WIPocalypse Report

I've missed the past few WIPocalypse reports, but I made it back for this one.  I've been working my way through my 'to stitch' list, even though I forgot to report.  In the past month I have stitched, but not yet made up, six Christmas ornaments.  These six ornaments are the final ones on my stitching list for 2015.  When I have made them up, my Christmas ornament tally for the year will be 50.

First, a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament for my very new greatniece Annabelle (just 3 weeks old today):

Teddy chart is a DMC freebie (I changed most of the floss colours)

Then, ornaments for a three year old boy and his very special bear Dougal, made for him by his grandma:

The stocking chart is adapted from a chart in LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet.

And finally, ornaments for three sisters.  Two of the ornaments are ready for finishing up, the third one still has to have its beads added. In fact all three are exactly the same size, despite the size difference here. These are my own design.

Now for the discussion topics:

Pick one of the WIP pieces you’ve stitched on this month, and tell us about your stitching journey with the piece, and where do you buy most of your stitching supplies?

Not much to say about my WIPs - this month they were all Christmas ornaments.  Each year (for the past 25 years)  I make personalised Christmas ornaments for many children (and a few adults) who visit my Christmas house in December.  It started small, but it's sort of got out of hand, and now I make around 50 each year.  The two Christmas stocking ornaments that I made this month were requested by one of my sisters, for the 3 year old grandson of one of her work colleagues.  I don't know the child or his family. My sister will bring the little boy, his grandmother, and possibly other family members over to my house for a Christmas visit this year.  Often a one-off Christmas visit like this turns into an annual event, which I enjoy.

I get my stitching supplies wherever I can - from craft shops, online needlework shops, eBay, occasionally from needlework shows.  Lately I have been buying from online needlework shops in US (mainly 123stitch)  because even with the bad exchange rate and the cost of postage, it's cheaper to get things sent from US than it is to buy them locally (in Australia) - and sometimes they just aren't available here anyway.

OK then, that's all from me for this month.  In October I will make up my final six ornaments, and start - and hopefully finish - a name sampler using an Aussie-themed alphabet for a baby cousin, born and living in New York of Aussie parents.

WIPocalypse Report for June

So, this month's WIPocalypse discussion topic is:

Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in summer or winter?

Not something I have ever thought about, really.  I live in an area where there is not a great temperature range.  It can get really hot in summer but it never gets very cold in winter.  I don't think the temperature really effects my stitching pattern.  If the weather is cold and wet I have more pain in my hands (from rheumatoid arthritis), so I might have shorter stitching sessions, but I do try to stitch every day.  The only time I don't stitch is in November and December.  That happens to be summer here, but my reason for not stitching is that I am totally engrossed in settling up the house for Christmas and then with Christmas visitors.

In the past month, I have finished up the ornaments I stitched in May, and stitched and finished another four Christmas.  

First, an ornament for a new addition to the extended family, born in New York of Aussie parents.  

The stocking is (heavily) adapted from a design in LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet. 

The tiny koala is adapted from a design by Di Noyce, 

published in Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch Australia magazine.

Next, Christmas ornaments for two young brothers, honorary great-nephews.

The teddy is a Dale Burdett design, from A Mini Christmas booklet.

Santa is a Barbara Mock design, from Dimensions Christmas Quickies booklet.

And a Christmas ornament, another Dale Burdett teddy, for a little Kiwi, grand-daughter of an old friend.

Then the ornaments stitched in May and finished up this month:

And that's my stitching month.

WIPocalypse Report for May

Here we are again - another month passed by and I really don't have a lot to show for it.  I did finish my Dimensions kit Santa's Secret, and  have stitched but not yet made up three Christmas ornaments, and I stitched a double-sided design for a pendant.

Santa's Secret

Santa Ornament

Santa ornament designed by Melinda Blackman,

 from Cross My Heart's "Christmas Magic" booklet (1992)

Stocking Ornament

I adapted the holly border from a DMC freebie Holly Alphabet by Katherine Martin Tripp.

  I changed the floss colours and substituted red Delica beads for the white cross stitches in the chart.

The rest of the ornament was my design.

Angel Ornament

The angels were adapted from a Pat Waters angel chart in A Christmas Collection (1986),

The rest of the ornament was my design.

Pendant front

Pendant back

The Santa chart was adapted from a rag rug chart in LA's premier issue of Celebrations magazine.  The tree just grew as I stitched.

So that's my lot for this month.  I'll be making up this batch of ornaments next, and hope to have a few more finished ornaments for the next WIPocalypse day.

WIPocalypse Report, April

I've not had a great stitching month.  Sometimes life just gets in the way!  I had hoped to have finished my Dimensions Santa's Secret by now, but still have the bottom right hand corner to stitch.

This is how he was at the March WIPocalypse Report:

Here he is at the end of today's stitching session:

I will be very disappointed if I am still working on him when the next WIPocalypse report rolls round.

Now to this month's discussion topic - specialty stitches.  Satin stitch is the one I dread.  I can never get the required coverage, even if I add extra strands of floss.  I usually resort to double stitching - horizontal satin stitches topped by vertical satin stitches - and even then I am never happy with it.  I used to dread french knots, until I learned to do colonial knots instead.  I find the colonial knots much easier to do and they look just as good.  I happily tackle any other specialty stitches, provided there are diagrams to follow.

I can't resist showing a few pics of my Angela, who is now 9 months old, and just gorgeous!

Playing with toys in the lounge-room.

Imagine it's the right way up. It's the best I can do! She was meant to be walking nicely on the lead, but gt a bit exuberant, and took off like a little rocket.

Resting on the lounge - but ready to spring into action as soon as anyone moves.

WIPocalypse Report (March)

I was astounded when I looked at my calendar and saw it was once again time for the WIPocalypse report.  This past month has just slipped by.  The topic set by Measi for this month's discussion is about what projects would be on the bucket list if money and time were not limiters.  Hard for me to answer - I'm pretty much out of wall space for hanging framed projects, so for me that is my major limiter.  Maybe a couple more Santa designs by Michele Sayetta / Dona Gelsinger  of HAED.  Perhaps a few more L&L Angels.

This month I have started Secret Santa, a Dimensions Gold Collection Petite kit.  My niece bought it to stitch, but a new baby (her first) has left her with little time for stitching, so she passed the kit on to me.  I will stitch it and return it to her.  It's actually my first ever kit, in 30 odd years of pretty obsessive cross stitching.  I can't say I'm impressed.  The fabric that came with it was Aida 18, a cut piece so neat that left no room for mounting on my lap-frame.  I didn't fancy stitching the design on Aida anyway, so I substituted 25 count evenweave.  The larger count size meant more floss used per stitch, and that combined with my wasteful floss practice of discarding any unused portion of floss each time I thread my needle with a different floss shade meant that I quickly ran out of many of the floss shades.  Fortunately I found a Dimensions to DMC conversion chart on line, and I have so far replaced 13 of the floss shades - and I'm not even half-way through the design yet..  My other major issue with this kit was the coloured chart - I found it difficult to read initially(particularly the green symbols) but I have adjusted to it over time.

Enough whining - here's a pic.  I'm almost half way through the chart (commenced on 17th February 2015), and I have done some of the backstitching as I went.

Since the last WIPocalypse report, I have also made up the ornaments I stitched for James, Alex, Chloe, and Dylan in January. And I have stitched and made up an ornament for Ruaidri & Edin.

 I also stitched a baby's First Christmas ornament for a new addition to the extended family, expected to arrive in New York this month.  I can't make this one up until baby arrives and is named.

I'm a little late with this WIPocalypse report, as I've just returned home from a seaside holiday with friends.  It would have been very relaxing except for the fact that my 7 month old puppy was so exuberant and  overpowering in her desire to play with the hostess's three tiny dogs that she had them cowering in the corner every time she appeared on the scene.  So we're off to obedience training classes on Sunday. 

This month's discussion topic is an interesting one for me to ponder.  I've never really had a time when I felt that I was in a rut with a project, but I have felt overwhelmed and stifled by one project - the largest I have attempted.  I'm 'a one project at a time' stitcher, but when I was stitching my HAED Jolly Old Fellow, I knew that I would have to have a break from stitching it from time to time. So I decided to stitch solely on it for a block of four to six months each year then pack it away and stitch my other projects for the rest of the year. That worked for me. 

I've had quite a busy time in the past month, but I have managed to stitch up three more ornaments.   

These two are for my great-nephew and great-niece, brother and sister.

The dog and cat charts come from Barbara Mock's Christmas Quickies II booklet.

This one doesn't have a designer to credit,except for the "Merry Christmas" Bears design, which was in a very old 'Christmas Miniatures' leaflet.  It is for a delightful young lady who will be receiving her 19th Christmas ornament from me this year.

And I finished up the three nutcracker ornaments (charts from Nutcracker Factory II by Jeremiah Junction).

and I also finished up the three ornaments I stitched for Amelia, Finley and Angus:

The Santa Teddy Bear is designed by Dale Burdett, the Santa by Barbara Mock, and the stocking is heavily adapted from a design in LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet.

I hope to get more stitching time in  February than I did in January.

January WIPOCALYPSE Report

Another year - another stitching list.  Mine looks somewhat like last year's list - predominantly Christmas ornaments.  Because I'm a compulsive 'one project at a time' stitcher, I have no UFOs or WIPs, so all my projects are new starts. This year I plan to stitch 50 Christmas ornaments, all to be given as Christmas gifts.  I also plan to stitch a Birth Sampler for my great-nephew, a name-sampler for a special little girl, and a Christmas project for myself - though I haven't yet decided what that will be.  I will also finish a Candy-Cane Santa kit that my niece has started but hasn't the time to finish now that she has a new baby in the house.

So far in 2015 I have stitched, but not yet finished up, two ornaments from my list.

I still have some buttons to add to the second one. The inspiration for the design is a little stocking chart from LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet (1986), but I have changed the size, pattern, colours, and contents of the stockings. The tiny teddy is adapted from a design in Graphwork's Mini Motif Designs Christmas Vol 8.

I can't resist adding this photo of Miss Angela sporting her new haircut - her first ever.  It's actually a work in progress - being groomed is not Angels's favourite past-time!

I think she';s just gorgeous!  She is now 6 months old.

March Progress Report

Progress?  Not much stitching this month, I'm afraid.  I did manage to stitch up one Christmas ornament, for Sarben, a new arrival in the extended family, but I haven't yet added beads or made it up.  Here it is:

The design is loosely based on the little stocking ornament in LA's Christmas Caboodle leafket from way back in the 1980s. 

 

So much has happened this month, it has just flown by, and I really hadn't noticed that no stitching was getting done.  My partner's mother has moved into her aged care hostel, and absolutely settled in incredibly fast.  She just loves it - loves the company, the activities, the food, the staff, and her room and little garden.  We found her an old-fashioned phone with large number pad that took 13 speed dial numbers, and she is managing to use that, which is a great relief. The small phone she had before was way too hard for her to manage, and as her two remaining sisters live a 6 hr drive away it means she can still have phone contact with them.  So, apart from settling her into her new home, we have been preparing her unit for sale - clearing the contents and cleaning.  As lots of her items ended up in our house, this also involved cleaning and repacking all the storage areas in my house (pantry, all the  kitchen cupboards, buffet, linen press, assorted trunks and boxes, the study cupboard, and my filing cabinet).  We have taken car loads of items to the local charity shop, and the job is just about finished.  Her unit still has its furniture, but all the cupboard contents are gone, and it's clean and ready for sale.  Here's hoping it sells quickly!

 

Here's a pic of Joan in her new room:

Joan is holding a reluctant Madalyn on her knee.  Miss Maddie now has two aged care facilities on her visiting list, and she is very popular whenever she arrives at either!  It seems as if every resident who ever owned a dog is excited to see her and wanting to talk to her and pat her.  Maddie tolerates it with good grace, but often I get the sense that it's not her favourite part of the day. There is a resident dog, Cameo, at Joan's hoste, and it is very friendly.  Whenever she sees me there with Maddie she comes over to sit with us for a while.  Maddie's favourie place in Joan;s hostel is Joans garden.  She always asks to go out and explore it whenever we're there.  It's a nice little area, which linls to all the other garden that surrounds the hostel.  We were able to take in lots of Joan's garden items ( eg table and chairs, pot plants, bird bath) to make the garden feel familiar for her.  Here's a pic:



 

It would have been convenient if Joan and my Dad were both in the same aged care facility, but they're not - they are at opposite ends of town!  So the car is getting quite a workout these days.  My Dad is not doing so well, physically.  He is tired and although he says he is not in pain, he looks as if he is.  Often he is in bed when I visit these days, and that's unusual for him. His appetite is not so good, and he is so breathless on exertion.  Often I still manage to get him to come out for a drive and an ice-cream, but the coffee shop visits had to stop as the exertion was too much for him, even with the wheelchair for transport from car to table. 

 

We also managed to squeeze in a 3-day trip to Melbourne which included a visit to Melbourne zoo and an up close encounter with the meerkats.  Such a treat! Here's the pic to prove it (that's me in the sunglasses on the left):

 

So that's my story for March.  I hope April is a quieter month and that I can get back to some stitching! 

 

Measi - hope all is well and that your family is healthy and having a happy time.

February progress report

I managed to finish up the Sam Hawkins heart Santa tonight.  I think I prefer this one to the one I stitched in January over 2 on 24 count evenweave. 

So, in February I stitched and finished a total of 11 ornaments - 10 angels and one Santa.

These are the Angels:

WIPocalypse report, November

It doesn't seem a month since the last WIPocalypse report, but I guess it must be - can't argue with the moon!  It's been a slow stitching month for me.  I have made some progress on my niece's wedding sampler, but not as much as I would have liked.  I had to take a 2 week break from stitching to decorate my house for Christmas, and that slowed progress considerably.  Here's where I'm up to now:

At least you can now see the heart taking shape.  The fabric is actually antique white, not the pretty blue in the pic.   I've given up on the aim of having it framed for my niece's wedding in early January, but I still hope to have the Sampler finished by then, and I will have it framed for her when the framer returns to work in late January after his Christmas break.

That's all the stitching progress for this month.

WIPocalypse Progress Post, September

Another month gone - truly, I am having great trouble adapting to the speed at which this year is passing.  Less than three months to Christmas ... already I am surrupticiously sorting out my Chrismas boxes and making decisions about where I will place my Christmas things this year.

I am pleased to say that things have settled down a little in my house, and it's not as bad as I thought it was earlier in the month.  My partner's Mum has fnally accepted that her car is gone, and though she's a little down, and often puzzled about why the car  isn't there, she is adjusting to her changed lifestyle.  She still forgets she has Alzhemers Disease, but has found a hostel she likes, and has decided that's where she wants to go - eventually.  'But I'm not ready yet' is her catch cry.

I've just come home from my Dad's 90th birthday lunch.  He seemed to enjoy himself, and spent most of his time watching and talking with his great-grandchildren (Miss 2 and Master 5).  His gifts are still unopened - I've left that for another day, as he got quite tired (as I did!) and needed to go home to rest.  I noticed he ate very little, but he did manage to drink two middies of old (beer), so that probably accounts for some of the tiredness.  My lunch was delicious - lovely light pan-seared gnocchi with roast pumpkin, sage, and kalamata olives.  I really did enjoy it. Good freshly made gnocchi is an absolute favourite of mine, and this one was so light and tasty.

I've stitched nothing but Christmas ornaments this month - OK, the truth is I've stitched nothing but Christmas ornaments since I finished my HAED Jolly Old Fellow in late June.  I'm working through my stitching list, and have only a few ornaments left to stitch now.

The last three I stitched were all the same basic design, from LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet.  I framed these three in star-shaped gold-cloured frames.  This is the last one I finished (last night):

This one is for the latest member of my extended family - my sister's grand-puppy (the odd shaped pale shapes in the stocking are meant to be bones, and I included a ball as Miss Tilly loves chasing a ball).

Here are the other two little stockings, which are Christmas gifts for the children of my new neighbours:

 

 

 

And here are the other ornaments I finished this month:

 

 

 

 

I did credit the designers in earlier posts.  The 'Christmas is Love' designs (stitched for former workmates and long-term friends) is by Sam Hawkins from the '50 Santas to Cross Stitch ' book.  The angel design was charted for plastic canvas as part of an Advent calendar, and is by Barbara Mock.

 

 

 



WIPocalypse Report

It was another quiet sttiching lunar month for me.  I've crossed five Christmas ornaments off my stitching list, and I'm quite happy with that.  My WIPocalypse stitching list now has just a few items left, so I may have to add a few more to the list soon.

Here are my August ornaments:

All designers are fully credited in the posts below. Sam Hawkins is the designer for the top three, and Dale Burdett for the other two.