2017 End Of Year Summary

Hello all!

So, here we are at the end of another year and time again for me to look back on my stitching (and finishing) over the last twelve months. It's the same boring format as last year and mostly for my benefit, but for those of you who like lists, this is for you too!

I began the year planning to start and finish 12 pieces for the Smalls SAL, work on and finish 12 Challenge WIPs from 2015/2016 and possibly start (and finish) up to 6 new projects.

So, how did I do? Well, I finished the 12 Smalls SAL pieces, finished 11/12 Challenge WIPs and out of my potential new starts I started 3 and finished 3. (I did, however, start a new large-ish project which I have barely worked on and not yet blogged about). So, all in all, a very successful year!

So my statistics now appear like this::

Number of WIPs brought forward from 2016 - 5 suspended, 8 large, 47 challenge = 60
Plus number of new starts - 1 large, 12 smalls SAL, 3 others = 16
Less number of finishes - 11 challenge, 12 smalls SAL, 3 others = 26
Number of WIPs to carry forward into 2018 - 5 suspended, 9 large, 36 challenge = 50

Now comes the really boring bit.....

Here are the lists of projects which make up the statistics at the top of the page:

SUSPENDED LARGE WIPs BROUGHT FORWARD
1)  Mythical Dragon (True Colors)
2)  Rainbow Angel (White willow Stitching) - really tempted to throw this away
3)  QS Emerald Dragon (HAED)
4)  SK The History Of Chocolate (HAED)
5)  QS Fairy With Butterfly Mask (HAED) - tempted to throw this away too

LARGE WIPs BROUGHT FORWARD
1)  QS Come Softly (HAED)
2)  Mini Bookworm Fairy (HAED)
3)  Mini The Owrd Lord (HAED)
4)  Mini One (HAED)
5)  Dolphin Ruins (Rabnann - ebay)
6)  OMG Tigger Is Out (UnconventionalX - etsy)
7)  Dragon Eye (not yet blogged)
8)  Scarlet Macaw Preening (Shinysun)

JANUARY/FEBRUARY CHALLENGE 2015 WIPs BROUGHT FORWARD
1)  Friends For Life
2)  Feline Groovy
3)  Loves Me ... Love Me Not
4)  Daisy Hugs
5)  Dreaming Of Dolphins - FINISHED
6)  Book Worm

7)  Carefree Summer

8)  A Tatty Friend

9)  Dandelion Time

10)  Flower Power

11)  All Aboard The Walnut Shells

12)  Christmas Wishes

13)  Daisy Umbrella

14)  Cuddly Feline Friends

15)  Choc-A-Holic

16)  I Love Butter

17)  Good Morning Nelson

18)  Winter Hugs

19)  Lickle Snooze

20)  A Windy Day
21)  Little Green
22)  Spring
23)  Coffee - FINISHED
24)  Gryffindor Crest - FINISHED
25)  Pretty Little London - FINISHED
26)  Start Trek TOS
27)  Summer
28)  Cream - FINISHED
29)  Canal Crossing
30)  Hufflepuff Crest
31)  Clue
32)  Red Foxes - FINISHED
33)  Sugar
34)  The Lock - FINISHED
35)  Pretty Little Paris
36)  Evil Minions
37)  Spotted Owls
38)  Winter
39)  Tea
40)  The Milk Train - FINISHED
41)  Slytherin Crest - FINISHED
42)  Pandas

JANUARY CHALLENGE 2016 WIPs BROUGHT FORWARD
1)  Summer Alphabet
2)  Spring Alphabet
3)  Winter Alphabet
4)  Polar Bear - FINISHED
5)  Bear - FINISHED

NEW STARTS - LARGE
1)  Magnolia

NEW STARTS 2017 - SMALLS SAL
1)  January Calendar - FINISHED
2)  February Calendar - FINISHED
3)  March Calendar - FINISHED
4)  April Calendar - FINISHED
5)  May Calendar - FINISHED
6)  June Calendar - FINISHED
7)  July Calendar - FINISHED
8)  August Calendar - FINISHED
9)  September Calendar - FINISHED
10)  October Calendar - FINISHED
11)  November Calendar - FINISHED
12)  December Calendar - FINISHED

NEW STARTS 2017 - OTHERS
1)  Cats In Love - FINISHED
2)  Summer Bird - FINISHED
3)  Birds With Umbrella - FINISHED

I may still have a lot of  projects left to finish but am happy that it's 10 less than I started the year with and now exactly 50. That's a nice figure to start from next year.


As for my Box of Shame, I started the year with 58 pieces in it, added 26 more, fully finished off 32, so have therefore ended the year with 52 pieces remaining. Yay, it's been reduced by... 6 pieces (but only because I've counted the calendar as 12 finishes instead of one in case I decide to cut it up!) Yes, lots of pieces were framed whilst the ornaments were completely ignored, but it's still an achievement, if only a very small one! At least making the ornaments will be less expensive than the framing (although more time-consuming) when I eventually get around to them!

Here's another boring list of the the projects which were or still are in my Box of Shame (and again this is mainly for my benefit):

BOX OF SHAME PIECES BROUGHT FORWARD
1)  January Stamp
2)  February Stamp
3)  Waterlogged - FINISHED
4)  Puddle Duck - FINISHED
5)  March Stamp
6)  April Stamp
7)  May Stamp
8)  June Stamp
9)  Autumn
10)  July Stamp
11)  Cookie and Cream
12)  August Stamp
13)  September Stamp
14)  October Stamp
15)  Winter Owl - FINISHED
16)  November Stamp
17)  December Stamp
18)  April Showers - FINISHED
19)  Ride A Bike - FINISHED
20)  French Country Witch
21)  Sleepy Book - FINISHED
22)  Cantankerous - FINISHED
23)  Sally Squirrel - FINISHED
24)  Bert Badger - FINISHED
25)  Balloon - FINISHED
26)  Keep Our Air Clean - FINISHED
27)  Save Water - FINISHED
28)  Plant A Tree - FINISHED
29)  Be Kind To Animals - FINISHED
30)  Humerous Alphabet
31)  Summer Bird
32)  Friends Forever - FINISHED
33)  Ghost
34)  Halloween
35)  Frankie Hedgehog - FINISHED
36)  Toby Fox - FINISHED
37)  Seahorse Critter - FINISHED
38)  Dolphin Critter - FINISHED
39)  Playful Puss 3 - FINISHED
40)  Playful Puss 4 - FINISHED
41)  Contentious - FINISHED
42)  Mini Midnight Manor - FINISHED
43)  Eat Locally - FINISHED
44)  October Fairy - FINISHED
45)  Halloween Cauldron
46)  Molly Mouse - FINISHED
47)  Ollie Owl - FINISHED
48)  Witches Hat
49)  Let's Eat Dessert - FINISHED
50)  Autumn Alphabet
51)  Penguin
52)  Snowman
53)  Woolly-Hatted Snowman
54)  Mr Daydream - FINISHED
55)  Black-Hatted Snowman
56)  Santa
57)  Mr Jelly - FINISHED
58)  Mr Happy - FINISHED

BOX OF SHAME PIECES ADDED 2017
1)  January Calendar
2)  Polar Bear
3)  Bear
4)  Cats In Love - FINISHED
5)  February Calendar
6)  Spring Bird
7)  Coffee
8)  March Calendar
9)  Milk Train
10)  April Calendar
11)  May Calendar
12)  Dreaming of Dolphins
13)  Gryffindor
14)  June Calendar
15)  July Calendar
16)  Cream
17)  Birds With Umbrella
18)  August Calendar
19)  The Lock
20)  September Calendar
21)  Red Foxes
22)  October Calendar
23)  Pretty Little London
24)  November Calendar
25)  Slytherin
26)  December Calendar

So there we are... boring lists over!

During the year I stitched for a total of 472 hours, well down on the 703 hours I managed in 2016. However, I did stitch every single day (admittedly a lot of them for only five minutes towards the end of the year) so am really happy with that.

I'll reveal my 2018 stitching plans tomorrow.

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

Cute Animal Calendar - finished

Good afternoon all!

Those of you who have been following the Smalls SAL during 2017 will have noticed that I have been stitching part of a calendar each month. I am very pleased to report that I succeeded in completing the whole project during the year and on schedule! And here it is:

Cute Animal Calendar by Durene Jones

Stitched on 16ct Nantucket over-dyed aida from Sewitall.com 2 over 1

Stitch count 184 wide by 176 high

Started - 1st January 2017

Finished - 9th December 2017

Total stitching time - 97 hours 5 minutes

Obviously there are some months that I enjoyed stitching more than others - I think July has to be my favourite and November my least favourite - and some which were more straight-forward than others - the backstitching on September's Hedgehog took ages!

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with it. I doubt I'll frame it or make it into a wall hanging, so I might cut it up and mount each month onto a card which can be displayed at the appropriate time. I've not left much space between them but it's doable - if I'm careful and if I've got the willpower to take a pair of scissors to it! Better that than have it sitting in my Box of Shame!

So, that's my last finish of the year to show you. I was hoping to have finished one more but fitting about 20 hours of stitching into the last two days of the year is simply not going to happen!

I've got my really boring Year End Summary to post tomorrow and then it's on to my 2018 projects. I must say I'm rather looking forward to it!

Take care,

Rachel x

Smalls SAL - December 2017

Hello again!

I'm back to being on time for this month's Smalls SAL posting. Thanks as always to Heather of Stitching Lotus for continuing the stitch along.

So, here's the final month of the calendar I've been stitching specifically for this SAL; a cute little penguin to round off the year:

December Calendar by Durene Jones

Stitched on 16ct Nantucket from Sewitall.com 2 over 1

Stitch count 43 wide by 56 high

Started - 1st December 2017

Finished - 9th December 2017

Total stitching time - 7 hours 20 minutes

And here's the completed calendar after a year's worth of stitching. I shall be writing a separate more detailed post about it on my blog tomorrow.

I have already signed up for next year's Smalls SAL and will be stitching a variety of projects. I have 12 all kitted up and ready to go so, apart from the four which are month-specific, I will be doing a lucky dip to see which gets stitched. I'm really looking forward to it!

Take care,

Rachel x

Slytherin - finished

Good evening!

This is the very late posting of another finish from Debbie's Super Duper Ultimate Crazy January February Challenge (DSDUCJFC) 2015. This is the 26th finish of the 59 starts and a companion for Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. The remaining house crest, Hufflepuff, will be finished in 2018.

The last time you saw this piece was at the end of August:

I didn't make much progress in September:

And forgot to take a picture at the end of October, so this is how it looks all finished:

From theworldinstitches (etsy)

Stitched on 16ct Cream Aida 2 over 1

Stitch count 96 wide by 118 high
Started - 25th February 2015
Finished - 23rd November 2017
Total stitching time - 45 hours 10 minutes

I have the frames for both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, but like so many things at the moment, I just have to get around to framing them.

I've got a few more rather rushed postings to make before the end of the year then, hopefully, I'll be able to return to regular postings (and blog reading) in 2018.

Take care,
Rachel x

Smalls SAL - November 2017

Hello again!

I'm really really annoyed with myself for not making November's Small SAL posting in time. Argh! Oh well, I'll still say thanks as always to Heather of Stitching Lotus for continuing the stitch along and I'll have to ensure I'm on time next month.

For November we had fireworks, of course, with a frog(!)

November Calendar by Durene Jones

Stitched on 16ct Nantucket from Sewitall.com 2 over 1

Stitch count 43 wide by 56 high

Started - 1st November 2017

Finished -8th November 2017

Total stitching time - 6 hours 35 minutes

We have a real cutie for the final month of the year. I really can't wait to stitch him and then show the whole completed piece.

Take care,

Rachel x