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A completion to celebrate the end of 2015! Well, part of one, anyway! I finished "Revenge": and here is how the "Roll Your Own" Mandalas look today: Other than that, Christmas day at brother-in-law's and then again on Sunday (for the other two

I pretty much wrapped up the year in my WIPocalypse report for December, but I have made a little progress since. I feel like I am a broken record because, in December 2014, I said "Like in 2012, I'm not that happy with my completion rate for 2013".

I pushed myself but I did it --- got back into the groove and stitched every night on the outline for "Rematch", the eights in the series of mandalas in the "Roll Your Own" series by Tracy Horner. And I have finished on page (of six) in the pattern and

Got a little sidetracked this week, and ended up spending an entire stitching session ripping out a massive mistake in the lower right corner (I really have issues with multiple pages sometimes, matching up pages with each other, and in this case, I was a

After all that progress last week, I backslid this week. There was quilt guild on Thursday night and another computer glitch (and long telephone conference with Apple Care: upgrades to the operating system aren’t agreeing with my laptop, for some reason)

This will be my fifth year participating in WIPocalypse; I find it useful in keeping me on point, as it were. There are a lot of activities, ranging from the mundane (household chores, for example) to the creative (I’ve taken a major interest in paper

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

Given that I only stitched one night on “Rematch”, I didn’t do too badly in terms of progress on the outline. I really only have one page to go before I start on the color fill… I will probably switch to my traveling pieces in the next few weeks

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

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

Not a whole lot to report today, given that I already showed major progress in the WIPocalypse post yesterday. But… I did finish the first color in the inner border! It was blended (two different yarns) and I hate blended stitching (can’t use the loop

As I said in last week’s update, we had been in Florida for a three-week “holiday” and my stitching was pretty much limited to my traveling piece, “Palm Tree Elegance”, a needlepoint of a pal in a pot which I had hopes for for my oak-tree inspired

I did manage to put in two days of stitching (and ripping, sadly) on “Rematch”, the eighth of the nine mandalas in the Roll Your Own set. The outline on this one is really giving me fits but it is almost done and the color would move along much faster (I

I did stitch this week! Honest! Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…four days of roughly 2 hours each. Although you might be hard pressed to see any progress… What has happened is I finished the outline for “Rematch” in the roll Your Own Mandala series.

I’ll merge these two topics this week because there’s no point in making a weekly wrap-up different from the WIPocalypse wrap-up. I really haven’t stitched enough this week to make it worth the extra blog space! Anyway, the topic for this WIPocalypse is:

Yeah, late, I know, but to my credit, I had photographed this piece on time but just never got around to posting it. My excuse, besides pure laziness, was a repeat mammogram of teh one I had had last week (which I admit, scared me to death, but which,

Well, as you can see from my title, I didn’t blog for the last three weeks! Oops! But I have reasons! Maybe not GOOD reason, but reasons nonetheless! Mainly, I didn’t stitch. At least not until last night. And I didn’t stitch because a) my mojo was

This month’s topic for discussion is “What do you listen to while stitching?” For me, it’s always the television on. I stitch in my bedroom where there is an HD television hooked up to a DVR and the satellite as well as local on-antenna channels so I have

By gosh, I stitched. Every night this last week! I can hardly believe it! And I managed to complete the fourth through the seventh fill colors “Rematch” and get nearly half of the eighth one done as well! This meant a lot of binge watching (a season of

Well, I skyved off all week Eighteen. I have valid excuses for half the week; however, I can’t justify not stitching that Friday or Saturday…As for the latter part of the week, Husband was due back on a midnight flight from Chicago on May 1 so I drove up

Strange as it may seem, even with four days totally messed up by colonoscopy prep and procedure (my tummy was not happy with either - I know, too much information), I did manage to finish “Rematch”! Here is what ”Roll Your Own” looks like now with only

WIPocalypse 2016 - May 21 This month’s WIPoclypse discussion topic is “What were you stitching this time last year and have you finished it?” Well, last year at this time, I had three projects “in progress”: the “Roll Your Own” Mandala series (the

Two more nights of stitching after the WIPocalypse check-in and here is where the outline for “Return” is now. One page of six (top left corner) complete and parts of pages 2 and 3 (top center and right). A lot of Ripping (I always seem to miscount

Outline complete! I didn’t make it by the end of May like I had hoped, but it was all down to a massive frog that crept in while I wasn’t looking (the entire left side had to be redone due to a miscount!) which lost me a day. Still, now “Return” is ready

I really didn’t feel like stitching this week but I forced myself to put in roughly two hours per night for three nights and got almost all of color #1 (of 12) into “Return”. It’s a very dark blue so it may be hard to see against the black outline,

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

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

After making my WIPocalypse report for June, 2016, I decided to “force” myself to put in at least two hours every night until this report was due. And I was successful, completing color #5 (of 12) and a little more than 50% of color #6 by last night:

Sitting here in a hotel room in Louisville, KY, where even the bathroom light are less than 20W, there is only one flat surface in the room to put my laptop (a tint round table with legs in all the wrong places, and a large “leather” chair with no wheel

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

It’s hot here in NW Ohio. VERY hot. And all the rain seems to be bypassing us. I suppose I should be grateful since most of that rain comes equipped with high winds and hail but, still, the humidity should at least spawn a thunderstorm or two, don’t you

It was WIPocalypse on Tuesday and I didn’t even realize it! AAACK! The topic for discussion was two-part: “If you are participating in the Olympic Challenge, tell us about your plans – which type of challenge you’ve selected, the pieces you’ll be

As I said last week, I haven’t been stitching much of late. I partly blame the heat — my room isn’t as cool as much as the rest of the house and it’s been darned uncomfortable holding that yard+ of heavy fabric to stitch on. Also, my stitching mojo is

The end is in sight! I finished color 11 and am a little more than halfway through color twelve (the last color) in “Return”, the last of the nine mandalas in “Roll Your Own”! The only open areas are now the top two and the top motif on the left (the

I have finished something! Woo Hoo! I couldn't wait until my usual check-in to celebrate! Here is "Return", completed: And here is the complete series, ready to frame (man will that cost a fortune --- the stitched portion of the fabric is a little

Since I completed the last of the “Roll Your Own” mandalas, it was possible for me to get a start on something new (I simply am not ready to get back to “Save the Stitches” yet) so I pulled the Bothy Threads “All Creatures” Birth sampler kit from my

The WIPocalypse topic for discussion this month is “Have you ever read any fictional books that involve embroidery? If so, give us some recommendations…” Yes, I have although I hate to say that most needlework-related fiction uses knitting - and a few

Well, I didn’t get as much stitching done this past week as I had hoped. A big kerfuffle about someone hacking my Apple Store account took all of Friday on the phone and back and forth to Federal Express. And Wednesday night was filled with tornado

What a week! Here I was, stitching away on the birth sampler for a great-nephew who was supposed to be born next week. Naturally, he must have heard I have deadline issues because he was born on August 30! And I am nowhere near finished. Oh well, at least

Some progress made this week on the birth sampler, mainly on the single-stranded cross stitching of the grass and waterr, despite one night of stitching foregone in favor of binge watching the last series of "Lewis"! Only three more pairs of animals to

I set myself a goal to try to have the birth sampler ready to frame by the end of this week. So, once I finished all the cross stitch, I set right in to the backstitching and now have all the basic backstitch and French Knot bits done: All that remains

The discussion topic for this WIPocalypse period is “Tell us a story about the journey you took through one of your completed pieces.’ Sadly, I can’t answer this as, for me at least, what I stitch doesn’t necessarily reflect a story about me or it’s

Having completed the birth sampler 210920746822434353.weebly.com/my-stitche ry-journal/wipocalypse-2016-september-16 and taken it off to the framer, it was time to get to work on the wedding sampler. I chose “Love Is” by X’s & Ohs (by Jo Gatenby). It

I took the birth sampler in last week to be framed and it was ready on Saturday: Husband mailed it off to our niece on Monday and it should be there by now… I am having to force myself to work on this wedding sampler/belated gift. It is all in red on

This month’s theme question is “What online stitching communities do you enjoy?” Well, I do belong to a number of online communities and some of them are stitching-related. I am still enrolled in the Cross Stitch Crazy forum, a closed group which is

I was not stitching much in these three weeks, and when I did get back in the “mood”, I got stopped in my tracks with a broken arm! I’m scheduled for surgery on October 25 and have follow-up on November 4 so I suspect I won’t be stitching much in the

This moon's topic is "What pattern (or designer) is on your must-try-to-stitch bucket list?" I can't say that I actually HAVE a stitching bucket list. I have stitched at least one pattern from each designer that has caught my eye, sometimes more, and I

Checking in here WAY late, but I forgot to check on the full moon date! Anyway, the final question for 2016 in WIPocalypse is: "Recap your accomplishments for the year! (Your finishes, your final before/after photos, etc)." So here goes. No photos ...