December 2007Monthly Archives

Ok, so I know it’s a few days early, but 1) I don’t think this list will change much in the next 2 days, and 2) we were discussing on one of my stitching boards how we all did at meeting our stitching goals for 2007, so it got me thinking about it. Honestly, I didn’t even remember setting any goals for this year until I went back and searched my blog from this time last year. How pathetic is that?!

For 2007, I set a lofty list of 19 goals for the year. What the hell WAS I thinking?! Given that I’d forgotten that I actually did set some goals, I was surprised to see that I actually met just over half of them by completing 10 of the 19 items. Two others were actually halfway completed. If I had remembered setting these goals, I probably would’ve gone on and gotten those finished to knock them of my list.

Here’s the list with those items I actually completed indicated in bold:

2007 Goals:

1. Go on a stitching trip to Paris with Terri!! – got cancelled due to my back surgery
2. Finish Anything is Possible (Blue Ribbon Designs)
3. Finish Rosemarkie (Long Dog Samplers)
4. Finish B is for Bunny (The Sweetheart Tree)
5. Participate in one of Legacy Quaker Quarterly exchanges
6. Participate in ornament SAL
7. Participate in ornament RR
8. Finish remaining rounds of Quaker RR – unfortunately, still have 2 pieces to go
9. Start Taj Mahal (Chatelaine) – currently about 1/4 finished
10. Start Sampler Gameboard (The Drawn Thread) - currently about 1/4 finished
11. Start Home for the Holidays (Shepherd’s Bush) – started & finished
12. Start Moonlit Garden (Blackbird Designs) – currently about 1/3 finished
13. Start Quaker Samplings II (With My Needle )
14. Start Le Quaker a 6 Mains freebie (Le498/AMAP) – currently about 1/5 finished
15. Start Bunny Scissor Fob (Twisted Threads)
16. Start Old World Santas (Prairie Schooler )
17. Take at least 1 stitching class – actually took several this year!
18. Sort through charts and sell/trade things I know I’ll never stitch – only sorted them thus far
19. Frame at least 2 finished pieces – half finished, I got 1 piece framed this year

Here is a bit more of my 2007 Stitching Year in Review:

WIPs & Finishes:

Beginning 2007: 8 WIPs
New Starts: 41
Finishes: 26
Retired: 3 (knew I was just never going to finish these)
End 2007: 21 WIPs

So, given that I didn’t do so well in meeting my goals for 2007, and my current excessive number of WIPs, I have decided to only set a single goal for myself in 2008. With the exception of my traditional New Year’s Day new start (more on that later) and my Fair & Square exchange piece due in late February, I will not start ANY new pieces until I have finished 10 of my current WIPs. I’ve never had as many as 21 WIPs going before and that’s just TOO many, even for me.

I think one contributing factor to the excessive number of WIPs right now is that fact that I learned to needlepoint in 2007. So, not only do I have cross stitcing WIPs, I have needlepoint WIPs as well. I need to get a better handle on them though because I don’t want to let my WIP pile become so large that I find myself constantly shuffling all the WIPs in and out of rotation and nothing is actually getting finished.

I mentioned my traditional New Year’s Day new start earlier. This is something I’ve actually done for many years, so I’m going to do it again this year in spite of my no new starts goal. I’ve not decided definitely what project will be my New Year’s Day new start, but I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to 4 possibilities (in no particular order):

1. Winter’s Tale (Shepherd’s Bush)
2. Prairie Sampler (Little House Needleworks)
3. Acorn Hill (Little House Needleworks)
4. A Chill is in the Air (Homespun Elegance)

The LHN designs are calling me because I LOVE Diane’s designs and these are stitched with my new favorite silk of choice, Belle Soie by Crescent Colors. I have the charts & fibers already and more than enough fabric options should I decide to select one of these designs.

The Shepherd’s Bush design is calling my name because I think the little snowman is just adorable! There also just seems to be something fitting about stitching a snowman this time of year, even though we don’t really get snow here in SoCal where I live. He’s also stitched all in silk, but with AVAS and Waterlilies. This design came fully kitted, so he’s ready to go should he be the selected design.

The Homespun Elegance design is calling my name, quite honestly, because the colors in it are so amazingly yummy. I saw the chart at my LNS and, while I thought it was very nice, it didn’t really call my name. Unfortunately for me, I turned it over and saw all the wonderful autumn tones in the Crescent Colors cotton that came with it. Given that my LNS was having a 35% off all kits as part of their moving sale at the time, how could I NOT get it really? (Work with me here ) This is another design that I can assure you that the photo simply does NOT do the colors justice. They are divine!

So those are (for now) my finalists for my New Year’s Day new start. I may end up having to do a floss toss of each in order to ultimately make a decision. If you’d like to tell me which you’d one you would choose to stitch, just leave me a comment. You never know, it might help me make up my mind.

I wish each and every one of you a very happy stash-filled 2008! Happy stitching.