WIPocalypse Check-In, January 6, 2019

In the event that you are not familiar with WIPocalypse, it is a yearly challenge by Measi's Musings where Melissa, the blog owner states:

"The WIPocalypse was a stitch-a-long playing up on the joke that the world will end in 2012.  It’s short for Works In Progress Apocalypse."The goal of the WIPocalypse is to make progress on your projects.  How you go about this is your choice."

Since then, there have been WIPocalypse SALs each year and this year is the start of WIPocalypse 2019.

Each month there is a "Question of the Month", an incarnation of “Stitcher Blogger Questions.” This was started on WIPocalypse in 2015 and continues through this new year.

I have participated in WIPOcalypse since it's inception in 2012, answering monthly questions to the best of my ability, and reporting on my progress (nil in 2017/2018) on my WIPs and even on a few UFOs.

This year, there is a twist in that in the months of March, June/July and October, we are challenged to stitch at least one stitch a day every day. This challenge is inspired by a 100 Day HAED Challenge via Facebook that Melissa did in 2018.  Melissa says it worked amazingly well to make great progress.  She says it’s simple, takes only a few minutes, and will help push along that project you keep avoiding or just need a little extra focus to move forward. Here's hoping this works as I plan on trying to jump-start my stitchery which has been non-existent (except for the purchase of a few kitted-up charts I simply couldn't resist from Michael Powell and Glendon Place!)

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Now, on to list the four WIPs (trending toward UFOs as they have languished for over two years since I broke my wrist in 2016...).

• Elizabeth Almond's "Save the Stitches" blackwork sampler, started in late February of 2014 and put away in April of 2015​

• "Palm Tree Elegance", a Dimensions needlework piece in my travel bag (I only stitch on this while traveling, in hotel rooms, etc.), started in November 2010 and put away after the last road trip in July of 2016:

• "Biltmore", a kit I purchased at the Biltmore Estate in July of 2014 and stitched on briefly in the coffee shop at that estate. I have stitched on it once or twice since then but made little progress from my sole published photo - in fact it has regressed a little since much of the work I did in that coffee shop had to be frogged. This piece also lives in my travel bag:

• and finally, "Love Is.., an intended first anniversary gift for a niece which has missed that deadline and may not make the second as well at there ate I am going. Started in September 0f 2016 and was put away when I broke my wrist, brought out briefly in February of 2017 as a test run of my wrists ability to hold the frame, and put back after an hour and less than four backstitched letters - no shown here (and/or frogged letters!):

Please note:

1. I am NOT counting some UFOs that are still in my list from 2010:

• "Antique Rose" napkins
• "Angel of Love"
• "Celestial Angel"
• "Map of England and Wales"
• "Harvest Sampler"
• "Nature's Song" (excerpted from a larger chart)

2. I am NOT counting all the finish-finish pieces that I recently put altogether in a LARGE bin in my crafting space.​

3. I am NOT counting all the kitted up kits and projects that I have stashed in my stitchery cupboard (on the left, below: I dread to think how many are in there) and (on the right below) in another travel bag (at least ten, maybe more) and my in-house project bag (at least three needlepoint pieces and several more cross-stitch pieces). 

I mean, a woman has to have some limits! 

Anyway my goals include getting as much of those first four listed WIPS done in 2018 as possible.  And maybe start a needlepoint piece or three...

• This year, I will try the "stitch a day" exercises. All four of those WIPS are good candidates  but I don't think I will do a rotation --- that is where I went wrong in the first place, pre-wrist break, with all those BAPS in rotation and no smalls to keep my interest going!). 
• I will TRY to finish that "Love Is.." sampler for my niece sometime before her FIFTH anniversary.
• I WILL stitch on "Palm Tree Elegance" on two road trips and one cruise scheduled for this coming summer, but am pretty sure it will NOT be finished. 
• "Biltmore" will be on the road trips and cruise but I'm not sure I will get to it - light in hotel rooms and on cruise ships sucks when trying to stitch beige on ivory! That is why it has been frogged at least once!

My least attractive goal of all is to sort and put away my DMC floss and, if time allows, make some sense of those kits and kitted charts in the cupboard shown above.

​And I will try to be a better stitcher by putting away all finished materials once a project is done instead of piling them on the table to "deal with later" (That is what got my stitching space into such a mess, after all!). How' that for  New Year's resolution?