Crazy January 2013 Challenge – Page 2

I have signed up for so many different SALs and challenges this year that I think the best way for me to devote time for each one is to set up a rotation once again – the first time I tried a rotation it was amazingly successful, but later attempts have been disastrous … perhaps this time it will work … perhaps …

Then again, I also want to continue concentrating on older UFOs/WIPs to finally get them into the finished pile and not languishing around making me feel guilty and gathering dust bunnies …

I guess the first thing to do is to work out what SALs I have coming up this year, along with noting if any of those projects could be combined with the Crazy January Challenge or using existing WIPs/UFOs … then work out a schedule that could possibly work on a 10-hour slot basis. Rightio then, let’s start by noting all the SALs coming up (including those already started while I’ve been in NZ) … here goes:

November 2012 – Quaker Christmas II SAL
1 January – Nora Corbett’s Bluebell Pixie SAL
1 January – Drawn Thread’s Sampler Gameboard SAL
1 February – Aussie Round Robin
14 February – Ink Circles Cirque des Coeurs SAL
1 May – Teresa Wentzler SAL

Add to that the list of potential new starts for me this year as part of the Crazy January Challenge (the only difference is that I’m making up my own rules by choosing and kitting up 15 projects but not starting a new one every day, just rather working my way through the list). I have to admit I grabbed a handful of my chosen 2013 new starts when I did a rushed packing job to come to NZ and ended up already starting and finishing two of them, so I definitely need to re-do that list of projects once again. I am tempted to add the Quaker Christmas II sampler and Sampler Gameboard to the challenge list, but I’m not confident I can see either of them being finished by the end of the year and happy to just have them ‘in progress’ throughout the year. My CJC pieces will be as follows (there are only 2 relatively large pieces in there, so I’m hoping it won’t be too unachievable, but that could be famous last words, if this year’s crappy stitching time is anything to go by!):

Bluebell pixie – Mirabilia/Nora Corbett
Little Blue Potting Shed – Brown House Studio
Blue Bayou – Northern Pine Designs
Christmas Elf Fairy – Mirabilia/Nora Corbett
Bluebeard’s Princess – Mirabilia
Moon & Stars – Little House Needleworks
Trousse aux Fleur Bleues – CMon Monde
Spooky Scissors Fob – Shepherd’s Bush
Little Witch – Shepherd’s Bush
Trick or Treat Box – Just Nan
Acorn Hill – Little House Needleworks
Valentine Fairy – Mirabilia/Nora Corbett
Christmas double flip-its – Lizzie*Kate
Ebb Tide – Northern Pine Designs
Sky Blue Accent – Periwinkle Promises

As well as these projects, though, I’d dearly love to continue working on some of my older WIPs/UFOs, namely:

With My Needle – The Goode Huswife
Flight of the Bumblebees – Ruth Schmuff
English Garden Sampler – Teresa Wentzler
Enchanted Mermaid – Mirabilia
Egyptian Garden Mandala – Chatelaine

Taking all that into account, let’s see if I can work out a suitable rotation … hmmm, this might need a few days to think through, but easier putting it ‘in print’ and then reviewing again … and seeing as I don’t have any software loaded up on Mum’s computer at the moment, this is kinda my drawing board for now …

Nora Corbett/Mirabilia
(Bluebell pixie, Christmas Elf Fairy, Valentine Fairy, Bluebeard’s Princess, *Enchanted Mermaid (UFO))
Halloween
(Spooky Scissors Fob, Little Witch, Trick or Treat Box)
Quaker Christmas II SAL
Christmas Ornaments & Charity Quilt Squares
Canvaswork
(Blue Bayou, Ebb Tide, *Flight of the Bumblebees (UFO))
Other Crazy January
(Little Blue Potting Shed, Moon & Stars, Trousse aux Fleur Bleues, Acorn Hill, Christmas double flip-its, Sky Blue Accent)
Sampler Gameboard SAL
UFOs/WIPs
(With My Needle, *Flight of the Bumblebees, English Garden Sampler, *Enchanted Mermaid, Egyptian Garden Mandala)
Christmas Ornaments or Free Choice

That actually seems quite ‘do-able’ … but I guess the proof will be whether I manage to start it when I get home … which is now at least a week later than expected, depending on what Dad’s doctor has to say tomorrow. I got the go-ahead from my boss to work over here ‘remotely’ for a while, so that’s good news and takes the pressure off a little bit 🙂

Plus Mum and I placed a small order with 123stitch to re-order the missing threads I need that are waiting for me back home – at least that way I can still continue to do some form of stitching over here, which I have to admit I’ve been loving at the moment … I can’t remember the last time I stitched every single day for over a week at a time … sheer bliss!!!

I have managed to finish one whole WIP for the August WIPocalypse challenge, but I’ll leave the details of that for my challenge post in a few days time … sadly it’s only a Christmas ornie, so that shows you just how much stitching has been done over the last few weeks!

While I haven’t been doing much actual stitching throughout August, I have been kitting up some projects and planning projects to join the 2013 Crazy January Challenge … same rules as normal where you choose 15 projects and start one a day for the first 15 days of January. That part I don’t think I’ll be doing, as I often only get chance to do one strand of thread on an evening if I’m lucky, so that’ll just make me discouraged right from the get-go … instead I’ll just choose 15 projects that I intend to attempt and finish by the year’s end, and have created a Facebook folder to track progress. The only problem so far is that I just can’t seem to stop adding projects to the pile that I really really want to stitch up … I’m supposed to narrow the choices down to just 15, and as you can see from the choices to date I’m not doing too well on that score!! If my mojo returns soon, I might make a start on a couple of them before the challenge starts. I’ve tried to keep most of them quite small to medium in size to make the challenge a little more manageable, but I’ve thrown one or two larger pieces into the mix as well. (And the Christmas Quaker one shouldn’t be in this gallery, but I don’t know how to exclude it!)

As well as the 2013 Crazy January Challenge, I’m also hoping to work on at least 1 or 2 of my older UFOs to at least make some progress by the end of the year, even if they aren’t finished. And finally I’ve also joined up with a SAL of Quaker Christmas II by ByGone Stitches – this is one huge mother of a project, so it may take me 10 years to finish … but I figure I’ll just try to do a set amount of stitching on it each month, be it one day or weekend, so eventually it’ll get stitched up 🙂

And last but not least I also went a bit crazy and finally succumbed to stashing a few HAED charts … who knows when they will ever get stitched, but they’re pretty to drool over in the meantime. This is all because I saw a finished version of the Egyptian Temple one, then found out they currently have a 25% sale happening … and, well, the rest of PayPal blitzing history! 😉 I’ll add a piccie of my selections later 🙂