"The time has come" the Walrus said "to speak of many things ..."
2014 will come to a close in two days time and so I felt this was a good opportunity to take a look back at the goals I set myself at the beginning of the year and see what I achieved and what remains on the To Do list. Apologies in advance - this is going to be very picture heavy.
The first goal was to start and complete a wedding present for one of my oldest friends. This piece was all ready to be framed when the wedding was called off two weeks beforehand. So I am counting this as a completed goal.
The second goal was to complete "April" by the second Thursday in August to hand over to V for her 70th birthday. This goal was also completed and I received a very nice thank you card from V afterwards.
Goal 3 was to start and complete "Corgi" by the second Thursday in September to hand over to I for her 80th birthday. This was a great success and she loved it. Major tick in the box!
My fourth goal was to complete "Guardian Angels" for my Mum by Christmas at the latest. This was an abject fail as I have not worked on this piece since about April. I will be carrying this one over into 2015.
Goal No. 5 was to complete at least one page on "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" and I am delighted to say that the last stitches were put into page 5 on 27 December 2014. So a happy dance for the end of the year! This piece is now going on hold for the time being.
My sixth goal was to complete the pages that I was stitching on "Train of Dreams". This was also an abject failure and will be carried over into 2015.
My final goal for 2014 was to stitch my annual Christmas ornaments for my two nieces. This goal was completed, but as I did the finishing on Christmas Eve at my parents' house and without my camera, I don't have a photo to show you yet. As soon as I can get one, I will put it in.
So 5 goals completed out of 7 - relatively good going, I think. However there were also the other achievements that weren't on the list of goals for 2014.
At the beginning of May, I learned to knit again, having knit briefly in my early teens. The results of this are as follows:
My scarf, known as "Learning Curve" which is made up of sections in 13 different stitch patterns.
Three sets of baby booties and mittens - two in yellow and one in blue - one for a work colleague, one for a former work colleague and one for my sister's work colleague. The set shown here were my first knitting finish after I started knitting again.
My first pair of hand knitted socks, courtesy of my sister and brother in law who gave me a sock knitting workshop as an early birthday present. They aren't perfect, but they fit and I have felt so chuffed with myself every time I put them on.
"Breeze", a lace edged headscarf knitted as a Christmas present for my oldest friend. In the beginning, there was much frogging and language, but eventually I got the hang of it and am very pleased with it. I'm hoping to get a picture of it in use to show you.
And finally I hit target at Slimming World - I won't say that I am currently right at target (blame it on Christmas), but I did get there!
So that is my goals for 2014 covered and the extras that came along during the year. What next?
Well, first comes Christmas. This is the crazy patchwork lap quilt that my Mum gave me for snuggling up under when I'm knitting or stitching on the sofa. My parents also gave me two pairs of sock blockers for drying my hand knitted socks on. My sister and brother in law gave me another workshop - this time to learn how to knit socks from the toe up. Most everything else was non-craft related.
And finally my current WIPs:
As you will appreciate, the Christmas festivities have cut into my quiet time so on the sock front, I have managed to complete the ribbed cuff section and move onto the leg.
In the case of my cabled handwarmers, I only managed to finish the ribbed cuff section. Although I can knit stocking stitch in the round while my family play Scrabble right next to me, I am not yet up to knitting cables in company :-)
So that is 2014 for you. I have already started mentally planning my list for 2015, but that is for my next post. I am back to work tomorrow, so will call it a day.
I wish you and yours all the very best for the coming year. May 2015 bring you all that your heart desires, and may the frog stay away from your needles!
So will someone please tell me where April went? Is it me, or is 2014 passing by at a rate of knots?
Anyway, it is time for my next progress report on my goals for the year, so here goes:
1. Wedding
Can someone please advise on what to do with a wedding sampler when the bride texts you two weeks before the wedding to say that it is all off? I don't know the details, all I know is that it is off. So what do I do with Wedding, which I haven't got round to framing yet? Have any of you found yourself in this particular position? If so, what did you do?
2. April
As per my earlier post this month, April is finished. Now I need to sit down and sort out how I am going to turn this into a 12 inch square hanging. I'm very pleased with it, although the design is not my personal cup of tea. I would like to get this finish finished by the end of May.
3. Corgi
Well, I definitely reached my goal for April on this one. I had my page finish on Monday 28 April - a day in which I put in over 3.5 hours on this piece dealing with all the confetti on page 1 and making a start on page 2. Since then, I have continued to put in a lot of time on this piece and you can now see the shape of the corgi's second ear coming in. I would like to have another page finish by the end of May, but we will see.
4. Guardian Angels
Abject apologies - nothing more to show on this one. Unfortunately I haven't touched it since January as far as I can see from my stitching journal. So the goal for May is to get some stitches done on this piece.
5. Carnation
This is last week's photo as I have been too busy with Corgi this week. However I did complete my 6 blocks for April so I am still on target for a page finish at the end of the year. The goal for May is another 6 blocks.
6. Train of Dreams
Unfortunately I have fallen behind on Train of Dreams. I only managed to stitch 4 blocks out of the required 6 for the month, so am 2 blocks in arrears. However I have already done my first block for May, so would hope to pull back at least one block this month. That makes the goal for May 7 blocks in total.
7. Christmas ornaments
Still far too early to think about these.
In other news, Mum's hip replacement operation has been brought forward a week because the surgeon got his dates wrong. She is now slightly stressed because she has a week less to get everything sorted in. I have nothing to report on my weight loss because I didn't go to Slimming World this week. I forgot to take my book/card to work so that I could go and get weighed straight afterwards, and as I was expecting a friend for coffee that evening, I decided to take it as holiday. Just have to wait and see what the scales say this week.
Anyway, it's Bank Holiday weekend, the sun has been shining and I actually sat outdoors this afternoon without my jacket on and had a cup of tea with my parents. Things are definitely looking up on the whole, and on that cheery note I will wish you and yours all the best for a lovely week, and may the frog steer well clear of your stitching.
For a change I am actually posting on the night of the full moon, which I have just seen hanging big and bright in the night sky as I pulled the curtains. The main reason for this is that I have been away for a few days without any internet access. As a result I am slightly off schedule and unfortunately do not have a lot of stitching to show.
I have made progress on Wedding to the extent that I have now been out and bought a frame for it. Now I just need to wash it, press it and get it framed.
I still need to stitch the lettering on April and would like to get that done over the fast approaching Easter break.
Corgi came away with me and I did manage to get a bit done off and on, in addition to what I stitched at Patchwork Group because the future owner wasn't there. He now has an ear (or most of one) and looks more like a dog than before.
What with going away and getting ready to go away, I only managed to get one block done on Carnation this week, but that was better than nothing at all, which was the case with Angelique and Train of Dreams.
I do however have some stash to show you. I was bidding for something non-cross stitch related on Ebay, and ended up bidding not only for that, but also for a lot of other things. What you can see there is Lavender & Lace's Celtic Autumn, Chatelaine's Mini Mandalas II, Taj Mahal Mandala Garden and Indian Summer Reflections. There is also a thread catcher from Beadin'handy and a tacky bead mat (not Ebay). I also won a number of vintage Cross Stitch Gold magazines, and am now determined to steer clear of Ebay for some little while.
While I'm talking about stash, this month's WIPocalypse question was how we keep our stash organised. I think that the correct answer in my case is not very well. I have one large six drawer cabinet and two small three drawer cabinets that I keep my DMC threads in - colour co-ordinated. I have one 30 litre plastic box that I keep fabric in and one 30 litre plastic box that I keep charts and cover kits in. I also have I don't know how many cross stitch magazines, some in those cardboard magazine holders and others in stacks on the floor. My spare frames live in the gap between the end of the settee and the radiator, and the other end of the settee to the one I sit on houses projects not currently being worked on and miscellaneous gubbins. It all needs sorting - what I am short of is the time to do it in.
In other news, I put on 1.5lb last week, mainly due to an attack of the Black Dog, so was back to 11 stone 6lb. Unfortunately going away for the weekend has probably not helped matters as I was staying at a hotel with all meals provided. I will just have to get back on the wagon and start losing again.
As I am still catching up on my sleep, I will wish you and yours a very happy Easter and may the frog stay away from your stitching.
I must say that I do like IHSW and WIPocalypse weeks - they save me from having to think up a catchy title for my blog posts. I will also say that I love, love, love my cordless mouse - I'm no longer putting off going on the computer just because I can't bear the thought of fighting with the mouse for ages in order to get anything done.
Anyway, how are you all? The weather is still acting abnormally, but I am feeling better than I was. I went out for a meal with friends on Wednesday - we talked mostly about my friend's wedding, the music to be played at the reception, her fiance's house that she is going to be moving into, but other things as well. The food was tasty, the company was great and we had a very good night out. I'm out again this week with other friends - we won't be talking weddings, but it should be a good night out.
Moving on to the stitching side of things, it didn't quite go according to plan this week, but never mind.
First up, Wedding. The big motif is now complete, and I just need to add the initials and the date. This piece will take priority this coming week in the hope of getting it done by the end of the month.
Next up, April. The left hand angel is completely finished and work has started on the right hand angel. I'm feeling good about this piece - I just need to be clear in my head about the placing and type of lettering.
Especially for Leonore at Needle, Pen & Sword, here is a close up of the completed left hand angel, back stitch and all.
In third place, we have Corgi. That is his nose that you can see there. This is all whole stitches and no blended threads. The current plan is to work up to the top left and then across to the right, completing the top half before moving on to the lower section.
No. 4 is Carnation. Two blocks this week so row 12 is now halfway complete. Gridding this piece with water soluble marker pen took me about two hours when I first started it. When it is finally finished, I will pop it in a pillow case and put it through the wash on a low temperature, which will deal with any lingering blue marks.
Last but not least, Train of Dreams. Just one block this week, but any progress is good. Once I get the deadline pieces out of the way, I'm not going to start anything new. I am just going to concentrate on this and on Carnation in order to get the current pages finished.
However Aimee Stewart does have a new HAED design out - this is World Traveller Bookshelf in the large version. But I have to be sensible - I have too much on my plate at the moment.
So moving on, I put on 1.5lb this week, so back to 11 stone, 7.5lb. I'm not too bothered - it went on easily, it'll come off again.
I'm not setting myself any stitching goals for the coming week, apart from working on Wedding. I have littlest niece coming for her first sleepover next weekend - arriving Saturday morning, going home Sunday. This means some forward planning and unfortunately some housework - although I did hoover the visible bits this week :-) I'm thinking lunch out and The Lego Movie in the first instance. Wish me luck.
Big Zen hugs to you all, and may the frog stay away from your stitching.
Somebody please explain to me how we come to be half way through February already? And when is the weather going to pick up? All it does is rain, and then sometimes it blows a gale (either with rain or without). I want some sunshine, and I want it soon!!! I know that I am very lucky to be living in an area of the UK without flooding, and neither do we have the seeming endless snow that they are getting in parts of the US, but this constant blurgh weather is dragging me down.
On the brighter side of things, I went out today and bought a wireless mouse for my computer. The old mouse was driving me mad - it wasn't responding properly and it took ages to get the pointer where I wanted it. New mouse is just wonderful - super responsive - and now I can fall in love with my computer again and get caught up on all the things that had fallen by the wayside because I didn't want to fight with my mouse.
Moving on to stitching, Measi's discussion topic for this WIPocalypse is as follows:
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!
At the moment, I have 7 projects on the go. Of these, 4 are for other people and have deadlines attached. Two are for me and are both BAPs. No. 7 is a cover kit which only gets worked on at times and in places where none of the others are appropriate. To be honest, at the moment I don't feel comfortable with this many projects - 3 or 4 would be fine, but needs must. I suppose I do work in a sort of rotation. I have set times for certain projects, even if I don't always work on them at that time. Weekday early mornings before work are currently for April, lunchtimes for Wedding and evenings for Carnation. Saturdays should be for Guardian Angels and Sunday mornings for Train. Where Corgi is going to fit in, I am not sure - probably weekday lunchtimes once Wedding is finished.
Now for a quick run down on the week's stitching:
Wedding is coming along. I still aim to have it finished by the end of this month. Once I have the heart finished, I just need to do the initials and the date. Then I need to find a suitable frame and finish it off.
April is also making good progress. The left hand angel is now complete, bar the back stitching which I intend to do this week. I will then move on to the right hand angel, but I still need to decide on the font for the lettering in the middle. It will be interesting to see the effect of the back stitch - it lifted the bottom section so much that I am expecting great things of the angel.
This is my new start - "Corgi" by Yiota's X-Stitch. This has to be completed by September for an 80th birthday. The blue streak is where the water soluble marking pen got on my finger without my noticing and then got on the fabric. At this point, I had marked everything up and couldn't be bothered to wash it out and start again. It will be dealt with when the piece is finished. I am stitching on 16 count white aida in order to fit the piece into a 12 inch square block.
Finally, Carnation - just one block this week as I was out three nights and had an early night Friday in preparation for a long drive on Saturday. I hope to do better in the coming week when I should have more time in the evenings.
On the weight loss front, I have lost another lb, taking me down to 11 stone 6lb. However the extra weight would have come in handy on Saturday morning when I was driving to Telford in very windy conditions. I went to a family history seminar entitled "The Next Generation", where all the speakers were under 40 and talked about their research, their use of technology and other resources, and preserving their work for the future. It was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now that I have a properly working mouse, I can get back to my own research.
Monday is something else that comes round too soon, so I need to go take the seminar stuff out of my bag and put my work stuff back in. All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay away from your stitching!
I am so fed up with this weather, and am mortally grateful that I don't live in the West Country or the Thames Valley. My deepest sympathies are with those who do and who are currently in difficulties. Here the sun only seems to shine briefly and mainly during those hours that I am stuck at work. I am so looking forward to the days when the sun will still be out when I leave the office.
On the stitching front, it has been a bit of a Yeah, but, no, but week.
I got my wedding invitation today, so the deadline date is now firmly fixed in my mind. As you can see, the right hand side is finished and I have started on the left hand side. I'm enjoying stitching this - the only issue is making sure that there is no show-through from the back. Every motif is being stitched separately in the hope of avoiding this.
Moving on to April, the left hand angel is complete except for her wings and the back stitch. I am pleased with my progress on this piece - if all goes to plan, this angel should be finished before the end of the month.
Just a little close-up for you.
Another two blocks completed on Carnation - so that's a row finish to report as well. Although I'm not exactly motoring with this one, I am pleased with the progress that I'm making when you take into account the deadline pieces that I have to get done.
The No, but pieces this week are Angelique and Train. Angelique fell by the wayside because I spent a lot longer shopping in town yesterday than I had originally planned. Train missed out because I spent this morning chucking stuff out of my bathroom cabinet and kitchen cupboards, dealing with my backlog of recycling, scrubbing the loo and starting to deal with the mountains of paperwork in my lounge. However I feel better for having done it and made some space. Although my youngest niece has demanded that I leave her some dust for her to deal with when she comes for her sleepover next month!
On the weight loss front, I lost 1lb this week, so that's the 0.5lb that I put on last week plus another one. I am now down to 11 stone 7lb, which is the lowest I've been since I started this journey at the end of last May. I was going to reward myself with a cordless mouse for my computer as the one I have is driving me mad. Unfortunately the cheapy cordless mouse that I bought yesterday doesn't want to work and will have to go back to the shop. Maybe some fabric and threads will be more reliable :-)
Next week is going to be a busy week with limited stitching time, but I hope to make some visible progress. All the best to you and yours, and may the frog steer well clear of your stitching.
So here we are at the beginning of February, so I think that a quick run-through the progress so far on my 2014 goals is an appropriate theme for this post.
1. Start and complete wedding present for my friend:
Certainly I can tick off the started part of this goal. Wedding is coming on nicely - I need to finish this bird and the branch it is standing on, stitch the mirror image on the other side, and then the initials and date underneath. Although February is a short month, if I put my mind to it, the stitching could possibly be done by the end of the month. Then I need to think about framing it.
2. Complete 'April' by August:
The angel is slowly appearing out of the fabric. I have done my calculations and there is about 8.5 hours work there. I'm not sure whether that amounts to slow stitching or a normal speed. I need to finish the rest of the angel's body, the flower in the flower pot, her head and her wings. Then do it all again on the other side and add the word 'April' between them. I would like to get this angel finished and the other one started by the end of the month.
3. Start and complete 'Corgi' by September:
Still nothing to show on this one. I have the chart, but am trying to decide on the font for the lettering of 'November' which will run down one side. Once the lettering is sorted, I can measure and cut the fabric, and get started. I hope to have something to show on this before next month.
4. Complete Guardian Angels by Christmas at the latest:
If you think that this photo looks familiar, that is because it is. There has been no progress on this piece in the last couple of weeks. However I am hoping that the gradual return of the sun will help me to get a grip on myself and move forward on this.
5. Complete at least one page on 'Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose':
I managed to complete two blocks on Carnation this week, which means that there is one block left to complete the first row of page 5. Also there has been so much overlap into the next row down that I should be able to get through that one reasonably quickly. I would like to be stitching on row 3 by the end of the month.
6. Complete current pages of 'Train of Dreams':
As with Carnation, I managed two blocks on Train this week which is a definite improvement. Once this column is completed, I will feel that I am over the halfway line (even though in reality I am already there, thanks to the section at the top right). However, having four columns complete out of the eight will be a boost. By the end of February, I want to be well into column 5.
7. Christmas ornaments for my nieces:
Not even thinking about thinking about this goal yet. Far too early!
In other news, I only put on 0.5lb during my two weeks without a weigh-in. When you consider that during those two weeks, I had lunch out in a Thai restaurant, a Greek tapas leaving do followed by cocktails, leaving cakes, and a large chips, fishcake and beans (caused by the depressingly horrible weather) in addition to my normal diet, then I feel that 0.5lb is perfectly acceptable.
I have made a small in-road into the tidying up, but there is plenty more to be done before littlest niece comes for her sleepover.
Before I call it a night, I just want to thank my followers and anyone else who comments on this blog. It makes a big difference to know that other people who know what is what (and don't go on about 'Oh, I don't know how you have the patience'!) like my work. The other thing that I need to do this month is leave more comments on other people's blogs.
Big Zen hugs to you and yours, and may the frog stay away from your stitching!
Well, this week has been a bit like the curate's egg - good in parts! My stitching time has been limited - firstly by three mostly enjoyable nights out and secondly by a black dog weekend. However I do still have some photos to show you.
The Patchwork Group had a sewing day on Friday and I took the opportunity to make a new start. What you see will eventually be a wedding present for my friend who is getting married in May this year. The chart comes from issue 201 of World of Cross Stitching and is a heart shape made up of various relevant motifs. I have changed the floss colour from DMC 498 to DMC 817, which I felt was more appropriate. Under the heart I will be stitching the happy couple's initials and the date of the wedding. I will be referring to this piece as Wedding from now on in.
Next up is April, where I have finished the blue of the skirt and made good progress on the angel's apron. I still have to add the trowel handle or what ever it is and a bit more apron before moving on to her arm.
Finally I have one more block complete on Carnation. This piece suffered from an active social life this week, so I only got in a couple of hours on this one.
As I wrote above, this has been a black dog weekend. I have been feeling tired and lacking in mojo, and the weather has been vile. When you have to pull the curtains at 2.30pm because of the impending thunderstorm, it's bound to bring you down. So I have done no stitching at all since Friday - Train and Angelique have seen no progress at all. I have managed to do essentials like shopping, laundry and reading, but nothing else of note.
I also have no progress to report on the weight loss front because I went on a work colleague's leaving do (Greek tapas followed by cocktails) instead of going to Slimming World. Now I just have to concentrate on eating properly this week in the hope of making up for last week. I also have no evenings out (except my regular Pilates class) to come between me and my needle.
All the best to you and yours, and may the frog stay away from your stitching!
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