WIPocalypse Update #1
I can’t tell you how amazed, fascinated, and excited I am that so many people are stopping by to check in stitching progress. I admit to being a bit like a little kid, stealing peeks at the check-in entry to see how large the number of posts is now – and my goodness, this is happening on my blog!
Blown away. Absolutely blown away.
I can’t wait until this weekend when I’ll have the time to sit back with a cuppa and read what everyone’s been doing. 🙂
I’ve been immersing myself in new starts via Crazy January, which may seem a bit counter productive when I have all of my WIPs that need work… BUT… there is a reason for this madness. The first is that a lot of my pre-existing projects are a bit tricky to stitch on my commute, and I wanted to have some easier (and smaller) pieces to stitch during my 90 minute train rides. The other is that I just needed to throw some diversity into my WIPs because I have an over-abundance of Wentzlers to work on, and while I love them… I also need a break from them from time to time!
I’m a couple days behind due to some work hours last week, but I’ve still managed to get some nice starts underway… (all of these photos pop larger if you click them) They’re not quite in the order I originally planned due to some misplaced projects, but now I’m back on track… I think. 🙂
Day One – Chatelaine Mystery XV – Deep Blue Sea. I’m stitching this on 28 ct Phantom by Picture This Plus. Looking forward to some more in-depth time with this over the upcoming holiday weekend. It’s my first Chatelaine, and I’m both nervous and really excited to dive into the insanity of gorgeousness of Chatelaine designs. (thankfully my husband bought himself a new computer, so I could justify the expense on this!) It’s definitely the largest and most complex project I’ve ever started.
Day Two – Why I Love New England by the Sampler Needlework. I’m stitching this on 32 ct white linen. I’ve put a little more time into it since this photo. It’s stitching quickly so far. It’s a large piece but is primarily whole crosses, so it should stitch up pretty quickly. This is one of those pieces I’ve put on my to-start list for YEARS, and just never had gotten around to. It was time to just jump in and get it underway. I’ve never seen another copy of it stitched, other than the sample in the store in Plymouth, Mass where I bought it.
Day Three – TAST (aka Take a Stitch Tuesday) is a year-long weekly specialty stitch project being hosted by PinTangle. I’ll be adding one stitch per week throughout this year onto a practice sampler. I wanted to have at least one thing that was an “educational” piece where I could just do some freestyle doodling, and this project was perfect. This is last week’s stitch. This week’s stitch has now been posted, and I’ll be focusing on the buttonhole stitch this week.
Day Four – Cowboy Cats by Dimensions, stitched on 14 ct Aida (provided in the kit). I don’t generally stitch from Dimensions kits anymore – I’m not a fan of how their chart keys are designed and find them a bit difficult to follow, plus I like to go stash hunting in the store and kit things out myself… BUT… I’ve had this kit in my stash for ages and still think it’s cute. It’s a good, easy piece for the train. What you’re seeing here is a bandana and the ruff of the center cat.
Day Five – Nantucket Sampler by Medeiros Needlecraft. I’m stitching this on 36 ct Legacy from Picture This Plus using Sullivans floss. Not much to see so far (as I’ve just been stitching sky), but I’ll have a gorgeous rigged sailboat on there soon. Nantucket’s not that far from me – only a 20 minute drive followed by a 90-minute fast ferry, and I like seaside scenes, particularly of places local to me. I liked this one so much I bought it twice… so my spare is going into the WIPocalypse stash box.
Day Six – The Inn at Fox Run Mill by Little House Needleworks, stitched on 36 count Shale from Picture This Plus with Sullivans floss. No particular reason why I’m stitching this one first… I adore Little House projects, but only have a few in my stash so far. I did a blind draw for the next one I’d stitch. This stitched up incredibly fast – I did all of this during the last half of the Steelers-Broncos game last night (had to see who will be playing my Patriots on Saturday!)
Day Seven – Pocketful of Peppermint by Blue Ribbon Designs, stitched on 36 count Legacy from Picture This Plus. In October 2010, I had the pleasure of having Belinda of Blue Ribbon Designs teach this piece as a class for Stitcher’s Hideaway (before she released it as a public design). We worked on a complementing ornament in the class, and now I’m hoping to get the full sampler completed for the holidays this coming year.
So that’s my progress so far this year. Once Crazy January is over, I’m going to put some focus work onto the first Wentzler I really want to push towards a finish… Floral Bellpull.
Happy stitching everyone!