January 2017

So January, the month of Resolutions (Lol I dont have any!) Organization, and Plans... So with 2 out of 3, let's start with the Organization idea....
 My biggest issue with my stitching is that, with so limited a time to work on it per day -if any- it HAS to be organized and easy access. Now add in a very mischievious young cat with lol, no brains, memory or sense of boundaries, well it also has to be packed away at the end of every work session or risk being destroyed. So Im ever on the hunt for a good way to store wips on qsnaps so I can just grab and go, and the materials just live in a bag for whichever project. The trouble Ive run into is more and more of my wips are growing into bigger qsnaps, and a storage solution for that (that wont take over the whole bedroom) is where Im at now. So hmmmm. Perhaps another "under the bed'' plastic tote, but the one I currently have takes up so much room I cant fit 2 there, but if I could find something of that sort it'd work. But I havent yet. And I must. Soon. So that's at the forefront of my January to-do list. What HAS been accomplished in the name of organization is getting some patterns organized- namely the Hannah Alexander Mucha Disney Princess charts, and the freebie SALs from Snowflower Diaries and the Brooke's Books Advent animals. Now that they are all organized and have binders to live in it's much easier to plan out and work on these, which brings me to the Plans stage :) .
Ah Plans.....
That magical little word that holds such promise, plans are always great to have, and mine seem to have the added glamour of always changing due to the "whatevers" that pop up. For that reason I dont usually make long term plans regarding what I'll start (or even, gasp! finish) so usually if I can think a month ahead Im doing great. But what has been on my mind these last few months is I would like to get some things going in 2017. Aside from the demands of the Etsy store I would like to take on 2 specific stitching goals. One is to start doing some xmas type projects, such as ornaments in particular, and use some of the bazillion patterns in the stash for said items, or the samplers and scenes therin also. The other is those Mucha Disney Princesses...

They have long been my collecting goal, and there are only 3 remaining to be charted. I do hope though, that Pinky will chart up other works of Hannah's, because they truly are gorgeous. But if not then so be it, at least I found Disney Princesses in a style that appeals enough that I'd stitch it. That said, I only have Merida started, Esmeralda, and now Ariel and Elsa, are waiting to be started; with Tiana, Kida and Anna the next to collect thier floss. My goal for 2017 is to get the complete set, and thier materials rounded up. Beads, I might go a different route than Mill Hill and get hanks or kilos if that is cheaper (no doubtedly so!)
I plan to keep the tradition of Guilt Free January going, so some of these may see a start in the next couple weeks.
Beyond these two ideas I have not made any other goals or plans for the stitching, it's very much as it happens in my spare time. That said, January has seen some great progress on 3 wips and 1 new start.
  First wip was my Ireland conversion of LLCeltic Autumn.

This was the project for the last week of Dec, and saw the most time on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day morning, which is why I include it here. Already I am glad that I did not jump the gun and release the Horse chart yet. As you can see, my original horse design didnt "fit" with the Celtic Lady, and I had to change the leg accordingly so this horse doesnt look like a giraffe! So it is, the odd perspective of the Celtic Ladies having very short torsos and super long skirts was a challenge to adapt my horse to not look stupid standing next to them, and normal horse conformation had to be re-thought on how it could even work. Simply put, it is much easier to just design a stand -alone thing than it is to mesh things together, but this is where Ireland's horse lives lol, so he'd better look alright ;). Now I just have to fix and frog the leg to look right.

  The 2nd Wip

was Victoria's Sampler's "Gingerbread House" that had a bit of progress and the discovery that I miscounted somewhere, Ugh, no suprise being it was started in Dec when the holiday madness was rampant lol. So it waits to be fixed now. It's stitched on the recommended fabric with DMC instead of silk and I love how it looks so far. Or rather once it's fixed ;).
  The 3rd Wip was Mirabilia's My Lady's Garden. I love this project but had a hard time getting into it this round. I usually work on it when I miss my sister (cuz it's for her when finished) so it saw some progress on Xmas and the day after.

  And the new Start was done on New Years Day, and it is Mirabilia's "Gypsy Queen", on a 28 count linen that I dyed myself with a random mix of all the dyes I had. So it's very "carnival" I think. She has had a modification, and back when I started her in May '16 (but was scrapped due to wrong color fabric) I had decided that she, and several others were going to be a makeshift "set" that I would do, and display together. So GQ is a musician now and has a tambourine. Im still searching for the perfect bling to make it authentic, but it seems what I had in mind isnt in style for jewelry parts anymore, and so I need to hunt or adapt something more easily obtained. But here is what is happening so far with her, and I love working on her.

  So January has been off to a great start in stitchy adventures... and I must needs embark on another.... :)  Thanks for stopping by!