January 2020 WIPocalypse Check In

                                WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings

Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World. Measi always gives us a topic to discuss, too.

What SALs are you participating in this year?

These are my SALs so far for 2020:

• Twelve Christmas ornaments from JCS Ornie Mag 2011 to 2019 for the              Christmas Ornie SAL
•   [Another] Twelve Christmas ornaments from JCS Ornie Mag 2019      for JCS Ornie Mag 2019 FB SAL
•  Quakers in England Mystery SAL by Tempting Tangles Designs
•  Granny's Daily Temperature SAL by Carolyn Manning
• Prairie Schoolers Yearly Santa SAL with my friend, Marie (of walking around Princes Park every Sunday fame) - we aim to stitch as many of the yearly Santas as we can this year but this will be an ongoing SAL so no pressure!
• Hallowe'en Ornie SAL - at least six of the 12 themes
• Linen and Threads 2020 Mystery SAL
• The Three Musketeers Stitching Bookclub SAL (Sapphire Mountain Designs)
• Fully Finished Gallery - post anything fully finished on the 10th of each month
• Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - post about anything stitchy related to Gifting on the 15th of each month
• Smalls SAL - post about your Smalls on the last Friday of each month
• TUSAL - post your ORTs on the New Moon each month

As I wrote last post:

"This year is going to be my second attempt at taking part in WIPocalypse, the first time was in 2017. When I only managed three posts!  Hopefully, this year I will be more organised and motivated and keep myself on track. 

As Jo, from Serendipitous Stitching, is my absolutely stitching hero, I am going to follow her lead and stitch on "20 for [20]20" this year.  However, with a bit of a twist, as I am not going to list all twenty on this initial post mainly because we have had all of the family home for Christmas/New Year plus some overseas visitors plus I broke my nose three days before Christmas (having some nose surgery tomorrow to fix it all up - feeling a bit nervous about it, I must admit) so I have not had the time I needed before the 5th Jan to go through all of my stash (and as you can see this post is late!)."

However, as I have been doing a bit of rearranging in my Girl's Nest, I found my very large pile of finished Stitched pieces which have not been FFOed!  Some of the them have been languishing for years. So, I am setting myself the goal of FFOing "20 in'20" this year, too!  Now, a couple of them are going to require professional framing but that will still count as that will still take time and $$$$.  

So, here is my UPDATED Stitching list: (those in blue are the projects I stitched on in January)

1.   Snowflake Serenade by CCN (WIP)

2.   Saltbox Farm by Linda Meyers (WIP)

3.   Twelve Christmas ornaments from JCS Ornie Mag 2011 to 2019 for the              Christmas Ornie SAL

4.   [Another] Twelve Christmas ornaments from JCS Ornie Mag 2019 for JCS          Ornie Mag 2019 FB SAL

5.   Quakers in England Mystery SAL by Tempting Tangles Designs

6.   Peas & Qs by The Cricket Collection (WIP)

7.   Ebony and Ivory by Tempting Tangles Designs (WIP)

8.   Mary Wigham by (WIP)

9.   Jour D'Hiver by Lilli Violette (WIP)

10. A Seasonal Sampling by Linda Meyers (WIP)

11. Granny's Daily Temperature SAL by Carolyn Manning

12. Hallowe'en Ornie SAL - at least six of the 12 themes

13. Prairie Schoolers Yearly Santa SAL with my friend, Marie (of walking            around Princes Park every Sunday fame) - we aim to stitch as many of        the yearly Santas as we can this year but this will be an ongoing SAL            so no pressure!

14. The Ice Skaters, design from a Better Homes and Garden mag, 1992

15. Linen and Threads 2020 Mystery SAL

16. The Three Musketeers Stitching Bookclub SAL by Sapphire Mountain Designs

17. Jane Marshall 1857 by Hands Across the Seas Samplers (a fundraiser for the Australian Bushfire 

18. ?

19. ?

20. ?

... here are the projects I managed to stitch on this month:

1: Great progress on "Snowflake Serenade"

2: A Little progress on Saltbox Farm, too.

3: I finished my January Ornament for the Christmas Ornie SAL:

"Be Joyful" by Tempting Tangles Designs (p.70 of the 2016 JCS Ornie Mag).

4.  ... and I also finished my ornie for the JCS Ornie SAL. This is "Moose Joy" by Angel Stitchin' from JCS Christmas Ornie Mag 2019. 

7.  I stitched a little bit on Ebony and Ivory by Tempting Tangles Designs.

10: ... and some progress was made on the A Seasonal Sampling by Linda Meyers

11. I started The Granny Square Temperature SAL - this is January 1st (first diamond on the top row) to January 6th (third from the right on the second row).

12. I also had a start on my Hallowe'en SAL for January:

This is a freebie from The Stitcherhood.

13. I started the 2005 Prairie Schooler Santa for my SAL with Marie.

14. I managed a few stitches (like only two or three, literally) on The Ice Skaters.

So, altogether I managed to stitch on ten of my proposed WIPocalypse projects, making excellent progress on some of them.  I am a very happy Stitcher this month!

Now to all my UNFINISHED Finished Stitching (I did take several videos to be able to show them all - they are not perfect as obviously I was holding the phone in one hand and moving the stitched pieces in the other).  Oops!  The videos just won't upload for some reason, but trust me, there are over 100 unfinished Finished stitched pieces here - yikes!  My goal is to FFO Fifty stitched pieces this year.  

So, far I have FFOed, one, which is "Moose Joy" (Part of my #4 WIPocalypse goal).

Thanks for visiting, 

hugs 

P.S. Please check out my latest New Stitching on My New Start Sundays blog.

January TUSAL....

Well, it is time for the first TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-a-long) for the year, when we show our ORTS for the month.

Just click on the button above to go to Daffycat's blog where you can comment and see who else TUSALed this month.  

This year my ORTs are going to placed in this special ORT jar which was a gift that came as part of my 

A Little Help From our Friends Stitching Circle (an autoship from The Silver Needle).

I have also decided to take each month's pic of the ORT jar with my objets d'amour (the things that I love). 

In this month's pic are: back right, a 1950s vase that used to be my mother's as is the green and white stripey vase (which came from Venice). The little green spotted vase was also a gift from A Little Help From Our Friends Stitching Circle and the stitchery at the back is Tall Sheep by Shepherds Bush, which I finished way back in 2015  and apparently I also finished two very small versions of this which I placed into round boxes and I must have given away but to whom, I wonder, as I have absolutely no recollection of this but this post shows them finished.   Okay, I did some more digging and I think that they went to Kim from Wisdom with Needle and Thread (who currently appears to be on a blogging hiatus) and June from Butterfly Wings (I think, who is still blogging). I do so hope that they liked them.  I can see that taking my TUSAL photo with my Objets d'amour is going to be a trip down memory lane - what fun!

Please check out my latest post on the Christmas Ornie SAL as I have a happy dance and also check out what I stitched on yesterday for Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics.

Anyway, that is all from me for today, as I need to go "Fa Coffee" (ie make morning coffee for TraderVic and I) to drink whilst we do the Saturday quiz, plant some hydrangea bushes that a friend gave me cuttings of, do some supermarket shopping for dinner (absolutely no idea what we are going to eat tonight), book the movies for tomorrow night (we want to go see The Gentlemen"), I should wander around the corner to the hairdressers and book a hair appointment (I have left it so long as I didn't want anyone waving scissors around my broken and then healing nose), I really need to go to Water Aerobics (again, being very careful of my healing nose) and, of course, I need to cuddle the cat, read some blogs and stitch, stitch, stitch - and that is just Saturday!  Luckily it is a long weekend, so Monday is a Public Holiday (Australia Day) and as I worked on extra day last week, I have Tuesday off as well - so I have another ten day holiday after having had five weeks off and only worked one week - life is good!

hugs, 

First IHSW for 2020....

This past weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend (IHSW).

It is such a lovely idea, isn't it? To be stitching with other like-minded people from all over the globe, no matter the time zone, all weekend long - bliss!  In fact, any stitching time is great, isn't it?

You can take part on your blog or via the Facebook page - IHSW on Facebook or click on the pic of Hermie below:

My IHSW started on Friday with FNSI (another virtual SAL), you can read all about what I stitched on this post here. 

So, I kept on with my rotation of stitching but added a few more to it.  Altogether I stitched on seven different projects. 

1. Winter Wonderland by CCN 

Progress pics: 

2. Be Joyful by Tempting Tangle Designs.

Before:

Progress: 

3. Christmas Bullfinch by Punochka (from the JCS Christmas Ornie Mag 2019 for the JCS Stitchalong FB group)

Before:

Progress:

4. 2005 Prairie Schooler Santa, which is the first of the yearly PS Santas for a SAL with my dear friend, Marie (we plan to stitch all of them over the next couple of years).

Before:

Progress:

5. Unknown project:

Before:

Progress:

6. Aussie Friends - Australian Bushfire Relief Freebie by Kimberley Young of SassyJack's Stitchery - you can read more about it here.

Before:

 Progress:

7. The Granny Square Daily Temperature SAL by Carolyn Manning Designs. I started this for my New Start Sunday SAL blog

A fresh new start:

Progress:

I am very happy with my productive IHSW and remember to check out the FB page if you would like to see what other stitchers got up to.

hugs, 

First FNSI report for 2020...

.... and my first for a couple of years!!!!!!

In case you are not sure what I am talking about, FNSI or Friday Night Sew In is a virtual stitching get together hosted by Wendy from Sugarlane Designs on the third Friday of every month.  Click on the button below to find out who took part this month.

I worked on three projects last night for FNSI, two smalls and one larger.

First up is the 2005 Prairie Schooler Santa, which is the first of the yearly PS Santas for a SAL with my dear friend, Marie (we plan to stitch all of them over the next couple of years).

Before:

 FNSI Progress:

My second project in last night's rotation was Winter Wonderland by CCN.  I do love this design - it is so very pretty.

Before:

FNSI Progress:  I stitched the two doves on the bottom panel (my goal is to get the bottom panel finished by the end of this weekend for IHSW - there will be a post on this on Monday).

... and I finished the Let it Snow panel - I added extra snowflakes 'cos I liked them so much.

I also worked on this unknown piece, just for fun!

Before:

FNSI Progress:

Thanks for visiting and don't forget to check out the other FNSIers, here.

hugs, 

Another Stitch for Australian Bushfire Relief....

The generosity of people worldwide is astounding....

The Little Stitcher is offering this sweet stitch to raise funds for Australian wildlife after the devastating bushfires.

You can find it on her FB page, here.

And thank you to everyone who purchased Jane Marshall from Hands Across the Sea Samplers, they have raised a whopping amount from the sale of this gorgeous sampler.

It is so great to see these initiatives as well as loss of human lives and homes and the Australian bushland some of our wildlife is now facing extinction.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF):

"It's been estimated that around 1.25 billion [the mind boggles at that figure, doesn't it?] animals have been killed across Australia to date. This includes thousands of koalas and other iconic species such as kangaroos, wallabies, kookaburras, cockatoos and honeyeaters burnt alive, and many thousands more injured and homeless."

... and here is another freebie from Patreon (thanks, Jo, for the link).

Thanks for visiting, 

hugs,