November stitching updates and initial 2019 plans

November’s absolutely flown by… between work craziness and school routines switching again, I feel like I’ve missed the entire month in some ways. Somehow I’ve managed to get some good stitching done, including a nearly complete happy dance. Hooray!!

So to start – the in-progress piece. This is the Steotchalong 2018, which is a “pay what you prefer” style SAL that has occurred for the past six years in autumn. It’s a blind SAL. No idea what we’re stitching, although folks are guessing, both in snarky and genuine fashion, about what the end result will be. I’ve completed through Part 5. I’m a couple weeks behind.

I’m working this on an old piece of Sudden Storm 28 ct cashel by Silkweaver with DMC.  It’s been a fun stitch.  Each individual week is a reasonable amount to get done but also be able to work on other projects, if you’re a well-organized, structured stitcher.  (which I am NOT).  I believe there are eight or nine weeks to the SAL, so it’s getting fairly close to done.  If it follows the tradition of previous years, the final week will have some customization text.  Since I’m in good shape on this one, I expect to finish it “on time” with the SAL.

The second piece is my semi-happy dance.  Four Seasons of Mystic is complete, except for beads.  I had some weird troubles with Winter throughout the bands, but somehow managed to pull it off.  I’m very happy with it, despite the miscounts.  I think I was able to hide them relatively well and do some quick adaptations.

It obviously needs a good pressing. I’ll likely do the beading on my next day of stitching at the library in a couple weeks to avoid any entanglements with cats demanding lap time (read: Harry). I’m thinking I’ll give it a pressing before I bead, and then do one final cleanup pass. This will likely be the (or one of) the pieces I submit to the Big E next fall, despite the variation from the original chart. It’s a great mix of different fibers – wool, silk, and metalics, with a lot of specialty stitches. I think it will show well, and I’m very proud of it.  It’s definitely a good reflection of what I’m willing to dive into to challenge myself.

I acquired this piece through the class for it in 2011 at Stitcher’s Hideaway in Mystic, CT.  Jeannette did eventually do a general audience publishing of it in 2013, retitled “The Four Seasons Sampler,” if anyone is looking for it.  I’m looking forward to stitching the ornaments we received at the class, too. I’m curious if they will fit in one of the box trays that Jeannette Douglas has been designing pieces for recently (the Journey Box, Mermaid Box, etc.) I have a full set of the boxes and the turntable shadow box that they go into, and if the ornaments she designed for us won’t fit, I may look into incorporating parts of the full design to fit the tray boxes.  It’ll be a fun challenge!

That’s been my stitching progress.  And as I finish off this year with some easy stitching (the Steotchalong, and probably some progress on one of my easier to see pieces)… I’ve started thinking about what I’m going to do next year.  I’m planning on making a few changes in how I look at things, mostly due to my current work/life balance situation.

I think the biggest issue is that I am so tired in the evenings due to work and parenting that I just don’t have the brainpower a lot of times to work on the complex stuff like I hoped.  I have a LOT of big pieces in progress.  I have a lot of complicated Teresa Wentzler pieces in progress.  And it’s become a problem. I don’t have a lot of smaller ones.  This may be one of those years I get some smaller stuff started intentionally so I can have a few little finishes to keep pushing through the bigger pieces.

My first part of next year’s plan is to get some easier projects into the mix – some Little House Needleworks, Country Cottage, maybe a Lizzie Kate or two.  Stuff that’s not as taxing on the brain, but cute and fun and great projects to relax with on the evenings and weekends. I also have a ton of small projects that I’ve accumulated through the Friday Night Round Robins at Celebrations.  I’m going to start adding some more of those into the mix as well.  I think some small finishes will help me feel like I’m actually getting to some of my stash, rather than just getting stuck on the same projects year after year and accumulating stuff that I never seem to get to.

The next plan is that I’m going to do a couple personal “one stitch per day” challenges through the year – and THOSE will be done on pieces that seem to be stalling a lot.  Floral Bellpull, Deep Blue Sea, Smoky Mountain Cats, Witches Wheel… all pieces I want to make progress on but just keep getting bogged down.  I think the minimum per day method will help me make some good progress on them.

And finally, I’m going to pare down the number of projects in each rotation round.  I’ve traditionally done six or seven.  I think for a while, at least, I’m going to shrink that down to four.  For no reason other than the visual/mental easing.  Less projects in a rotation makes it visually easier to accomplish.

I’ll be spending the next month getting stuff organized for January.  It may be a slightly intentional Crazy January for me this year to get stuff moving!

Off to get some stuff done before dinner.  Thanks for stopping by!