Feather Stitching

Cartonnage, Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse 2024 recap

29 December, 202429 December, 2024 Anne S

My mojo didn’t last long at the start of the year, so there’s not a huge amount to recap from earlier, but I’m super happy that during November and December I got a big chunk of stitching done. I also loved getting a couple of finishes under my belt early in the year before my mojo disappeared again for a while. And considering I changed my goals to just have the single goal of “finish at least one needlework project by the end of the year“, I guess I can call 2024 a success 😀

I joined the WIP Warriors Facebook group this year – and got made redundant from my job in November, where I’d been employed for just over 24 years. The timing of the WIP Warriors group was perfect, because their challenges really helped me to get back into my stitching on a regular basis again over the last month or so – and that’s been really therapeutic for my emotions and my sense of belonging. It also meant some reasonable progress on a few WIPs these last few weeks to close out the year.

Finishes for 2024

“Lahaina Breezes” by Laura J Perin

“Quaker Diamonds” by Rosewood Manor

Scarf from a 2020 Crochet Society subscription box (to be donated to charity)

2024 progress on WIPs

I’m so thrilled to see some decent progress on Three Kings and Mini Sunflowers this month – they’ll be two of my focus projects for next year, with the aim to finish Three Kings so it can be on display next Christmas.

Cartonnage, Quilting & Sewing, Tilda

Tilda exchange

15 December, 2024 Anne S

I joined an exchange for the first time – I hadn’t touched my sewing machine in almost 4 years, and I found it a struggle I’ll be honest. Then when I was made redundant in the last month of prepping for the exchange I just didn’t have the headspace available to finish the last couple of homemade gifts that I wanted to include. I’m still proud of what I managed to achieve, but it wasn’t the exchange gift I wanted to send. I may still complete the remaining two items in the new year and send on to my recipient, though.

These are photos of what I sent to my exchange partner – the criteria was to send something in each of the following 5 categories/themes:

Something special for the recipient
A small doily or table runner
Something for the sewing room
A Christmas ornament
Something to eat

Something special

A small doily or table runner

Something for the sewing room

A Christmas ornament

Something to eat

Cartonnage

Cartonnage clamshell box

7 December, 2024 Anne S

I recently unpacked my cartonnage tools and completed a past kit project from Boxed and Bound – and it was probably my most challenging project to date, with lots of errors made on my part. The end result, though, is a really stunning and functional box, made in some of my favourite Tilda fabrics (Cotton Beach collection). As I love blues and teals of all shades, and I adore beachy decor, this was the perfect mix for me!

Cross Stitch, Mill Hill

Mill Hill-Three Kings

3 December, 2024 Anne S

Oh my goodness, I’m not sure what’s happening, but I love it! I’ve managed to put a few stitches into another old WIP – this is one I really want to get finished in time for Christmas 2025 so it’ll be one of my primary focus projects for next year. Going by the progress this week, if I keep it up I think that’s completely doable. This is my current update for Three Kings by Mill Hill/Jim Shore.

Cross Stitch, HAED, Works in Progress

HAED Mini Sunflowers

30 November, 2024 Anne S

My work team cancelled my farewell lunch yesterday for my last official working day (I’m leaving due to redundancy after 24+ years), so I was feeling pretty emotional. Stitching to the rescue – I spent the afternoon putting in 1,000 more stitches into HAED’s Mini Sunflowers instead of being taken out to lunch. Every one of those stitches helped to ease my mind – stitching is amazing in that way, and I feel really blessed having my crafts as an outlet for these times. I’ve managed significant progress these last few days!

Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse Nov 2024

26 November, 2024 Anne S

I can’t believe it, I have another stitching update – maybe the mojo really IS back again?! I joined a new-to-me Facebook group called WIP Warriors and I’ve joined in with one of the challenges, and that’s really helped me get back my love of stitching. Still working on getting a comfy stitching spot worked out in the lounge, but very day is one step closer to getting settled …

This week I’ve managed progress on two of my WIPs – I managed just over 200 stitches on Quaker Christmas II by ByGone Stitches, and 300 stitches on HAED’s Mini Sunflowers.

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

I have to say it feels really good to have a needle between my fingers once again – hopefully this is the start of continued progress. I’m especially loving working on the Mini Sunflowers, and that will remain one of my three focus pieces for next year.

Question of the Month: How do you begin planning for the next year with your stitching? Tell us your process.

I have to admit while my mojo has been absent each year I’ve planned and failed, and so each following year I whittle down my goals to what may be more achievable. This year is no different, so I had a closer look at my WIPs list and realised a lot of them don’t give me a lot of joy – because of that I decided it was time to freshen up my WIP list with some new starts, hoping that would help give me momentum to continue stitching regularly instead of being such a chore. I’ve decided to still have my WIPGO board, which will help me do a small amount of stitching on my oldest, and less loved, WIPs – but instead of lofty goals I’ve decided to just focus primarily on 3-4 projects to get them closer to a finish, and just chip away slowly at the remaining ones. Maybe next year will be the year I finally have something to show for all my planning … although I love the planning stage, even if I rarely tick of achievements – it’s fun to do all on its own.

Canvaswork, Finished Items, Laura J Perin

Lahaina Breezes

16 November, 2024 Anne S

Oh my goodness I can’t believe it’s been this long since I posted, after a good start to the year. As it turns out I decided to buy my first home – and a mammoth move 2 hours north of Sydney. A few moving issues, and still not fully unpacked six months later, and my stitching mojo disappeared again!

My stitching mojo wasn’t helped by the fact I adopted a beautiful wee kitty who, after settling in, decided that she likes to sprawl all over my lap making stitching more challenging … something I need to work on improving in the new year. Smudge was the old family pet of a dear stitching friend that had to be rehomed due to no fault of her own, and she was 11 years old when I took her in – we bonded really quickly and she’s been an amazing companion that likes to follow me around and sleeps where she can see/hear me and is almost always found on my desk or on the floor by me when I’m working etc. She’s a total sweetheart that has captured my heart 100% since the minute she arrived on my doorstep ❤ I’ll add more favourite photos at the end of the post 🙂

In the early days, though, before she was superglued to my lap every night, I did manage to sneak in one finish back in April when I first moved into my new home – Lahaina Breezes by Laura J Perin was such a delight to stitch, even with those pesky rayon ribbon threads haha. It look amazing in real life with all the various textures, and I’m so proud of this one!

Starting point:

Completed:

I just made redundant last week after 24+ years with my employer 😦 I’ve decided to take a break for 6-8 weeks over Christmas before job hunting again, and I’m hoping it’ll give me chance to finish a lot of the unpacking and to get my craft space more organised, along with trying to get my stitching mojo back more regularly. It’s a juggling act trying to give time to all my different crafts, but hopefully not having to work will give me the mental energy to work out a plan for the new year and set some routines in place. I’ll admit the first thought I had was that I’m so grateful I have a huge craft stash for my three main hobbies (stitching, sewing and cardmaking), and that this is the reason I’ve been stashing all these years, just waiting for this day to happen LOL – it definitely does help me keep a positive mindset right now anyway, and I’m excited to re-explore everything that I already have instead of burning through the cash every month haha.

2025, the year of less spending but more crafting … I say, bring it on!!! But before than, here’s some more Smudge (aka ‘old fluffy bum’) spam 😀

Cross Stitch, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse February 2024

2 March, 20242 March, 2024 Anne S

I started well with my stitching at the start of the year, then got sidetracked with life again. But last weekend, I finally had a stitching finish – I went away to a Mirabilia Retreat in Brisbane, and I didn’t have any current Mirabilia or Nora Corbett WIPs to take with me. Nora said she had no issue with me taking other projects to work on, so I decided to put the final few stitches into Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor. I think it’s the most I’ve ever stitched at a get-together, and definitely the first time I’ve finished something. It’s been feeling really good getting back into stitching again such a big hiatus. Life is finally starting to return to a bit of normality again, after four years of trauma in one way or another – yay!!

“Quaker Diamonds” by Rosewood Manor
Started 2 January 2016 – Finished 24 February 2024
Stitched with Valdani floss as charted
on 28ct Mello Cahsel linen by Picture This Plus (as charted)

While at the retreat I also put a few more stitches into Lahaina Breezes by Laura J Perin, and started the mermaid chart that we received as part of our retreat event that was designed by Nora.

I missed last month’s WIPocalypse stitcher’s question, so I’ve added both now:

28 January – Tell us about the oldest WIP you have in your stash
I think maybe I’ll choose the English Garden Sampler by Teresa Wentzler as my oldest WIP. I have other projects that were started earlier than EGS, but EGS is one project that I really want to see finished one day, whereas the others I kinda feel ‘meh’ about. I started English Garden Sampler way back in January 2002 and it’s been a bear trying to match DMC threads due to starting with the oldest dye lots – I then switched to an Anchor grey which seemed a lot closer to my original and I was much happier. It’s currently stalled because I can’t decide what saying/quote to include in place of the charted alphabet – I’m really not an alphabet lover in cross stitch, but I really love inspirational quotes, so I want to chart something up as a replacement. It’ll get finished one day …

25 February – What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?
Because I haven’t had a consistent run with my stitchy bug, I haven’t joined any SALs this year, with the exception of the Just Cross Stitch Ornament SAL on Facebook. I haven’t joined in with the stitching as yet, but I hope to do that in the future. I have, however, rejoined the WIPGO challenge, which will hopefully keep giving me a nudge to bring my needles out throughout the year regularly.

Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse 2024 – goals for the year

8 January, 202428 December, 2023 Anne S

I’m a 50-something crafter in Australia who’s been stitching for approximately 35 or so years and I’m never happy unless I’m learning something new and being challenged by my crafts. Stitching has continued to be an emotional trigger for me since my Mum’s decline in health and not being able to speak to her or hear her voice, so I’ve been cardmaking for the last two years instead of stitching. My mojo started to return a bit more at the very end of 2023, and hopefully 2024 will continue to see this side of my crafty endeavours return in strength again – and maybe I’ll finally dust my sewing machine off again as it hasn’t been touched in 2 1/2 years now.

My goals are very simple for 2024 – and that’s just to finish at least one needlework project by the end of the year. The aim is to also make some progress on other existing WIPs as well, but that’s not the primary focus. I don’t want to place high expectations on my needlework activities next year, hoping that my mojo will return on its own, and I’ll automatically increase activity without having it defined as a goal.

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

WIPocalypse, Works in Progress

WIPocalypse 2024 – goals

7 January, 20247 January, 2024 Anne S

It’s been a loooong time since joining in with the WIPocalypse. Hopefully this year sees me back on track again with my stitching and I can finally see a few projects getting some love … and maybe even a finish or two? I’m going to try to keep my goals really minimal this year, though, I’ll be happy just to make any progress on WIPs – but it wouldn’t be a new year without setting at least some goals.

My crafting goals for 2024 are:

Progress on at least 12 WIPs (helped by the WIPGO challenge) – progress can be 1 stitch, 1 strand of thread, 1 day or 1 week, as long as it’s some sort of progress
Sew an item – whether clothing, quilting or finishing
Work on a crochet item WIP
Find a good balance to work on both needecrafts and papercrafts/cardmaking

To kick off the new year, I managed to pick up an old canvaswork WIP, Lahaina Breezes by Laura J Perin. I was supposed to work on my WIPGO projects in cells 9 and 22 but they didn’t call to me – I figured I can just swap my numbers around and work on any two projects each month initially while I’m continuing to get my stitching mojo back again … and Lahaina Breezes felt like it needed some love. Here are the before and after photos after a few days work. My thumb is sore from pulling the needle through the back of the stitches, and I’ve run out of the main thread, so it’s being put aside again for now … but gee I’m happy with the progress on this one!

I’m adding a gallery of all projects sitting on my WIPGO board and how they looked at the start of this year – hopefully 2024 will see them all get a bit of progress and love.