WIPocalypse 2024 Check-In - January 28, 2024

Today's discussion topic is:

"Tell us about the oldest WIP you have in your stash."
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OK, this one is a toughie because how do I distinguish between WIPs and UFOs? I have a stack of unfinished pieces, mainly needlepoint but also at least one crewel piece and several crazy quilts yet to be quilted. But...

On my laptop desktop, I have a file folder labeled "Long-term WIPs" in which I have stored the info for five different pieces. Listed in order from most oldest to most recent starts, they are:

• "Save the Stitches" by Elizabeth Almond, started February 2014, went into hiatus November 2021,   and picked up again in May of 2022 and dropped into hiatus again until January 15, 2024
• "Butterfly on Scroll" by Dimensions, started February 2020 and last worked on February 2023. This is my :traveling project and we rally have done little traveling in this time period (COVID, don't ya know?)
• "Hope & Strength" from Glendon Place, started March 2021 and last worked on November 2022. Needs beading, LOTS of beading.
• "Kogin" from Lakeside Needlecraft, started January 2022 and not touched since (counting issues and lots of frog visits)
• "Christmas SAL 2022" by Stitchonomy, started January 2022 and last worked on in January 2023. Needs beading --- only a few but I dread getting out the beading gear.

So, as you can see, The one I started earliest was "Save the Stitches" and it has had an on-again, off-again life. Mainly because it is so darned BIG! There are 79 "patterned blocks" currently stitched and roughly 55 remain! The fabric is a full yard and is awkward to stitch on since I don't use a stand. My q-Snap set-up was originally an 11 by 11 square with a grime cover but even that didn't handle all the excess fabric so I have switched to my more manageable 8 x 11 q-Snap and do my best to wrangle the excess fabric. This limits what parts of the piece I can work at any one time however, and while the paper pattern is divided into 4 - 5 blocks per page, I still have issues with finding where I am in the pattern! Thank GOD I stitched the frame first!

The chart calls for black-thread for the blackwork patterns, with five different colors of metallic threads for accents. There-in lies my first reason for having issues with this piece: I HATE metallic thread! SO... I decided to change the metallic threads to colored threads - and I chose the range of blues and greens I had acquired for an earlier Ink Circles BAP. Obstacle overcome. 

As you can see from the photo below:

I still have a long way to go. But it is on my rotation again and I hope to make a little progress this year.

​As for the other four long-term WIPS...

• ​For "Hope and Strength" and "Christmas 2023 SAL", I just need to overcome the panic that results when I think of all those beads with a thread-loving rambunctious kitten/cat named Li'l Sis who spends most of her time in my stitching area!
• For "Kogin", I need to step back, frog what little I have stitched and start over (or decide to not stitch it, which ever seems more logical at the time), Might be easier now that I have the entire pattern in hand (it was a SAL)
• For "Butterfly on a Scroll", I now have a decent portable light set-up to accommodate lousy hotel lighting and there are two long-weekend travel trips (husband's horticultural conventions) set up for this year so I may actually get some stitching in!

And I have (in my head, not on paper) put in a plan on weekends for each WIP (long-term and current) in my stash this year in order to make some progress. This might be derailed by temptation for more new starts but I am trying to scale back there...

~~~~~SALs~~~~~
​1. A NEW START: "Hope Faith Love" by Fox & Rabbit, a monthly SAL and probably the last free one they issue. Using 28 ct "Antique White" Lugana, Threadworx "Autumn Leaves" (1039) and DMC 436, 975 and 310, 2 over two:

I am actually on schedule! Here is the January installment:

 2. WIP - "Royal Gardens" by Fox & Rabbit (their 2023 SAL). I have completed five of the internal motif installments and the top border. There is a miscount in installment 1 (in the vase of flowers) so I have been placing motifs by how they relate to the border and each other, not the vase. For the most part, this is working out but, this past month, I discovered that the large circular motif to the right of the elves, while it is perfectly in line with the elves and the crown, it is off by one-half stitch and somehow ended up positioned too close that the little candelabra-like motif to its right. And I CAN"T FIND THE ERROR. This concerns me because I haven't completed the border and am not sure now of the placement of the last three internal installments of motifs.

So I bit the bullet and started the right-hand border so I could set up a baseline for those last three installments and ensure plenty of room without the threat of MASSIVE frogging... This border is a bear: what you see on the right is two weeks (1.5 to 2.5 hours of stitching per day) of stitching! This sampler is stitch-dense!

Here is my progress so far --- where I left off in the last post is in the left,  and the status as of last night at 10:30 PM is on the right:

 3. A FINISH!  "Temperature 2023" by Fox & Rabbit, a patreon pattern. The actual piece is done. I need to finish off those last hanging threads and chart and stitch a temperature key that I think will fit to the right of the pattern... 

4. Long Term WIP: Elizabeth Almond's "Save the Stitches", Blocks 78 and 79 are now complete:

~~~~~UPCOMING~~~~~

​I find is interesting that I seem to be doing all SALs at present. And there is one more in the pipeline.

The Stitchonomy "Winter 2024" has been ordered and the kit is supposedly in the email. This will be a weekly pattern scheduled to start February 9. I still don't have my kit and I'm not sure how the two-week advance for patreon members fits in with this date but I suspect there will be a start in the coming month, sometime.

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