2016 Year in Review

I thought this year I'd try to do a year in review before the year was over.  Novel concept, I know.  LOL!  This year's stats are way down compared to years past.  I kinda knew they would be.  I lost my stitching mojo for a while and my work life was super stressful for the first six months of the year.  In spite of all that, I'm thankfully ending the year with things looking up and renewed optimism.

Since you all know I'm a numbers gal, here's where I stand for 2016.  I really tried to finish some things from the box o'shame.  I'm pleased to say I did pretty good there.  I also wanted to get some of my BAPs done too and I managed to do that as well.  I currently only have four things in my rotation and I feel like I could whittle that down if I tried real hard.

New Starts: 15

Finishes:  16

UFOs (unfinished objects):  7

WIPs (works in progress):  4

Exchanges:  2

Gifts: 1

SALs:  1

Classes: 0

 

So let's have a look at what made up these numbers.  I think that would be fun! I've put links in so you can find more information if you want to see it.  Here we go!

First finish of the year!

A delayed ornament finish from last year or you could say it was my first for this year.  Depends on how you want to look at it.  LOL!

The gift I stitched for our visit to Westtown School in the spring.

The only SAL I did this year.  It was with my friend, Maggee over at Stitching Devotee.  Whom I got to meet in person this fall.  This was my January 1st start this year!

The first of my two exchange pieces.  This was for the Russellville exchange in the summer.

The first of my BAP finishes.  This was a carryover from last year.  I love it still.

This is one that came out of the box o'shame and finally saw the light of day.

I don't know why it took me so long to finish this cutie.

The second ornament I finished stitching.  Now it's in the box o'shame waiting its turn.  Oh geese!

This sweet set will forever remind me of my first trip to the PALS retreat in Myrtle Beach!  What an awesome weekend that was in spite of that ole hurricane.

Another ornament stitched that's been living in the basket o'joy for literally years!  Love this one.

Yes, it's in the box o'shame now too.

Ah my second BAP finish and what a pretty one she is!  I really miss stitching on this one.  It was just that good.

And last but not least, the last exchange piece I did for the year.

That was fun, wasn't it?!  I guess that's one advantage to not being very prolific, you can see it all in one blog post and it doesn't go on forever.  LOL!

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Now for the WIPs (works in progress).  I'm only carrying forward four this year.  These are the ones I'm actively working on right now.  I could count old class pieces that are still unfinished but let's not get carried away.

This is I Sigh Not for Beauty.  I'm determined to just get on with it already!

Here's the first post I did on this one.  Geesh, way back in 2011!

I've actually stitched more on this one since this picture was taken.  This is on of Nora Corbett's Letters from Mermaids.  This was my second start of 2016!

This one I'm thinking I may put back in the WIP basket for a while.  For some reason I'm just not feeling the watermelon vibe in the winter.  This one is a "do-over."

This is one I've resurrected.  I was rooting around in the stash heap when I came across the bag where this has been hanging out since...ahem, 2013!  Yes, three years soon to be four!  It's the 2013 iStitch Advent SAL.  Apparently I got to day 8 and gave up.  I'm further now but I wanted to document where I started or I guess you'd say restarted this one.  I'm hoping I can get it done really soon!

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As for my New Year's stitching plans.  I'm not actually sure what I'm going to be working on yet.  I know there will be a new start tomorrow.  What it will be remains to be seen.  There are several I'm percolating over.  We shall see! Tell me what you intend to start on New Year's day.  I'd love to know!

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Well all, I hope you have a lovely New Year's Eve whatever you plan to do.  I plan to stay right where I am and probably stitch on something above.  I wish you all a safe evening if you fancy going out.  And I'll see you in 2017!

More next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

A Christmas Wish...

Hello Friends!  I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, if you celebrate.

To my Jewish friends, Happy Chanukah too.

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I hope this special day brings you all good things and much joy!

Peace to all,

The Inspired Stitcher

Two finishes...Heaven Above & an Ornament!

Dear friends I'm happy to report I've finally finished Heaven Above!  Yes, it's true.  I actually finished it Thanksgiving weekend.  I stitched on this all afternoon on Thanksgiving day and all the next two days to get it finished.  I was determined to get this one done before the end of November.  I was so pleased when I put that last stitch in it.  Let's have a look at it in all its glory!

Design: Heaven Above

Designer: Midsummer Night Designs

Fabric: 40ct. Sand

Floss: As charted

Started: 1/15/15

Finished: 11/25/16

To Be Framed...

Here's a close up picture of the top half.

Here's the bottom half.  There's supposed to be a butterfly in the lower right corner but I wanted to incorporate my initials and date there instead.  I actually added a small purple flower above the signature after this picture was taken.

I'm really pleased with this one.  It's super special to me because my dear friend, Susan gifted the chart to me after she finished stitching it last year.  I plan to keep the chart.  I'm thinking once I frame it I may put it in a pocket on the back along with a note telling its story.  It's just that special to me.  Thank you again, Susan!  You are so dear to me.

I had wanted to post about this sooner but I got really sick the Monday after Thanksgiving.  A trip to the ER diagnosed me with chest pains caused by pleurisy, which was scary enough, and then I came down with the Norovirus.  Yeah, chest pains with violent vomiting is nothing I want to repeat anytime soon.  Needless to say that took the rug out from under me for a week.  I was pretty worn out the whole next week too.  Thankfully, I'm absolutely fine now and feel back to my old self.  Whew, glad to be back in good health!

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Design:  Letter Sleds A to Z "QCSG"

Designer:  Foxwood Crossings

Fabric:  32ct. Belfast White

Floss:  DMC 817 & 699

Started:  12/2/16

Finished:  12/3/16

Completed:  12/4/16

My second finish I want to share today is this ornament I made for the annual guild Christmas party.  I was gifted this chart by Robin in Virginia.  Robin is such a dear sweet friend.  She's been there for me a lot this year.  I really cherish our friendship.  Someday I hope to meet Robin in person!  Waves to Robin.

I changed the original design a wee bit, so this is my adaptation.  The original says "NOEL" and is in more of a tag shape.  I decided to make mine more rectangular and use our guilds initials.  I hope the recipient liked it.  I think she may have gotten my ornament last year too.  I think it's so festive with the holly and berries border.  I can foresee myself using this chart a lot in the coming years.  It's a really versatile set of designs.

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I hope everyone is getting geared up for the big holiday weekend.  I'm as ready as I'm getting.  For some reason this year I've really been in the Christmas mood.  I feel like it's because of my illnesses at the beginning of the season.  I know that sounds odd but I feel like being sick was a reset button kind of thing for me.  It caused me to stop, slow down and really think about what's important in the grand scheme of things.  Anyone who knows me knows I'm full blast all the time, sometimes to my own detriment.  I'm always ten steps ahead of myself in my mind.  It feels good to step back and really be present and in the now.

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I want to thank you all for your friendships, your comments, your emails and just being you!  You bring me joy and I hope I do that for you too.  I hope your holiday is merry and bright!

With much love and hugs,

The Inspired Stitcher

Rose Shield - Finish!

Brace yourselves, I'm back with yet another post and another finish!  I know, right!  Two in a row.  Someone get the smelling salts, I think some of you just passed out.  LOL!

Seriously though, I mentioned last time I had a new start and now it's done.  I just need to ornamentify it.  I had gone stash diving looking for something else and ran across this little cutie in my "basket o'joy."  Let's just say it's been in that basket a really, really long time waiting it's turn for some love.  Here she is!

Design: Rose Shield

(from the Christmas Roses II leaflet)

Designer: Mary Beale

Fabric: 32ct. Natural (2 over 2)

Floss:  Called for DMC

Started: 11/6/16

Finished: 11/13/16

Completed: TBD

I still love this one as much as I did the day I laid eyes on it.  This just hits all the right buttons for me.  I love the colors, I love the pineapple (or that's what it looks like to me), I love the vintage feel of it. Everything is just so me.

Here's the leaflet it came from in case you are wondering.  It's old, like published in 1989 old!  The charts are all hand drawn.  I did a quick search on the "bay of evil" aka eBay and there are several of these leaflets still to be found.

I haven't decided yet how I'm going to ornamentify it.  I need to dig the original leaflet out to see if there are templates in there for the shapes.  I usually make a working copy so I don't mangle the original.  I'm kind of doubting there are templates but you never know.

Several folks at the guild meeting were nostalgic about this one when they saw it.  I guess Mary Beale was pretty big back in the day.  Who knew!  I'm pretty sure I'll do some more of her ornaments.  There were several of her designs in the "free box" at the LNS the day I found this one and yes, they came home with me.  They've been ripening in the stash dontcha know.

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Well friends, it's a quick one today but I just had to share. I hope your week is off to a good start.  Thanks for visiting today.

More next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

To the Beach Freebie - FINISH!

So last time I mentioned a project I'd worked on earlier this summer.  I thought I'd share this finish today and show you all the goodies I made to go with it.

First, a little back story.  I took a Saturday road trip early this summer to The Finishing Touch in Louisville, Kentucky.  I just love Saundra, the owner, and Carol, fabric cutter extraordinaire!  As a parting gift, Saundra gave me the "To The Beach" freebie by Hands on Design.  I have a great affinity for Cathy Habermann designs and I couldn't wait to stitch it.  Let's check it out.

Design:  To the Beach Freebie

Designer:  Hands on Design

Fabric:  40ct. Vintage Pearled Barley

Floss:  GAST as charted

Started:  6/12/16

Finished:  7/4/16

Completed: 10/9/16

I knew from the start I wanted to finish this as a tin topper.  I intended to take it with me as my travel tool box on my trip to Myrtle Beach for the PALs Retreat in October.  I had heard that Hands on Design might be one of the vendors and thought it would be fun to show Cathy in person but she wasn't there.  Want to see the inside?

I decided to put a sheet magnet in the lid for needles and such.  I also padded the bottom and added cording around so the needles wouldn't get lost in the gap.  I also made a matching ORT catcher using the same fabric and some coordinating fabric.  Then I decided those naked scissors needed a fob.  All scissors need fobs, right?!

Design: From the chart On Beach Time

Designer: Hands on Design

Fabric: 40 ct. Vintage Pearled Barley scraps

Floss: GAST and DMC

Started:  10/9/16

Finished: 10/9/16

Completed: 10/12/16

And if you are going to make a fob, why not a two sided fob!  I used the finishing instructions from Jeannette Douglas' chart called "Friendship Sweet Bag."  She suggests using two quarters to give the fob weight.  Now this finish could not be easier and it really gives a nice look and feel.  I also just had to add a couple tiny embellishments too where the twisted cords meet.

These are two things that also live inside the tin.  I love those LoRan threaders and always pick one up when I see them.  I'm pretty certain I have one in every project bag.

Now the other "tool" you might recognize from a trip to ULTA or Sephora!  It is one of those spoolies they give you to test mascara!  It works wonderfully as a "boo boo" stick.  Now I can't claim this as my own brilliant idea.  I heard my blog buddy, Vonna, from The Twisted Stitcher blog/FlossTube mention it.  She's really the brilliant one.  Go get yourself some of these 'cause they are awesome and best of all, free!  You're welcome!

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So there you have it, a fun finish I thought you'd enjoy seeing today.  Every time I use this sweet set I think of being at the beach.  The beach soothes my soul and I absolutely love being there.  Too bad I live in the land locked midwest.  LOL!

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I'm off to a guild meeting and all day stitch tomorrow.  I'm hoping to make some progress on "Heaven Above" and I couldn't resist a new start last weekend so I'm going to work on that too.  More about that another day!  Thanks for visiting.

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

The October WIP Experiment

I bet you were wondering how the experiment went for the month of October.  Well, since it is the last day of the month, I thought I'd report in.  So here goes!  It's been a month of discoveries.

So here's the tracker for the month.  I didn't stitch as much in a month as I thought I might but it's an improvement.  I'm beginning to see a pattern.  Sundays seem to be the day I do the most stitching.  I also seem to get on a tear with a project and work on it over the course of several days before moving on.  I didn't even touch the mermaid or the watermelon so we'll focus on the ones I did spend time with.  So lets take a look at them!

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"I Sigh Not for Beauty"

Progress as of 9/30/16

Progress as of 10/31/16

Well, it's nothing to get too excited about but it is still something, I suppose.  I did finally take it off the ginormous Q-snaps I had been using and switched to my 11 x 11" ones.  Definitely more manageable for couch stitching.  Now to get that plant it's match on the other side and more of those little flowers in and around the vine.

"Heaven Above"

Progress as of 9/30/16

Progress as of 10/31/16

As you can tell, this was one I got on a tear with.  It also helped that I attended the Tiara Club retreat a couple weekends ago and worked on this all afternoon that Saturday (I only went for the day this time).  I'm actually really into this one at the moment.  I may even work on it some more tonight.

Oh yeah, about the random "h" on the right, stitched purely for placement so I could stitch those rosebuds.  You know how it is when you still have a color on your needle and you want to finish the thread.  C'mon, you know you do it too.  Another random factoid, I have to stitch sentences.  I can't stitch partial or random words.  So yeah, the "h" is driving me nuts but I had to do it.  It's a quirk of mine.  Yes, I'm weird.  There, I admitted it.  LOL!  Moving on...

"Colonial Santa"

Progress as of 9/30/16

Design: Colonial Santa  (circa 1988!)

Designer: Homespun Elegance

Fabric: 27ct. unbleached brown linen

Floss: Medici wool and DMC as kitted

Started:  9/9/16

Finished:  10/22/16

Completed: TBD

Yep, I had a finish this month!!!  I finished this at the Tiara Club retreat.  I can't wait to do the finish finishing it.  I'll actually have a new one for the tree this year before Christmas even!  I know, shock of the world.  This one will remind us of our 20th anniversary trip we took to Williamsburg this year.  Yay!  So cute!

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I also did some finishing this month on a project I'd worked on earlier this summer.  I'll share it in another post since it doesn't relate to the WIPs I'm tracking. 

I've decided I'll continue this experiment in November too.  I'm all about whatever I can do to motivate me and this seems to be working.  Who knows, maybe there will be another finish.  I hope you enjoyed seeing my progress and maybe this will inspire you too.

Thanks for stopping by to visit today!

Happy Halloween!

More next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

  

Preparing for October...an experiment

I don't feel like I've stitched much at all this year and this here blog shows it.  I've decided this stitchy slump of mine has got to come to an end.  So I've decided to try something different to maybe motivate me to work on my WIPs.

This fall I've jumped on the Bullet Journal bandwagon along with everybody else.  In the past, I've kept various digital and analog planners so trying this method sounding interesting to me.  It's been a couple months now and can see some advantages.   I've always liked to do hand lettering, draw and of course, I like to write too.

I had an epiphany the other day.  Why not make a tracker in my journal where I can note my progress on my WIPs?  So as I work on each WIP, I'll note it in the tracker.  At the end of the month I'll have a better idea where my time was spent.  I'm not going to put any pressure on myself.  I'm treating this as a learning experience not a marathon/competition to see how much I can bust out.  This is supposed to be for fun dontcha know.

So to kick things off, lets have a peek at where I stand on the ones I want to track in the month of October.  Starting with the oldest to the newest.

This is "I Sigh Not for Beauty."  I started this one as a SAL with the peeps way back in 2011.  I'm fairly sure I'm the only one who hasn't finished.  Christie, this one's for you! She's been gently nudging me all year to get crackin' on this one.  As you can see from the picture, I could pretty easily get it done if I really tried.

Next up is Heaven Above.  I've been working on this here and there this year.  I've finally moved onto page three of four!  From this point forward it's pretty much all letters with a few motifs sprinkled in here and there.  I really love this one and I really like stitching letters!

I haven't worked on this one since the Mirabilia Retreat in the spring.  It's one of Nora Corbett's mermaids.  It's charted as an "E" but I'm going to lob off a couple legs and turn it into an "L."  As anyone knows who's stitched one of Nora's designs, there are a lot of color changes which makes for slower stitching...or at least I go slower.  LOL!

Then we have the Watermelon restart.  I could easily get this one done.  It's a quick stitch.  I've been using it as my "car" project this summer when we've gone on a couple trips.  That large count really lends itself to stitching while in motion.  Although, bridges and overpasses are a wee bit bumpy no matter what count you are stitching.

This one is an oldie from Homespun Elegance.  It's called Colonial Santa and it was a kit.  I found him when I was doing some recent de-stashing.   I'm sure I picked it up in a free box somewhere.  Whoever de-stashed it before I got it had started the coat.  So far I've only gotten a  tiny bit of the beard done.  This one is interesting because it uses Medici wool floss.  That's a first for me.  It's quite springy floss.

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So folks there you are, my current WIPs.  Let's see how this little experiment goes.  I think it will be fun to see who gets the most attention this month and maybe even who gets done.  I'm an optimistic little thing dontcha know.  LOL!

I hope wherever you are you are getting to spend time with needle in hand.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great weekend and a great October!

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher

Whitman's Cloisonné Tin Sewing Kit - Finished!

This is going to be a quick one today.  I got the itch over the weekend to dig into the "box o'shame" aka the box where I keep my finished stitching waiting to be completed.  Good lawd, it's pitiful!  Shame is the correct word, I tell ya.  As some of you might know, I have kept an Excel sheet of all my starts and finishes since I took up stitching again in 2009.  This one was one of the oldest in the box!  Let's check it out.

Here's the outside.  I found the receipt inside the chart.  Can you believe I bought this back in 2005?!  Yes, four years before I even took up stitching again.  The receipt shows I bought the tin at the same time as the chart and linen.  Wow!

Design:  Whitman's Cloisonné Tin Sewing Kit

Designer:  Jane Timmers aka Fancy Work

Fabric: 32 ct. Sand Dune

Floss:  DMC as charted

Started:  5/24/10

Finished: 5/25/10

Completed: 8/21/16

To add to the "shame" it only took me six years to actually get around to finishing this project.  Oh that's just pathetic!  I guess it just had to "ripen."  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I liked that there were "how to" instructions for lining the tin included with the chart.  It was way easier than anticipated!  I'll definitely do that again on future tins.  I may even go back and do it for the ones I've already made too.

The back did not come charted.  I did that myself using the same motifs from the front and free-styling the initials.  Thankfully the letter "P" was already charted. I included a nickel to show the tiny size of the pincushion.  I just love tiny little things!

Overall, I'm really pleased with the way this turned out.  I'm mildly ashamed of myself that it took me this long to finish it though.  It really didn't take me that long to do.  Oh well, at least I can cross one off the list now.

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Well folks, thanks for stopping by to visit today.  I hope I've helped some of you feel better about your stitching.  I'm sure you all are much better at getting things done than I am.  Have a good rest of your week!

Until next time,

The Inspired Stitcher