Year End Review

Hello lovely readers! Time for that super awesome post where I tally up all my accomplishments (and failures) for the year with lots of pictures! I've worked on six wips plus four new starts this year, with one finish. And because I keep track of these things, my stitching total for the year is: 74,801 stitches! (For me, this is a record, so I'm quite pleased.) Now on with the pics!

Pavonia,by Frederick Leighton:

 

This was supposed to be my focus piece for this month, but unfortunately I've had some medical issues pop up (more on that below) so not much got done. My goal was to finish the 3rd page set, but I only made it halfway through. (I blame the confetti.) The worst of it is done for now, so I should have much better luck next year. Total stitches this year: 14,117 in 52 days.

Moon Indigo by Nene Thomas (retired):

This is where I've made the most progress this year. My goal was to finish pages 3-5, which I did, and also began page 6 for a total of 23,825 stitches in 86 days.

Scale, by Anna Dittman:

This might be my favorite wip, as far as colors go. I met my goal of finishing one page this year, managing 5,721 stitches in 22 days.

The Favorite Bird, by Charles Hue:

I had hoped to get a lot more done on this one, but I fell in love with knitting late last spring, and somehow all my stitching time disappeared. ;) But I did manage one more page, 2,582 stitches in 8 days.

Flora, by Jasmine Beckett-Griffith:

I met my goal of finishing three pages (though two were itty bitty partials) and got a good start on a fourth page. For the year, 7,311 stitches in 38 days.

Wisdom, by Babette Vandenberg:

I haven't had this one on the blog before, as she became a bit of a UFO this year. But a few days ago I fished her out of hiding and started stitching away again. I really love this piece, so neglecting her didn't seem right. She doesn't have a goal. For now she is my therapeutic stitching. So far this year: 1700 stitches in 5 days.

Now for new starts! First up is my Green Fern Fairy, which is also my finish for this year. This was my first time working a Mirabilia, first time stitching over 2, first time working with kreinik, and first time beading. Lotta firsts packed into one little project, but she was a lot of fun to stitch. She had 6,673 stitches by my count (including beads) which I finished in 20 days.

Euphoria by Melanie Delon: My Spring start. Haven't gotten serious about this one yet, but I'll get there eventually. The goal was to finish one partial page (starting from the bottom) which I've done, plus a start on the second. So far, I've done 5,488 stitches in 10 days.

Cassiopeia by Mirabilia: My Autumn start. I am still in love with this project. She is so easy to work on, I get lost in all those big sweeps of color. I was too busy trying to catch up on other things to give her proper attention this year, but next year should be better. So far I've managed 4,117 stitches in 12 days.

Now for a surprise: I've got another new start! She is White Queen by Chris Ortega. Unfortunately I had to put the brakes on this one (for reason, see below if you care to read it) so it's almost a false start. For a change, I've started toward the middle of the top row rather than the end. The idea is that I want to stitch her face first, except I didn't want just a face floating in mid fabric. So I'm starting at the window and working left, stitching any pages containing bits of her head, and will progress from there. For this page, it's just the tiny bit of hair showing at the lower left corner. (See that odd bit there? Yup, that's her!) So far I have 3,257 stitches in 6 days.

Now, about my "issues." (You don't have to read this if you don't want to, no hard feelings.) I started White Queen Dec. 4th on a long weekend when I was supposed to have oodles of time for stitching. Unfortunately, the day I started her... well, lets just say I became quite ill. Long story short, I've got a tumor in my abdomen (totally benign) that has grown quite large and needs to come out. I've waited all month for surgery, which will finally happen on New Years Eve. (Lovely way to spend a holiday, isn't it?) December has been a little rough, as sometimes I can't sit at all to stitch, but there have been days when I've managed pretty well. So fair warning, I don't know what my abilities will be this January, but hopefully I'll be back to stitching within a couple weeks. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing all of your lovely progress posts, as they always cheer me up and inspire me to stitch even more. :)

Guess that's all for now. I've got lots of plans for next year, but I'll save those for another post. Thanks for reading! May your thread flow smooth and your needle be swift in the coming year. :)

New Stash and a Page Finish!

Hello again! Well, seems I've managed to miss WIPocalypse yet again, but at least I've been stitching a bit. Here at last I can show off my lovely Luna (Moon Indigo) with a completed page 5!

I'm so happy to have this done. I've already put in a few stitched on page 6, and hopefully I can get a bit more done before the end of the year. I was hoping to have a row finish for this year, but I guess that's what happens when you don't stitch for a few months... (fuming silently)

I didn't buy as much stash as I wanted during the holiday sales, mostly because I spent a good deal on art sales instead, but I was also a bit disappointed by the meager discounts. (I'm still waiting on HAED's 50% off sale.) But Golden Kite had two 75% off sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so I indulged just a bit.

Some of these have been on my list for quite some time, but the last, "Amour," was kind of an impulse buy. I remember seeing it when it was first released, and fell in love with the color scheme. The blue, the dark blue, and that bit of bright green against a creamy backdrop just makes it so romantic and sweet, I couldn't resist. :) The "Oriental Woman" has been staring at me for some six years, and finally convinced my to buy her. "Daedalus and Icarus" is another of Frederic Leighton's works, and reminds me of Pavonia. But I've always liked that story, and have Draper's "Icarus" as well. As for the conservatory... I've never thought of stitching a room before, but I think it was those vines climbing along the walls, and that arched glass ceiling that drew me in. This one will definitely be a challenge if I ever start it, but fun as well.

One last thing I would like to brag about share with you. Those that have been following my blog for a while may have heard me grumbling about a quilt project that's been taking up too much of my time lately. I've been working on a quilt for a friend since March, and have finally gotten the top completed. I still have to do the backing, quilting and binding, but the top is all done, and deserves some showing off. So here goes:

Mind you, the colors are not represented very accurately, but you get the gist. My mother and best friend are holding it up for you, though they are both short and their arms were getting tired. It's for a full size bed, 96x76. I have never been happy with this color scheme (most of the fabrics were bundled in a kit) but I think I did okay with what I had. And my friend is very happy with it, so that's what counts. I'm taking a break on this for the rest of the year, but will post again when it's done.

Well, that's all for now. Back to stitching. :)