Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, peaceful, very crafty 2017, with strength for the not so good times that may show up.

I've actually made a stitching plan for 2017. I'm shocked at myself, I never do that, but I am inspired by all of you who do. So, the overall aim is to reduce my WIPs, most of which are big projects so even a couple of finishes would make me happy. I've joined 2 SALs on Facebook and I want to keep on with the Christmas Ornament SAL (and actually stitch something) run by Kaye at Kitten Stitching and work on my oldest UFO (how often have I said that?).

So this is what my months should look like.

Days 1-7: Ornament SAL. I have a plan this year - and patterns - Dragon Dreams version of 12 Days of Christmas called 12 Dragonlets of 2012 - and fabric! But I'm short floss so January will probably have 1-7 and 22-28 reversed. Hmmm, this is NOT an auspicious start!

Days 8-14: One of my Facebook SAL new starts Crossed Wings Great Blue Heron. I have everything to start him.

Days 15-21: My oldest UFO. This was the last progress picture I took 26 July 2015. Eek, I didn't realise it hadn't even been touched in 2016.

Day 22-28: The second of my Facebook SAL new starts HAED Stormy.

I have everything to start this and because there is no background I'm stitching it on a piece of Colour Cascade Fabrics called Midnight Blue.

Day 29+: I'll concentrate on my .non-cross stitch projects. If my ornament doesn't take all of Week 1, I'll have some "whatever I want" crafting.

Now to see if I can stick to this.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy, stitch filled 2016 with lots of finishes!

This is a good time for talking about 2016 plans and mine are very modest this year.

I MUST finish my oldest UFO!

Here's an overall picture of the project (old).

And here's the last picture I took of the area being worked on.

This will be my focus until completed, then I will pick my next oldest UFO and work on that.

My only new starts should be smalls - ornaments for the Christmas Ornie SAL I belong to. I should be able to handle one a month - I hope!

WIP Wednesday 2 September 2015

I've been busy with Santa. Last week I left him here

and this week, TA DA, I have a finish - a fully finished finish at that.

Now I'll get back to working on the wedding sampler which I left here.

And I also need to work on my September Christmas ornie for the SAL. This month's theme is Christmas Tree/Presents.

WIP Wedesday 29 July 2015

The week started off great, but then I wasn't feeling well and all stitching stopped. I was here last Wednesday

and this is as much as I got done before I stopped.

Feeling much better now, so should get more stitches in this week.

WIP Wednesday 22 July 2015

Goodness, how did it get to be Wednesday again!

Here's where I was last Wednesday.

I've since finished the heart

and moved on to the top right hand corner.

Got this far before putting it away

so I can concentrate on this.

It's for a Smalls exchange and it will be my sole piece now until it's finished and mailed off.

WIP Wednesday 15 July 2015 And Other Things

Okay, some progress with the wedding sampler. Here I was last week

And here is where I stopped on Monday.

It's hard to see all the fill in stitches inside the heart, but they are there. Still is a fair bit of back stitching to do before I can move over to the second bird.

And why wasn't I stitching last night you ask? Well, I settled down to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy as usual and Yoda decided to join me.

And I just didn't have the heart to move him when the hour was up, so I settled for some reading instead.

THERE'S A GIVE AWAY HAPPENING!

There is a most generous give away opportunity at the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe blog of some beautiful looking floss. Check it out here!

IHSW is coming!!

A weekend that is totally dedicated to stitching, from Friday night to Sunday night, This lovely idea is hosted by Joysze at Random Ramblings. Click here if you want to join us, click here if you're going "Huh, what IS she talking about?".

And on a more personal note - when I turned 65 in May, I mentioned that I was working hard to shed some excess weight. Well, more honestly, a LOT of excess weight. And, as of my weekly weigh in yesterday morning, I have gotten rid of 100.5 pounds! Now THAT caused a happy dance, believe you me.  However, celebrating is over and it's back to working on the next 5 pounds.

WIP Wednesday 1 July 2015

Got some good stitching time into the wedding sampler this week.

This was where I left off 2 weeks ago

and this is where I finished last night.

The background stitching is finally all done for this section and got some serious back stitching done. Just need to finish the bird and I can move on to a new section.

June IHSW

It was a busy weekend, but I did get in a few hours of stitching. Here's where the stitching started

and here's where I was by Sunday night.

Not a lot of the background stitching left in this section, so hopefully that will get finished in the next session.

Now to go blog hopping and see what everyone else has been up to.

WIP Wednesday 17 June 2015

I'm starting to feel a little like I'm getting somewhere with this wedding sampler. Here's where I left off last week.

And here's where I stopped last night.

I need to get the background stitches in around the bird's tail, then I can back stitch the bird. (Have no idea where the blue tinge in the picture came from!)

And finally there is one little corner where the stitching is done and just beads to go.

The flower! There will be beads at the end of the long stitches and the satin stitches.

WIP Wednesday 3 June 205

Got a few more stitches in the Wedding Sampler. This is where I was last Wednesday.

This is where I am today.

Slowly, slowly, but it's coming.

WIP Wednesday 6 May 2015

Well, the wedding sampler got all of my stitching attention again.

Here's where I was last Wednesday.

Here's where I stopped last night.

The leaves are done!

I was asked by D1-D2 for a close up of the leaves, so here it is.

Sorry, that's the best I could do with my phone, and that's the only camera I have at the moment.

And here is where I stitch next.

Back to the top left corner. I'm going to work on the satin and long stitches together in each area as I go. Hopefully they will go a little faster than the lazy daisy.

It's been really busy at work, so my take-with-me Sweet Tulips is still waiting for some attention.

See you all next week!

WIP Wednesday 29 April 20151

At least I do have something to report this post! Not a huge amount of stitching time - I'm blaming end of month bookkeeping stuff - but my wedding sampler got all the attention.

This is where I left it at the beginning of March.

And this is where I put it down last night.

Finished all the vines and got started on the leaves. I really don't mind doing lazy daisy stitches, especially with pearl cotton, but it's slow going. Two nights' work and I've only completed C through L. However, once the leaves are finished, I'm done with the letters until I start beading, and it's on to large amounts of satin stitch.

WIP Wednesday March 4

It's been a good week - I've gotten at least a little bit done on all 4 projects.

Here is where Pack of Cards was last

and here is where I left it yesterday morning.

I think this really will be a finish this month. I hope so, because the friend it's for has her birthday April 13 and I still have to decide how to finally finish it.

Then, Purrfect was here

and this is where I stopped on Monday.

A whole ear!

PM Noah's Ark was here

and this is as far as I got this weekend.

You can't tell in the photo, but the white part of the robe is Krenik PB and has a nice sparkle.

And finally, my UFO. This was the piece that got the shortest amount of time, but every stitch counts, right? Started here

and finished here.

Got the vines done on about half the capital alphabet. Had to redo "A", as after I had done "B" and "C" it looked very sloppy.

Hopefully next week will go as well.

WIP Wednesday!

Well, here it is the first Wednesday in February. I managed a little stitching on the Wedding Sampler and more on Pack of Cards.

Sampler Jan 28:

Feb 3 - got the vines done on the capital letters and thought I was done with them - forgot there are beads as well.

Tried to work on the capital letters of the alphabet, but frogged as much as I stitched, so put it aside for a few days.

Pack Cards Jan 28:

Feb 3:

Coming along nicely with the right border. Thank goodness the next set of letters is a colour change - enough red already!

No stitches put in Noah's Ark - hopefully this week.

WIP Wednesday

Goodness Wednesdays roll around quickly! Not a huge amount of stitching done even though I was involved in a stitching marathon this weekend. Just feeling "Blah". However, here's what I did manage -

Pack of Cards on the 21st:

and today.

Back to the border, right hand side.

Wedding Sampler on the 21st:

and today - close up of the section worked on. And yes, that really is how old this UFO is!

All the cross stitches and half cross stitches are done - back stitch, long stitch, satin stitch, Lazy Daisy, Elongated Smyrna, French knots and beads still to come. All the capital letters have vines and leaves twined through them - that will be my focus next so all the letters will be completely finished.

In January I decided that this would be the year to focus on completing some WIPs, but I forgot I had signed up for a "New Year, New Start" challenge. This week I did just enough to complete the challenge - here's what I chose.

This will get a little more attention in February as part of a "Stitch An Animal" challenge, but it will definitely take a back burner to my older WIPs.