March WIPocalypse

 It is time for the March WIPocalypse report.  I stitched on my Cat Cushion and hope to have it done in the next rotation.

 Little Fairies at Play was worked on.  Page 5 33,882 stitches done.

 And a complete look at Little Fairies at Play (except for a small portion under the scroll rods)

 We are to show our favorite place to stitch.  Here is my happy chair.  The clear/blue bag on the floor has my projects I am working on in it (unless they are on scroll rods).  Patterns, floss and projects in current rotation are kept in this bag that has individual pockets.   I think it was to be used for scrap booking.

 And I started a new project this past month with the finish of Sunflower Swirl.  Live Out Loud.  It is Sunday so I am switching projects and Live Out Loud is up.

 We had more snow Wednesday.  A fast heavy wet snow.  When they cancelled school at 6 am grass was still showing.  By 7:15 when I left for work we had 3 wet inches and visibility was not good.  By the time I went home after work we had 7-9 wet inches depending on where you live.  Luckily my son shoveled so I could get back in my driveway. 

It was very pretty.  But by Friday the temperatures were up (high 40's) snow was melting and dirty.

I am so close to having all of the cross stitching done on this piece.  Just a little area to go all of the same color.   I thought with 2 nights left in my rotation I would get it done.  Friday night I sat down to stitch put a few stitches in and fell asleep.  Saturday night I sat down and put a few more stitches in and fell asleep.  I am so close on this one.  There is some backstitching to do also.  I think my next rotation should finish it up as long as I can stay awake. 

It was a very busy week.  We had an open house Saturday afternoon for my father's 80th Birthday. I dropped my son off at 7:30 in the morning to take the SAT and was in constant motion until 5:30 when we got back to my house.  Then I had to do dishes and bake a birthday cake for my son whose 18th birthday was also on Saturday.

Today I am taking my son out for lunch for his birthday along with my daughter and her husband.  Then back to my house for cake.

I did stop into my LNS yesterday morning to pick up my daughter and son-in-law's diplomas that I had framed.  I wandered around again looking at patterns but only ended up buying some floss that I needed for a project I am kitting up and a few small pieces of fabric.  I have so much in my stash that I want to stitch and a large box of finished pieces that need framed that I just couldn't buy any more patterns.

 Here is my new start - Live Out Loud from Cross Country Stitching Feb 2012.  I am stitching this on one long piece of fabric and I already have 4 other designs in this series stitched.  I think I can fit one more after this one.  Then I will try and get a picture of the whole thing.  I would like to finish it as a bell pull or banner.

 It is time for my Orts.  Here they are.  I don't empty my jar out each month I just keep adding to it.  I will need to tamp them down so I can get more in.  All of this winter weather has helped me to stitch more.

 A view from the top.  Bright colors from my new start.

 And I live in one of the areas getting hit with another snow storm.  My car was covered in ice last night when I went to bed and now snow.  It is still snowing and supposed to snow all day.  Probably a good 3 inches so far.

 Another view of the snow.  The old snow had gone done some so at least I will be able to shovel this snow on top of my existing piles.  I will wait til later this afternoon to go out and shovel.

And here is my finished Sunflower Swirl.  Started 12/30/13 and finished 2/25/14.  My first finish of 2014.  I decided this slot in my rotation should be for smaller projects so I can see more finishes. 

This week I worked on Little Fairies at Play while watching the Olympics.  I just love this piece.  Still on page 5.

I also went to my LNS yesterday to get my daughter and son-in-law's diplomas framed.  I walked around looking at all of the patterns.  I saw a few that I was tempted to buy but ended up only buying 2 skiens of floss.  Maybe when I go back to pick up the diplomas more will jump into my hands.  I feel like I have way more than I can stitch now and need to focus on either buying material to stitch what I have or get some of my finished pieces framed.

WIPocalypse February

 Cat Cushion

 Little Fairies at Play

Sunflower Swirl

Time for our second WIPocalypse posting.  I worked on all of my projects.  This week I am working on Cat Cushion and have 2 more days in my rotation.  Not in the stitching mood this week as it is moving slowly.  I hope to pick up the pace and make some good progress in the next 2 days.

This month I am to tell you how many projects I feel comfortable working on at one time or if I am a one at a time project person.  When I first started stitching I only worked on one project at a time.  And the projects I picked were always large projects and I would get bored and put them down for long periods of time.  Then I stumbled onto the internet and a discussion on rotating projects.  I gave it a try using the stitch for 10 hours and then move onto the next project in my rotation.  And that worked for a while but it was hard to track my hours.  So I changed my rotation to a weekly rotation switching projects every Sunday.  Some weeks I get alot of stitching time and others I don't.

I currently have 3 projects in my rotation  - a small, medium size and large.  I have had 4 projects in the past and felt comfortable with that many.  But my large project is really large and I want to finish it up in my lifetime so I cut back to 3 projects so that the large one will come up more often.  Maybe someday when I retire and have more time to stitch I will add more projects to my rotation.

Sunflower Swirl is close to being finished.  Next Rotation I should be able to finish it up.  I need to dig thru my stash and kit up something to take its place in this slot of my rotation.  I want to keep a small or quick to finish project in this slot.  Most of my projects are large and take a long time to finish so it is nice to actually get a finish in.

We had 10 more inches of snow on Wednesday this past week.  Luckily work didn't open up til noon to give us a chance to dig out.  It took me an hour to shovel my driveway as now the snow piles on the sides are so high it is hard for me to lift the shovel high enough to get the snow on top.  My son went to school 2 days last week.  He is a senior and I am not sure he will ever graduate.  I think school has been extended now to close to the middle of June.

I am ready for another day of watching the Olympics!  I will take a short break from the Olympics tonight to watch the Walking Dead.  I will be stitching of course!

 I worked on Little Fairies at Play this past week.  Making good progress on page 5. 1238 stitches this week for a total of 31,724.  I really enjoy working on this one.  Good thing as it looks like I have a few more years ahead of me before it will be finished.

We still have alot of snow on the ground.  Yesterday it got up to 35 degrees and we had a mix of rain snow with mostly rain in the afternoon.  It lowered the piles of snow some but it did not disappear.  Then overnight we got more snow.  All of this weather is good for stitching as I can't do anything else outside.

I did go to Hobby Lobby yesterday as I had Christmas gift cards to use.  I got some paint to freshen up my outdoor frogs.  I hope to start working on them next weekend.  I also picked up a skein each of all of the DMC varigated floss, some felt, paint brushes and some jewelry tid bits.