July 2014 WIPocalypse Check In

I've not been very good at posting updates recently, but I've got plenty of stitching done, and have nearly completed the goals I had set for the year.

Cat Cushion - Finished! (Just needs to be made into a cushion)

Siberian Tiger - Finished!

For the Christmas Ornament 2014 SAL:

Birthday Card for my sister:

And a small finish:

The theme for July's update is: It’s halfway to Christmas.  Do you start your holiday stitching this early?  If so, what do you hope to accomplish this year?

I don't normally start my Christmas stitching until Autumn, and I end up not getting all I want to done. This year I've been participating in a Christmas SAL, so I've been working on my Christmas cards and ornaments since January!
So far I've stitched designs for 7 cards, 2 gift tags and 1 ornament.
I'm hoping to finish at least one a month between now and December, and if I have time perhaps a small chart for framing too :)

April WIPocalypse Check In

Although I've been stitching, I've not been very good at updating with my progress and missed the March check in too. Luckily the rules of WIPocalyspe are nice and relaxed!

Anyway, here's my progress:

Welcome Baby card for my sister on the arrival of Freya Angel Mae:

Baby Hugs converted to a hanging:

New Home card for my parents:

Progress on Cat Cushion:

And 2 finishes for the Christmas 2014 SAL:

And a Mother's Day card for Mum:

I did stitch a card for my Dad's birthday, but I forgot to photograph it :(

April's WIPocalypse theme is how you organise your stash.

I have two large plastic boxes, one for my WIP's and the other for my kits which I haven't started. I also keep my chart booklets and little kits from magazines in there.

My fabric is folded up and kept in a shoebox. I have a wooden embroidery box for card stitching supplies, which is a range of floss and smaller pieces of aida. Then I have a box full of card making bits. Then all my DMC and Anchor is wound onto bobbins and stored in organizer boxes.

All this is kept in the corner of my front room.

WIPocalypse February Check In

Here's my progress for the WIPocalypse SAL...

Baby Hugs:

2014 Christmas SAL:

2014 AAN Mystery SAL:

Busy Bunnies:

Cat Cushion:

The theme for this month is how we stitch, with the question: How many projects do you generally feel comfortable having in progress at a time?  Tell us about your one-at-a-time or rotation habits!

 At the moment, I have a lot more works in progress than I should. I know there's no right or wrongs with how many UFO's / WIP's we have or how much is in our stash, but I want to get my WIP's into a more manageable number, mentally at least! Ideally, I'd like to have 1 HAED WIP, and 2-3 smaller WIP's, 1-2 very small WIP's, such as cards or ornaments that can be started and finished in a few days, and then a 'space' for anything unplanned.

At the moment, I have 15 WIP's, and stitch on a screaming rotation - the one that screams loudest get's stitched on :)

Christmas 2014 SAL - February Finish

Here's my February finish, it's the pair of my January finish. Also stitched up super-quick! I'm partway through a penguin card design, so I might have 2 finishes for February...

These are patterns for ornaments, but I think they will look good as cards with circular apertures. They were such easy stitches I might end up doing a couple as ornaments as well though!

Christmas 2014 SAL - late January finish

Here's my finish for January for the Christmas 2014 SAL. My aim to get it done for the 21st didn't quite happen because I've been stitching Baby Hugs exclusively. But having finished Baby Hugs, I got this one stitched up this evening.

The chart is from Cross Stitcher Magazine, Christmas 2011 issue.

Baby Hugs is Finished :)

Hurray, my first finish of 2014, and quite a speedy finish too!

I changed the hair colour so it matches my sister's (who this is for) to personalise it a bit more.

I'm also going to add the name, date and weight in the bottom left hand corner, which will have to wait until March, but for all intents and purposes, it's still finished ;)

I'm probably going to finish this as a wall hanging, I don't think there is a big enough margin on the fabric for framing.

WIPocalypse January check in

Here's my check in post for the 2014 WIPocalypse!

The main project I've been working on is my March deadline WIP - Baby Hugs by Design Works.

Here's my progress:

I've stitched a little of Busy Bunnies, which I believe is my oldest WIP, but haven't taken a progress photo.

The check in posts have a different topic each month, January's is: Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year.

So, I'm Julia, I'm a single, working mum to a gorgeous little boy, and in the time when I'm not at work and my boy is asleep, I like to cross stitch, play World of Warcraft and drink large amounts of tea and coffee (actually the last one I do when I'm at work and my boy is awake...)

My WIPs are all listed on the 2014 page, I was up to 15 including my planned starts for the year when I stumbled across the AAN 2014 SAL and signed up for that, so that will be 16 (unless I get some of the WIPs finished!)

Goals for the year: start and finish Baby Hugs and Cat Cushion, finish Siberian Tiger and Busy Bunnies, and make some progress on the rest of my WIPs.

AAN 2014 SAL

So, because obviously I haven't got enough cross stitching planned for this year, I stumbled across another SAL! I can just about almost guarantee this will be absolutely the last one I sign up to this year, really.

AAN 2014 Mystery SAL - Halloween Town

To be fair, Autumn is my favourite season and I love Halloween / Samhain, and this design just seemed perfect for me so I couldn't really be expected to pass it by. Oh yes, and my birthday is this week, and there's an R in the month...

Now I just need to decide on the fabric! I'm tempted to get some hand dyed 32 count, but I'm not sure which shade to pick.

Baby Hugs

A new start! Baby Hugs by Design Works. My aim is to get this one finished by March.

This is what it will look like:

And here is my progress:

Its stitching up quite quickly, the design has much bigger blocks of the same colour than most of my WIPs.

Another 2014 SAL - Christmas Themed

After signing up for the 2014 WIPopalypse, I soon found another SAL that seemed perfect for me!

From the cross stitch forum I post on, it's a commitment to try and create one Christmas type item each month for 2014. Seeing as I always plan to get my cards done early but inevitably don't, I'm hoping this will give me the kick to start early and end up in December with all my planned Christmas stitching done.

My goal for this SAL is to finish a card a month. I normally stitch about 10 cards each year, so that also leaves 2 months free to get some ornaments for the tree done too.

I'm looking forward to participating in this SAL. Cards are nice quick finishes that I can work on during lunch breaks at work, so I should be able to complete my goals and avoid the usual rush in the week before Christmas to get the last few cards done.

I'll aim to get each one done for 21st of each month, so first one is due for 21st January... I'd better go and find a design to stitch!

WIPocalypse 2014

I found this SAL on Measi's Musings and thought it fitted well with what I had planned for 2014 - making some progress on all my WIP's.

The WIP's I'm including in my SAL are all those currently in progress on my 2014 page, plus my 2 new starts for this year; Baby Hugs by Design Works and a Cat Cushion from the World of Cross Stitch magazine.


First monthly progress post will be on 16th January.

Here's the list of WIP's:

1. Calicos Mystical Pumpkin
2. Rabbit Rendezvous
3. Peter Rabbit Birth Sampler
4. Busy Bunnies
5. Winter Sun
6. Shire Horses
7. Yellow Submarine
8. SK Trick or Treat
9. Siberian Tiger
10. Siberian Forest
11. Peacock Tapestry
12. The Stag
13. African Sunset
14. Baby Hugs
15. Cat Cushion

Loose goals: start and finish Baby Hugs by March, Cat Cushion by August, finish Siberian Tiger by November and Busy Bunnies (which has been on the go since 1998 :O ) by the end of the year. And as much or little progress on the others as I can fit in!

Happy 2014!

Well it's been a shockingly long time since I last updated this blog. With it being New Year's Day though, it's time to get back to blogging my cross stitch stuff.

And also it's time for New Year's Stitching Resolutions!

I'm going to limit myself as far as possible to two new starts this year, one for my sister's baby due in March, and another for a friend's birthday (excepting small stitches like cards of course).

Other resolutions are to make some good progress on my WIPs, maybe even a couple of finishes! I'm setting up a page to list them and photos taken of where I am now with them, and then I'll see how far I've got with them on 31st December 2014!

Happy New Year to all, may it be full of unexpected but welcome stash additions, plenty of quality stitching time and some nice finishes!