It’s the end of June….

2020 is half over. How many are excited to see it end?

Wipocalypse 2020 Question is how are you doing on the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year?

How many of you feel like January was more than 6 months ago? How many feel like real life ended in March and you’ve been in either hibernation or a horror movie for the last 3 months?

I feel like I’ve been in hibernation. I went into quarantine with plans to stitch like crazy while on work from home meetings. It wasn’t 2 weeks in when my kids suggested that I get a switch lite to help with stress reduction. I told them I wasn’t stressed. My oldest son told me to sit down and explained that even if I thought I wasn’t stressed, this was the first time he’s ever seen me swear while trying to thread needles.

So I bought a Switch Lite and Animal Crossing New Horizons. I have a 5 star island and play daily which hasn’t helped my stitching time. I also haven’t done much writing or made a new floss tube video but I’ve been doing well at work and my team is amazing.

But for the last three months, I’ve been on auto drive. I’ve played video games and done not much else but work, eat food my amazing husband prepares. I’m up 10 pounds and I’m having problems with my hands and feet swelling and going numb while I sleep. It’s partially menopause, partially stress, partially not drinking enough water and eating too much salt, and sleeping in a way that impinges the ulnar nerve. It makes me not want to stitch much.

I started the year with goals to participate in WIPGO 2020, the purple peppermint Blackwork SAL and plans to finish several large WIPs this year.

As far as I’ve done on Purple Peppermint Blackwork SAL

I didn’t actually start the Purple Peppermint SAL in January but everyone’s work started looking so good, I couldn’t resist anymore and I started it and then I didn’t like the way it was looking and I stopped. I had forgotten that Blackwork works better worked from a diagonal, horizontal or vertical pattern. I know it will get better after I finish the first row and roll the fabric but for the moment, I’m having trouble motivating myself to work on it.

My first start of quarantine and what I work on when not gaming.

I thought it might help to have a project near my desk for when meetings got boring. Considering that I started it the end of March, it has some progress but not as much as it could have been.

The only thing finished during quarantine which isn’t a video game.

I did actually finish something though. This square was on my WIPGO list and I did actually complete it, looking at my chart I finished it May 6, 2020.

I have done at least a 1000 new stitches on this during the year.

My WIPGO board had 1000 stitches per square on this project. I did finish 1000 stitches on June 1, 2020 but I’m behind by 2 squares so it still needs 2000 stitches for me to be caught up. However, I look at it and I just can’t seem to motivate myself. In fact, in an attempt to motivate myself to stitch more, I started this Waxing Moon Designs.

My 2nd quarantine start

Here’s hoping that I can start waking up out of this hibernation and actually start getting things accomplished towards the goals that I set back in January. However, I’m not really planning on accomplishing much this year if it continues the way it has since March.

May Wipocalypse Check-In

Where do you love to shop for stash?

Once upon a time there was a really cool shop in Salt Lake called Stitchin Station.  However, the owner decided that retirement sounded like a good thing, none of the kids really wanted to take over and a floral shop had a really good offer for the shop and adjoining Zims warehouse.  So the Zimmerman’s sold the property and closed the shop.  I miss Stitchin Station.

But unlike other areas, I have some great choices.  I can drive 2.4 hours to Logan for the Mirabilia/Nora Corbett haven of Embroidery Central.
Or for a slightly shorter drive, a bit over an hour I can go to Ogden and shop at either Shepherd’s Bush or Needlepoint Joint.

If I want to stay in the city there is Craft Center, Needleplay or Needlepoint and Other things.  If I don’t need to look at it or need it today, I can place an order for pickup at 123Stitch.

And that doesn’t even count the big box stores like Hobby Lobby, Michaels, or JoAnns.

Now that I’m travelling more for work, I’ve been using NeedleTravel.com to find shops when I travel.   For example, tonight I’m sitting in Jefferson City, MO and there is a quilt shop about 15 minutes from me.  It closes at 6 pm so I should be able to get there one evening after my work meetings – if I can find an Uber since I didn’t rent a car this trip.

Stitch May-nia results as of May 22

There is still one week of my May-nia left for this year but This is what I’ve accomplished: AutumnQueen2016
Mirabilia’s Autumn Queen 4.5 hours close to 1000 stitches
Overdyed Dragon
OverDyed Dragon by Dragon Dreams 2.75 hours
DrWho
Dr. Who Quilt 1.5 hours
FruitBellpull
Fruit Bellpull by Theresa Wentzler 1.5 hours
SomethingWicked
Something Wicked by La-D-Da
FortunateTraveller
Fortunate Traveller by Theresa Wenztler 1.25 hours stitching 1 hour sorting pattern
Tidepools
Reflections of TidePools by Ro Pace – 2 hours
Fall Carousel
Fall Carousel Horse by Theresa Wentzler 1 hour
Not pictured
Anniversary Roses by Lauren Sauer
Bucilla Purse Kit from 1943
Final picture –
Mardi Gras Quilt I’m working on…20160522_194808

For more information on my new stitching process – check out my new blog – Agile Crafter

 

I didn’t stitch much this month, but I did get a lot done….

Business first:

Spent: $0  Earned: $0

I didn’t stitch much this month.  Life got in the way.  I had two kids move out of the house one of which was a permanent move and one was off to college and so he’ll be back.  Anyway with the one leaving for good, the younger son decided to move out of his room and I got his room for my new craft room.  Which meant I did over 20,000 steps moving everything from the main floor, up the stairs to my new room.   I have 12 square feet more and a 2nd closet.  Here are pictures at the end of the first night before everything was moved in.

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I’ve unpacked more since these pictures were taken.  I don’t want to take final pictures yet though because I don’t have pictures hung yet.

Oh and to add to the reason I’m not stitching… after the move, I had a lot of hand pain. So I went to a hand surgeon who told me I was getting old so now I’m looking for someone else to give me a 2nd opinion and might actually take an x-ray.

Wipocalypse Check-In – Stuck in a rut?

February Topic: How do you overcome that feeling that you’re in a rut with a particular project?

Wait, you’re supposed to overcome that rut feeling? You mean you don’t just say, okay, time to move to the next project in the rotation and put that one back in storage?

Eventually though that time comes when that not so fun project comes back up in the rotation. That’s when that feeling of dread comes into play.  I can slog through 5 to 10 hours on any project doing 2 threads a night.  What I do in those situations is find something I really want to work on an promise myself, I can work on the fun project after I finish 2 threads on the boring project.   It’s that same principle of “you can have your pudding after you eat your meat.”  The thing is though that often, the 2 threads turn into more and, in some cases, I may even fall back in love with the dreaded piece.

The next analysis comes with why did I fall out of love with the piece. Sometimes a piece gets put up because I made a mistake and can’t find where it is and I start thinking if I let it sit then I’ll find it the next time I pick it up. Yeah, unless I leave a note, I forget that I put it up needing frogging and I’ll start stitching and have even more to frog.
Another reason for falling out of love is boredom. I don’t really like doing large blocks of the same color. Doing those large blocks is good for gauging if my tension is correct. However on the other end, too much confetti gets boring too. The bests designs have a mix of confetti and large color blocks.
On some occasions, I can no longer remember where I plan to hang the finished piece, or I have a falling out with the person to whom I was gifting the finished piece. I know that’s the case with “O Christmas Tree.” The person who chose it, called a silk and linen ornament “kitschy” not realizing the time and money I spent making it. Since then, I haven’t stitched anything for her.
Sometimes, I’m getting too close to finishing a piece and completion anxiety sets in. See I spend so much time with my pieces that they become friends and it’s hard to let them go. Those are cases where I just need to power through it and think about how lovely they will be completely finished. Knowing how they will be finished and visualizing them in their final space helps with that.

So why do you stop working on pieces?

Mid Olympics Wednesday update…

The stitching time during the Olympics is good to me.  I’m totally upset today about not getting to see any of the women fly for the first time because NBC decided to rebroadcast the luge.  I’m totally upset about after all the fights to get the sport into the Olympic games and NBC doesn’t broadcast the historic event.  I’m going to take it that NBC hates that women are finally allowed in an all male sport.  Yep, NBC hates women ski jumping.

So here is my progress this week.  I got 12 hours in on Fire and Ice…Image
I finished pages 2 and 3 and got quite a bit done on page 6.
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And here is my circus carousel. This was my travel piece for forever but I’ve had puppies want to stitch with me and that means working in hand instead of using the frame.
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And I got 5 hours done on my Autumn Queen. It doesn’t look like much got done but I put in a solid 2 hours of beads and metallic threads. Next week we should have much more progress.

A two and a half hour delay….

That’s right, I’m supposed to be working on fiscal reporting analysis for a client but I’ve already established that there is a disconnect between the checks issued list and the SQL reports, why can’t they kick it back to the report writer to figure out where she screwed up.  No, I have to go find what isn’t working for a SQL report when I don’t have database access or access to the report query.

So given this situation, what did I do – Put together the preliminary rotation for next year.  I have 42 total slots.  Yes, I know that is just far too many for a true rotation but I haven’t figured out a decent way to name things that would be a 5 to 10 slot rotation besides, I’m trying to look at everything I have in progress without starting anything new and if I gave slots to the type of craft then I wouldn’t hit everything before I could give myself more excuses to start new things  It’s not like I hit everything this year but, with this list I have hope, right?

If any of the rotation experts that see this have suggestions, I would love to hear them.  So without further ado, here is the the preliminary work list for 2014….

Slot Style Project Designer
1 Crochet Camo Afghan
2 Cross-stitch Be Naughty/ Too Late? Lizzie Kate
3 Cross-stitch Fruit Bell Pull TW
4 Piecing Dr. Who SAL Quilt Fandom in Stitches
5 GFJ PROJECT
6 Needlepoint Dragon Doorstop Dragon Dreams
7 Cross-stitch Summer Carousel Horse TW
8 Blackwork Blackwork Dragon Dragon Dreams
9 FUPPY
10 Piecing Jungle Quilt
11 Cross-stitch Autumn Queen Mirabilia
12 Embroidery Pegasus Dimensions
13 Cross-stitch Autumn Carousel Horse TW
14 Needlepoint Purse Kit from Mamas
15 Cross-stitch Fire and Ice (Kustom Krafts) KK
16 Crochet 63 Square Afghan
17 NEW PROJECT
18 Piecing Monster Quilt – hand turned
19 Piecing Monster Quilt – iron on
20 Cross-stitch Spring Carousel Horse TW
21 Embroidery Knotty Sheep EGA
22 Weaving Varigated Warp fabric
23 FUPPY
24 Piecing Garden Path
25 Cross-stitch Dragon Ride TW
26 Needlepoint Stars for a New Millennium Tony Mineri
27 Cross-stitch Sentinel Fire Wings Design
28 FUPPY
29 Piecing Star Struck Mystery Traditional
30 Embroidery Rainbow Unicorn Dimensions
31 Cross-stitch Fortunate Traveller TW
32 Piecing Scrap Pieced Wandering Foot
33 Cross-stitch O Christmas Tree MLI
34 FUPPY
35 Needlepoint Tide Pools Ro Pace
36 Piecing Mama’s UFO – Good Housekeeping
37 Cross-stitch Main Street: Crafter’s Paradise Marie Barber (JCS)
38 Needlepoint Victorian Stocking Peter Ashe
39 Piecing Mama’s UFO – Bonnie’s Quilt
40 Cross-stitch The Circus Carousel Threaded Treasures
41 Piecing Oriental Kaleidoscope
42 NEW PROJECT

A few clarifications:  FUPPY is my stack of Finished Unfinished projects – there are many of these that need to be worked on – a quilt on the quilt frame, ornaments, bellpulls, etc.  So for every 5 to 6 fun projects, I need to completely finish a finished object.  I know myself well enough to know that I will want some new starts during the year if only because I look at what I have and nothing screams “Work on me!”  and besides Salt Lake Comic Con is having a Star Trek Next Generation reunion and I want to make a signature block quilt if I can get them all.

Also, if I get myself in gear, #1 will be completed before New Years hits and maybe a good chunk of #2 but we’ll see.

Thoughts, Suggestions?

Wednesday Works in Progress

I felt like I got a lot done this week.  I finished up the 10 hours in the rotation slot for Fire and Ice.

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I thought that I would want to keep working on it after the 10 hours was up since I was still in love with it at 7 hours of work but as that 9.5 point drew close, I knew I wanted to be working on something else.

If I actually stick to my rotation the next thing to work on would be putting in five hours on my Stars for a New Millennium.  So I got it out and I’ve put in about 30 minutes on the border and I’m eager to get the border done so I can go back to the fun part.

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It doesn’t look like I did much in 30 minutes but I did get across the middle square there.  I also realized why I wasn’t stitching on the Dr. Who quilt and I asked Kerry for her block 12 pattern and added a fez to 11 along with rearranging the block.  Here are the patterns as they wait for the previously traced blocks to have the pattern washed out and get re-used.

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With any luck, I’ll actually have some stitching on the final blocks to show next week.  I’ve decided on the final layout and I have some ideas about what I want to do on the border.

And up in the rotation after working on Stars will be 10 hours on Celtic steps which I bought because I had this wild hare that I should do at least on 40 ct canvas project in my life.  I don’t think I’ve done anything on it since I bought it at Nashville CATS when I roomed with Wendy and Suz.

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So see you next week, hopefully with some progress.

If I haven’t been to bed, it’s still Wednesday – Right?

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Note, all warp threads are through the comb and through the correct (I hope) heddle and all that is left is remembering how to tie it off in back and tighten it up so I can weave.

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So this is what Fire and Ice looked like last week, and this is what it looks like this week –

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And I really wish I could figure out how to just drag and drop photos without losing the posts but that will be an issue for another day.

Wednesday WIP update

So I finished up the 10 hour slot on Fall Carousel horse which is nice because I’m so ready to work on larger count.  My TW Carousel horses are done on 40 ct linen over 2 so working on them for more than a 10 hour slot is hard on the eyes.

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At thirty hours, 33% of the squares on the graph are completed and a few more could be if I put in just a few hours more of backstitching.
Then there is the Dr. Who SAL – the final block was released today and I’ve already transferred it to the fabric ready to stitch. Of course that doesn’t mean much since 11 was traced a week ago and still hasn’t been stitched.

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Which leads us to the next issue, now that the rotation slot for Fall Carousel Horse is complete, what comes next, finishing the warp on the loom or working on Fire and Ice?

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Here is the loom with only about 40 strands left to put in before I can start weaving. Except I’ve misplaced the pattern but I know which book it’s in so it should be easy to find.

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This is Kustom Krafts Fire and Ice which I started in Jan 2003 and have finished the first page but still have 85% of the pattern to stitch. The nice thing is it’s on 28 count fabric which looks huge after the 40 count I’ve been working on. I’ve only put 20 hours into this piece and I haven’t touched it since July of 2004 so it may take a bit to remember where I am and get into the pattern again. It’s a good thing that I have a list of Hitchcock movies I want to see and stitch too.