A Brief, Belated Farewell to 2020

 I know yearly summaries should be accomplished at the end of the year, but here we are, almost done with January, and I'm just now getting around to mine. I feel like time has turned into an express train and I keep waiting for it to stop. Oh well. I don't want to spend too much time going over everything I've done for the year, but I thought I'd mention a couple highlights, and document a few statistics since I like keeping track of those.

My big goal for 2020 was to stitch on all of my wips at least once. I didn't quite succeed, but it was so close, I'm considering it a success. My main reason for doing this was to reacquaint myself with all of them and figure out if any should be ufo'd or become more of a focus. I'm really glad I did that, because I did have a few surprises, and that has helped me rearrange some goals for this year.

I started 2020 with 66 wips (I think) and, after a bit of lockdown madness that started in April and somehow managed to reverberate through the rest of the year, I finished with 77 active wips, 2 finishes, and 6 ufos. Out of all these wips, there were only 3 that I wasn't able to stitch on, and 2 of those became ufos. So, pretty much a success.

Because of the quarantine, I was able to have a very good stitching year. My total stitches for 2020 came to 153,622. (I should mention, I do count tent stitches as 1 stitch.) I think this is my highest total yet. My total time came to 792.4 hours, and I managed to stitch 355 days for the year. Not too shabby.

While I would love to show you all the progress I made on each of my 77 wips, I know that's impossible for one post. But I would like to highlight a few favorites. First up, as always, is Luna:

I had really hoped to finish off the row for the year, but that just didn't happen. But I did manage to add 20,500 stitches to this beauty, so she wasn't too neglected. She's still a focus piece for 2021, so we'll see if I can make up for my lack of progress.

Next is Elizabeth Oliver by Moira Blackburn, I've decided to gift this to my mother this May, which means I need to hurry up and finish her. I'm definitely getting closer:

I've really enjoyed stitching on this one, and I'll miss her when she's done. For the year, I put in 14,899 stitches. Yes, she really is big.

My New Year's start actually became one of my favorites as well, even though I'm only stitching the carpet at the moment. I've loved this image for so long, that may be part of the reason. This is absolute confetti with blended threads, but it's hard to put her down once I've started. This is The Fireplace, art by James Tissot, chart by Golden Kite. (Please excuse the messy threads and terrible lighting):

I've nicknamed this one Sofie, as sort of an homage to Georgette Heyer and her book The Grand Sophy. (My Sofie looks pretty grand too, right?) I wish I had picked this one up a few more times, but I'm glad I got as much progress as I did. Total stitches so far is 8872.

Last, I will show what is probably my oldest wip, Kabuki from Mystic Stitch. I spent a few months watching all of Kim Hollenback's flosstube videos, and she really inspired me to try to make more progress on at least some of my full coverage wips. To that end, I challenged myself to work on Kabuki for 30 days straight with the goal of at least 50 stitches per day. It's not a lot, but it's more than nothing:

I did my 30 day challenge from mid November through mid December, so she got a total of 53 days progress. I managed 2909 stitches in those 30 days, and 6270 for the year. I was really surprised at how much I've enjoyed working on her, as this is a pretty difficult chart. But it was hard to put her down at the end of those 30 days. I've actually picked her up again this month, but that will have to wait for another update.

Hopefully, I can get back on track this year with my updates. (If I can tear myself away from stitching to do so.) Wishing you all the best for 2021. Happy stiching!

2019 Review

Hello again and welcome! My reviews are more statistics than pictures, but feel free to skip the reading and just look at the pretties. :) I have so many wips, it would be impossible for me to do before and after on all of them; however, I did make a concerted effort to update all of my wip pics, so just look under Wips and More Wips to check out all 70(!) of my lovelies.

For 2019, my stitching resolution was to have more finishes than starts for the year, and I managed it! Here were my 5 project finishes:
#1) and #2) My temperature charts for 2018:

These felt like cheating since there were only a few days to fill in on each, but they still count. :)
#3) Stars by The Drawn Thread:

Loved stitching this with silks and all those specialty stitches!
#4) and #5): Two charts by Little House Needleworks, A Stitchers Prayer and The Virtue Sampler:

I also had 6 finishes between the Frosty Forest series and Sheep Virtues:

It feels pretty good to say I finished off 9 charts in 2019. I also had 9 page finishes on various full coverage projects. I only had 3 new starts for the year (compared to 28 in 2018). Stitching time was super scarce in July and August, but I still managed 109,690 stitches for the year which I think is really good. My total stitching time was 536.7 hours, quite a drop from last year's 765.3. Also, out of 75 wips, I only managed to work on 39 of them, so there's still lots of room for improvement.

As always, here is a look at my Luna for the year:

I ended up about 4 columns short of where I'd hoped to be for the year, but I did manage to make up a lot of missed stitching in November. I'm still hoping to finish off the row in 2020, which means almost 29,000 stitches. Wish me luck!

For 2020, I've got 5 starts planned, but I may add a few more. However, I really enjoyed focusing on current wips (for the most part) in 2019, so I'm trying to find a balance between the old and the new. My stitching resolution for 2020 is to work on all of my wips at least once. I think it's time I got reacquainted with some of my older wips and perhaps reevaluate my rotation. We'll see.

I'll leave you with a little teaser of my planned starts. Since it seems I've been thoroughly bitten by the sampler bug, I'm starting a bunch of huge ones all at once (typical Imp Stitcher fashion). I actually took some money out of savings to indulge in a couple silk kits (from Sassy Jacks Stitchery) and I'm slowly kitting up a few other lovelies. So here are the first three:

That's Anne Thomas and Ann Uffindell from Hands Across the Sea, and Ann Dale from Shakespeare's Peddler. I kitted both HAtS samplers with 46ct fabric and will be using 100/3 silks for the first time. (I hope it's nice!) Ann Dale is on 40ct with the called for NPI, plus a couple Gloriana and a Belle Soie. I really can't wait to dive in to all this luxury! I'm starting Ann Uffindell on February 29th, a special date for a special sampler. The other two will begin in May.

I think that's all for my review! Thank you to all who read and follow this blog. 2019 was a year of transition for me, and I feel like I'm still trying to find my footing. Wishing everyone all the best for 2020! Happy stitching!

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Hi all! Happy 2019! Hope you get used to writing the new year soon, cuz those 8s are really hard to change into 9s. :)

Looking back over 2018 is kind of overwhelming for me. I had so many starts and very few finishes. But I did have a lot of fun stitching! :) I also had a few firsts this year: With Eliza Bell Cox (first pic) I started my first project on 46ct linen (and loved it!). With Marquise de Caumont (2nd pic) I experimented with diagonal stitching and became somewhat addicted to that method. And with The Awakening (3rd pic) I began my first supersized HAED (though I have two other wips that are almost as large) and stitched full crosses over 1 on 28ct for the first time, which I also seem to enjoy.

I only had 3 finishes, but one of them was Quotes to Live by, which is a fairly large project. My Frosty Forest project is far from finished, but since these are individual charts, my Snowy Reindeer counts as one. When We Do, by Lizzy Kate, was a really quick stitch that I gifted to a friend.

Going in to 2018, I had two stitchy goals: to stitch at least 30 stitches every day, and to stitch 150,000 stitches for the year. The first goal was to remind myself that even when I think I'm too tired or distracted or whatever to stitch, it doesn't have to take up a lot of time. Plus, I always feel better after stitching, and always regret it when I don't. The second goal was just me being competitive with myself because I like to aim high. For comparison, my 2017 total was 114,637. So, what is my 2018 total stitch count? Drum roll please... 150,910! Woohoo! I never actually expected to make it, but like I said, I'm competitive. I should also mention I don't count backstitches or specialty stitches, but I do count tent stitches. My total time for all stitches for the year was 765.3 hours, and I did manage to stitch every day. :)

Here's a few more stats (cuz I like to keep track): In addition to my 3 finishes, I finished 9 pages on various full coverage projects; I started 28 projects (told you it was a lot); my current wip count is 70, though 8 or 10 of those are neglected ufos; and I stitched on 62 projects during the year.

I like to end my reviews with a look back at Moon Indigo, which has been my focus piece for 4 years now, and likely will be until she's done. So here's her progress from January to November:

I've already made a start on her 3rd row. The goal is to stitch at least half of that row in 2019.

Looking forward, I'm hoping to make 2019 a year of progress. As I've previously stated, I don't plan on making any more starts this year; I want to enjoy what I've got going, and hopefully get a few more finishes. (Any bets on when I cave in and start something?)

I've got a new monthly rotation worked out this year for my morning stitching, divided into weeks. Week 1 is for my portable HAEDs; Week 2 is for series projects, like Frosty Forest and Sheep Virtues; Week 3 is for a few focus projects I want to make good progress on; Week 4 is for projects I want to finish this year. This isn't a rigid schedule, but more of a guide. I get a planner every year and plot out my morning stitching for the whole year (in pencil) so I have a realistic idea of how many projects I can work on and when. It's really helped me to see which projects are foremost in my mind to get done and make time for them accordingly. This process also helped me to realize I need to stop starting all the things, as there is a long list of projects that won't get touched this year.

My evening stitching is not so organized. I have a general idea of projects I want to work on and goals associated with them, but no schedule, per se. Moon Indigo will still get her 2 columns a month, at least. But I'd also love to start working on Pavonia again. Completing a diagonal every month on Marquise de Caumont sounds good, but I also want to squeeze in time for Elizabeth Oliver and Awakening as well, not to mention my monthly rotation of full coverage pieces.

See what I mean? I may try a 3 day rotation in the evenings for some projects, just to see if I like it. Everything else should find its place. It usually does. :)

Okay, I've rambled enough here. Thanks to all who read this blog. Happy stitching!

Quotes is Finished!

Hi all! Big news to share this time as I have managed to finish my Quotes to Live By! I am so happy to have finished it in June. So here was my progress since last time:

And here is a full shot, though it was a bit tricky to get this picture:

I started Quotes on January 15, 2017, which feels a lot longer that it was. For this project, I counted 19,168 stitches (not counting backstitch) which took me 115.65 hours in 103 days. Whew! I didn't stitch two of the blocks as charted though. Blocks 4 and 5 were meant to be full coverage, but I thought that was a bit random and looked a little odd. I was lucky to see some other finishes without the pink background and decided to do the same. And I love the result! It's a little bit odd in size, 12.5" by 17", but I may frame it myself in a standard 16x20 frame. What do you think?

Last month I also managed a page finish on Luna! Last time you saw her I was about halfway through page 12. Now it is complete:

Only a page and a half to complete the row! If I don't manage that this year, I'll feel really lazy. :)

I've also managed to peck away at Elizabeth Oliver enough to move the qsnap. So here is a complete picture of her fresh after a pressing, though you'll have to excuse the poor lighting:

The verse is about the Hour of Prayer, which isn't the most lyrical verse in the world, but I'm not going to change it. Those words do seem really big though, so I guess prayer was very important to Miss Oliver. I believe this is halfway across the sampler now, even though I've hardly made a dent in it lenghtwise, and I'm still really loving it. :)

Well, we're halfway through the year, so my Temperature charts are now halfway done!

June continued to get hotter, but at least there were a few days of mild relief. We actually made it to 100° in my neighborhood last Thursday, but the official Kansas City temperature for that day was 98°, so no new color yet. I'm sure we'll make it in July though. The average temp for June was 87.9, so I've backstitched the month in 608, my darker orange. I love that all the months are different colors on my chart. I'm looking forward to stitching the rest of the year. :)

I know I've already rambled on quite a bit, but since it is the first of July, I thought I'd include a little mini review for the first half of the year. Back in January, I made two resolutions about stitching. The first was to stitch every day, which I have (yay!); the second was to try and stitch 150,000 stitches for the year. So far, I've done 72,731 stitches, so I'm a little behind, but I'm still pleased with my progress. Realistically, I know 150k is a bit out of my reach, but we have to aim high to achieve more, right?

So far this year, I have had 17 new starts (most of which were planned) and 3 project finishes along with 5 page finishes, which I think is pretty good. I'll keep going with my year of starts, so I've got at least six new projects coming, though deciding on which projects to start is becoming increasingly challenging. I'm also trying to rotate through as many projects as possible while still making progress, which is also a challenge.

I've made a new Wips tab to show all my projects -- I think I'm down to 61 since Quotes is finished -- but it's still kind of under construction. Hopefully I can sit down and update everything soon. There's just never enough time!

Well, I think I've truly rambled enough for one post. Hope all of you are meeting your stitchy goals and having a great year. Until next time! :)

2017 Review: The Wips

Hello again! Happy New Year! :)

Well, 2017 is officially at an end, and I must say I'm happy to say goodbye to such a disappointing year! In the last 12 months or so, I've had to pack up and move twice, help my mother recover from falling down the stairs, deal with difficult family until they finally left and cut all ties with us; I worked about 130 hours of overtime over five months, and was rammed in a hit and run that totaled my car. There's more, but you get the gist. Not fun. So here's hoping for better next year!

Needless to say, I wasn't able to stitch as much as I wanted in 2017. I still managed a ton of stitching somehow, but many projects were neglected or not touched at all. But I want to share a few of my favorites, some that did see a good bit of progress.

For the year, I managed 114,637 stitches. Less than last year, but still over my goal of 100k. Total time was 570 hours, 349 days. I really tried to stitch everyday this year. I think it was my New Year's resolution. And I actually managed it until July, when I had to move the second time. I'll definitely be trying again in 2018.

So, pictures! I'll start with my current favorite, Moon Indigo from HAED (retired). I was zooming along great for the first half of the year, but barely touched her the second half. So I didn't meet my goal of finishing page 11. It's halfway though, and she's really starting to look good:

Her face is coming out so well! In person, you can actually see a bit of dark blue in her eye. The details are awesome. :)

I also worked pretty hard on Crystals and Crows, though I'm still shy of a page finish:

I'm loving all those colors in the crow's tail. It's actually a lot of dark blue, not black, and very pretty. I also started parking instead of doing cross country stitching. I didn't want to at first because there are so many colors, and I didn't want 50 threads hanging around. But it's actually not bad at all, and it really helped get some progress going. I think I'm starting to prefer stitching in rows rather than columns as well, especially for heavy confetti projects. Somehow the colors flow more easily. Hard to explain, but my needle seems to like it. Also, that is one of my newer needleminders, from Sun Spot Creations on Etsy. I've named him Sir Thomas. :)

Those are the only larger wips I managed any real progress on. I worked on Wisdom for a bit, but only got a couple columns done, and it's nothing worth showing yet. Blood also has another page, but it's just more background gray.

So for new starts, I'll begin with Angel of Grace, my New Year's start for 2017:

I still really love this design, though the fabric is still impossible to photograph. There was a moment where I realized I'd been stitching with the wrong color, so she spent time in the naughty pile until I finally frogged and fixed it. But now she's back on my favorites list, and I wish I had stitched on her a lot more. Getting there though.

The Quotes to Live By SAL from Stitchrovia occupied much of my year, but I'm only about halfway done. This is why I usually don't participate in SALs. I do love the design though, and plan to have this finished around September:

My big wip this year was my first Chatelaine, Herbularius:

This has been so much fun to work on. I only managed 5 days this year -- it's hard to put down once I start. All those silks are so luxurious and bright. I'd love to finish up the center portion next year, but we'll see.

Another favorite I started back in May is Jinn, from HAED. I'm tent stitching this one so it goes a bit faster, and managed to finish the first page. I so love the colors in this, and all those swirls are fun to stitch:

Sometime in 2016, I took a little trip to my "local" needlework shop (about an hour away) to see what they had. Their chart selection wasn't spectacular, but the walls were festooned with finishes, so the eye candy was very worth the trip. One of the many things that caught my eye was a 12 Days of Christmas piece, charted by Jim Shore. I think I'd seen the chart online and passed on by, but seeing it in person was like, whoa. First of all, it was huge. Like, 2 feet by 3 feet? But the wow factor was the beads. I mean tons of beads, in all different colors. So I had to buy it. :)

I started this in July, but have picked it up again to work on for Christmas, plus the following 11 days. The plan is to work on it every year during the same time until it's done (even if that's 10 years down the line). I'll be working on this 'til the 5th, but I've just finished the stitching on block 1:

I kept having to check to make sure the stitching was done, as there are so many gaps left for beads. And the block is about 6 1/2 inches square on 32ct. So yeah, huge. I'm working in qsnaps, so I'll have to save the beading for the very last. But I do adore this design. :)

Well, those are the highlights for the year. I'll show all my other wips at some point, probably when I pull them out to work on again. In the meantime, I already have two starts planned for New Years Day. I know, I'm a glutton for punishment!

First, I'm really looking forward to starting Morning Glory, one of the Nora Corbett garden pixies. I had a bit of purple fabric in my stash that I hope will look well with her. It's from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie, 32ct Lugana in Lilac:

I'm also participating in the Temperature SAL in Stitch Maynia. I just thought this would be fun, and colorful. :) I'm just doing simple blocks of color in columns, one column per month. I wanted to keep it small in case I felt like doing this again, so I could easily display them in 8x10 frames. This will be on 32ct Taupe Lugana:

Yummy, huh? :)

Plans for 2018: I'm still doing the Year of Starts for Stitch Maynia, starting a new project on the 18th of every month. I also have a few extra starts planned, so I think my total is 22. (I'll reform next year.)
Moon Indigo is still my focus project, so I'll try to finish off the row this year.
I've also joined a Facebook group called Full Coverage Fanatics, and they're having a monthly SAL called Stitch By the Numbers. The goal is to put in 1200 stitches on a project each month, and I'd like to feature a different project every month. (That's still only half my full coverage projects...)

Eventually, I'll be focusing on more finishes than starts, but that time is not yet. For 2018, I'm just going to enjoy stitching all the things. I hope everyone has a good stitchy year, and a good year in general. May your needles be swift and your counting true. Until next time! :)