All posts tagged WIPocalypse

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.

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by shondratasha on June 21, 2020  •  Permalink
Posted in random thoughts
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Posted by shondratasha on June 21, 2020

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2020/06/21/its-the-end-of-june/

March Wipocalypse post

Question of the Month: Have you ever adopted a piece from someone else or gave up a piece to someone else? Which piece and why?

The world has changed and I have time to stitch and blog and hey, why not go back to the Wipocalypse?

So the question for this month is about adopting a WIP – I have several I’ve adopted when friends lost the ability or desire to stitch and I’ve given one to someone else to ghost stitch. This is Oh Christmas Tree that I’ve given to Carleen to stitch because I seem to be blocked when it comes to working on it.

As for pieces I’ve adopted, I actually have several in my current rotation that are adopted from Erica Gonzalez when she stopped stitching. Tempest is an adopted piece.

This is the first of Erica’s adopted pieces that I actually finished.

There are older adopted pieces from other sources that I’ve finished but I’m not willing to go search for any more pictures since it’s been years since I finished those. Most are because the original person stopped stitching and the patterns were on my want to stitch list.

I thought I had a picture of Erica’s Noah’s Sub in my wordpress gallery but I’m not finding it. That is the next new start in my rotation list but who knows when I will get to it. I keep saying I will finish 2 pieces before starting new things but I’ve started lots of new things without finishing anything. Like the Magical Mystery tour.

Now I’m off to update my planner because it hit me I don’t think I’ve put my last two starts into the spreadsheet.

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by shondratasha on March 29, 2020  •  Permalink
Posted in random thoughts, Stitching, WIPocalypse
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Posted by shondratasha on March 29, 2020

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/march-wipocalypse-post/

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.

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by shondratasha on May 28, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in WIPocalypse
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Posted by shondratasha on May 28, 2018

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2018/05/28/may-wipocalypse-check-in/

March Wipocalypse check-in

Question of the Month – What newer designers and product creators (fabric or floss dyeing, etc) out there have you discovered and recommend?

I am not one of those people who cruise Etsy or Google looking for new patterns. I have enough in my stash of the people I discovered around the turn of the century when I started stitching again. My go to designers are Teresa Wentzler, Dragon Dreams, Sue Hillis, Just Nan and Mirabilia/Nora Corbett.

I would say the newest designers I have discovered are Armada Designs – I won her Dragonite at one of the Con volunteer events which led to me joining the Class Schedule Stitch Along. I’ve fallen behind on that one but I did finish January this month.

I did make some modifications but I’ve loved how clear and simple this design is. I’m looking forward to the rest of the design. It kills me how people in the SAL Facebook group make comments that would really hurt me if I were the designer.

I think back to how Nora Corbett has said it really hurts when people say, “well my wallet is safe” when she releases a design. People, think before you say things online. Would you say that to someone’s face if they were standing there? Then maybe you shouldn’t say it online.

Another new to me designer is Clouds Factory – I’ve been working on last year’s Fabulous Women Stitch Along – I’m behind again and finished February but haven’t finished March yet.

I’ve been adding beads to it but I learned that the beads do not work well with the Q-snaps so I didn’t bead Virginia’s necklace. I’m going to bead at the end.

I’m also working on the SAL from Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery for this year – Into the Jungle. I’m staying current on this one.

I’m glad that we do have new designers and I love seeing all the new stitchers on Flosstube. I love also seeing the experiments people do with dyeing their own fabric too.

I did buy a tie dye kit to try on some Aida when I get ready to start Bothy Threads Alice in Wonderland. That’s some time off though, I have a lot of things kitted up ready to start and many that need to be finished first.

I’ve found a new job and I’m hoping that gives me more time to stitch since it includes travel time.

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by shondratasha on April 2, 2018  •  Permalink
Posted in hobbies, Stitching
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Posted by shondratasha on April 2, 2018

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2018/04/02/march-wipocalypse-check-in/

1st Wipocalypse post for 2017

​Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!

Introduce yourself – I’m a woman who lives with 2 beagles and a husband.  2 of 3 children are out of the home, the middle one is attending school and will be living here for some time (2 years left of undergrad and 4 years of grad school).  I work as a product owner for a company which focuses on making banking easier for you through software improvements to the ATM and transforming how the branch is structured.  I just got my ScrumMaster certification and I’m looking for opportunities to move into a ScrumMaster position.  My hobbies are fiber arts, which includes stitching, quilting, weaving and needlepoint. My other hobby is volunteering for organizations I love such as the symphony, Salt Lake Comic Con, This is the Place Historic park and STEM organizations.

Introduce my projects – I currently have 31 WIPs across my hobbies.  I took the step of declaring 2 projects as UFOs this year.  They were 2 quilt tops from my grandmothers house that I haven’t actually touched since I got them. Since I haven’t actually put in any work, I’m going to move them to my kitted but not started list.  I have 13 cross-stitch projects.  I’m participating in Soulful Stitchings Year of WIPs and in the Stitch from Stash SAL 2017a and having an agile mindset, I’ve done some capacity planning and realized that I’m not going to be able to finish everything this year. So in order here are my cross-stitch WIPS, designer and year started, and status.

  1. Autumn Queen – Mirabilia – 2004 – I should finish this during the first week of January
  2. Ecology –  – 2016 – I’m doing this as an auction piece for my daughter’s boss.
  3. Fruit Bellpull – Teresa Wentzler – 1997 – Working on plum block, 2 blocks left, this is on my Year of Wips list
  4. Dragon Ride – Teresa Wentzler – 2000 – Capacity planning says I could finish this during this year
  5. Summer Carousel Horse – Teresa Wentzler – 2011 
  6. Spring Carousel Horse – Teresa Wentzler – 2011
  7. Fall Carousel Horse – Teresa Wentzler – 2010
  8. Fortunate Traveller – Teresa Wentzler – 2003
  9. Main Street: Crafter’s Paradise – Marie Barber (Just CrossStitch)- 2011
  10. Sentinel – Fire Wing Designs – 2013
  11. Anniversary Rose Sampler – Lauren Sauer – 2015
  12. Ristipisto Jouluha Kit – Ekelund and Esspe – 2016
  13. Wanted: Santa – Lizzie Kate – 2017 – This is my new year new start and I hope to complete it in January

I have 3 Embroidery WIPs, 4 Needlepoint canvases, one quilt up on a stand for quilting, and 15 quilt tops to be finished.

Goals for the  year –  Since I’m participating in the Year of WIPs SAL and it only includes cross-stitch, I’m not planning on working on my quilting WIPs at all this year. Based on the number of stitches that I completed during the last 2 years, I average about 3000 stitches per month.  That means, I can reasonably complete #1-4 and #13 during this year.  I do want to complete more of the TW’s so that I only have one TW WIP in my list.  My husband would like me to narrow down from 13 to 3 on my WIP list. 

Longer term Goals – I’m trying to work through several kitted projects.  One of the legacies I want to leave my children is I would like each to have a seasonal set of designs.  The TW Carousel horses, Mirabilia’s Queens and Joan Elliott Fairies are the 3 seasonal sets I’m doing.  The other trilogy I would like to do is a 3 Carousel set – one for each child: these are Patricia Allison’s Dragon Carousel, TW’s Carousel and Fire Wing Designs Wild Hunt. I have several other pieces that I want to stitch for me that are kitted and ready to go like Nora Corbett’s Tiger Lily, Mirabilia’s Raven Queen, TW’s Peaceable Kingdom, Mirabilia’s Mother’s Arms and 2 other shelves of kitted pieces.  In order to finish everything I want to do in the next decade, I need to increase the amount of time I spend stitching.  In 2016 I only spent 136.82 recorded hours.  I didn’t record my time for the first 4 months of the year so I’m only averaging about 17 hours stitching per month which is about 4.25 hours per week.  There is no reason I shouldn’t be able to double that during this year, especially if I cut down the time I spend playing computer games. I could use some tips on finding more stitching time this year. 

What time management techniques do you use to help you find stitching time? 


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by shondratasha on January 1, 2017  •  Permalink
Posted in Carousel Horses, focus, goals, WIPocalypse
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Posted by shondratasha on January 1, 2017

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2017/01/01/1st-wipocalypse-post-for-2017/

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?

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by shondratasha on February 5, 2015  •  Permalink
Posted in Stitching, WIPocalypse
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Posted by shondratasha on February 5, 2015

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/wipocalypse-check-in-stuck-in-a-rut/

Combined monthly entry – WIPocalypse and Stitch from Stash

Just so you know, I’m combining the posts for the two stitching related groups I belong to this month.  The topic for WIPocalypse is tell us about your oldest and newest WIPs.  My oldest WIP by date it was started is the purse I inherited from my grandmother’s house.  I finished the front piece of the purse and I was working on the side strip when I got bored.  I also found a great monogram to put an M on the back since we share that initial.  The oldest piece I have that I started is one of two Dimensions kits you can see at the top the list on the Stitch from Stash page shown at the top of the blog here.

The newest WIP I have is La-D-Da’s The Raven which I started so I could have a travel piece.  It’s a piece that my middle son asked me to do for him.  He’ll be home from the Philippines in November.  So this is as far as I’ve done on it.  wpid-20140823_202835.jpg

It’s part of three La-D-Da pieces I want to do for the kids.  The second is Something Wicked this Way Comes and the third is Toil and Trouble.  It’s hard to tell from the little that I’ve stitched that it’s the last word and the raven’s head.  I’m using a piece of hand dyed oops fabric from Picture this Plus that Marilyn gave me from their reject pile.  I’m stitching it with Fibers to Dye for silk threads which is all from my stash.  That leads me into the next blog entry that is needed for this month.  Stitch from Stash.

This month we got a free $25 to spend above the monthly budget of $25.  With that in mind and in order to support Laurel’s Stitchery’s move to Rainbow Stitchery I bought the 4 Nora Corbett witches which I’ve wanted.  If you remember, last month, I bought the fabric to do them with.  The total cost for the 4 patterns and the embellishment pack for Gigi came to 40.25.  The odd part is that it was originally charged to my credit card and then credited back.   So I have all four ladies in hand and nothing charged on my card.  I’ve emailed Laurel to make sure she got paid.

In the meantime, I’ve been going like gangbusters on Fire and Ice.  Here’s a progress picture from tonight.

wpid-20140823_202858.jpg

I’m only putting in 1-3 threads a night but it’s amazing the progress I see every day.  I’m sure that as I enter some of the more densely packed parts that progress feeling will flee.  However, I’m almost out of Anchor 897 so I needed to go pick up a new skein.  I’ve also been itching for a new start so I kitted up Goblin Market from Counted Illuminations and I was short a few threads.  While I was at Craft Center picking those up, I found that they had Toil and Trouble – the third La-D-Da piece in stock.  I’ve had it on my list for 2 years now and the shop requires a minimum of $10 if you want to use a debit card so I grabbed the pattern too.  The total for thread and the pattern was $11.54.  So my total for the month is 40.25 + 11.54 – $25 = 26.79  which is a little over budget but I’ve been under some months so I should still be good.

I’ll try to drop in more next month.

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by shondratasha on August 23, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Financial, hobbies, Stitching, WIPocalypse
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Posted by shondratasha on August 23, 2014

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2014/08/23/combined-monthly-entry-wipocalypse-and-stitch-from-stash/

Wipocalypse Check in for May

What designs do you wish you could find?  Actually there isn’t anything really missing in my stash.  I have a few items on my wish list but I can’t think of anything that is burning in my head screaming “Why can’t you find me?” Okay maybe a beagle picture I can customize but I’m sure I could find one if I actually hit Google.

If I’m 100% honest with myself there haven’t been any designs in several years that I had to run out and buy except Persephone and Cassiopeia from Mirabilia and Christmas Quilt from Emie Bishop.
At this point in my stitching experience if I really wanted a design I couldn’t find, I would create it.

So what did I work on this month?
Well, I went up quite a few levels in Candy Crush Dreamworld, still stuck on Candy Crush level 500,  lots of levels  in Pet Rescue, and 4 scenarios in Gems Journey.  I ran out of black floss for my needlepoint purse.  And I did get work done on my TW Fruit Bellpull although it doesn’t look like much.   As the weather warms up, I may put a quilt up on a frame outside. Then I may have something finished to show off next month.

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by shondratasha on May 14, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in Needlepoint, Stitching, WIPocalypse
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Posted by shondratasha on May 14, 2014

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/wipocalypse-check-in-for-may/

Wipocalypse post – Where do you stitch?

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This is me stitching with my Princess Bo…  This is my stitching chair.    It has a magnifying lamp and wide arms for putting my stitching stuff on, patterns, floss, scissors, stopwatch, Tab with ice, all the important things…   Stitching has been going good this month, I’ve managed to make it through my entire rotation and I’m now starting over on round two.

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by shondratasha on March 16, 2014  •  Permalink
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Posted by shondratasha on March 16, 2014

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/wipocalypse-post-where-do-you-stitch/

Late Wednesday WIP

 

This week’s slot was new starts and re-starts – Here are the starts and finishes for this slot… IMG_1758

Both of these are Lizzie Kate designs and stitch up really fast. Be Naughty is ready for framing and I just have the clock to finish on Too Late and then it will be good to go.

IMG_1759

I have another finish that I can’t show off yet until the recipient receives it as part of an exchange…

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by shondratasha on March 13, 2014  •  Permalink
Posted in hobbies, Stitching, WIPocalypse
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Posted by shondratasha on March 13, 2014

https://shondratasha.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/late-wednesday-wip/

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