WIPocalypse – December 2015

Theme: Recap your accomplishments for the year! (Your finishes, your final before/after photos, etc).

  1. Bee’s Needleworks – Tree of Stitches
    Progress at January 1, 2015
  2. Blackwork Journey – Save the Stitches
  3. Châtelaine – Workshop 1
  4. Châtelaine – Workshop 2
  5. CloudsFactory – 2015 Zodiac Sampler
  6. The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – 2015 Story Time Sampler
  7. The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – Autumn Harvest Festival
    Progress at January 1, 2015
  8. The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – Christmas Celebration Sampler
    Progress at January 1, 2015
  9. Glendon Place – Baked Alaska
  10. HAED – Dona Gelsinger – Teddy Bear Tree
  11. HAED – Aimee Stewart – World Traveler Bookshelf (Large)
  12. InkCircles – Celebrate Diversity
  13. Nora Corbett – Bluebell Pixie
  14. Passione Ricamo – Under the Sea – Mystery SAL 04
    Progress at January 7, 2015
  15. New cuffs for my bunad shirt

WIPocalypse – February 2015

Current progress:

I had finished parts 1-6 on Under the Moonlight before the last update, but I had not yet started the two SALs.

  1. CloudsFactory – 2015 Zodiac Sampler
    Started January 12, 2015
  2. The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – 2015 Story Time Sampler
    Started January 18, 2015
  3. Passione Ricamo – Under the Sea – Mystery SAL 04
    Before – Parts 1-6 finished on January 7, 2015

    After – Part 7 finished on February 2, 2015:

    Part 8 partially finished as of February 4, 2015:

Monthly question:

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

If I get in a rut with a project I just put it away until I feel like working on it again. I don’t give myself a deadline for when my projects have to be finished, so if I get bored I find something else to work on. However, sometimes I postpone the parts I don’t enjoy, like borders and background, until the end and I have to force myself to carry on to get to the finish. I don’t have any way to overcome the boredom, but the goal of getting a finish is usually enough motivation to keep me working.

Turtle Trot – January 2015

These are the 10 projects I have decided will count for the Turtle Trot 2015 challenge. I have chosen large projects that will take the most time and that I will probably need some motivation to work on at some point during the year. All of these are new starts except the Passione Ricamo Mystery, so there are no progress pictures yet for the others.

  1. Blackwork Journey – Save the Stitches
  2. CloudsFactory – 2015 Zodiac Sampler
  3. The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – 2015 Story Time Sampler
  4. Glendon Place – Baked Alaska
  5. HAED – Dona Gelsinger – Teddy Bear Tree
  6. HAED – Aimee Stewart – World Traveler Bookshelf (Large)
  7. Ink Circles – Diversity in Beer
  8. Nora Corbett – Bluebell Pixie
  9. Passione Ricamo – Under the Sea – Mystery SAL 04
    Started December 31, 2014
  10. New cuffs for my bunad shirt

WIPocalypse – January 2015

My goals and projects for 2015:

I hope to get some more stitching done this year than I have before. One goal is to actually finish something, something I haven’t done in a long time, or at least make some proper progress on my projects. I have made a separate page, WIPs 2015, with the projects that I hope to work on this year, and any new projects will be added to the page. I figured out how to get the page to automatically display the most recent picture I have posted, so hopefully it will always show my current progress on all of my WIPs. I will be making posts throughout the year with an update on what I have been working on lately, but I thought it would be nice to have a page with the progress on all my projects.

Here is a list of the projects I hope to work on this year, and a progress picture for the ones I have started:

  1. Bee’s Needleworks – Tree of Stitches
    Progress 2014-10-18
  2. Blackwork Journey – Save the Stitches
  3. Châtelaine – Workshop 1
  4. Châtelaine – Workshop 2
  5. CloudsFactory – 2015 Zodiac Sampler
  6. The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – 2015 Story Time Sampler
  7. The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – Autumn Harvest Festival
    Autumn Harvest Festival - Progress - November 22, 2014
  8. The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery – Christmas Celebration Sampler
    Christmas Celebration - Progress - January 8, 2015
  9. Glendon Place – Baked Alaska
  10. HAED – Dona Gelsinger – Teddy Bear Tree
  11. HAED – Aimee Stewart – World Traveler Bookshelf (Large)
  12. InkCircles – Celebrate Diversity
  13. Nora Corbett – Bluebell Pixie
  14. Passione Ricamo – Under the Sea – Mystery SAL 04
    Under the Moonlight - Parts 1-6
  15. New cuffs for my bunad shirt

About me:

I am 28 years old (until January 10) and I live in Oslo, Norway. I have been cross stitching for as long as I can remember, but I have only recently discovered all the lovely patterns in the world. As I was not very interested in the Christmas kits on aida that are available here, my stitching has been on the shelf for a long time. Now that I have found other patterns I enjoy stitching a lot more and will hopefully stitch more in the future.

WIPocalypse – October 2014

I decided to join the WIPocalypse, both to motivate me to make blog posts and to keep stitching on my current WIPs. I currently have five WIPs that I am working on, and I have two really old kits that I pick up every now and then to make some progress on them.

My most recent start and the project I am actively working on is Autumn Harvest Festival from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I got to a point where it seemed like all of my projects were huge and complicated and I wanted something smaller and easier to stitch from time to time. I think these patterns are cute, and as I am not that into Halloween I liked that it was autumn themed, not Halloween themed. This is my current progress:

My next WIP is the Tree of Stitches from Bee’s Needleworks. I worked on it a lot in September, but then I got a lot of fun stuff in the mail and I wanted to work on something else. This is my current progress:

My other WIPs are the three Passione Ricamo Mystery SALs. The first one was Fatum from 2012-2013. I like it a lot, except the writing on the bottom. I find the letters very dominating and I might try to remove them. I started late and got distracted when the next one came out. This is my current progress:

The second mystery was Into the Deep from 2013. This was the first time I ever stitched on a coloured fabric and I am really liking it. I think the pattern is beautilful and I look forward to working on it again. This is my current progress:

The final mystery from Passione Ricamo is the 20 Years Celebration. Again I am not sure about the writing, so I have put that off for a while to see how it looks. I like a lot of the Passione Ricamo designs and I think the design idea is pretty cool. Somehow the pattern represented in this pattern are not the ones on the top of my wishlist, so this might be the only way that I would stitch some of them. This is my current progress:

Finally I have one kit of Paddington Bear making cookies that I haven’t looked at in a long time. I think it is nearly finished, but it had metallic and it frustrated me at the time. Maybe I should try to get it finished soon. The other old kit is a Classic Winnie the Pooh Miniature kit from Designer Stitches of Tigger. I love the classic Pooh designs, and I have another one in my stash, but the fabric supplied is an Aida and the pattern has a lot of fractional stitches. This makes me give up after a while and find something else to stitch.

I also have some charts kitted up that I would like to start in the near future. These are Whacky Witches in Stitches and the 2014 Magical Creatures Calendar from CloudsFactory, Workshop 1 and Workshop 2 from Châtelaine Designs and the Christmas Celebration Sampler from the Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.

I am kitting up the new mystery from Passione Ricamo, Under the Moonlight, and it will be a priority when it starts. I have all the DMC and the fabric and special materials are ordered from the Crafty Kitten. I hope they arrive in time so that I can start this when the first part comes out.

Question of the month: Are you a Halloween or Christmas stitcher?

Halloween had become quite popular here in the last few years, but most people don’t decorate unless they have a party. Because of this I think stitching for Halloween is sort of pointless. If I displayed any Halloween stitching it wouldn’t be up for more than a couple of days. That said if I find pattern I like I might stitch it just for fun.

I have stitched some objects for Christmas, but I have become really picky and I rarely find anything I want to stitch. Again, if I find something I like I would probably get it. However I don’t feel like I have to stitch for holidays any specific time of the year, so I might stitch a Christmas pattern in July if I feel like it.

Passione Ricamo M04 Mystery SAL – Under the Moonlight

Passione Ricamo is going to have a new Mystery SAL. This time it is called “Under the Moonlight” and the fabric suggestions you get when have paid to participate seem to be coloured to look like the night sky. I really like Passione Ricamo’s “The Night” pattern, and I am hoping this is along the same lines, but most of their patterns are very lovely and the SAL is not very expensive.

You can sign up at the Passione Ricamo website for € 12,90 and you receive a document with all the materials required to stitch the pattern. The first part will be sent out on November 3, 2014 and I assume that is the end of the sign-up period as well.

 

I decided to purchase a fabric and the special materials from the Crafty Kitten where you also get a 10% discount on a fabric for the pattern. I decided to use 32 ct Jobelan in Twilight Shadows. The DMC floss I ordered from 123stitch.com

I have never managed to keep up with the previous Mystery SALs, but I have always gotten my materials late, so I am hoping to be ready to start when the first part comes out and maybe keep up with the parts.