WIPocalypse – January 2025

WIP updates

Here’s my progress from January, including the starting point as at 1 January and their current status – I managed quite a bit, which I’m super happy about. I think I’ve finally got my mojo back again, thanks to more free time available to craft after being made redundant, along with joining the WIP Warriors Facebook group and joining their WIP challenges, plus actively doing WIPGO this year. Now it’s just a case of finding a balance between my multiple crafts of cardmaking, sewing/quilting and cardmaking – yikes.

These are the stitching projects that managed to get some love so far in January:

“Mini Sunflowers” by Heaven and Earth Designs, before and after. Only about 3% left to go now, woohoo!

“Aroha” cushion by The Stitchsmith, before and after:

“Almost Halloween” by The Drawn Thread, before and after:

“Three Kings” by Mill Hill, before and after:

“Egyptian Garden Mandala” by Chatelaine, before and after – hard to see the changes as there was minimal stitching done, but at least it’s starting to get some love

“All you need is love and coffee” by Designworks, before and after:

“2024 Mirabilia Retreat Mermaid” by Nora Corbett, before and after:

New starts

Stitching

I’ve been looking at the same WIPs for so many years now, I decided that I also need to have some new starts this year to help with my motivation to keep stitching, and early in the year I pulled together a huge pile of potential new starts into a tub, and started a couple of small ones to fit with some of the challenges I’m working on each month. January saw me have two new starts:

1. Supernatural by PixelStitches, and
2. Creepy Pincushion by Shepherd’s Bush
3. Seafoam (canvaswork) by Needle Delights Originals

Sewing

Question of the month:

“Tell us about the oldest WIP you have in your stash.”

I think my oldest is also one of my most unloved – and I’m considering adding backstitch to it and calling it a day. It’s the first project I ever started on evenweave, and there are so many mistakes in it it’s not funny. There’s way too much to rip out to fix it, and it’s more difficult to fix anyway because it uses older dye lots of DMC for some colours which are totally different these days. I’m thinking I should just cut my losses, hack into the fabric and turn the image into a something else such as an inset for a tote bag or book cover.

2025 goal achievements

Because I kept my craft goals small this year, and having all that extra spare time to focus on my mental health, I’ve managed to achieve a small number of my goals already, which I’m thrilled with.

• *DONE* Hit the 80% completion mark for HAED’s Mini Sunflowers (currently sitting at 97% completion)
• *DONE* Make progress on one canvaswork project (new start) (I started Seafoam by Needle Delights Originals)
• *DONE* Make progress on at least three class/kit sewing projects:
  1. Sewing Day Project Bag by Fee Fee & Me
  2. Windy Walk Bag from Kitty Rose Cottage
  3. KJ’s Ruler Bag from Kitty Rose Cottage