It’s been a reasonable month for both stitching and blog posts … probably the most regular I’ve been in quite a few years! Who knows how long it will last for, but I’m enjoying it so far that’s for sure!
As for my stitching progress, here are the progress piccies from the last month’s efforts, and comparing how they looked last time vs this month:
First up is a new start, which is a gift for someone if I can get it stitched up quickly enough! Unfortunately, though, I just noticed a mark on the fabric so it’s off to spend some time in a tub and hopefully it will come out … if not, I guess I’ll be ironing up some new fabric and starting again …
And my other WIPs/new starts were:
And then there were a couple of new starts that were also finishes:
All-in-all it was a pretty amazing month of stitching … my work department moving closer to home again is doing wonders for my productivity, that’s for sure!!
And now this month’s topic: “Topic: 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!”
I have to admit the high number of UFOs I have has started to bother me in recent years, so I’ve been making an effort to slowly work through them. I’m starting to become more of a one-at-a-timer, but then when I get bored with a project I tend to just stop stitching, or I put it down and never come back to it again because I feel burnt out with that particular project. This year I’ve tried to be more disciplined and have gone back to a formal rotation once again, and it’s really working on the whole. I have 10-11 project slots, with a Focus Piece slot every 3-4 slots so that I can focus on one project to get stitched up more quickly (generally assigned to one of my BAPs or SAL commitments). I’ve managed to stick to my rotation really well so far, although I’ve just decided to start a new gift for someone that needs to be stitched up really quickly before we meet up in early March, so my rotation has been temporarily put on hold. It’s funny, though, I already miss my rotation and the discipline I’d built up, and I’m almost ‘resenting’ this project because of it … isn’t it funny how our minds work? So far I’ve managed to finish up one old UFO this year thanks to my rotation slot and being disciplined … I’d like to see another 1-2 of my UFO list joining the finishing pile this year, but either way I’m just doing to enjoy working through my stash pile on a regular basis! 😀
As a matter of interest, here is my “rotation tub” … all of my projects are on their own scrollbars or Qsnaps, and sit in order of being stitched, along with their chart/threads in a plastic envelope or mesh project bag … this really helps me to keep organised during the rotation and I’m not running around each 10 hours trying to find the next project kit …
Feather Stitching 
I’m curious – do you prefer the scrollbars or the Qsnap frames? I have a set of scrollbars for a large project, but I haven’t been really happy with it. I was thinking about trying out the Qsnap and I’d love to hear your opinion on the comparison between them.
That’s a really good question … I was always a scrollbars girl until I got my first set of Qsnaps – now I have to admit I prefer those over anything else. As I tend to stitch with a lot of specialty threads, though, I don’t like to have the ‘snaps’ sitting over my stitching, so I tend to use sets that my stitching can sit inside. I prefer the taut tension I can get with my Qsnaps … I also have a bit of ‘non-slip’ fabric sitting inside the snap as well so that they fit quite snugly. As for the scrollbars I’ll often lace the sides of the fabric to the side bar on each side so that I get a better tension. I’ve done that with my Quaker Christmas project, and get a good tension that way … admittedly it’s a pain to set it up, and of course when you roll up your project to the next part you have to do it all over again! The alternative with the scrollbars is the stitch clips you can buy – they’re wonderful too (but sadly quite pricey) 🙂 Not sure if that helps! 😀
Wow, you have a lot of projects going. I think I would be overwhelmed with that many. Your work is quite beautiful. I don’t keep track of the hours it takes me to complete something. I think I would be discouraged if I did.
You’ve been very productive, all your projects look lovely
You have certainly done some beautiful stitching this month. The Crimson Fire sampler is still my favourite!
I like your idea of keeping the WIPs in one basket, very clever and saves time hunting for them.
You made some great progress over the last month! Congrats on all your finishes!