Monday Update / January WIPocalypse

I'm going to squeeze my Monday update in with my January WIPocalypse. WIPocalypse is a fun blog SAL where we have one simple goal....to complete all our WIPs before the end of the world. Okay not so easy when you are like me and start all the things haha. Those wonderful designers need to just stop designing then I might just might catch up sometime in 300 years. So I like to use this SAL as an excuse to keep track of what I've been working on. Then I look back and show my before and after progress each month with what I've worked on since the last WIPocalypse post. Head over to Measi's check in post to see what else people have been working on.

The last WIPocalypse was just an intro post. So let's look back to the beginning of the year to see what I've been working on so far this year.

Lili of the Valley Fairies -- 5 Days. Started and Finished the January fairy...

Merry Noel from Hinzeit -- 2 Days. Finished up this cutie...

99 Bottles of Beer from Ink Circles -- 2 Days. I have a goal this year of adding 4 bottles a month to finish this one in 2020. January's 4 bottles finished off the 5th shelf...

Winter Time from New York Dreamer -- 3 Days. I had 4 Days into this one before the start of January. Here it was before...

Here it is now after Day 7...

Stitcher's Code SAL a Stitchingly SAL -- 5 Days. Started and finished part 4 of this fun SAL...

Homely Houseplants -- 2 Days. Got my fabric ready for the upcoming SAL from Stitchonomy...

Beer Dragon from Paine Free Crafts -- 5 Days. Put in 800 stitches this time around. Here it was before this time...

I finished off the column with the 800 stitches...

Boba Fett from Valenti Cross Stitch -- 2 Days. Put in 6 hours and 16 minutes this month. I had 2 days of progress before January...

Now I have the 1st page finished after Day 4...

Over the weekend I had a marathon and made progress on 12 other projects but I've already posted about them on the posts before this. If interested please look at those posts.

I've stitched every day this month! I'm very happy about that. I have said it a million times but I love these lazy winter months.

Measi asked us about the SALs we are participating and I already shared them in my Welcome WIPocalypse post.

So I've shared with you my week last week for my Monday update too mixed in. Monday and Tuesday I worked on Beer Dragon and finished up the last 400 stitches in the column I was working on. The rest of Tuesday and Wednesday I worked on Boba and finished up the first page. Thursday I worked on Winter Time. You've already seen my weekend insanity. What a fun time. Now back to regularly scheduled stitching. I want to work on my last 3 acrostic pieces this week.

Saturday is the first of February and all kinds of stitching fun is starting. Homely Houseplants we get the first plant. #ILovetoStitch challenge starts. Plus I will start my February Fairy.

Have a great week! If you are here only for the WIPocalypse see ya next post February 29th.

FFG - January

Today is the 10th of the month which means it's time for a Fully Finished Gallery post. Rachel has given us the perfect push to finish off our stitching so it can displayed like it deserves to be. I sure needed it. I have a bin full of old pieces that need finished. I call it the box of shame. Those lovely pieces don't deserve to be in there at all. So watch those counters on my right side. I plan to do better on those!

Head over to Rachel's check in post to see what lovelies have been finished this month.

Let's look back and see what I've finished off since the last check in post.

December 20th Snowflake SAL from Stitchonomy was finished. I did my first hoop finish...

I also finished the December Lizzie Kate on the 20th...

January 4th I went to my LNS and picked up some framing...

These are Box of Shame finishes. The top ones are Pine Mountain Snapshots 7 were stitched in 2017. 5 were stitched in 2018. You are Loved was finished in 2018. Ocean in  a Bottle was finished in 2019. So 14 total Box of Shame pieces finished off!!!

Yesterday I pulled out all my sewing stuff again finally. First I had way too much fun organizing. Got my fabrics all into sections so it's easier to find what I need. Christmas in one pile. Halloween in another. Now of course I want to go shopping. Spreading it out makes you realize it's not as much as you thought you had haha. Anyway after playing with everything I did have some more finishes...

January Fairy was first up...

The fabric under her is what's on the back. I thought the snowflake fabric was perfect for the back of her. Next up was Merry Noel...

Rachel sent me this gorgeous fabric in my 40th birthday present last May. I love it. I think it was the perfect fit for the back of this one. Both this and the fairy are new finishes for 2020.

Last up was a fun finish on a piece from 2017. Harvest Garden Mill Hill...

I bought this wooden pumpkin at AC Moore when we were traveling. I painted it. Glued the Harvest Garden on and some fun things around it. I just LOVE how it turned out. Fall button pack, 3 burlap flowers, and 2 gorgeous resin flowers.

So a whopping 19 finishes to report this month. I'm beyond happy. Rachel I told you that you would be proud of me.

So let's count them all up now because of this SAL...

2019 I reported 41 finishes

Jan -- 19 more

Total of 60!!!

Awesome! Now to keep adding to it. I plan to finish off the fairy each month and at least 1 piece from my Box of Shame. Here's hoping I can stick with it.

Finish and WIPGO

I just had to stop back in today with another finish to share...

Love Bits: Merry Noel from Hinzeit
 Stitched on 28ct Cream Lugana
Threads are Suggested DMC
Started Jun 23rd for the Longest Day Marathon
Took 3 Days Total 5 Hours 52 Minutes

My 2nd finish for the year. What a fun little piece. Love that charm. Now I can mark off a piece from my WIP list and an acrostic letter. 

I also just discovered another fun Facebook/Instagram/Blog/Floss Tube Event. It's called WIPGO. It's basically a bingo card filled with your WIPs. Each month the owner of the Facebook group picks two numbers. You work on the WIPs in those boxes. You set your own rewards for when/if you hit a Bingo. At the end of the year if you complete them all you will have a full card so should pick a bigger reward for that. So as we all know I love joining things and I love motivation so I decided to join in. Go here for the Facebook group. I've heard it's big on Floss Tube right now as well. I don't know if it's available via just email or not. Probably. I would assume you can just make your own bingo board and follow along. I downloaded one available on the Facebook group and got busy filling it out. Here is what I came up with for the challenge...

So let's look at what I'm planning. As you can hopefully see. Each row has Beer Dragon or Dragon Eye in it. 200 stitches required on each one to count that block filled in. I've put 4 small Mill Hill kits on there. The 6 part Stitcher's Code SAL I put 5 on there because I knew I was planning on doing one part this month already. Then I filled the rest with old WIPs that deserve attention. Minimum 2 hours of progress to call that square finished. I left off the Free spot. So whatever month she picks the middle spot I'll have 3 focus pieces instead of just 2. January # 6 and 12 were called. So you go across from top left to right then down next row left to right. So Merry Noel was block 6 and Beer Dragon is block 12. I finished Merry Noel last night so I was able to fill that block in already. 

My reward for Bingo was hard to decide. But last night I finally remembered I have fallen in love with the Mini Patterns that Frosted Pumpkin has available on her website. So when I get a bingo Jeremiah is going to pick a mini pattern as a reward. Then if I fill the whole card I want the Hello Seasons! Bundle set. 

So we'll see what I can accomplish with that. Looks fun and is extra motivation for stitching and progress which is always nice. 

Fred picked the next choice from my acrostic list and just happened to pick 99. So I will be finishing up my 4 bottles for the month next.

Monday Update

I have a lot to share so pull up a chair and let's go.

Saturday I picked up my framing. Are you ready for these beautiful pieces?!?!

First up is the Pine Mountain Snapshots. I did these monthly in 2017. I wasn't able to finish them that year and got a few finished up in 2018. I got them all stretched and my framer made a frame to pop them in and out each month. I need to go back now and update my Box of Shame finishes because these 12 are in that count.

Next up is Ocean in a Bottle from 2019. So happy this one can finally be on display. Now to find the right spot to hang it.

Last is You are Loved from 2018. This was designed by Hinzeit and hubby got it for me for a Christmas gift. I think it will go to the cabin to be displayed. The frame is a light green and I really love how it pulls the green out of the design.

I love the way each one turned out. Professional framing is something I get for special pieces that really deserve that extra touch. I'm so thankful to have these framed and ready to be displayed. I'm lucky to have a LNS (local needlework store) that does framing and their prices are fantastic.

Two more things to share. Sunday I had my first finish of 2020...

This marks off I for the Year Long Alphabet challenge because January is Ice Cold or maybe there's Ice in her drink haha. Also marks off ! on the monthly acrostic because I was really really looking forward to working on this one.

She took me 11 hours and 56 minutes total. I'm happy with that time for these adorable fairies. Again I'm stitching them on 32ct Lambswool Evenweave Suggested DMC 2 threads over 2.

Sunday I also pulled out another piece from my acrostic. My cute random number generator or AKA Jeremiah picked a number which represented Merry Noel. I started this Hinzeit last year for the Longest Day Marathon...

I had set the goal of finishing the top Merry part before putting it aside. Here it is now after last night's work on it...

I hope everyone has a great week.

Day 2 of Longest Hermit Weekend Marathon

Another wonderful day full of stitching yesterday. I did some other things mixed in so I noticed a little less time spent but that's okay. Let's see what I worked on...

Mom was first to pick and she picked Wish Upon a Starfish. I started working on it at 10:30am. Goal was to work on it for 1 hour. Finished 11:30...

2nd Jeremiah picked 99 Bottles of Beer. Fred will be happy to see this one out again. Looks like it hasn't been out since 2015! I had 45 bottles stitched...

Told Jeremiah to pick a number 1 to 4. He picked 4 since he's a slave driver. Started at 1:15pm since we stopped for a lunch break. 2:35pm I finished the first bottle and admitted my first fail. I wasn't going to stick with it to do all 4. It would have took way too long from my marathon. So we all agreed I could stop after finished up the first one...

Even though those bottles are little there are a lot of color changes. I forgot that.

3rd Mom picked 4 Seasons by Erica Michaels...

Goal for this one was pretty easy to pick out. Finish filling in the background of Winter. Started 2:50pm finished 3:35pm...

Next Jeremiah's pick was Merry Noel by Hinzeit a new start. I set the goal of finishing Merry and the background behind it...

I was really excited to start this one. But I noticed I was getting a little sidetracked. Fred talked to me for a bit. He's having a really great time at his radio event. I started this one at 3:50pm. I think I stopped at 4:30pm to get dinner started and do some other stuff. Got back to it 6:35. Finished my goal 8:05. Another one that was hard to put down. Won't take much at all to finish this one quickly. It's so small...

Mom picked Park it Here a cute beach chair from Noteworthy Needle...

Goal was to finish the shell stitch along the right side of the design. Then I just need to do a nun stitch around the edge and put it together. Love this thread. It's called Confetti. Started 8:30 Finished 8:55...

Last one for the day was picked by Jeremiah Salt Water Taffy. A piece I just LOVE working on. Love the bright colors. Here it was before...

Goal was to finish the mast and the small section to the left of the mast. This goal was hard to set. I wanted to do a lot lot more haha. Started 9:20pm Finished 10:45pm...

Another one I really wanted to just keep going on haha.

So 6 more projects for a total of 12 now. Love it!!! Mom keeps trying to cheat because there are a few she really wants me to work on haha.

 

I watched 11 shows today. Finished Riverdale on CW and started SWAT on CBS.

Back at it today. Fred will be home sometime this afternoon. We have a wrestling pay per view to watch tonight. So should be another great stitching day. See ya tomorrow with my wrap up post.