Progress On my Current Roll Over Project

 I continue to work on America by Blackbird Design. My plan was to be done by the end of April 2022 but given what I have going on the next few days I probably will not make it. However,  since I posted a status picture last week I have made substantial progress.  by stitching almost 1800 stitches. I still have 908 stitches to complete according to Pattern Keeper. With it being finals week and a lot of end of term wrap up to accomplish Ill be happy if I complete 400 stitches by end of day Saturday. Of course that means I will get a wonderful project finish the first week in May. 

                         Here is where I am as of this morning. 

My second Roll Over Finish

 

What is a Roll Over you might ask? For me roll over WIPs are those projects I started before January 1, 2022 and have carried into 2022 to be completed or worked on.  So far I have only completed two of those WIPs. The Winter Cardinal Etching was the first and in February I completed a trio of Fraktur Birds by Lila's Studio. 

I love the vibrant colors of these beautiful fraktur birds. I plan to add the initials of my daughter's MIL and FIL to the ones on the ends and the initials of their two sons to the center one. Both boys were born and raised in Pennsylvania and the whole family still  lives there. Since fraktur is an artistic folk art created by the Pennsylvania Dutch this should be a representative piece of Americana to add to their home. 

My First Finish of 2022

 

 Dear Friends,

Like many other stitchers I am attracted to new designs  almost daily. Many of the projects I am attracted to are larger which has resulted in my WIP pile growing each year. I started 2022 with 23 cross stitch WIPs of the following sizes; 

• 2 smalls 
• 5 medium
• 13 large 
• 3 BAPs 
  
  The size is calculated by adding the number of stiches in the width and length of the design and dividing it by two. This method to categorize by size was defined by the administrators of the No New Starts Facebook Group.
• small < 100
• medium 100 - 150
•  large 150 -  250 
• BAPS > 250
  
  Since most of my projects are large or BAPS I don't finish many  projects.  My plan this year is to finish my 2 small projects, 2 medium projects, and 6 of the large projects.  Below is my first finish of the year, The Winter Cardinal Etching from the Winter 2020 PNPS magazine. It was a joy to stitch and was framed and given to my husband for Valentine's Day as a remembrance of his mother who loved cardinals. 

What am I working on now...

If you look at my finished projects list for this year you can see that I have been busy this year. Of the seven completed projects six are smalls and five were started and finished (SAF) this year. Therefore the impact on the WIPs I rolled into this year has thus far been minor, a mere 6.25%  reduction  in the number of WIPs. My cross stitch WIPs are down from 23 to 21 and I still have 9 needlepoint WIPs.

So that brings us to the question of what  am I working on now? 

I decided in February to stop rotating my WIPs. Instead I am working on one WIP at a time until it is completed.  This month I am working on America by Blackbird Designs. It is 70% completed and I plan to finish it during the first week of May. Here is what it looks like today. I am stitching it on Picture This Plus 32 count Lugana in the Heroic colorway with the called for DMC floss. 

2022 A New Stitching Journey

I’ve never been good at journal writing but I will continue to try and improve. I love needlework and would like to leave a record of my needlework journey; the challenges, the successes, the failures. I started 2021 40 WIPs; 10 needlepoint and 30 cross stitch. My year participating in No New Starts for cross stitch was a success. I was allowed 1 new start which I used for a class called Lady Washington which was postponed from 2020 to May of 2021. As other forms of needlework were not part of NNS 2021 I was also able to take a class on Rozashi. Both classes were through the Mid- Eastern Region of EGA. I started no other new projects during 2021.  Focusing a majority of my stitching time on my existing WIPs resulted in my finishing the Rozashi project, 1 needlepoint project, and 9 cross stitch projects. My plans for 2022 include participating in  No New Starts 2022, which includes a cross country road trip challenge to help us complete lots of stitches. My goals for 2022 include finishing 9 cross stitch WIPs and 1 needlepoint WIP. I look forward to seeing how much I can accomplish this year both in completed projects and number of stitches. In my next post I will start sharing my 2021 finished projects. May your stitching journey be your haven of comfort and peace. 

Starting to Post Again

 It has been quite a while since I have recorded my needlework journey on this page. I have been busy starting more projects than I finished over the last couple of years resulting in the 40 WIPs you see listed in the right hand border. The number of WIPs has become overwhelming to me so I made the choice to join the No New Starts 2021 Facebook Group at the beginning of this year. So far, except for a project that was part of an EGA Mid-Eastern Region class, that was postponed from 2020 to May of 2021 I have started no new projects this year.  Focusing all my stitiching on my WIPs has resulted in my finishing 5 projects so far this year. One of my most recent finishes is The Winter is Past by BBD.  I stitched it 2 over 2 on 36 count linen by Picture This Plus in the Tycho colorway  and the called for floss.  My plan is to continue this No New Starts Journey for the remainder of 2021 and perhaps through 2022.  I look forward to seeing how many projects I can complete this year using this focused approach. 

Day 3 of Maynia 2020

Today was a relaxed day. My husband sat in his car in a long line to buy me my coveted Latte from Starbucks. It is the first one I have had in at least three weeks and I treasured every sip. I watched a great many flosstube episodes and did very little stitiching.

However I celebrated the day with a new start; Noel by Michelle Bendy.  While using the called for DMC floss I am rearranging the design a bit and modifying the year from 19 to 2020 . I will use the letters for Noel as Michelle designed them but they will all be across the top instead of two letters on either side of the cup. The fabric I am using is a 6" X 6 " square of 28 count Permin Linen in Silver Blue. This picture reflects the actual color very well. I purchased this fabric years ago from Silkweavers before Needleworkers Delight bought the company. Silkweavers would sell what they called ornament cuts. They would sell  correctly sized fabrics required for the designs in the annual Just Cross Stitch Ornament magazine. This was one I never used.
Here is my progress.