2013 Goals

Getting ready for the New Year.
 
I have learned to not post specific goals because they act as Anti-Goals: Things Which Never Get Touched Again.  I am hoping that since I list so few that this will be the year I break that curse.

I didn't keep up with Wipocalypse last year but it did get me focused onto WIP thinking and working which I continued for most of the year so it was a success for me even though I did not have monthly stitching. 

2013 Goals

More Wip killing!
1.  12/12: 12 wip finishes in 12 months (or more: see how many I can finish & to use that number as a goal to exceed in 2014)
2.  Keep new starts to a minimum: finish any new starts within the same year (except for any SALs)
3.  Get reacquaintedwith my wips: stitch on at least 1 wip by every designer I have already started.

Specific Goals:
1.  Tony Minieri Stars for a New Millenium: stay on track.
2.  Pieces of 8: only 5 octagons left: finish this.
3.  Blackbird Designs: Xmas Garden: finish this.
4.  SB:Sheep, my NY tradition: start & finish a small sheep piece.
5.  Permission to start 1 really good sized piece during 2013 (then try to not start anymore big pieces).

Organization:
1.  Put my stash room back together - the annual organization & clean up.
2.  Round up my NP canvases.  Catalog them.
3.  Organize my frame stash.

Oct Nov Dec Catch up: By The Bay, Periwinkle Promises

I had not realized it has been so long since I last posted.  I can't say that I have been stitching up a storm but I did manage a few small pieces.

By The Bay 

 

I love the By The Bay mural type pieces.  I have seen a lot of wallpaper murals in old New England houses.  I love them!  I have had the 2 largest triptyk BTB pieces kitted for a long time.  I haven't started them because they are huge!

I couldn't resist starting the smaller Fall sal version of a mural.  I even had a small piece of a coffee dyed blue-ish green cloth that evokes the background wall paper color (which looks more gray than blue green in the pic).  Sadly I don't have a big enough piece of it for the bigger pieces - which maybe one of the other reasons, other than size, that I haven't started it: I am not totally happy with the cloth I have.

By The Bay: Fall 2012 SAL

Here is the little Fall sal.  I really appreciate how the finished piece fit so easily into an off the shelf, easy and inexpensive to obtain, frame.  I added some textural stitched, changed the overdye (leaves) to one I had on hand.

Periwinkle Promises

 

Another small piece.  I love the Periwinkle Promises Accents.  I don't love them as pillows, though.  I have assorted little pillows completed - stitching completed, yes.  As pillows, no.  I have the finished pieces waiting in a chest for an idea of what to do with them.

To solve that problem with future unpillowed accents, I started expanding the patterns so that they fit into a 5 by 7 frame.  It usually doesn't take much work to do that.  Just some math and some repetition of bands.

My first attempt at doing this was in 2010.  I stitched on this while marathon viewing the British TV show: Kingdom starring Stephen Fry.

Periwinkle Promises, adapted

This was based on the Snowflower Accent, from Series 2.  The cloth in the kit was not big enough but it was not difficult to find a scrap of cloth in my stash.  The other joy of these is that the kit AVAS silks work well on 32 ct.  I may have added more beads.  I love beads.









The latest attempt was during a marathon streaming of Grey's Anatomy.  The actual stitching took a couple of seasons of that.  I knit during most of the rest.  This is based on Periwinkle Promises Series 1, "August," with some textural stitches added and I notice now: I forgot some layering stitching on the band of 3 thistles which I can add before I frame it.   That band must have been during some of the better episodes.

Periwinkle Promises, adapted

A side comment: Kingdom was the better written of the 2 series.  Too bad it had so few seasons.

Other Odd Bits

Not much to show for the couple of months.  I started an old Danish Handcraft guild kit with 30 ct linen with danish flower thread.  I thought for a moment about changing out cloth and threads then kicked myself for again making complications out of simply relaxing.  I started it using the kitted ingredients and have been the more relaxed because of it.  I hope to have a picture for next time - which will hopefully be in the couple of days off that I have at Christmas - YAY for time off I really need it.   It is a blessing to still have a job but the stresses that come with it are even worse now.  

Dealing with those stresses when my brain can't handle cross stitching,  I knit on my own design of a couch snuggly which is the third one I've worked on since I've started knitting them last year.  The other 2 are used by family members to wrap themselves in or under, while watching TV or reading;  as this one and the others to follow it will be.  Aside from a basic border and some dividing bands, each one is different: size, patterns, color...errors: different errors on each of them.

Other than that, I just looked through portions of my pattern collection.  That was as relaxing as stitching.