I’ve finished my stitching for this round on Witches Wheel. Sorry for the slightly blurry photograph – I took it on the Amtrak train home to Providence tonight, and while I shot the photo in a relatively smooth area of the trip, the tracks between Boston and Providence are a bit bumpy.

Next round I think I’ll focus on filling in at least one of the other faces. My original plan was to do a quarter of the pattern at a time, but I think it’s probably a better idea to work out from the center on this one and fill in each similar motif around the circle to ensure that everything’s balanced correctly.

I’m not sure if I’ll bring any pieces with me for my commutes for the rest of the week. The weather has been quite rainy lately and I don’t want to risk getting anything wet during my walks from the train to work. I bought the new Sookie Stackhouse novel last night, so I’ll probably just inhale that by Friday. Next week, though, I’ll bring my Mirabilia round robin with me to attempt to get the rest of the cross stitches complete.

I’ve also been working on Pocketful of Peppermint by Blue Ribbon Designs for the last few days. I’m still in the early stages on the piece, creating some of the border squares. I’d like to do all of the borders first, then fill in each individual square separately. I should have my 10 hours done with that by the end of the week.

This weekend is International Hermit and Stitch weekend. I have a full weekend planned already, so I don’t know if I’ll have much time to stitch. Whatever time I do have, I’ll put into Floral Bellpull and try to push that fifth square forward a bit.

Hope you’re having a great week!

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If you’re looking to check in with your WIPocalypse updates, here’s the correct post.

Due to some insanity, I missed my update entirely for April, so my progress is actually two months’ worth of work. I’ve made some good progress on a few different pieces and have finished one WIP. I’m starting to really see some progress in my stitching this year, and that’s making me feel quite happy with what’s going on.

The two pieces that really needed their own posts for updates were my finish – Ye Olde Coffee House by Little House Needleworks and progress on Deep Blue Sea by Chatelaine.

I’ve also done some work on other pieces that don’t need quite as much story telling, but have progressed nicely.

Witchy Washy (Raise the Roof) is coming along nicely. I’m using the original overdyes called for in the pattern, and I’m stitching this on an older piece of Manhattan Mist from Silkweaver. I’ll be working (and hopefully finishing!) this piece in June, but it’s taking a rest for a few weeks.  As it stands, it’s probably about 60% done.  The hat is the final thing that’s sittig on the clothes line to stitch.  Two trees, a couple objects on the “ground” and the Witchy Washy title, and this one’s done.  My witchy hat needleminder will NOT be staying on it, despite looking like it should remain on the piece!  This is a fun little piece – I don’t know why it’s taking me so long to stitch because I do enjoy stitching on it and absolutely love it.  For some reason, it just makes me a bit tired, too.  Almost like it’s an intense piece for me, without any real reason that it should be.

Witches Wheel (Glendon Place) is my current commute piece. I grabbed it to take to Celebration of Needlework since it’s one of those easy to transport pieces – only one color of floss needed. It also turned out to be a great identifier for people looking for me. I imagine I was likely the only person there stitching on tie-dyed orange fabric! I spent the first couple days fixing a miscount that I’d needed to frog out – thankfully it was caught early because this piece definitely depends on everything matching up correctly. Unlike so many pieces, I really couldn’t fudge a miscount here. So it was fixed by taking out the central spokes on the left side (both diagonals and the horizontal) and moving them out a square. And then I stitched the two cats on the left. For this week’s commute, I’m going to add the fourth cat, and then I’ll see if I’m still in the mood to keep adding to it. This is one of the pieces I’d like to finish this year, so I don’t plan on putting it aside for too long.

Floral Bellpull is my Teresa Wentzler focus for the year. I’m now on square five of six, and it’s going well. It looks like my stitches are a bit scattered in this square, but this is how I tend to stitch Wentzlers – I try to carry a color as far as I can go to use up my currently needled floss, starting with larger blocks of color so I have something to neatly anchor the confetti stitches onto. Other stitchers who have done this piece may realize that I made a couple of errors. I accidently started the wrong square here – instead of Pansy, which is labeled as Square 5 on the pattern, I grabbed Peony… so my last two squares are going to be in reverse order. It’s not a big deal, as all of the squares are the same size. But I did a bit of an eyeroll when I realized what I’d done.

I also have my standard “Measi makes a mistake in the piece that she’s just going to leave because virtually none of her projects are completely perfect” stitch. Unintentional again – but it’s one of those stitches that just won’t matter in the long run. Can you find it here?

My final piece to update is my Mirabilia Round Robin from last year.  I’m stitching the bottom block and will add my name to the bottom of the center block when finished.  I’m stitching Enchanted Mermaid, flipped 180 degrees so she’s facing left instead of the originally charted right.  It’s a trivial thing, but I just felt that having four faces going left and four facing right may balance the piece a bit better.  Whether or not it does, I don’t know… but it was something I just felt I needed to do.  I don’t expect this to take me that long to complete.  Once I finish that cat on Witches Wheel, I’ll be taking my Mira RR with me on the train until the stitching’s done.  I’d hoped to have her done last month.  So this month, I’m determined!

Funny that this update wound up being the four pieces that I am gunning to finish this year, but I suppose that’s just how the stitching ended up this month.  Hopefully May will be another good month of progress.

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I’ve been hearing from several stitchers how they’re making great progress this month, and I’m thrilled that the SAL is working so well for so many people! I’ve had a couple folks ask if I’d be interested in continuing the project next year, and the answer is very likely yes, although it probably won’t quite have the pun-ney impact that it does for 2012 and the whole end of the world.

I had the pleasure of meeting Carol from Stitching ‘n Stashing at Celebration of Needlework last week, as well as a few people I’ve known for years on stitching message boards. I continue to be amazed how small the world is, and how these little connections via the internet turn into bigger connections, whether quick in-person meetings, or more long-lasting community like the one I’ve started to form with the women I stitched with that Saturday.

Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to meet more of you over the years!

Important SAL announcements

Problem with the Auto-Linky in April – Several stitchers mentioned having trouble with the auto linky form last month. I tested it with a few links, and it was working fine on my end… but I know the internet is full of tempermental things and don’t doubt there were some problems. For this month, I’m removing the auto form. A new update to WordPress this week has some of my blog plugins not working, and the linky form is one of them. So please add a comment – and if that doesn’t work, drop me an email (see the bottom of the post).

Cut off Date for this Full Moon – is May 31st.  Please feel free to link your post anytime between now and then for it to count toward the drawing!

Stash box – I’ve started a page on my blog for a listing of the stash that will be in the drawing at the end of the year. Carol gave me a bag of some great goodies to include, and a couple other stitchers have sent items as well. If you are interested in contributing to the stash box, please drop me an email at measiwitch(at)gmail.com, and I’ll give you my address.  Please read through the information at the bottom of the FAQ for the types of items I’ll accept toward the drawing.  You’ll get full credit for your contributions.  :)

Upcoming Olympic Stitching – a couple of the message boards I belong to are involved in different stitch-a-long challenges for the Olympics, and I think I may adapt some of those as a fun mix-it-up challenge for the summer. If you’ve ever been part of one and would like to recommend a specific Olympic-themed challenge that worked great for you, I’d love to adopt it for the group! Just add a comment or email me.

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Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch - no worries.  Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it.  It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.  :)

I know some stitchers were having some difficulty with my blog commenting system when signing up, so I want to try to make this a bit easier/more accessible for everyone.  You can check in in one of two ways:

• Via comments (make sure you include your blog address!)
• Via email – to measiwitch(at)gmail.com, only if the comments are not working.  Again- make sure you include your blog address!

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Or properly spelled, a CAT-astrophe. Notably of the “claiming by cat pee” variety.  One of the cats did a drive-by on my stitching bag, which I’d stupidly put on the floor, and decided to give it a rinse.   It was partially my fault.  It’s springtime, and the windows are open for the first time this season, and it tends to make a couple of our cats a bit… antsy, particularly Hoodsie, who was abused when he was a neighborhood cat to the point that we’ve had to put him on medication for anxiety.  He goes on a short-term marking tear in the spring as he smells all of the new scents from outdoors, and I’m figuring it was probably him.

The problem in a household of multiple cats, however, is that it’s a bit difficult to pinpoint who did it. In addition to Hoodsie, there’s Colley – who’s now fast approaching age thirteen and getting a bit senile.  I don’t want to punish the wrong cat, but it was very tempting to go on a tear around the house when it happened.  So rather than do any punishing (which isn’t exactly going to work with a cat anyway), I just worked as quickly as I could to save the things that were hit.

Thankfully I caught it almost immediately, ran it up to the sink and with some careful handwashing of the area hit (plus another washing later, just to make sure), I’ve managed to remove ALL of the smell. The fabric is overdyed, so there’s a slight change to that area’s color due to my spot washing, but it still works fine with everything else on the fabric (it simply turned darker blue). The good thing is that it was several inches away from any completed parts, so I was able to wash the fabric without having to go near what I’ve already stitched.

So crisis averted.  Barely.

I’m going to be taking a break from Deep Blue Sea for a couple months.  I feel like I’ve been so fixated on getting part one done, and it’s bogging me down when I really do want (and need) to get some work done on the glut of other WIPs and UFOs I wanted to push forward this year.  I think I need some time away from it to take a breather and stop stressing about keeping up with all of the parts, which was never going to happen anyway.  I need some objectivity on it.  Working on some other projects will be just the break I need.

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This was a fun stitch.  I got a bit bogged down in the house, but once I got past it, the rest of the piece absolutely flew by.  I did the entire bottom half in probably three evenings while watching hockey playoffs!

This was my first project with Sullivans floss, and I do like it.  I don’t find it any better or worse than DMC, honestly.  It’s just different.  It has a matte finish when compared to DMC.  I think the darker colors do have better coverage than DMC, but I don’t think it’s universal across all colors.  I’m not planning on switching exclusively to Sullivans, particularly because I do have a ton of DMC in my stash that I want to use, but I can see the appeal for some projects, especially ones that are more primitive in style, where the sheen may be a bit distracting (or at least where I might lean toward the matte as more style-appropriate).  I definitely will use it, and I’ll likely start picking it up for a few projects here and there.  For the moment, though, it’s not particularly cost effective for me.  The only place near me that I can purchase it is at Bush Mountain, which is a bit over an hour away from me (via highway), and DMC is far cheaper for me to pick up in Warwick (only 10 minutes away… on city roads).  I will pick it up from time to time and add to the collection – just another fiber in the types that I use.  :)

There’s still fabric left on this, too – so I’ll have plenty of this perfect LHN color to work some ornaments or another smaller piece.

Woo hoo!  A WIP checked off the WIPocalypse list!

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1. Complete part one and part two of Deep Blue Sea, and work on part three.  No – but I did make some progress
2. Put 10 hours of stitching into Floral Bellpull Yes! :) 
3. Put 10 hours of stitching into Why I Love New England  No.  Didn’t even touch it.
4. Catch up on TAST stitching.  No (and have likely given up on it due to falling so far behind).
5. Finish my Mirabilia RR  No – but did get some hours in on it.
6. Stitch on one other piece (for commutes)  Yes!  And got a finish!

Deep Blue Sea (Chatelaine) – I want to get this as close to up to date as possible. I’m just about done with part one. I also want to get through parts two (and at least part of three). More than that and actually be caught up? Gravy.

Didn’t do this. I did get a good amount of work done on it, but then had a bit of a catastrophe that put it on hold for the rest of the month (more on that in my WIPocalypse recap). I’m still on part one.

Floral Bellpull (Wentzler) – As my primary TW project for the year, I just want to push this forward so I can have a finish by the end of the year. Goals for this month would just involve getting as many stitches as I can into block 5.

I did get some work done on it. Will be continuing in May.

Why I Love New England (Sampler Needlework) – No real goals here. I’d just like to put some stitches in it.

Nope.  As mentioned above,  I didn’t even touch it.  :(

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But hey, that’s life, right? In any case, I’m doing okay. Crazy at work, but that seems to be the norm, and it’s just getting busier for me (which worries me). I’ve had another person assigned to my already over-extended workload, and I confess to being more than a little concerned about burnout because I was already doing the work of two people, but I’m trying to keep up as best I can and try to stay positive about the situation. The biggest positive in this is that I do genuinely like all of the people I support, and I think that most of them understand that I’m really being stretched, although they still need their work done, so they can’t afford to be too lenient.

Our office also recently switched to a paperless filing system that is really causing some backlog on my end. After my entire working life using folders on computer drives to stay organized, I now have to switch to what’s essentially a document management/filing system that makes sense on paper but I’m finding surprisingly difficult to adjust to. It’s dropped my workload speed down quite a bit, which is not helping the stress level. I’m hoping that I’ll mentally adjust soon so I can speed things up.

On a positive note, I received a VERY good yearly review at work and received a raise that did mitigate one huge stress factor – an upcoming monthly commuter train increase of $75 that goes into effect on July 1st, which will bring my monthly pass total to $316 per month. It’s not as bad as some of the proposals that were out there by the MBTA (one would have raised my pass up by $127 per month, which would have forced me to look for a new job), but it’s still not an easy amount to swallow. My raise has essentially eliminated that particular problem. I’m hoping I’ll still be able to bring home some additional money after the transportation increase, but as the raise hasn’t hit a paycheck yet, I’m still not sure how taxes play into it all.

Needless to say, I’m a little run down and in need of some vacation days, but I need to wait for a few weeks after taking that week off in March. I’m just waiting to see how all of the new assignment factors at work play out for a few weeks before I ask for time.

I have been doing a lot of stitching this month, which I’m setting up to share in multiple entries over the next few days (so I’m not disappearing for weeks on end again). I completely missed my own WIPocalypse posting last month – so I’ll have a lot to share this week!

I promise to be better about blogging this month!

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I’m going to be away for the weekend, so I wanted to get the check-in post up before the chaos of packing takes over my life tomorrow evening. I’ll be getting my own report up probably once I return on Sunday night.

Important SAL announcements

Sad News – It is with great sadness that I  announce the passing of one of our fellow WIPocalypse stitchers. Carol of Carol’s Needle Sketches passed away in March. Her family has asked that I remove her from the participant list, and I will be honoring that request.  I didn’t feel right removing her without mentioning why the change is being made. My deepest condolences go out to her family and friends.

Meetup at Celebration - It feels awkward going into other announcements this month, so forgive me for what may sound like a bit too quick of a focus turn.  If you are one of the many stitchers attending Celebration of Needlework in Nashua, New Hampshire at the end of April, I’d love to meet you!  If you are going and would like to have aWIPocalypse stitch-a-long in person, I’ll be up for Saturday (all day until I essentially drop).  Let me know your email address via a comment below and I’ll contact you to see what your schedule is that day.  If nothing else, I plan on stitching up in the 4th floor stitcher’s lounge in the evening (probably 7 onward), so pop on by and say hi!

Cut off Date for this Full Moon – is April 30th.  Please feel free to link your post anytime between now and then for it to count toward the drawing!

Stash box – A few people have asked me if and when I’ll be accepting donations toward the stash drawing.  The answer is yes, I am – and you’re welcome to send them my way anytime.  Drop me an email at measiwitch(at)gmail.com, and I’ll give you my address.  Please read through the information at the bottom of the FAQ for the types of items I’ll accept toward the drawing.  You’ll get full credit for your contributions.  :)

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Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch - no worries.  Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it.  It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.  :)

I know some stitchers were having some difficulty with my blog commenting system when signing up, so I want to try to make this a bit easier/more accessible for everyone.  You can check in in one of three ways:

• Auto linky form (you’ll see that below)
• Via comments (make sure you include your blog address!)
• Via email – to measiwitch(at)gmail.com, only if the other two options do not work.  Again- make sure you include your blog address.  I’ll add your post to the auto-linky if I receive it this way to confirm I received it.

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I’ve been doing some thinking about my stitching for April.  I didn’t set myself any goals for March, and I think that kept me a bit unfocused.  Theme-a-licious completely bombed for me – and WIPocalypse wasn’t too far behind.   I’m hoping with a (reasonable) plan, I feel better about my progress this month and maybe get a couple of finishes.

The Theme-a-licious theme for April is “Amazon April” – a month to push forward on your largest WIPs.  Me?  Large projects?  Hmm… in theory, I could just merge March and April together as one theme, considering what I have going in my stash!  But I need to keep this sane, so I’m instead going to pick three big projects for work this month:

• Deep Blue Sea (Chatelaine) – I want to get this as close to up to date as possible.  I’m just about done with part one.  I also want to get through parts two (and at least part of three). More than that and actually be caught up?  Gravy.
• Floral Bellpull (Wentzler) – As my primary TW project for the year, I just want to push this forward so I can have a finish by the end of the year.  Goals for this month would just involve getting as many stitches as I can into block 5.
• Why I Love New England (Sampler Needlework) – No real goals here.  I’d just like to put some stitches in it.

My general goals for the month will be:

1. Complete part one and part two of Deep Blue Sea, and work on part three.
2. Put 10 hours of stitching into Floral Bellpull.
3. Put 10 hours of stitching into Why I Love New England
4. Catch up on TAST stitching.
5. Finish my Mirabilia RR
6. Stitch on one other piece (for commutes)

I’m hoping for a good month.  I don’t think these are unreasonable goals.  If I make them all, I’m definitely going to be feeling good and on top of things.

I’m off to get my weekend cleaning finished up and the corned beef in the pot.  Hopefully I can settle down with some stitching for most of the day!

Happy weekend, everyone!

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*sigh*

I won’t go into it much on a public blog, but I’m feeling incredibly overwhelmed and burnt out these days. I’m hoping the feeling will pass, although I’m thinking it may be a permanent situation, and that’s frustrating me a lot.  I just feel that no matter how hard I try, I will never feel like I’m caught up – or at least keeping pace – with the workload I’m assigned.  And that’s sadly taking a mental toll on me.

Due to all of the work craziness, I haven’t had any energy to do blog updates. I have done some stitching, and forgot to update for the WIPocalypse this month.  In a way I somewhat did already do that with my post-Stitcher’s Hideaway recap. So retro-actively, I’m going to turn that into my recap post. No sense in doing photos now when the next recap is approaching quickly, I think.  I’ve been kind of doing the grab-and-go method of stitching this month, and haven’t been switching projects out like originally planned for the

My TUSAL jar has gotten a workout over the past few weeks. I took it to the stitching retreat at the beginning of the month, and it acquired not only my own orts, but the orts of some of the women who were sitting next/across from me, including some yarn orts from needlepoint (that’s not cheating, is it?)  :)  The orts from me are from a whole mess of projects, and it’s now sitting at a lofty 1/3 jar full.

As I logged in to do this entry, I saw that Rose over at Christmas City Stitcher kindly gave me the Liebster Blog award, which is given from blogger to blogger to share fellow blogs that have inspired and motivated them.  Thank you Rose!  I want to give some thought and a proper blog post to the blogs I’ll be offering the award to, so I’ll update once my brain is in a slightly better, clearer place with the blogs I’d like to offer it to (and come up with things that people don’t know about me).

I have a blogoversary coming up this week – perhaps I’ll do it on the 29th to celebrate.  :)  My blog’s a “tweenager” now.  Perhaps I should do tweeney facts about myself!  Anything in particular you think the world should know about me?  Ask away!

I’m going to kick back and attempt some stitching to relax away the rest of my evening – see you around the blogosphere (hopefully) soon!

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