July WIPocalypse Stitching Drought - What's One of Those?

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.  

Since 2011 I have chosen a number of projects to focus on that year, starting with my "11 in '11" and increasing to "19 in '19" for this year.  You can find the full list here.

This month I stitched on five of my list:

1. Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace

 stitched on 32 count Murano in Tiger Lily from Sparklies

2. Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

3. Summer Typography by Just Nan - Day 260

stitched on 32 count Pink Linen

4. My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez

stitched on 40 count White linen

5. Summer Night by Just Nan 

stitched on 28 count Jobelan in Dragon Shades from Polstitches

Did you spot the Finish?  More details on that in my end of month Pie post!  See if you can spot the subtle personalistion too.

Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too.

July – How do you get yourself out of a stitching drought?

Apparently some people have periods of time when they don't stitch.  I don't mean a few hours when they are asleep or at work, but sometimes days or even months on end.  My younger son is 10 years and 5 months old.  When he was a newborn was the last time I didn't stitch every day.  I joined some stitching forums when he was a baby and started this blog just over 8 years ago.  Since I started blogging I have definitely stitched every day and probably for several months prior to that.  No-one starts a blog in a drought!

What would I do if the worst happened and my stitching bug was captured by aliens?  I think in the short term I would reorganise my stash and have a good look at my WIPs and unstarted projects.  If that didn't work then I would go for the 10-a-Day project.  For some time now I have had a Just Nan project on which my goal was to stitch just 10 stitches per day.  I have completed four designs in this way.  Even someone who has zero desire to stitch would be able to manage 10 small stitches a day.  And that might be enough to kick-start the bug again.

I just did a Google and it's 3,033 days since I started my blog.  So just for fun, let's say I have been stitching every day since 12th June, 2010 which makes three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three days of an unbroken run!

Finally:

The first postcard in the Summer Postcard Blog Hop has been sent out to:

Aimetu's Stitching

so make sure you follow her blog and see who the card came from.

June Stitch From Stash and Pie

Let's do Pie first and talk about how the month shaped up including a new challenge I took part in.

Once again I managed a full 2 weeks on my Discworld Mappe and got a load of progress, thanks to not working on IHSW.  The Mappe went from here:

to here:

stitched on 32 count Murano custom dyed by Sparklies

I am delighted with my progress and the lack of frogs this month.  Next month I will head to the right hand side of the Mappe, starting at the frozen wastes in the middle there.

After I completed my 14 days on the Discworld I decided to continue with My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez.  As I mentioned in my previous post I am focused on finishes this year and it would be amazing to see this one completed.  

stitched on 40 count white linen

I didn't complete a full page this time around.  I only had 6 days and that quilt is full coverage!  You can see from the whole piece just how close I am now:

The final page is "I Love Embroidery" so it's more like the 4th page for coverage.  Then I have the border to finish, the beads, buttons and charms to add.  Maybe an end of August finish?

The new challenge I mentioned is from the Facebook group #24 Hours of Cross Stitch.  In June they had an acrostic challenge where you has to stitch projects connected with the letters in TWENTY FOUR.  Shoe horns are quite acceptable but thanks to the Marathon I managed it without a shoehorn in sight.  July might be a different matter!  Here are the projects I used:

T - Typography  - Just Nan Summer Typography
W - World - Lyndisfarne Designs Discworld Mappe
E - Enchanted - Lavender & Lace Enchanted Alphabet
N - Needlebook - Just Nan Butterfly Needlebook 2
T - Transitional - Scarlet Letter English Transitional Sampler
Y - Yiota - Yiota's Coffee Fairy
F - Flowers Just Nan Butterfly Needlebook 1
O - The letter O  - Ernie Bishop NOEL Letters
U - The letter U - Marie Suarez My Lovely Sewing Tools
R - Raven - Nora Corbett Raven

Photos on various posts this month, mostly on the Marathon post.

This was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to July's challenges.  One is another acrostic, this time spelling out TEAM 24 HOUR.  There is a "Stitch for a total of 24 hours in July" which isn't much of a challenge to be honest, it's less than an hour a day!  The third one is a total shoehorn festival.  They have chosen a different holiday for each day and you have to find stitching to fit that holiday.  For example 1st July is Creative Icecream Flavour Day!  I am going for Mrs Peggotty's Queen of Hearts and her famous Jam Tart Flavoured Ice Cream.

The first half of the Stitch from Stash year came to a finish this month and I was so happy to get another zero spend month (except for a magazine subscription which is allowed) and a final imaginery balance of £103.85 that I decided to treat myself to a couple of charts in a series I want to collect.  These are the first three charts in the Scary Apothecary series by Hands On Designs.

June
Cross Stitcher sub	£8.72
HoD Scary Apothecary x 3	£14.25
Total	£22.97

Finally, there will be a Summer Postcard Blog Hop this year.  Previous posts have all the details.  There is still lots of time for people to join in and the first card will be going out next week!

June WIPocalypse Half Year Recap

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.  

Since 2011 I have chosen a number of projects to focus on that year, starting with my "11 in '11" and increasing to "19 in '19" for this year.  You can find the full list here.

This month I stitched on seven of my list, thanks to the Longest Day Marathon! I will start with the ones I stitched outside of the Marathon:

1. Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace

 stitched on 32 count Murano in Tiger Lily from Sparklies

2. Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

3. Summer Typography by Just Nan - Day 235

stitched on 32 count Pink Linen

4. My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez

stitched on 40 count White linen

And the rest?

5. Chatelaine Designs - Gardens of London

stitched on 32 count Cotton Clouds Belfast by Crafty Kitten

6. Nora Corbett - Gathering Eggs

stitched on 35 count Vintage Country Mocha

7. Nora Corbett - Raven

stitched on 32 count Nebula by Crafty Kitten

Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too.

June – Half-year recap: How are you doing with your goals so far this year?

This is full list of 19:

1. Lavender & Lace - Enchanted Alphabet  - WIP
2. Chatelaine Designs - Gardens of London - WIP
3. Lyndisfarne - Discworld Map - WIP
4. Nora Corbett - Gathering Eggs - WIP
5. Mrs Peggotty - Alice and Flamingo  - Finish
6. Just Nan - Summer Typography - WIP
7. Nora Corbett - Raven - WIP
8. Satsuma Street - Nest Egg - Finish
9. Marie Suarez - My Lovely Sewing Tools - WIP
10. Cottage Garden Samplings - Hallowe'en Alphabet
11. Primitive Needle - Mystic Sampler
12. Just Nan - Wee Witchy Mice
13. Mirabilia - 25th Anniversary Cameo
14. Just Nan - Summer Night
15. Mill Hill - Easter Egg - Finish
16. The Sweetheart Tree - Merry Christmas Bell Pull
17. Dragon Dreams - Never Too Big
18. Sue Hillis - Victorian Christmas Tree
19. Ink Circles - Poinsettia - Finish

So far this year I have four finishes, seven WIPs and eight unstarted.  Out of those eight, three are the monthly Christmas ornaments so they will be started and finished in their relevant months.  Three more are Hallowe'en pieces which I will start in October for Dark October stitching, along with Raven as the focus piece for that month.  The other two may possibly be started after I finish My Lovely Sewing Tools.

At the moment I am really focusing on finishes and the Discworld Mappe.  If that means I don't start all my 19, that is perfectly fine.  Out of that list I can pretty much guarantee another six finishes which will be over half the list.

My other goals are going great.  I am keeping up with my 10-a-Day and my Just Nan Smalls.  I have completed 6 Christmas Ornaments and stitched six different sorts of motifs on my Hallowe'en piece.

Finally, there will be a Summer Blog Hop this year.  We will have an International Theme for the Postcards this year.  Each person emails me a photo of something they have stitched on an International theme which is suitable to send to a fellow stitcher along with a short message of the kind you write on a postcard.   I will forward the photo to another participant who shows it on their blog.  The photo can be anything which fits the International theme, let's see which countries we visit this Summer.   If you'd like to take part then leave a comment or send me an email.

A couple of people have asked "what do you mean by "International"?"

To which I replied "Use your imagination!   If you don't have something which represents a country or an area of the world, how about a mode of transport?  Or something designed by an international designer?  Or gifted by an international friend?   Or stitched on French Navy fabric? LOL!!"

The Hop will run over the whole of the Summer with a few cards going out each week.   Final deadline will be the end of August, just in time for Back to School!

May Stitch From Stash and Pie

The end of May means the end of Maynia and I successfully stitched on one of my Just Nan Smalls every single day in May.  I started 32 last year (I had one double-day) and stitched each one on the anniversary of the day it was started in 2018.

Here are all 32 from this year:

Of course, the first one is finished now and I have done much more on Days 2 and 3.  They will be my focus smalls for June and July.

My Maynia plans for next year are to stitch on each of the designs which don't get finished over the course of the next 12 months and then find some more smalls to start, maybe Just Nan, maybe Christmas Ornaments.  We shall see.

Here's how my Pie looked for May:

I managed my full 2 weeks on the Discworld Mappe.  Here's where it was at the start of the month:

And here's where I am now:



We have a turtle flipper and a small island!

Once I had completed my 2 weeks on Discworld I turned to an old WIP - My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez.  This was originally released in 6 parts in the digital magazine The Gift of Stitching.  Here's where I abandoned it in 2012:

And here's where I am now:

stitched on 40 count white linen

Close-up of the portion I stitched this month.

The lace is so pretty.  Based on the amount stitched in 8 days I estimate I have another 3 weeks worth of stitching for this one.  So, the question is - do I continue to work on it for a week each in June, July and August or do I work on some of my other "19 in '19" projects for this year?

Finally, Stitch From Stash:

Nothing	£0.00
Total	£0.00

Yes, a big fat nothing!  Not so much as one skein of DMC.

May WIPocalypse Shopping for Stash

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.  

Since 2011 I have chosen a number of projects to focus on that year, starting with my "11 in '11" and increasing to "19 in '19" for this year.  You can find the full list here.

This month I stitched on five of my list:

1. Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace

 stitched on 32 count Murano in Tiger Lily from Sparklies

2. Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

3. Gathering Eggs by Nora Corbett

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain Linen

4. Summer Typography by Just Nan - Day 200 = 2,000 stitches!

stitched on 32 count Pink Linen

5. My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez

stitched on 40 count White linen

Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too.

May – Where do you love to shop for stash?

What I'd like to say is - a little shop run by a woman and her mother, who stock a wide range of charts, fabrics and threads.  Who offer advice and have models on the walls and an exhibition space upstairs.  Unfortunately Hobbycraft opened up less than a mile away and stole all her trade.

Now I use a mixture of online stores trying to use places run by enthusiasts.  Lakeside Needlecraft is one of the first places I look, Kate is very helpful.  If she hasn't got what I need then SewandSo is the next port of call.  For hand-dyed fabrics, it's Crafty Kitten or Sparklies.  There is a small needlework shop about 10 miles away who supplies me with the latest Just Nan designs.

Two places I will never shop - Hobbycraft and Amazon.

At the moment I'm not really doing a lot of shopping anyway, thanks to Stitch From Stash and my lack of personal budget!  But when my Birthday rolls around I will be looking to buy a couple of charts.

 

Finally, here's a couple more photos from the Art Exhibition I went to.  Hope you like them.

Stitch Maynia Continues

As the title says, I am continuing with Stitch Maynia.  Some people stop at Day 15, some at Day 19 (for 2019) and others keep going all month.  Last year I started 32 Just Nan Smalls, one per day and two on one day.  This year I am adding one length of thread on the same day as I started the design last year.

Here are days 21 to 25:

I completed my 14 days on the Discworld Mappe on Wednesday with a nameless island and some backstitch:

bit blurry!

Here's the whole piece for the month:

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

That left me 9 days this month to stitch on one project.  I had a look at my "19 in '19" list and decided that it would be good to make some progress on the oldest project on the list - My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez.  Started in November 2011, this was a partwork in the digital magazine Gift of Stitches.  I stitched quite a lot in 2011 and 2012 and then ground to a halt in 2012.  This is where it was the last time I blogged about it:

For each of The Longest Day Marathons I added a little bit of border but that was it.  So far I have been focusing on the left hand side trying to complete a page of the chart.  Here's where I am now:

stitched on 40 count white linen

Here's the portion I've been working on this week:

This is stitched on 40 count linen, which was the recommended fabric.  I'm using a DMC conversion from the charted Valdani, a mixture of one strand and two.  If you look closely you can see there is some over one stitching too.  The bolt of linen next to the T is over one, as is the little thimble.  But the most challenging part was the heart to the left of the photo.  That is all over one!  The thread on the spools is all satin stitch and the little pinheads are tiny smyrna stitches.

There is a still quite a bit more to do, this is only 2/3 of the design, it will be square when it's done.  I hope to get the bottom left corner done this month.

Finally, I went along to a small art exhibition in an empty shop unit near in the town centre.  A group of local artists have hired it for six weeks.  Here are some of my favourite pieces:

Gorgeous colours!

Love this little ship

had a great chat with this artist

The "silver darlings" are the herring our town was famous for back its heyday.

The artist has used little bits of jewellery chain to make the scales.