Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse – September 2025

Anne S

I finally got back into stitching again in September by joining in with a few stitching challenges in the WIP Warriors private group. Progress is only 100 stitches in some cases, but that means 100 stitches closer to a finish! 😀 Photos below are before and after progress during September.

Egyptian Garden Mandala by Chatelaine

Cabana Beach by Mill Hill

Supernatural by PixelsStitches

Three Kings by Mill Hill/Jim Shore

The Boys Are Back In Town by JABC

Girls Night Out by JABC

Finch Song by Shepherd’s Bush

Creepy Pincushion by Shepherd’s Bush

Sea View by Luca-S

2024 Mirabilia Retreat Mermaid by Nora Corbett

Prairie Schooler – When Witches Go Riding

Needle Delights Originals – Color Delights-Seafoam

Indigo Rose – Catherine Agnes

Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches – Raphael’s Raspberries

ByGone Stitches – Quaker Christmas II

Periwinkle Promises – Stitching is the Berries

Do you have any sort of record for your finished pieces? Tell us how you record their information.

Honestly I’ve been quite slack in recent years, but in the past I’ve always kept a Word doc every year for all my finishes. These contain a photo of the finished piece, along with key information about the stitch count and fabrics etc used for it. I also include some notes about who I gave the piece to or any challenges I faced during the stitching etc. I then printed the pages out and keep them in ringbinders. This year I started on reworking the format so I could reduce the number of pages if possible, with the intention of having them printed into a book format instead so I can look back on them all in later years 🙂 I also keep a photo in my Flickr albums of each finished piece.

For my WIPs I tend to rely on my blog to keep track of them, and have them all listed on a Works in Progress page. I try to update the page annually, updating the ‘starting image’ for any projects where I made progress in the previous year, but once again have been pretty slack with keeping that updated on a regular basis! I think I’ll probably improve once I gradually get more consistent with doing actual stitching each year.

Tilda

Tilda sewing updates

Anne S

I recently joined a Tilda project bag exchange, and this is the pair of project bags that I created for my exchange partner – one larger one and a smaller one that can be used inside the main bag or for smaller projects. My partner’s favourite ranges were pinks/greens so I was pushed outside my comfort zone, and ended up ordering some older ranges from the UK that I wanted to use for the main fabrics.

I also caught up with the Cali & Co mystery quilt-along by Coriander Quilts, after not being well enough to sew for a few months. I was originally going to make these into a queen sized bed quilt, but considering just keeping to the original QAL size instead – I guess I’ll need to officially decide in December after seeing all the blocks finished.

Canvaswork

Color Delights – Seafoam

Anne S

Yippee, I have another finish for the year. One of my goals for this year was to start a new canvaswork project, and because it was so small I managed to finish it as well last night. It’s such a pretty piece to work on, with relatively simple stitches, so it was very relaxing to stitch.

“Color Delights – Seafoam” by Needle Delights Originals / Kathy Rees
Started 22 January 2025 – Finished 15 September 2025
Stitched using kit canvas and threads

Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse 2025 – recap of goals

Anne S

xxx

2025 Craft Goals:

Stitching:

  • *DONE* Finish three stitching projects (at least one should be a current WIP)
    1. Mini Sunflowers by HAED
    2. All You Need is Love by Designworks
    3. Almost Halloween by The Drawn Thread
  • Finish Mill Hill’s Three Kings
  • *DONE* Hit the 80% completion mark for HAED’s Mini Sunflowers
  • Finish six pages of HAED’s 2025 SAL Jellyworld (this might be a lofty goal)
  • Participate in WIPGO (at least one hour or one length of thread progress on each project) (Jan done)
  • *DONE* Make progress on one canvaswork project (new start) – Colour Delights: Seafoam by Needle Delights Originals/Kathy Rees
  • Stitch four Christmas ornaments
  • Finish-finish at least three items in my finishing pile (make into pincushions, ornaments, framing etc)

Crochet:

  • Make progress on a crochet blanket or shawl
  • Finish at least one project from Crate Crochet (WIP or new start)
  • Finish at least one project from Crochet Society (WIP or new start)

Sewing:

  • *DONE* Start a bed quilt (started the mystery block of the month quilt for Cali & Co fabric bundle by Coriander Quilts, but using my cool-toned Tilda stash instead)
  • *DONE* Make progress on at least three class/kit sewing projects (eg Tilda Club, Fee’s SALs, Kitty Rose kits – WIPs or new starts)
    – Sewing Day Tote Bag by Fee Fee & Me (sew-along project) – fully finished
    – Windy Walk project bag by Kitty Rose – fully finished
    – Tilda Club, Issue 36 – fully finished
  • Finish at least one existing sewing WIP

Other crafts:

  • Complete at least one cartonnage project
  • Start at least one mosaic project
  • Complete at least two cards per week

Here are photos of most of my WIPs/UFOs as they stand now, just to keep track of any future progress I make.

2025 Finishes

Stitching

Mini Sunflowers by HAED
All You Need is Love by Design Works
Almost Halloween by The Drawn Thread

Sewing

Works in progress

Topiary Tree Bookmark by Textile Heritage
Before: Paris by Country Threads
Apricot (Blue) Elegance by Cindy Valentine
Frog longstitch
Pyramid Etui by CA Wells
Berry Delightful Bag
Oriental Poppy by Jane Nicholas
Schwalmwork Pinkeep by Moss Creek Designs
Nature’s Resting Place by Stoney Creek
Le Jardin Silk Sampler by Just Cross Stitch
Wool hot water bottle cover
Pomegranates and Beetle by Jane Nicholas
Noah’s Ark by Teresa Wentzler
Mediterranean Village Scene
Butterflies and Hearts Needleroll by Lorri Birmingham
Sailor’s Valentine by CA Wells

Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse – March 2025

Anne S

I didn’t stitch as much during March other than during the first week or so – I think that seems to be how I naturally work on my crafts now by stitching at the start of the month (as I’m motivated by the Scattergories challenge that’s released on the 1st of every month), then followed by sewing and cardmaking once I’ve finished at least six of the stitching categories.

This month’s Scattergories letters were N and S, so I did approx 100 stitches for each of the categories in the following WIPs:

“Almost Halloween” by The Drawn Thread – I made pretty good headway on it this month as I managed to find prompts in the design for Spiders (Save a spider day – NOT one I personally celebrate!), Spectre (ghost) and Skeleton. Then I decided to just keep working on it to get it finished, as there was so little left to do on it. That means Almost Halloween is my 3rd finish for the year 😀

“Sea view” by Luca-S – this was supposed to be my birthday new start but I totally forgot it was my birthday (!) and then felt too flat to stitch. I managed around 200 stitches in early March then realised I needed to frog about 1/4 of it so it’s currently in the naughty corner … it did give me enough stitches for Shells in Scattergories though.

“Girls Night Out” by Just Another Button Company – I used the thread colour of Sweet potato for Scattergories.

“Supernatural” by Pixel in Stitches – Supernatural TV show was another Scattergories choice.

“2024 Mirabilia retreat mermaid” by Nora Corbett – the only category I used the letter N for, that of Designer name, for Scattergories.

“Three Kings” by Mill Hill/Jim Shore – I actually completed this update back on 10 February, but I forgot to update my blog post, so I’m adding the updated image here now 🙂

I also managed to finish three project bags between 28 February and 3 March.

Which are your favorite three designers?

This is a really hard question to answer, because my tastes are so eclectic. If I had to really choose, though, I’d probably say the following:

  • Nora Corbett / Mirabilia
  • Lizzie*Kate (the inspirational samplers and the fact they’re normally fairly quick to stitch)
  • Just Nan or The Victoria Sampler or Periwinkle Promises or … haha
Quilting & Sewing, Tilda

Tilda patchwork project bag

Anne S

While I was on a roll with making project bags I decided to finish making the final one today. As it used the last piece of Pellon in my stash, I’ll need to wait for a while now to make more.

I’m really thrilled that all the 2″ squares came from my Tilda scrap bags, and the only pieces of fabric that came from my stash were for the top and back panels and the lining. I’m so very thrilled with this one, it’s definitely my absolute favourite of them all. I can definitely see me making more of these in the future! This one is a big bigger than the others, which will be more useful for my canvaswork WIPs.

Quilting & Sewing, Tilda

Koala project bag

Anne S

I decided to try a different type of interfacing for this bag as an experiment, and it was an epic fail that I won’t repeat. BUT even with all that, I’m in love with this project bag – I love everything about it: especially the predominantly mint colourway, the smaller patchwork block sizes. This one just makes me happy to look at it! It was great fun rummaging through my vintage Tilda scraps to find coordinating fabrics that worked with the critter panel.

Koala quilted project bag
Quilting & Sewing

Kangaroo project bag

Anne S

I’ve been wanted to make more project bags for a long time, but the sewing bug totally disappeared after Mum was hospitalised four years ago. It’s back with a vengeance, and I finally made my first ever project bag in this style (I’d previously made a vinyl-fronted bag, but decided it wasn’t my favourite style). And it was a quilt block tutorial of all things that sparked the inspiration!

I was searching YouTube tutorials for scrappy quilts and came across potato chip quilts. In one video the maker was showing different styles of the block, including using a focal fabric in the centre of the blocks instead of using two cut fabrics. I’ve had a large panel of Australian critters in Christmas sweaters for a while and had no idea what to do with them, and all of a sudden inspiration struck! I chose the kangaroo on a pink background as my tester block, because I can’t stand pink and it wouldn’t matter if I messed it up 😉

I started with the larger sized fabric cuts, as per the quilt block, but quickly realised that it looks great for larger quilt sizes, but isn’t quite the look I was going for as project bags. For this one I also tried to have a continuous look of the blocks going around the shape, including in the space above the zipper, but that just added extra complexity and I’m not sure it really adds to the overall look – I’m not sure. One thing I’m super happy about, is that I found a great kangaroo zipper pull which suits this little project perfectly! Overall I’m super happy with it, though, and I think adding the darker zipper tape helps to take away the emphasis on the pink colours. I’ll probably end up keeping this one (even with all that pink, yuck) – in some ways it’s a good reminder of my starting point for future bags … 🙂 And what a wonderful way to combine my new adventure in patchwork with something that’s practical and useful while improving my skills! 😀