Oops, I totally forgot to post my July WIPocalypse update. Time for a quick catch-up before the August WIPocalypse is due!!

While I’ve been really busy stitching during the month, there hasn’t been a great deal of progress done on my actual WIPs, so not too much to share.  I managed a bunch of canvaswork new starts (and finishes) during the last month (see my previous blog post), and a bunch of crochet (my latest learning craze) … cross-stitch, sadly, has been taking a bit of a back seat.

I did, however, manage to do a wee bit more work on Quaker Diamonds … enough to complete the entire bottom section of the chart, and managing to tick one more item off on my goals list for the year, woohoo! This is how it looked at the end of my last WIPocalypse post:

And how it looked at the end of June:

After I finished the bottom section, I moved on to spend a few hours on Mill Hill’s Three Kings.  Not a lot of progress was done, because it’s difficult to stitch at night, but it’s getting closer and closer to finishing off the middle king, and getting ready to do some beading very very soon.

How it looked when I started:

And how it looks now:

Now on to the monthly question, and review of the year’s goal progress to date – it’s been fun ticking a few items off the list finally. I can’t see me reaching many of these goals by the end of the year, but I’ve made more progress this year on goals that I ever have I think … it’s been fun!

Half-year recap: How are you doing with your goals so far this year?

Cross stitch and embroidery

1. √ Starfish by Mill Hill – DONE √
2. √ Red by Mirabilia (in a blue conversion) – DONE √
3. √ Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor – 20 hours (ie two rotation slots) or two larger motifs completed – DONE √
4. Red Lace Sewing Case by The Drawn Thread (X not touched yet)
5. Egyptian Garden Mandala by Chatelaine (X not touched yet)
6. Quaker Christmas II by ByGone Stitches (X not touched yet)
7. When Witches Go Riding by The Prairie Schooler (X not touched yet)
8. Three Kings by Mill Hill/Jim Shore – finish two of the three kings in the centre (X in progress)
9. Progress on three other UFOs/WIPs, yet to be decided (X not touched yet)

Other needlework WIPs:

1. √ Flight of the Bumblebees by Ruth Schmuff – DONE √
2. Hearts & Berries by Marg Low (X not touched yet)
3. Make a Christmas Wish by Marg Low (X not touched yet)
4. Travel Cord Buddy by Michelle Marvig (X not touched yet)
5. Stumpwork (X not touched yet)

New starts:

1. √ Start (and hopefully finish) at least two canvaswork projects – DONE √: 1) Earth Spirit by Northern Pine Designs; 2) Holiday Square by Laura J Perin
2. Start a new HAED (X not touched yet)
3. Choose a project (or two) that has specialty stitches – eg hardanger, band sampler (X in progress)

Crochet

My goals here are much loftier than the cross stitch goals – but probably important to keep the impetus up while I’m learning so that the lessons I learn are more ingrained into my brain cells!

1. √ Finish my striped blanket – DONE √
2. Make at least one (hopefully different) granny square or other blanket square every week (X not touched yet – will not complete)
3. √ Complete at least three months crochet projects from “Crate Crochet” – DONE √
4. √ Make a coffee cup cuff – DONE √
5. Small granny square pincushion (X not touched yet)
6. Make a shawl (X not touched yet)
7. Start an Atlanticus (mandala) blanket (X not touched yet)
8. Restart my Spice of Life blanket (X not touched yet)

Quilting

1. Make some small pincushions (X not touched yet)
2. A very simple goal here of starting a queen-sized bed patchwork quilt for myself (X not touched yet)
3. Maybe start my Piece and Plenty quilt (X not touched yet)
4. Maybe start my The Blue Collection quilt (but highly unlikely) (X not touched yet)

Another month of very little stitching, but a fair bit of crochet happening. Now I have more crafts on the go, I’m struggling a bit to give each of them air time – perhaps I need a rotation that includes all my crafts, not just cross stitch? Hmmm…

This month I’ve managed to do a wee bit more work on Quaker Diamonds. I’d like to finish the bottom section of the design before I move on to something else, but in all honesty I’m finding this one a real chore to stitch, so I think I’m going to have to mix it up with something else inbetween – either doing actual finishing of some of my finished pieces or working through some smaller kitted up projects for a bit of variety. I do love the finished look of this one though, even though it’s a PITA to stitch 😉

This is how it looked in the last WIPocalypse post:

And how it looks now:

24 June – Tell us what you think the ideal stitching retreat would include.
For me the ideal one is where I’m learning something new, so having some sort of classes are a must. Also having a general room available for stitching or chatting throughout the entire retreat would be great (ie not just available during the day). Obviously having a retail section is also really loved, especially for items that are harder to find locally. Affordable accommodation at the same venue is definitely preferred too.