Challenges/Stitch-A-Longs, Stitching, Works in Progress

MAGIC 2022 Plans

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Last year I joined the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild (abbreviated TRSG going forward) to participate in an online class for Amy Mitten’s Mute But Not Silent project. The class was great – a blend of new-to-me stitches (cut work!!!) and some history about Dutch samplers. I’d also been curious about joining a formal stitching guild, but have felt the EGA to be a bit too intimidating and not quite cross-stitch friendly, so it was nice to discover a group that is supportive of cross stitch and a variety of different styles. I’ve enjoyed putting names to faces with some stitchers who I’ve seen in Facebook groups over the years, too! The group is local to the Dallas, TX area, but for now they are meeting virtually. Until it goes back to in-person meetings and isn’t accessible, it’s a great opportunity for me to learn, branch out, and get a sense of how a guild membership can work (and as they’ve been doing this for over 20 years – it’s going quite well!)

One of the things that TRSG does every year is a project called M.A.G.I.C. – My Annual Good Intentions Contract. MAGIC goals are ones stitchers choose themselves for projects that they’ve already started that they intend to finish – either in stitching or to be fully finished (FFO’ed) if stitching is already complete. There’s a form on the membership website to enter in your pieces (due by February 1st), and a couple progress check-ins will be done during meetings through the year. Totally fun, just to keep folks motivated. 🙂

So I’ve entered my M.A.G.I.C. list for the year onto the website. Now I just need to get these suckers done this year! My list is as follows:

Witches Wheel (Glendon Place) – The stitching on this is done, but I have all of the beading to do. Ideally I’d also like to get this framed so I can enter it into this year’s Big E fair.

Jade Band Sampler (iStitch Designs) – I am currently on week 11 of 30 on this sampler. If I just stick with this, I should be able to complete this easily in 2022.

The Castle (Teresa Wentzler) – I completed the stitching on this way back in 2005. It’s never been framed, and that needs to be rectified. So this is a FFO goal.

You Were Hatched (Teresa Wentzler) – I have the Celtic braid corners to complete on this ornament before FFOing this in time to hang on my tree next Christmas. I’d had this stalled for a while because there was a time that I was going to create this into Max’s birth sampler… but then I went another direction. So ornament it will be!

Mirabilia Round Robin (Mirabilia – customized) – Completed back in 2011!!! Not framed!!! What’s wrong with me?!? So yes – big FFO goal for the year. This needs to go on my wall. Soon.

A Stitch for Sweet Freedom (Lindy Stitches) – This cute little piece is one I started last January for Inauguration Day. I’d like to have it completed by the end of this year.

Apache Wedding Blessing (Kooler Designs) – Crosses are done, but I completely burned on the backstitching on this. The friend it was intended for will celebrate her 20th anniversary in a couple years, and I’d like to have this done for then.

Bird & Berry Box (Barbara Jackson) – This project was via a class I took through Celebrations in 2020. The class was short and I didn’t really get to work on it much, but I’d like to get all of the smalls stitched and assembled this year.

Winter Welcome (Park Hopper Bart) – I received this pattern in the recent Nice Box from Black Needle Society, and it’s so stinkin’ cute!! Not large at all, and it’s a design that should also be easy to frame. So my goal is to get this both stitched and FFO’d.

Christmas Pin Pillow (Kathy Barrick) – This is another project I received fully kitted in the Nice Box. I started this on New Year’s Eve, and would like to complete it this year. My goal is to only finish the stitching for now – if I can FFO it, great. I’m not sure yet how I will finish it (kinda need to get a sense of the finished size first).

Flying Lesson (Silver Creek Samplers) – Silver Creek is quickly becoming one of my “whimsy pattern” favorites. I received this project in the Black Needle Society’s Trick or Treat Box in October. My goal is to stitch it. Unsure for finishing quite yet.

I Love USA (Mani di Donna) – In 2020, Celebration of Needlework was held remotely, like so many other things. I supported the retreat by paying for my membership and my normal classes, even though I’d be sitting at home in front of my computer. Mani di Donna’s project was one of the eight via the Round Robin class on Friday evening – an event I enjoy participating in every year. It’s a small fob and flosswinder set. My goal is to do both the stitching and finishing for this.

Temperature Tree 2022 (Stitchin’ Mommy) – My intention had been to complete this tree in 2021, but I wasn’t able to get things done… so it’s becoming a 2022 temperature tracker instead! Fully stitched. I’ll FFO it in 2023.

It’s a lot of things to try to finish, but I’m optimistic. Many of these projects are either small, or just need final framing. In true “me” fashion, I made it official by creating a planner checklist page for myself. Now that it’s in writing, it’s an official goal! 🙂

I am, of course, a planner nerd. 🙂

Challenges/Stitch-A-Longs, Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO 2022 Plans…

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Last year I stumbled upon an interesting stitch-a-long called WIPGO, which was themed as a year-long Bingo game. It was created by Jessie Marie on her FlossTube, “Jessie Marie Does Stuff.” Draw a 5×5 Bingo board, number the squares right to left, 1-25. Leave the center square (#13) as a free space, and then fill the rest of the squares with goals. The goals are entirely up to the stitcher, but reasonable goals are strongly encouraged. The goals don’t have to all be different pieces, nor do they have to be just cross-stitch. As Jessie has said, “Your board, your rules.”

On approximately the 27th day of the month, Jessie draws two numbers (three, if #13 is called), and those are the “focus” squares for the following month. The goals don’t have to be finished in that specific month, but it’s a guide to help you to choose what to focus on. Every month on the second full weekend is “WIPGO Weekend,” an optional incentive focus on your WIPGO pieces. Conveniently – that’s this weekend! (and it’s a long one!)

Last year I tried a goal of 1,000 stitches for each project on my board – which actually worked well until I got to the month where I had my current Jeanette Douglas piece, “Love to Stitch” box, and all of the specialty stitches that made counting a little tricky. I fell off my rhythm, and the rest of the year kinda fell apart.

I’ve decided to try a new goal format for 2022 because I really like how this SAL is set up. Each WIP has its own goal for the month, and I think I’ve made them varied enough to be challenging but reasonable and interesting so that I don’t feel like I’m forced to just count stitches.

Here’s my board for 2022:

Numbers 2 and 19 were called for January – so I outlined them and color-coded the month on the right (since I’m keeping my sheet as a hard-copy chart in my planner). When I finish the goals for each project, I’ll color the entire square in to show that it’s done for the year.

Here’s where I started for January on the two called pieces:

Jade Band Sampler is by Carol at iStitch Designs. Every year for the past several years, Carol has designed a band sampler themed to a color. There have been approximately a half-dozen of these so far. They are released in small sections averaging 30-40 stitches high every week for approximately 30 weeks of the year, and are suitable for stitching either over one or over two.

I am currently on week 10 of 30, and am stitching mine over two threads on 28 ct banding. It’s going to be LONG when it’s done – nearly 2 meters in length. For now, I’m planning to finish it as a scroll under hurricane lamp glass. I eventually hope to have a house where I can hang it (and the Denim sampler for 2022) on a long wall. 🙂

My goal on this piece for WIPGO is to finish 4 weeks of the SAL, so to finish through week 15 (I’m not counting week 10 as one of those weeks since it was already started). I would like to fully complete the sampler this year, however. My WIPGO goal is just the “reasonable” one for the year!

Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten Designs was an online class I took in September 2021 via the Tudor Sampler Guild. I loved the style of the class – the sampler is a Dutch-influenced new design using motifs to tell a mystery story. The story was divided into three parts and read during the class, and each of the motifs represented something within the story – and also part of life in the Netherlands during the historical period in which the story takes place. I thought it was a very fun way to teach a sampler and embroidery history class!

This was a kitted project for the class, with 32 ct. Zweigart linen (ecru/ivory – not specified) and Amy Mitten’s hand dyed silks from her brand, Fibers to Dye For. They’re all named after phrases from murder mysteries!!

We were asked to baste the fabric prior to the class, which is why you see purple lines. I almost never do any gridding, but there is a bit of skipping around if the piece is stitched according to the story. I’m working the first motif, representing the father and sailor of the story, right now. My goal for this WIP is to finish Part One of the class. It’s an ambitious goal, but I do have all year to do it.

I’m making good progress this weekend on Jade Band, but need to get going on Mute to make progress before the end of Monday. I’m hoping to complete that first motif by tomorrow night.

Off to get a little done before bed. Happy stitching all!

Stitching, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse – 2022 Kickoff Post!

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Hi everyone…

So this weekend was a bit of an oops on my part. I had the initial kick-off post up on the blog and then went to do some cleaning up of the rest of my website, fix the SSL issue (grumble… still not fixed), and then… I deleted my entire blog. All 20 years of it. Completely nerfed in the blink of an eye. Cue a bit of a freak-out on my part and a HUGE amount of mental forehead thumping on the wall in frustration with myself. (don’t worry… my actual house walls are fine, and so is my head).

Thankfully Erich was able to find me one of my backups from 2018, so I just need to get things re-installed. A lot of the check-in posts are not included there, but all of the check-ins that folks have done since then are saved safely at In-Linkz. I just need to create new pages for them when some of the other stuff is back together.

But with the self-induced implosion of my website, I decided it was time to do a little reconfiguration that I’ve honestly needed to do for a few years. I’ve moved my blog to the main website address, rather than keep it in a subfolder. When I started my blog, I had plans… different sections, different topics, etc. And well… life happened. And none of those plans have really ever happened. Time to move the blog to the forefront. If any of those other plans – or anything as of yet undecided – ever do come to fruition, they can go in the subfolders! 🙂 So going forward, please make sure to link up to https://www.measi.net (no /measiblog after it).

While I keep working on getting things back up and running around here – have a lovely January stitching, and I’ll see you at the end of the month.

Keeping it real :),
Melissa

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Important SAL Announcements…

Upcoming Event: Olympics Stitching, February 4th – February 20th. Details about the events are up in the Facebook group under “Events,” but details will be added on my blog before the January 30th check-in.

Question of the Month: Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!

Next posting date: January 30, 2022

Topic(s) for next time: Describe your stitching style – are you a one-at-a-time stitcher? Do you stitch on rotation? Are you a chaos wrangler? Are you comfortable in your current stitching style, or are you still searching for that stitching zen?

Need all the basic info about the SAL?  Go here for all details for 2022!

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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. If you miss a few months, not a problem – just jump back in when you’re back with us! It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter


Life, Work, and All The Rest

So… I screwed up

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Earlier today I was attempting to update my SSL certificate, and started messing around with other things – and then I deleted the SQL that held all 20 years of blog entries on my blog. (sigh).

The good news is that I do have a backup of it – somewhere. The bad news is that it’s on a hard drive currently not hooked up to my home computer, and Erich and I need to find it. It may take a while. I’m going to piece together some entries as I can from Wayback Machine and Google search caches, but of course… that takes time.

For now – my blog is a clean slate. Maybe it’s a good thing. I’m not sure. I’ll start rebuilding, and we’ll see where things go.

WIPocalypse and other basics to get going will be coming this week.

Until then, stay safe. 🙂

~ Measi

Stitching, WIPocalypse

2022 WIPocalypse Info (Archived)

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This will be a Stitch-a-Long (SAL) for fun, not a contest.  Everyone stitches at a different pace, on different sized projects, with different goals and concepts of accomplishment, so a standard set of one-size-fits-all rules simply won’t work.  So whether you’re a one-at-a-time stitcher or an insane rotationer like me,  gather up the UFOs and WIPs on which you’d love to make good progress (or finish) and join us!

What will be happening in 2022?

Posting Schedule: WIPocalypse will be running for its 11th year in 2022!  We will have a kick-off post on Sunday, January 2nd, and then the check-ins will go back to their normal schedule for the remainder of the year on the final Sunday of the month with the exception of the final check-in of the year. Since Christmas Day will be the final Sunday, we’ll push that month’s check-in to December 31st.

One Month Challenge: In March, June, July, and October, there will be an optional “one month challenge.”  Take one of your WIPs, and do a minimum of one stitch per day, every day for that month.  This challenge is inspired by a 100 Day HAED Challenge via Facebook that Melissa did in 2018.  It worked amazingly well to make great progress.  It’s simple, takes only a few minutes, and will help push along that project you keep avoiding or just need a little extra focus to move forward.

Finishing Frenzy: In August, we’ll host a month-long goal to complete final finishing for any objects you’ve stitched, but just need to get framed, completed into an ornament, etc. Get your list together and let’s finish some projects!

Olympics Stitching: The Winter Olympics will happen in Beijing February 4 – February 20th. As we have in previous Olympics years, there will be a stitch-a-long for the duration with separate “events” you can pick and choose from to add some spice to your stitching. More details to follow in the December 2021 and January 2022 check-ins.

Question of the Month:  For several years, there were various bloggers who had incarnations of the “Stitcher Blogger Questions.” Since 2015, we provide a monthly question to get to know our fellow stitchers.   As always – this is optional.  If you prefer to just share your progress, that’s just fine.  đź™‚   If you want to go further and suggest some additional topics to me, please do!  Every question received will be used, and the person who suggests it will get a linkback credit.

Facebook:  The WIPocalypse has a Facebook group!  We want you to share your blog posts as you always have, of course, but community over on Facebook is now a huge thing, and it’s long past time we started a group there for those interested who no longer (or never did) have a blog.   All are welcome!  (and yes, that includes those who prefer to crochet, knit, quilt, etc.  The more the merrier!)

Here are the “rules” for the 2022 WIPocalypse:

1)  To sign up, simply blog about your WIPs and add your post about your WIP projects to the most recent check-in post here at measi(dot)net or create a post in our Facebook group. There will be no yearly sign-up registration for 2022.  Jump in whenever you find us!

2) Whenever you join us, make a list of the projects on which you wish to make progress. Add to and adjust this list throughout the year as you desire.  There are no restrictions regarding new starts for this SAL.  If you feel the desire to start a piece in 2022, add it to your list! The list is recommended so you can set goals for yourself (and celebrate your accomplishments – and let us celebrate with you).

3) On the final Sunday of every month (or thereabouts), post your progress photos to your site – even if your progress was slower than you hoped.  Label that post with “WIPocalypse” to make it easy for readers to find – whether in the title, or however you categorize or tag entries.  If you skip a month, just jump back in when your life and schedule allows.

4) Once you’ve posted, come over to my blog and find the check-in post and comment that you’ve updated.  There will be an auto-link provided so you can add your entry, which will be open for three weeks after the entry is initially posted.  The comment section is open for 60 days, so there’s more than plenty of time each month.  If, for some reason, you cannot add your post – either add it to the comments or send me an email.  There is no such thing as a “late” post.  Post when you can.  Stress-free here, folks!

5) Anything that you use for other group or blog challenges counts here for the WIPocalypse. Double-dipping is not only welcome, it’s encouraged! 🙂

Posting dates and Topics for 2022:

January 2 – Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!

January 30 – Describe your stitching style – are you a one-at-a-time stitcher? Do you stitch on rotation? Are you a chaos wrangler? Are you comfortable in your current stitching style, or are you still searching for that stitching zen?

February 27 – What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?

March 27 – Tell us about a technique, designer, pattern, or anything else in stitching that you’ve been nervous or afraid to try.

April 24 – What is your favorite store (either online or brick and mortar) to purchase your supplies?

May 29 – Retreats and seminars – have you ever been to any stitching events? If so, tell us about them!

June 26 – Half-year recap:  How are you doing with your goals so far this year?

July 31 – What five patterns do you really want to purchase (or start) right now?

August 28 – Have you been participating in gatherings via online chats (Zoom, Google Meet, etc) during the COVID pandemic? If so, what have been the best formats in your opinion?

September 25 – Are you a seasonal stitcher? If so, which seasons do you find yourself more productive or less productive?

October 30 – Do you prefer Halloween or Christmas stitching?

November 27 – When do you begin planning your stitching goals for the next year?

December 31 – Recap your accomplishments for the year! (Your finishes, your final before/after photos, etc).

Other Helpful Things...

Sidebar Buttons:  You may create a button for yourself from any of your personal WIPs if you choose. If you don’t know how to create a button and would prefer one from your own projects, feel free to email me. I can put together a simple button for you as soon as I have a few free moments.

You’re also welcome to grab the one I use below.  Simply download this image to your own image host and link it back to the following URL:

measi.net/measiblog/

2022 Testing Thread… 

If you don’t have experience with InLinkz or want to practice selecting specific photos, feel free to relink to this thread as often as you need to. This link will remain open from November 28, 2021 to the end of November 2022.

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