2016 in review ...

Dear all,

2016 is almost over ... and despite attempting I find myself failing again and again.

Out of my New Year resolutions for the year I managed 6 out of 10. Two of my significant fails include to blog more frequently and to qualify as a chartered accountant.

As you know the blogging has become more scarce ... and I have also recently failed my final exam. It has been a huge disappointment. 14 exams passed over the last few years and the last, 15th, that would bring me within reach of qualifying ... I panicked.

But lets concentrate on the positive and that is 2017 brings another chance at achieving the unachievable and 10 new goals to work towards. Lets say to qualify is on the list again, as well as to blog more frequently. So far I have 9 goals, and only need to come up with one more ... there is still time until the clock strikes midnight, right? If you have any ideas do let me know.

Onto the lack of stitching achievements. Out of 16 goals I sort of achieved 3 and a bit.

Harmony by Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. 

My goal was to complete this. And I have. This was one of my earlier finishes (while still motivated by 2015 failures):

December 2015

January 2016

Alice and Dodo by Tanya Bond 

This was a new start and the Goal was to stitch 1 out of 25 pages. 

October 2016

Iris by John Clayton 

December 2015

December 2016

So now onto partial meeting of targets ...

Christmas Candle - HAED

Goal was to finish the top row, i.e a page and a partial. Unfortunately I decided to use this project to participate in a challenge and needed a new page. But this means 5/36 done.

December 2015

August 2016

August 2016

Peace (Little Sheep Virtue) by Little House Needleworks

Well completing all 12 sheep did not go down so well ... but the 6th one is now done.

August 2016

And a not related finish to my Wipocalypse goals ...

A finish of 'Take Shelter together!' - Rainy Day Kitty by Durene Jones the World of Cross Stitching magazine (issue 240).

March 2016

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.

Samuel Beckett

Until next year,

Lija

Welcome to 2016 ...

Hello all and welcome to 2016 ...

... I can't believe I haven't posted since October. I do need to be better this year (blogging is one of my 10 New Year resolutions), so here we go off to a flying start with a sum up of a year and setting up goals for the year ahead.

I have only completed 3 of my goals in 2015 ... so hopefully 2016 will be better.

1) Christmas Candle - HAED

Before:

December 2014

After:

December 2015

The goal was to complete the last two pages of the top row, which as you can see I have not managed.

The plan for 2016 is therefore the same goal as last time ... complete the two top pages. 

2) Ember II by Maia. Complete this project ... COMPLETE!!!

Before:

May 2014

After:

April 2015

3) Yiota's Xstitch: Fields of Poppies. Complete one page ... COMPLETE!!!

Before:

January 2014

After:

April 2015

Seven more pages to go ... so I think I will set myself a target to stitch another one.

4) Literate Dragon HAED. Complete the bottom left page... COMPLETE!!!

Before:

April 2014

After:

December 2015

Guess what I think I will go for the top right this year ... that way we might finish this by 2017!

5) QS Poisonous Beauties (complete page 1) - not stitched. Ditto for 2016.

6) Harmony by Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe (goal complete) ... some progress made here, but not quite enough.

Before:

November 2014

After:

December 2015

Lets get this one complete in 2016!!!

7) Venice by Michael Powell (goal: complete the first triptych) ... again progress was made

Before:

December 2014

After:

December 2015

Ditto for 2016.

8) Spring bouquet by Margaret Sherry (goal: complete). Very small progress:

Before:

After:

Ditto for 2016.

9) I feel a bit light headed by Judy Rossouw (goal complete)... no stitching

10) unassigned as Xmas chums was scrapped.

11)  'Tending the Flock' (goal: complete 2 colours) ... no joy ...

12) Making Lickle Wishes (goal: 1 colour) ... ditto ...

13) Cabin Fever by Dimensions (goal complete the cabin) ... I think I stitched about 2 crosses before giving up.

14) John Clayton - Venice (goal complete) ... this is becoming slightly monotonous.

15) 'Picture of elegance' (goal complete) ... ditto

16) Good Heavens by Margaret Sherry (goal complete) ... finally I have some progress to share (and see how good my new camera is ... the fabric actually appears blue):

Before:

December 2013

After:

December 2015

I then scheduled some starts ... but what I started and what were schedule are slightly different.

Starts:

17) Iris by John Clayton (Connections)

December 2015

18) Autumn Glory by Snowflower Diaries

December 2015

19) Twilight & Magic by Suzanne Gyseman HAED 

December 2015

20) Sheep SAL (LHN designs) So far in this SAL I should have had 6 sheep ... instead I am slightly shy of 6 ...

But I have Gratitude complete!!!

December 2015

I will try to get Faith done shortly so that I am officially caught up...

December 2015

Now I feel fully ready for 2016! With 10 New Year resolutions set and stitching plans made I just now need extra hours in a day. (To see my 2016 stitchy goals check out the wipocalypse tab)

Till soon,

Stitch from Stash - August 2015 ...

Month: August 2015
Spent: £3.20
Earned: £0


Dear all,

I have been having quite a stressful time recently, so I am very sorry for disappearing for 3 weeks. I will try to be better ... even if it is just a quick update.

My family has decided to follow me and relocate down South ... so I went to visit them for 5 days to help pack up ... and let me tell you it was a task not for the light hearted. For the past month I have been trying to find a van(s) to transport everything across the country and it has been proving to be quite a task. I almost had a meltdown today after all the issues I so far had with quotes etc (too many to mention) I finally booked 2 vans and after paying a deposit and emailing the company got an automated response that they are on holiday until the 29th (the move is meant to happen on the 26th) ... but hold your fingers crossed for me.

What I actually bought recently:

Thread pack for the following HAED (+ 2 magazines) ... I already have the 2 magazines (world of cross stitching), but by accident I found an eBay listing for further 2 copies and all the threads needed. £3.20 it cost me (+£3.80 for postage and packaging) ... in the magazine they estimate that cost of threads and fabric would be around £100, so a great bargain. I wanted to stitch this picture for some time ... so perfect. The seller is charity orientated and 100% of sale proceeds go to Midlands Air Ambulance. Money well spent.

Some progress on a few stitchy things:

Venice

I am now a third way through page 4 of 6. So pretty good progress although backstitching will be a pain.

My new start (I only took my sheep when I went up North, but it was too dark to stitch it in the evening so I started a new project instead):

This is 'Iris' by John Clayton (Connections series). I have already completed 'Calla Lily' in the same style back in 2012 (click here). There are 8 flowers in total and one day I might be able to complete them all. I have kits for 2 further ones, and charts for the remainder 4. Charts are unfortunately for the blue background. 

Last night after all the stress of van hire I was planning on cross stitching. I thought I might start something new ... maybe the one above, or my Alice and Dodo ... but then the first has no fabric and in general I could not find my blue marker for gridding. 

Anyhow till soon ... I am off to go wash dolls hair (I brushed it all out 2 weekends ago and now its lying in a puff and needs a conditioning bath to make it smooth). It is bright red in colour, so quite something! Before I go do you want to see the last doll head I have bee working on? Well here it is:

hair colour - Merlot

The best one so far, even if I say so myself! She needs her hair slightly trimmed at the bottom which will be done once she gets a head!

Hopefully hair won't take too long and I can put a few hours of woking into my sheep. 

Till soon,

2 finishes already or Wipocalypse post #1

First of all I would like to say thank you for all the lovely comments, I will set aside some time next week for browsing all the blogs that were in the party. Unfortunately at the moment my poor old macbook is struggling and I have finally decided to give it in. I'll take it to see the computer doctor tomorrow and hopefully it will let me load up the blogs without having to restart it every 20 minutes. This post has caused me a restart already!

But onto less sad to my purse news ...

For the first check in I am well on track of my goals. Two finishes!


Goal #11: John Clayton: Big Ben. Stitched on 14 count using DMC threads. This piece almost drove me insane. Since of that silly error last year I had to unpick and eventually ran out of one of the colours ... right before the finish. Nonetheless it is done now:

December 2012

done!!!

This is the first in the Internationals series ... hope more are to follow.

Next up is a completion of goal #21 one of the set-aside for the cards. This is the free kit that came with the World of Cross Stitch issue 199. Stitched on 14 count aida and is The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady design of the sweet dog roses:

Done!!!

Done!!!

Then after all that I had a little spare time to work on the HAED SAL:

January 2013

This is goal #9 QS Literate Dragon. Even though the light is good the colours aren't very clear. I worked in black, 2 greens, 1 purple, quite a few shades of blue and now onto cocoa shade. 

And I had another card start (oh dear it is Christmas already!). This is Margaret Sherry's design ... and a free Xmas card kit that came with the Cross Stitch Crazy December 2012 issue 171:

January 2013

I better stop here before my computer starts complaining yet again. Though there is still so much to post ... there is there a few better photos of a finish I, a finish from last year I haven't uploaded yet, some other photos I wanted to share. So all this is yet to come. 

Till soon,

                   

Wipocalypse - December/Final post for 2012

December Update:

After the last update realisation hit me that there wasn't much chance of me being able to complete all set projects, so I set a mini goal to concentrate on completing Fizzy Moon and 1 page of my HAED for this year end. So...

A Fizzy Moon finish (which ended up being mums Christmas present ... so expect another pillow appearing on the blog soon):

September 2012

December 2012

HAED:
The latest page progress:

November 2012

December 2012

Overall progress:

November 2012

December 2012

I have even managed to start the next page.

Error corrections and unexpected stitching:

So then I had a little time to correct/start correcting a few errors I have clumsily made this year:

In Big Ben there should have not been any dark in the reflection ... silly me has mixed up symbols

May 2012

This error I have unpicked and corrected, then done some unexpected stitching:

December 2012

In Venice the events occurred the other way around. I have been working on it to discover that I did not account for the overlap of 10 squares in my gridding so there is a 10 square wide line down the centre where the 2 pages of design overlap.

August 2012 - part 1

December 2012 - extra stitching

December 2012 - extra stitching and the start of unpicking

Year Update

1) 'Handpicked by Fizzy [a new start and finish]:

Complete!!!

2) Country Trio [final of three start and finish]:

Complete!!!

3) Lickle Ted with a daffodil:

Started from:

And finished:

Complete!!!

4) Xmas Chums [a bit of failure this goal]:

So I have ended up with less than I begun with.

5) Good Heavens [failure as none done]:

6) Making Lickle Wishes: 

7) John Clayton: Big Ben [new start and ...]:

8) John Clayton: Venice [new start and ...]:

9) John Clayton: 'Calla Lily' [a new start and finish]:

Complete!!!

10) 'does my bum look big in this?' [from ... to finish]:

Complete!!!

11) Country Bouquet - The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady [completed]:

Complete!!!

12) The Snowman card [from ... to complete]:

Complete!!!

13) 'Meet Baby Newton' [from ... to a finish]:

Complete!!!

14) Fizzy Moon card kit [nothing done on]:

15) 'Tending the Flock' [same - shame]:

16) 'Picture of elegance' [and again ...]:

17) Dimensions kit [new start to ...]:

18) HAED [new start to ...]:

3 and a bit pages done

So a grande total of 8 complete. Next year although we are told to set the goals in the 1st check-in post I think I will do in advance hopefully before the year begins. This I think I will do by changing the Wipocalypse 2012 tab, and will have more SMART objectives (something I have learnt on my course). So I will update the sidebar links, and the tabs to reflect this update in the next few days. And now back to study.

Till soon,

                 
                                                       P.S. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!