Hello friends, I have some stitching to share. I didn't get to all my goals in January, as I made them without consideration to being away for a week, plus some health issues. But I still learned that concentrating my effort on certain pieces seems to be working out!
Let's start with my focus wips. Fairy Wind by Joan Elliott, my oldest WIP, had 2 days love and 4,000 stitches added. No, I didn't exactly do 2,000 stitches x 2 days. Actually I did 1,000, 600, 900, and 1,500 on different days when I also did additional stitches on other projects, some of those days. As far as I'm concerned, it's 2 days total effort. So I worked with the parked threads at the center, stitching the lower left quadrant from the bottom up. It's a little patchy since I'm missing a certain color of DMC and had no luck finding it locally. Nevertheless, I'm really enjoying working on this, adore these colors.
Before:Now
Happy Haunting by Maria Diaz was another focus. 4,002 stitches and 2.5 days effort. I finished the top panel, minus the backstitching, and started working down.... I'm over halfway done now! The backstitching is on hold until I can get a few Kreinik and PTB colors. The chart calls for DMC light effects, which are my not my cup of tea. I do love working on this, though the opalescent Ale Cashel is a little hard to see, at times. I think another 4k in February might be enough to finish!
Before:Now:
My third and final focus was Feather Fairy by Mirabilia. She was a new start January 3, had 3.5 days love, and 4,003 stitches added. The colors look a bit different from the pattern photo, and it makes a difference. (I prefer green to yellow). I started in the middle, working the bottom left quadrant first. I think I'll stitch all the feathered skirt and do her legs later. She has darling bare feet!
Several more pieces had smaller goals. Father Christmas by Joan Elliott, started last November, had 1 day love and 1,000 stitches done. I worked on the bottom of his dress/robe, filling in some of the lighter tones, the snowy ground, the white fur trim on the right side, and did more red. This chart has a lot of red! But it's several different tones, so it's not boring.
Making a Brew by Durene Jones, which I started January 1, had 1 day and 1,000 stitches. The small ornament is about half finished and it's quite fun to stitch. It was a WIPgo call for January, so I'm playing catchup and hope to finish the small soon (there are 3 parts of increasing size).
Winter Robin by Lesley Teare was started January 9, also had 1 day and 1,000 stitches. I started in the middle, worked to the right, then left again. I would have liked to have given it more effort, but at some point I realized I was going away for a week, had to dial back expectations. Which means I probably won't finish this project until March or maybe later. But that's fine, no rush.
Mickey Stained Glass by Neni Designs (etsy) was started January 24, while I was in the House of the Mouse. Well, it was a fabulous vacation, but stitchy time was limited. And I forgot my light, which didn't help. Anyway, 3 days total and 1,200 stitched. But then I had to frog a couple hundred since I messed up the border. I started in the bottom left corner and I'm trying to work diagonally but true diagonals aren't working for me with so much confetti. I dislike constantly switching colors or having dozens of needles in play. So I'm doing a block at a time, on the diagonal. Aside from the border, the first block is finished and the blocks above and to the right are getting there. Once those are done, I'll work on a 3 box diagonal, and so forth. And i'll do the same thing, on a larger scale, with the pages. Hopefully it will be more interesting and engaging this way.
Last but not least, I started St. George and the Dragon by Donna Vermillion Giampa on January 31st and did 1,000 st in a half day, despite falling asleep twice with needle in hand (I was burning the candle at both ends trying to meet my stitchy goals the last 4 days of the month). I started in the middle, with George's calf, did a bit of the saddle and stirrup, then started on the golden dragon wings. This chart is chock full of fractional stitches, but I expected that, and it's going alright. My 36 count evenweave (Fabric Flair) is quite easy to stitch on and the quarter stitches work well as a tent stitch, in most cases.
And now for my little ornies! Three of these wips were also a January WIPGo call, so I worked on all of them and managed to finish 2. Bewitchin' Stitchin' by Cindy Lash had 1 day, 812 stitches, and is finished! Lil' Christmas Angel by Sweet Annet had 2 days, 1,821 stitches and is also done!
Continuing WIPs Polar Night Sighting by Stitch Sprout had 2 days and 2202 stitches, while Christmas Kitty by Kreinik had 1.5 days and 1,107 stitches.
I had zero ornament starts, though I was tempted at the beginning of the month when I saw all the monthly stitching challenges for Fandom Stitching Central. But now, I'm glad I resisted, because if I had done 1,000 stitches on a train, 1,000 on a car, etc, I probably wouldn't have made my 4k goals on my focus pieces, with consideration to my vacation and other issues. I managed 22 stitchy days in January, which wasn't great, but nothing unexpected with a week away. I ran out of time to start my Fourth of July by Petite Croix de Lucie, or Halloween party by Shannon Christine, nor Halloween train by Natalia (etsy), but it's okay, I have 8 wips now, plus a few ornaments, so that will suffice for now.
Question of the month: My oldest WIP? Fairy Wind by Joan Elliott was started August 2023, on a piece of custom dyed Cashel by Silkweaver. She's the third in what I consider to the "weather" series (I stitched Fairies Rainbow and Rain already). She's a lovely lady with a voluminous dress, and I adore the sense of wind & motion in the chart. Ms. Elliott is an amazing artist. It would be nice to finish by midyear, perhaps.
Now for February Goals:
Focus projects: 4k each: Fairy Wind, Feather Fairy, Happy Haunting, Winter Robin
1.2 k each: Mickey Stained Glass (February WIPgo), Father Christmas, Poltergeist Pirates (new start)
1 k each: St. George and Dragon, Making a Brew
Finish: Polar Night Sighting, Christmas Kitty. I might start another ornament, or maybe not, we'll see.
Happy Stitching