

Gathering Pinecones.  I put 110 more stitches into this one.  It is my oldest WIP.

To Everything There is a Season.  I finished this one on 11/4/23.  It is my 8th finish for the year.  I love the colors in this one.  It used some DMC Variations thread.  I am not normally a sampler person but I did enjoy this one.

Give Thanks to God Sampler (another sampler for someone who does not normally stitch samplers)  Getting closer to a finish on this one.

I still have 5 days left in November to stitch (counting today).  I hope to work on a few more of my WIPs that I have not touched yet this month.

I am also busy preparing my projects for Brringo in January with the Magazine Monthly Cross Stitch facebook group.

October WIPcolaypse

 This month's question is: How do you begin planning for the next year with your stitching? Tell us your process.  I try and pick some projects from my WIPs that I want to finish.  In 2024 I want to finish Crane Paradise, Gathering Pinecones and Butterfly Fairy Night.  Any new starts or working on certain projects will be based on the groups I belong to and the challenges I decide to participate in.

Here is what I stitched on this month:

Abominable Bundle.  This one traveled to Florida with me.  I finished it on 10/14/23.  Now I need to fully finish this one and Big Foot Bunch so I can give them to my sister for Christmas.

 

I worked on Autumn Sampler for 2 days.  I think I am going to try and give each project I touch in the month at least 2 days so I can see some progress.  One day is just not enough.

Crane Paradise was worked on for one day.

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom is my focus piece and gets worked on during the day.  I didn't get to work on it every day in October but did work on it 12 days so far.

Sari Doll I worked on for 3 days in October.

Hedge Hog Kit I worked on for one day.  Got into some of the blends.  I enjoyed this one and hope to pull it out again in November.

Hello Autumn was worked on one day in October.

Butterfly Fairy Night.  I think I am finally getting into the groove of stitching on evenweave.  But all of my previous mistakes need to be worked around.  I ran out of a color and when I stopped in Michaels they were out of it too. Walmart did not have any DMC anymore. So this one has been put aside until I go to my LNS.

I finished Owl #6 on 10/18/23.  I just need to add the baby's info when it is born.

Princess & the Dragon I worked on for 2 days.

To Everything There is a Season - I worked on this one for 6 days.  I am close to a finish and hope to have it done before the year end.

 

Finishing up  leaf raking and then we will hunker down for the winter.  I hope to get more stitching in.  I just need to make a list of needed floss and get to my LNS and pick them up.

September WIPocalypse

 This month's question wants to know if I am a seasonal stitcher.  I do feel I get more stitching done in the winter months as there is no yard work or traveling.  But it all depends on what is going on in my life.  This past winter I couldn't stitch because I broke my wrist.  

Here is my stitching for September.  I participated in ABCingo.  I picked 6 smaller portable projects as we were camping alot this month.

Abominable Bundle.  Nearing a finish on this one.  It will stay in my travel bag as we head to Florida for a week.

Autumn Sampler.  This one was not part of ABCingo.  Pulled it out and got 195 stitches

Crane Paradise also was not part of ABCingo.  I pulled it out and put in 146 stitches.  I am going to have to frog a few as I ran out of white and used Bright White.  Bright White does not match the regular white.  Luckily not to many stitches in that color.  I bought more plan white (not in my stash go figure) and will fix it next stitching session.

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom another project not part of ABCingo.  I finished page 17 and made a small start on page 18. 

What a Hoot Owl Teapot was part of ABCingo and traveled with me on 3 camping trips.  It seems all of my travel projects now have a smokey campfire smell.  lol  It will also stay in the travel bag.

 

Another ABCingo project.  Bright Owl Quintet.  Moving right along.  Needs to be done in November for the arrival of Great Neice #6.

Princess & the Dragon got another 149 stitches.

I had a new start as part of ABCingo.  Sari Doll is a freebie I found on Hazel Farm's blog.  It is in French and I believe she is a french designer.  There are quite alot of freebies on her blog.  She has pretty faces on all of her different Doll's.

To Everything There is a Season sampler.  I worked on this one as part of ABCingo.  

I put 211 more stitches in Jolly Snowman by Joan Elliott.

Give Thanks to God Sampler was worked on as part of ABCingo.

In September we had 3 different camping trips with one trip only have a day at home to wash clothes and load more food into the camper. The weather has been perfect for camping.  In the 70's during the day and cool at night.  The trees are changing colors and the skies are bright blue.

August WIPocalypse

 This month's WIPocalypse question is: What is your comfort zone regarding the number of projects to have kitted and in progress at any one time?

I think I currently have 15 wips.  I did have 20 but finished 5.  I have learned to have a mix of project sizes that helps to keep the projects moving.  I do have some kitted up waiting to be started.  I have a large stash and want to stitch all the projects in my stash.  So I have really only been buying floss and fabric.  A new pattern has to really grab me for me to add it to my stash. 

Here is what I worked on this month:

Autumn Sampler.  I started this one in January and had not touched it since.  I pulled it out and made some good progress on it.

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom.  I finished page 16 which had alot of confetti.  I started page 17 and I am almost done with it.  It has alot of large color areas which is helping me to make good progress. There are still a few days left in August and I would like to finish this page.  Doing a page in one month will help me to get back on track with this one.

 

Gnomes.  I worked on this one for one evening.

Homestead Harvest.  I took it off the scroll rods.  It is a very soft material and it is going better in a hoop.  I am working on the white house.

Made more progress on What a Hoot.  I hope to get this one finished in September.

Butterfly Fairy Night got some attention.

I had a new start.  This is Bright Owl Quintet from Cross Stitch and Needlework Sept 2014.  This will be Owl #6 as I have a new great niece arriving in November.  So I am adding to the Owl Family that I make for the Grandparents of the babies to hang in their home.

To Everything there is a Season was worked on for 3 days.

Give Thanks to God.  I started on the white house.  I am railroading my stitches trying to get the white to lay nicely.

Now that I am retired I get about 4-5 hours of stitching a day.

My plans for September.  I will be participating in ABCINGO with the Magazine Monthly Facebook Group.  I have put my small and medium wips on my board hoping to move some closer to a finish.  We are also camping two different times in September so I might not get as much done on Dandelion Fairy Kingdom.