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The fourth in what looks like a long series of short and boring, repetitive weekly updates on my stitchery. I spent one stitchery night preparing the mess made two weeks ago when I had to forge a whole lot of stitches due to a count count miscount. The repair required the removal of a whole skein’s worth of additional stitches but now the back if fine and the outline is back on track. So, to date, four of 6 pages of outline complete and more than half of a fifth:

I have to catch up with posts for November 2020, December2020, and January 1, 2021 that I couldn't post because of the site being down. I will do those after I get my taxes done! Meanwhile, on with my check-in for January 2021I don't have that much to report so this will be short and sweet(-ish)!

I know - I'm late. I forgot that Monday was the full moon. The topic for this full moon was” If you have any of your pieces on display in your home which attracts the most plaudits?” Well, at present there are only two pieces “on display” (if you don’t count needlepoint pillows, that is): one is in the half-bath and never seems to be noticed while the other is in the “breakfast” part of the kitchen and, I think, has been noticed once, not exactly attracting plaudits but. It is a piece call…

Color # 2 is complete and color #3 is 25% done on “Return”! Progress is slow but sure - counting all these partial patterns is always an issue with me, and I always seem to miss one out and only find it one or two colors on. It's been too darned hot to stitch, especially for early June. I dread what July and August will be bringing if this continues... Meanwhile, I so have a case of start-itis — even though I don’t have a pattern picked out that appeals to me. Maybe it’s not so mu…

This full moon, we are asked: “Do you find yourself more productive with stitching in summer or winter?” And I have to answer that there is probably no difference. I stitch at night for the most part, with my daylight-quality lamp, so longer days in summer don’t really make a difference amor the shorter days of winter. I stitch indoors so temperature is not an issue. There are different demands on my time and impacts on my mojo with each season: I really can’t stitch effectively when I’m sufferi…

In the event that you are not familiar with WIPocalypse, it is a yearly challenge by Measi's Musings where Melissa, the blog owner states: "The WIPocalypse was a stitch-a-long playing up on the joke that the world will end in 2012. It’s short for Works In Progress Apocalypse."The goal of the WIPocalypse is to make progress on your projects. How you go about this is your choice." Since then, there have been WIPocalypse SALs each year and this year is the start of WIPocalypse 2019. Each…

This month's topic is: "If money – and time – were not limiters, what projects would be on your stitching bucket list?" Well, I'm not really sure how to answer this. I subscribe to a number of stitchery magazines and have a HUGE stash of charts (some kitted, most not) as well as a slowly diminishing stash of fabric (I really need to replace some of the linens) and floss. I know that my taste has changed over the last four decades of stitchery and most of those charts will never be stitched (a…

Two more weeks with no stitchery to report. I'm finally over the cold although I still seem to be tired all the time. So... This past week has been a test of my "cure". First, on May 3, my husband and I took a day trip tp Detroit to visit our dear friends (and former colleagues) who now live in west Virginia but who have a son, daughter-in-law and grandchild who live in the absolute center of Detroit city! Talk about an organized day! Coffee at Astro, brunch down the street, The Hetry Ford M…

August 3, 2015: Edited to add: This month's WIPocalypse topic is: "What makes you pick up a long-abandoned UFO rather than beginning a new piece?" My answer is: Practically nothing! I have some (four or five, I think)really long-standing WIPS/UFO pieces (decades, at least, not counting some backstiching on some needlepoint from even longer ago) and I just can't face them. My tastes have changed, mainly... So unless someone on a forum or blog I follow offers up a challenge to finish a certain num…

Not a lot to report on since the weekend when I reported in on IHSW pt1. I did work on the outline for "Cindy" the third (and last) of "Spawn" of Roll Your Own: Didn't get very far, but then one wouldn't watching the complete, re-digitized, entre'act music-and-all version of "Gone With The Wind"! On the other hand, my next stitchery binge will likely be a week from now when Turner Classic Movies is celebrating Ingrid Bergman's 100th birthday! I have something like 8 movies set to record f…

The best laid plans and all that. I posted for WIPocalypse and had plans to stitch for three straight nights on "Roll Your Own". Well, on Monday, I started and ended up ripping out a lot of stitches, fudging a few more and fighting knots and tangles on the back of my fabric. It ot so frustrating that I only stitched three strands before giving up, and that frustration lasted for the next two nights. Not a lot accomplished (although I am into the third page of six, the first two pages were only p…

Between Week Five and AFTER the 11th, I didn’t stitch at all. We are in Florida right now, in the middle of our second week of a three-week stay, and I have managed to get in some stitching on the porch when it is warm enough to sit outside (it’s darned cold for Florida, even in the winter!) and enough sun to be able to see the holes in my needlework fabric (I forgot my magnifier! AAACK!). Since we are traveling, I am working on my traveling needlepoint, “Palm Tree Elegance”, a kit by Dimensi…

The topic for this month's discussion is: "List five projects you have unstarted in your stash that you’d like to start something in the (relatively) near future." I have to confess that, in the past year or two, during various Covid lockdowns and restrictions, I have watched a lot of live-streams and floss-tubes and the like and ordered WAY too many charts and kits from International sources (mainly English/UK but also from Germany). I have actually refereneced a few of them in past check…

The topic for discussion this month is: "What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?" Well, besides this WIPocalypse, I have scaled back this year and only have two (mystery) SALs in progress: 1. The Faithwurks/Just Cross Stitch Christmas Quaker, which now has two parts complete: Part three is due out in the June 2021 issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine, the digital version of which should be available in late April, early May, 2021. ​ 2. The fifth and final SAL…

So far, no topic has been posted for this month so I will proceed to my progress, such as it was(NOT)... A pretty sad month to report on as I was ill for most of it and I can't focus on stitchery when coughing and with a nasty headache and fever. In fact, I only worked on one piece since the last WIPocalypse. At quilt guild in April, a friend loaned me a copy of the pattern her EGA group in Naples, FL is using for their charity giving and I told her I' do a couple for her to send along w…

Only two stitching days since reporting in for International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, but I am on the last color *number 12!) for “Revenge”! So it’s looking good for having this part of “Roll Your Own” completed in 2015. Only two more mandalas to go! Now the question is, in 2016, do I try to finish “Roll Your Own” or do I switch back to “Save the Stitches” and try to make some progress on that one. I do know for certain I will not be joining either the Crazy Quilt Journaling Proje…

When I reported in last week, we were in Louisville, KY, at the National Hermerocalis Society National Convention and the hotel room was less than salubrious re stitchery. Not a comfortable sitting situation and the lighting was atrocious. I was thankful that I had my needlepoint traveling kit with me as it was way easier to see the weave than cross-stitch would have been. Still, I had to bring out my magnifying glass to check sometimes to see if, indeed, that was a stitch that needed to be put…

The topic for this month's discussion is: "Have you found yourself to be more or less productive in your stitching during the Covid-19 pandemic?" Well, to be honest, since I hadn't stitched much at all between 2016 and 2020 (only one traveling needlepoint and one twinchie in 2019), ANYTHING would have been an improvement! I started stitching again in January 2020 and our state went into stay-at-home orders in mid-March of that year. From that time until the end of the year, I completed…

Perhaps you can tell from the title, but two weeks have passed and I still have that sinus infection and nasty recurring cough. Not something I can stitch with. So I missed IHSW altogether (I was at my sickest then) and didn't get in a single stitch during all of weeks Sixteen and Seventeen of this year. So sad... So, to pass the time, some photos of my husband's garden! The daffs are past their prime but the tulips are in full bloom: the Rhodies are blooming by the lake: and th…

I did it! I actually stitched this week. Partly because of International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, but also because I unpacked my traveling gear and decided to keep out that traveling needlepoint for at least this week and get in some work on that leopard spot border. Here it is after last night - a lot of the terra cotta red background in on the left border: And a close-up of the upper left border: Wouldn't you know, as I was stitching down this side, I found t…