March Check In Post

Oh my, I am awfully late checking in this month.  Sorry about that.  School has kept me really busy the last few weeks (months? years?) But on a positive note, I am less than 3 weeks away from finishing my last class and graduating!  WOOT!

This month's discussion theme is where we do our stitching.  I have a few places I like to stitch.  I have a chair in my bedroom that is right by a window and I love to stitch there while I listen to audiobooks.  I also stitch on the sofa in front of the tv in the living room :-)  Finally, I do a little bit of stitching during down times at work.  Did I mention before that I'm a Professional Nanny?  I can't remember.  Anyway, I nanny for three boys, so you can imagine that there's not a lot of downtime.  However, my littlest guy is in a few activities during the week while the older two are in school, and I can get a few stitches in during his activities (soccer, swimming, etc.)  This is where I get the least amount of stitching done, but it does help to keep me occupied while he's busy!

Now for my monthly update, which is a bit pathetic.  I only got to do a little bit of stitching on Celtic Spring since my last update.  I promise, once school is out, my updates will get much more interesting, lol.  The most recent picture is below.  See y'all in a few weeks for the April check in!

February Check In Post

February Topic: How many projects do you generally feel comfortable having in progress at a time?  Tell us about your one-at-a-time or rotation habits!

Well, I think I have about 17 "in progress" projects that I have started but haven't finished.  However, I really just have two right now that I am working on with any regularity.  I do not rotate on a schedule, I rotate when I get bored, so I have spent all of January/February working on V's piece and now Celtic Spring.   Celtic Spring hasn't bored me yet, so I'm sticking with it for now.

And now on to monthly updates.  I have two - one on the piece I was working on for my friend, V, and one on Celtic Spring.

My friend's piece was "Angel of Cross Stitch" by Joan Elliot/Design Works.  Just a bit of back story: V did most of the stitching on this piece, but a major illness made it very difficult for her to stitch for a variety of reasons.  She asked our yuku group "Cross Stitch Crazy" if anyone would be willing to do a little stitching on it for her, and several of us agreed.  A rotation list was made, and I was the last name on the list, implying that I was going to finish the piece (yikes!)  Well, fast forward several months, almost a year, and the piece had gone to everyone else and finally made it's way to me.  While I had it, two important things happened.  First, my friend was given a trip to Walt Disney World for her and her family by a generous benefactor and she invited our mutual friend, Holly, who has an Annual Pass to WDW, to join her for a few days of her trip.  Holly contacted me and asked if I wanted to come with and surprise V (who I had not seen in person since 2003!)  The second thing that happened was the V experienced enough improvement with her illness that she has begun stitching a little bit again.  She contacted me and her questions about it gave me the impression that she wanted to put in the last stitches on AoCS, which I totally get!

So, these two things came together, and I ended up flying to Florida to surprise V not only be being there, but by bringing her almost-finished AoCS.  Here are pix of the three of us (I'm on the left, V is in the middle, and Holly is on the right) and The Angel of Cross Stitch as it looked when I returned it to Miss V.

I've also made quite a bit of progress on my Celtic Spring.  Ok, I should say that it's quite a bit for me, the queen of the slow stitchers!  Here is an update on Celtic Spring:

That's it for now, see y'all next month!

WIPocalypse Re-Set for 2014

January Theme: Introduce Yourself!

I'm JoAnna, and I live in southeastern Pennsylvania.  I've been stitching since I was a kid, and I am a chronic start-aholic.  I am constantly starting projects and rarely finishing them.  This is why I LOVE the WIPocalypse!  I participated in both the 2012 and 2013 WIPocalypse challenges, however, my participation in 2013 tapered off after the summer when school and life got in the way.  This year, I am re-newing my commitment to participate, yay!

Right now, I have four major projects in the works.  I do not expect to finish all four this year, but I expect to finish two and get the other two much closer to completion.  The first is a project for a dear friend of mine who, due to illness, can only stitch sporadically and asked for some help in finishing this project up.  I expect to finish this project THIS month...I hope?  I will post a picture of it when it is done.

The second is L&L's Celtic Summer.  I am almost done with this piece, and hope to finish it sometime this Spring or early summer.  Here is a picture of where I'm at right now:

The third and fourth are both being continued from the 2013 WIPocalypse.  They are Celtic Spring and Sweet Dreams, both by L&L.  Here are current pix of my progress:

That's it for now.  Looking forward to a year of stitching in 2014!  -JoAnna

July Check In Post

July was a month of vacations and spending time with my college-aged daughter, and not getting a lot of stitching done.  I did get some done, though!  I worked a bit on Celtic Spring (it doesn't look like much, but I'm in the Slow Stitching Club, so it's good progress for me!)  The newest update picture is below.  I also worked a bit on a special project for a friend, but I can't post a picture until it's done, probably another 2 months.  I'll let you in on the surprise then!

June Check In Post

Well, June basically stunk as far as stitching goes.  I managed to get in a few stitches here and there, but nothing worth taking pictures of.  I am hoping July is better...now that we're more than half way through it.  Pushing the *restart* button for my WIPocalypse...

May Check In Post

I am still plugging away at Celtic Spring, and have yet to pick Sweet Dreams back up again.  I am thinking that I'll spend about another month on Celtic Spring and then put it away so that I have some kind of chance at finishing Sweet Dreams this year (that was the plan, right?)  In the meantime, here is the latest pic of Sweet Dreams:

April Check In Post

Well, here it is a month later, and I feel like I have achieved nothing...at least in terms of stitching.  I did manage to put in a few hundred stitches on Celtic Spring, but that is it.  Nothing on Sweet Dreams or any other piece.  There are many reasons for this, too many to name, and none of them could be helped.  So, here is my update photo, and I will keep my fingers crossed about getting some time to stitch over the next month!

Edited to add:  Hey, look!  I managed to stitch in one of the month's focus colors - purple!  I won't mention that it wasn't planned and that I didn't even know it was one of the month's focus colors until I went to link my check in post on the Wipocalypse blog...