All posts in category motivation

Help stop the screaming….Pick a new start for me

I am about to finish a second WIP which means I get a new start – two finishes = 1 new start until I get down to 15 WIPs which is more manageable than 36. I had planned to start Summer Queen by Mirabilia but until I find a better way to hold the scroll bars, I’m not that motivated to work on her or the other 3 queens. Just so you know, I pulled my kitted projects and these are my choices –

Three Carousels – I’ve explained in my first flosstube that I have 3 kids so I tend to stitch things in threes so they each get one. I have Carousel by Teresa Wentzler, Dragon Carousel by Patricia Allison and Wild Hunt by Fire Wing Designs. Wild Hunt looks enough like a Carousel that it counts as one.

Goblin Market by Counted Illuminations – Based on the poem by Christina Rosetti, this cute Goblin man is offering his fruit to unsuspecting girls.

Tiger Lily by Nora Corbett – with Jo Mason’s help, she’s been converted to silk and I have all the supplies except the purple pony beads but they should be at 123Stitch for pickup on Tuesday afternoon.

Ristipisto kit from Finland – My father sent me a Christmas scene from Finland which would be a fun addition to my holiday decorations

New Year’s Fairy by Mirabilia – Have had the kit for ages, still deciding on Kiwi Illusions Cloudburst or Silkweaver snowstorm for the fabric.

DysFunctional – Sue Hillis – I’m probably going to stitch this one 3 times, maybe 4 if I give one to my parents.

Sleepy Hollow by Glendon Place – I’ve kitted this one up with Sullivans floss. I haven’t used Sullivan floss before.

Toil and Trouble by La-D-Da – This is the 3rd in the Halloween series I’ve stitched for the kids. The Raven was finished last year, I’m working on Something Wicked and this one will get modified to eliminate the nose and have a cauldron instead.

Please vote for which project you think I should start first. The poll will be active for one week.

Usually when I’m coaching and people do things like this, I ask them what do you hope wins? I can honestly say I’ve already eliminated the fully kitted pieces I don’t want to win (Fredrick the Literate, Iwo Jima, Sabrina, Elizabeth, Raven Queen, Emi Bishop’s Christmas Tree and 2 Just Nan patterns).

The Stitching Year in Review (a few weeks early)

This year was supposed to be a year of every WIP gets love. Well it didn’t happen because I fell in love with some of my older WIPs and life happened. Zions disbanded my department and I had to find a new job. I did end up as a government statistic since I did file an unemployment claim but I found my job with NCR and started before I reached the end of my waiting period – so no sucking at the government teat for me this year…
And if that didn’t throw me off my stitching stride, I got sucked into Candy Crush Saga. I’m on Level 451 and I haven’t paid anything to move up. I’ve also completed all the available levels for the Opus Owl saga stuff too. And now I’ve added pet rescue and I’m stuck on level 42.

I did get some stitching done this year though…most of it was blocks for my Dr. Who quilt. I made a quilt for my cousin’s son Roman, I stitched a beta test piece for Napa Needlework and Lizzie Kate’s “If the Broom Fits.” But new starts weren’t the only things I did. I completed a couple of my older pieces – Celtic Steps from the Nashville CATS show, quilting the Christmas stocking piece from when I took a quilt of the month course one year, and I finished the instructions for the Pink and Teal Nine Patch quilt that I started in 2009.

But the goal was to work on older pieces and it sounds like all I did was the new starts. However, I did work on my Blackwork Dragon (started Nov 2010), Fire and Ice (Jan 2003), Autumn Carousel Horse (Feb 2010), and I’ve spent quite a bit of time on my Fruit Bellpull. I’ve almost completed the apple block which had seen any work since maybe 2000? I started it in 1997 and the last time I remember working on it, I was in Montoursville, PA. I think I sent it out as part of a UFO round robin but that would have been prior to 2005. Anyway, I have really enjoyed working on it and want to finish up the Apples block before putting it away.

I was thinking about keeping with the Every WIP gets love list but I want to pull everything out and take a before picture at the start of the year so I know exactly where I’m at when I start to work on them. On top of that and to help motivate me, I found the Epic Stitching: Stitch from Stash group. Now I know I’m a binge shopper and can go for months without buying anything and then I’ll blow more money than I should. I like the idea of having a limit for the year and having to build up to what I spend. Besides, I should have everything I need to finish up my WIPS.

This should work as a button to take you to the link for the contest for the year. I have to admit that right now, I’m trying to hunt down the stuff to make the Victoria Sampler Gingerbread Cupcake but if I don’t find it soon, I’m going to give up and put it on the wish list for when the leaflet and the embellishment pack come out in the fall.

Let’s face it with 35 WIPS and 30 Fuppys (finished unfinished projects), I’m still at over 60 projects to complete (8 of those are quilt tops that need to be quilted and 5 of them are Olympic pieces where I wanted to find round frames in the colors of the Olympic rings.)

So coming up before the new year, I would like to post pictures of the 35 WIP’s and the 2 starts from Lizzie Kate which I want to have framed by next Christmas. If I’m lucky, I may even finish something before the new year starts.

WordPress says this is my 600th post

The question is with which statistics? Does that include everything converted over from Tblog and Blogger?

Frankly, I’m not sure the tblog stuff ever converted over, I should look into that. I do know there are issues with some of the blogger pictures but I haven’t been motivated enough to look into it. Frankly motivation has been an issue of late. Usually I have too many things I’m passionate about and have trouble deciding what to do. Lately though, the only thing that interests me is hiding from the world by playing games on my iPhone. It’s a totally unproductive activity and produces nothing.

It doesn’t add to my knowledge base, it doesn’t add to my network connections, it isn’t helping me find a new job, it doesn’t improve my chances of keeping the job I have, it doesn’t do anything to help me on achieving the goals I’m working toward, and it certainly doesn’t contribute to completing any of my hobby projects. It’s strictly an escape. I’ve learned one thing in life, if you need an escape, books are better places to do it than video games. At least you come out of it with a better understanding of characters and life. Very few of the video games I like teach life lessons. Portal being the exception. Maybe I’ll go do some science…

Motivation in the new year

So at the beginning of the year, I usually take stock of the stitching and plan what to do and I have some projects lined up to finish quick, as motivation for the rest of the year. This year, I had a new start planned and that didn’t work out as well as I thought it would. So here we are on the 15th of the month and I’ve stitched a total of 1 hour. That means I have a lot of catching up to do to stay on track. The goal is to put 5 hours in on every project on my list which mean I have 14 hours of stitching on 3 projects to finish before the end of the month.

Some people would feel pressure and decide it wasn’t worth it. To me, it’s a challenge. It would be fun to just hang out Saturday and stitch this weekend. Except its SharePoint Saturday and I’m looking for connections to find a new job. However, I have a TV and Netflix in my sewing room now and a DH who isn’t home on Thursdays anymore. I’ll get my 14 hours in before the end of the month. There are a few projects I could finish in under 5 hours so maybe I don’t really need a full 14 hours.

Just So you Know