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

January Stitching Wrap-Up

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Noby (orange) and his littermate Elly (black) many years ago in their younger adult days

The rollercoaster that I’d mentioned in my January 16th post continued through last weekend, and so I’m now behind in updating what’s been going on in my stitchy life. Along with Carol’s passing, we had to say goodbye to the last of our original band of (pre-Max) cats, Noby, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge on Saturday at the ripe old age of 17. It wasn’t unexpected – he had been quite ill for a long time, and we’d been avoiding facing reality over the holidays. I’m glad he’s no longer suffering and that he’s able to run free with his sister and the extended cat family we had. I miss him though – even his annoying, gross habit of sneezing right in my face.

Work has been kinda busy lately too – the usual uptick of meeting preparations seems to be coming about a month earlier than normal. It’s not a bad thing, but I felt like I was caught a little flat-footed the past couple weeks. I made some good headway to get back on track early this week though – so all good there.

With the emotional and work weirdness, my stitching hasn’t been quite as productive the last couple weeks. I’m still quite happy with what I accomplished, though!

Apache Wedding Blessing by Kooler Designs as of January 21, 2023. Stitched 2 over 2 on antique white linen with charted DMC.

I completed both of my remaining WIPGO goals for January in the last two weeks of the month – two days of backstitching on Apache Wedding Blessing, and two days on Mute But Not Silent.

For Apache Wedding Blessing, I focused on the top left corner of the piece – outlining that upper feather and then running the straight line outlines for a couple of the poles. I’m happy with two nights of progress. I may bring this with me to Stitcher’s Hideaway later this month to get a bit more basic backstitching in on the poles on the other side. I would estimate I’m about one third through the backstitching at this point, and then I have a little more tension cleanup work on the left hand side where I originally pulled a bit too tightly. I’ll be fixing that side by simply running a tent stitch over my existing stitches to fatten them up a little bit.

Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten as of January 23, 2023 – stitched one over two on 32 ct Lambswool linen with charted silk floss.

On Mute But Not Silent, I decided to focus on the first of the two large H’s. While a good chunk of the work was double running stitch outlining the outside, I did also add some cross stitches in the center of the structure of the H to give it a bit more dimension. I still need to add a four-sided stitch into the center of each of those circles, and then that H is complete… and I can move on to the next one. These Dutch-style letters are quite ornate! And they don’t match each other – the stitches are put in different configurations, so I need to count almost the entire time.

Even though this is a “murder mystery” piece, I do know what the entire piece looks like. I posted it here on my WIPGO Week 4 post. The mystery will be linking the individual motifs to the storyline so they make sense. Definitely a fun way to stitch a piece – and have a little extra “if you know, you know” behind it on the wall.

Fruit of Plenty by Modern Folk Embrodiery as of January 21, 2023. Stitched 1 over 2 on 40 ct Toasted Almond linen with DMC 800 and 840.

With my WIPGO stitching completed, I decided to pull out a couple pieces that were yelling at me to get some work done and threw them into the option pit for Semi Sane’s “Choose My WIP” challenge.

The first was Fruit of Plenty from Modern Folk Embroidery. I managed to get a little over 1,000 stitches in on this one in about a week of puttering. I’m very happy with the progress. And it will get more in February since it’s a featured WIPGO piece!

I outlined the entire cartouche you see centered here, plus filled in some of the blue at the top of it (where the “2” is shaded in). For February I’m going to try to finish up this section, which represented the February block in 2021. It’s super-intense stitching, so I do not expect to keep up with this throughout 2023. But I’m going to push it as far as I can this year. My goal was a modest three months completion. I should make that just fine.

Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy. Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct “Dreamin'” Lugana by Silkweaver with customized DMC.

For the final week of Choose My WIP, I stitched on the 2021 Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy. I have had a heck of a time overcoming the tree trunks on this one. Not sure why I’m struggling so muich – but I just have hit one of those ruts. I’m sure once I get that final trunk in, this piece will move a lot faster as I stitch in the individual leaves. I’m very happy to have added three limbs onto the tree – just a little more to go! About one and a half limbs!

This piece will definitely get finished this year. I already have a couple of other temperature projects waiting on the wings that I’d like to start – but I won’t until this one gets done. The heart you see is custom. This piece didn’t have a year or initials added in as part of the design, so I decided I’d carve my initials and the two-digit year right into the tree. I’d waffled whether I would change this to 2022 or… since it’s now 2023, the current year. I decided to leave it as a 2021 piece. I already have found a couple other fabulous temperature record pieces that I’ll work for the most recent years.

I will post my WIPGO Week 5 piece tomorrow, even though it’s not Wednesday. For now I need to head to bed… it’s been a long day and I’m wiped out!

If you want to see what else I worked on in January, my weekly updates are here and here.

Stitching, Works in Progress

WIPGO Week 4 – Mute But Not Silent

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Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten – photo from her class offerings.

My final project for January’s WIPGO numbers is Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten. I was introduced to the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild via this class Workshop in September 2021. It is not a reproduction sampler, but is designed in the style of Dutch Hindeloopen samplers from the 17th century. The threads are tudor silks that Amy dyes herself under the brand name “Fibers to Dye For,” and they’re all fabulously named with murder mystery names. She also has some threadpacks for Hands Across the Sea, Blackbird Designs, and Scarlett House samplers if you’re looking for excuses If I had a lot more money, I’d be buying ALL of the floss just for the names!

The motifs in the sampler represent clues in a murder mystery story that was included with the chart and read in the class. Amy also showed slides and some photos of images that inspired the motifs, giving context to what objects were, what they represented, or how they were used in everyday life at that time.

It was a very interesting class – fun to learn some history behind a sampler region I knew nothing about. It also was my first time learning how to do hemstitching and cutting threads (eek!! heart attack!!!). I have survived the panic about taking scissors to the fabric, but with a little more practice, I think I will be okay.

Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten as of January 21, 2023 – stitched 1 over 2 on 32 ct Lambswool Linen with charted/kitted silks.

I’ve worked on this a bit here and there, but it’s a piece I really need to sit and focus on due to the heavy counting – so it hasn’t been a priority of mine in recent months. This is a longer-term project. I don’t have it planned for completion in 2023. Maybe 2024, but likely this one is going to be a couple more years out because the detail work is pretty intense. It’s gorgeous though. I will be happy to one day finish it and get it up on the wall.

For this month, I think I have a miscount in that green ring I’m starting at the bottom. I’m not going to work on picking that out just now. Instead, I’m going to continue to work on those two large H’s at the top, since they have a bunch of embellishment left to go. I really should finish each motif individually before moving onto another one!

Challenges/Stitch-A-Longs, Stitching

WIPGO 2023 – The Introduction

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This year I’m going to do a weekly series to re-introduce the majority of my current projects back onto the blog through a WIPGO post. I’ll be showing the finished photo and the status of it as of the night I post, and a little background on the project. By the end of the year I’ll have all of the two WIPGO boards I’m running this year introduced. Think of it as a (very) slow motion WIP parade. A more live-action WIP parade will be coming to my FlossTube soon as well.

If you’re unfamiliar with WIPGO, it’s a play on BINGO. Pick 25 goals (or 24 with the traditional “free space”) that will challenge but not overwhelm you. It can be on a single project, or as many projects as you choose. It can be specific or as broad as you like. Put the goals into a 5 by 5 board, just like a bingo board, and number the squares 1 to 25. Every month on the 25th, the founder of WIPGO, Jessie, pulls two numbers randomly and those are your goals to complete for the month. On the month she pulls #13, there are three goals active. The goal is to get as many squares completed as you can over the year. Totally for fun – the only rewards are ones you make for yourself and maybe some silly bragging rights on Facebook.

This year I’ve decided to run two boards with almost all of my current WIPs spread across them. My goal is very simple – just stitch for two days on each project. No stitch or time minimums. Just put some stitches into each project this year. If by chance I finish a project before it gets called – I have a couple more projects I can add into the boards that are started. Otherwise I’ll leave them as a free space to put some extra love into something.

Here are my two boards:

January’s called numbers were 6 and 10 – so this month I’ll be putting stitches into The Colonial Sampler by Betsy Stinner (Earth Threads), Apache Wedding Blessing by Kooler Designs, Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten, and ABC’s of Parenting by Lizzie Kate. Those will also be the projects I feature here this month.

It seems like a lot – but that basically equals a week and a day out of the month to get stitches into four separate projects. Not that bad, honestly. I’m planning to do most of my stitching on these projects on Friday and Saturdays.

On Sundays I’m planning a wrap-up post of all of my stitching for the week, and then you’ll hopefully see my progress if I keep myself on a bit of a schedule! 🙂

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!

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