2014: Year in Review & Goals Assessment

Every year I seem to have fewer and fewer finishes.  I suppose that is to be expected as I slow down with age.  But I'll be retiring 3/4s of the way through 2015 and should see the trend reverse in future years as I have more leisure time.  I look forward to that most heartily.

Total # of Projects completed: 40

Total # of Smalls/Ornaments: 26. 1 Patriotic Heart ornament, 3 Valentine's Heart ornaments, 12 Town Square ornaments, 1 PS Christmas ornament, 5 small pin pillows, 1 Baby Bib, 2 Autumn ornaments, Mystic Smalls Needle Book

Total # of Medium projects completed: 12.   By the Bay Needle Arts 2010 Easter Bunny, Cross My Heart's Cumin [tea towel], Cross My Heart's Rosemary [tea towel], Cross My Heart's Sage [tea tpwel], Dragon Dreams' Here Be Dragons, Dragon Dreams' Compass Rose Dragon, Easter Egg Band Sampler, Homespun Elegance's Owls' Night Out, Pineberry Lane's Autumn on Marigold Lane, Pineberry Lane's Mehitabel's Redwork Sampler, Pineberry Lane's Tansy, Yarrow and Rue sampler, Sue Hillis' The Pirate's Creed.

Total # of Large projects completed: 2.  Dragon Dreams' The Dragon of the Winter Moon, Dragon Dreams The Dragon's Tea Party

Total # of BAPs completed:

Total # of Sewing & Assembly Finishes: 25

Ornaments: 22

Totes: 0

Pin Pillows: 2

Throw Pillows: 0
Scissor Fobs: 1

• ASSESSING 2014 GOALS AND SETTING 2015 GOALS
• There has been more positive movement than negative on these goals.  I am really quite pleased with my stitching year.
• 1. My Own Crazy Challenge: work on unfinished class pieces from 2005-date.  I did get back to the Mystic Smalls projects and continued work on this year's class project, The Kindred Spirits stitching journal.  I am nearly done with the former and have made some progress on the later.  I should be able to tackle the Sturbridge Box and accessories sometime in the first quarter of 2015.  And in the second quarter, I'll work on The Christmas Sampler from 2013.  Since I'll be taking a class with Thea in October, I'd like to get all my Victoria Sampler class projects from previous years done to bring to Show and Tell night.  I'd also like to finish a sampler I purchased, The Pumpkin Farm.
• 02. Complete two BAPs: Stitch stockings for Piper and Rocco.  I am afraid I let this slip by the wayside, focusing mainly on The English Band Sampler as my primary BAP this year.
• 03. Stitch a few more Heart ornaments for the Anniversary-Valentine's Day tree.   I stitched four more heart ornaments, one for the Patriotic tree in May and three for the Anniversary and Valentine's Day tree in Jan/Feb.  A goal met in full.
• 04. Stitch one ornament a month from the 2006 Indy Town Square SAL.  I stitched and did the assembly finishes on twelve more ornaments this year ... so this goal was met in full.
• 05. Continue to work on UFOs and WIPs list going into 2014.   I am very near a finish on The English Band Sampler, which leaves seven projects remaining on this list.  I would have liked to eliminate a few more pieces from this list but it was not to be.
• 06. Limit stash purchases to fabric, fiber and tools needed to complete charts on hand.  I didn't buy any new charts this year, though I did pick up a few free charts at the Mystic Stitcher's Hideaway.  If you look at my previous post, you will see that my expenditures were limited to a retreat and to fabric, floss and tools.
• 07. Continue to blog regularly, aiming for every other day.  Just as in the past few years, I haven't actually blogged every other day but the number of my posts does exceed half of 365.
• 08. Make an effort to catch up on sewing finishes and frame 2 or 3 pieces professionally.  I left this rather late in the year, but since October 1, I have completed 25 finishes which works out to 2 a month, meeting the goal.
• 09. Inventory and declutter existing stash.  I have been systematically pulling charts from stash for my one new start each month.  This year, I concentrated on my Dragon Dreams charts.  I stitched five of these charts and passed them on to other stitcher's as I completed them.  I also gave away a number of Pineberry Lane and Homespun Elegance charts as well as some door prize charts from the Mystic Stitcher's Hideaway that I knew I would never stitch.  And I culled a number of other charts that I had stitched but, for no particularly good reason, I was saving.  They were offered as giveaways in November and December.  I plan to continue to give away charts I have stitched, with a very few exceptions, and by mid 2015, I should have trimmed my chart stash down to a manageable level.  At that point, I will actually take an inventory, make up a spread sheet and start planning for the future.  In 2015, I hope to work on Workbasket Quaker animals  and my remaining dragon charts as my monthly new starts.
• 10. Change EGA membership to cyber-stitcher.   I missed the chance to do this because my renewal doesn't come up again till March 2015 ... I'd forgotten that I had signed up for a two year membership last time around.  

                GOALS FOR 2015

• 1. My Own Crazy Challenge: work on unfinished class pieces from 2005-date.   There are still 9 projects on this list.  I'd like to pare it down to four this year.  I'll be concentrating on the Victoria Sampler charts since I'll be taking a class with Thea in October and would like to bring my finishes of her designs to Show & Tell night.
• 02. Complete two BAPs:  Stitch stockings for Piper and Rocco.  
• 03. Seasonal Stitching Disorder Projects.  Stitch one Prairie Schooler Year Round in the appropriate month, thus adding to my seasonal ornament collection in a disciplined and consistent fashion.  Furthermore, stitch The Trilogy's Winter Spots  for the late February tree and a few Easter ornaments for the Spring tree.  
• 04. Stitch one ornament a month from the 2006 Indy Town Square SAL.   I am not sure I will stitch all of the 12 remaining buildings.  Some of the shops, like the Wedding Shop, the Tannebaum Shop and the Abecedarium, don't really interest me.  But we shall see how many others take my fancy.  I had thirty ornaments done by Christmas 2014 which made for a fairly respectable Small Town USA themed Tree.  Anything I stitch in 2015 will be icing on the cake.
• 05. Continue to work on UFOs and WIPs list going into 2014.   There are  seven projects remaining on this list.  I'd love to pare it down to just two or three.
• 06. Limit stash purchases to fabric, fiber and tools needed to complete charts on hand as well as my annual Stitcher's Hideaway and some framing.  
• 07. Continue to blog regularly, aiming for every other day.  
• 08. Make an effort to catch up on sewing finishes and frame 2 or 3 pieces professionally.  
• 09. Inventory and declutter existing stash.  My inventory is slowly shrinking.  I have been systematically pulling charts from stash for my one new start each month.   In 2015, I hope to work on Workbasket Quaker animals and my remaining dragon charts as my monthly new starts.  Once I have caught up with those, I will work on the remaining Halloween charts.  This should eliminate another dozen or so charts.
• 10. Change EGA membership to cyber-stitcher.

A Lengthy & Overdue Post

In one of the last of my pre-disappearance posts, back in April, I said I'd post photos on Wednesday ... I  just didn't say which Wednesday.  In religion class, I would call that a lie of omission..  Now, I don't lie as a general rule.  But, somehow, life made a liar out of me.  May is always a very busy month in Religious Education: end of semester and quarter tests and progress reports, First Communion, Confirmation, Registration for next September, developing the calendar and volunteer roster for next September, the last catechist meeting of the year, regional and archdiocesan end-of-year meetings, updating permanent record cards, textbook inventory and orders.  To say the least, I was slammed at work.  And then, in June, there are all the end-of-year celebrations which I tend to consider worse than work: the parish's afternoon reception for volunteers, the parish team end-of-year dinner, the archdiocesan Communion Breakfast.  There's also plenty of clean-up and catch-up work leftover from May: making appointments for testing all the children whose parents thought Little League was more important than finals, continuing with registration, dealing with parents disappointed with their children's final progress report, dealing with parents who can't quite understand why they are closed out of the classes they "need" when they waited till the fifth week of registration to come in and why shouldn't their little darlings jump to the head of the Tuesday waiting list instead of being placed in a Thursday class where there is adequate room.  It's a fun month and probably the month with the highest number of complaints.  It's also the month when I consider a career change nearly every year.  But somehow I get through it with my sense of ministry and mission intact.  But, I don't think I have ever gone a whole month without blogging since I began writing this one.  Not only have I gone two whole months without barely a post or two ... I have been doing very little stitching, which explains why I had so little about which to blog!  Mostly I have been reading and vegging out.  I guess it's to be expected that as I get closer to retirement age that it takes me longer to spring back from a school year.  And it surely doesn't help that the Social Security Administration keeps moving the finish line.  I expected to retire with full benefits at 65 and now I'll have to wait till 66.5.   Hell, I remember  attending the World's Fair back in '63 in NYC where the folks at the GE Pavilion had promised that by the time the millennium rolled around, we would all be working from our homes on networked computers and we would be enjoying shorter work days and more leisure time.  Promises! Promises!

But, finally, I do have a few photos to show you of two off-goal projects ... with so little stitching time available to me, I just went haywire and worked on a few quick stitches/easy new starts.

The first is a bookmark started long ago, before I started lining my bookmarks, simply fringing them.  I  designed this one as I went along, using bands of my favorite specialty stitches.  I may go ahead and line this one after the fact, anyway.

And a small freebie sampler [from Plum Street Sampler, I think] that I changed up a bit, replacing the alphabet with the greeting "Happy Halloween".  I'll finish this piece either as a trick or treat bag for one of my grandchildren or as a small throw pillow.





Not much to show for two entire months ... just two tiny projects, one of which was already started.

But I hope to get back into my usual stitching routines in the coming months.  July is a much more reasonable month at work: ongoing registration slows to a trickle, the summer building maintenance walk-through is a thing of the past, the supplies inventory is done.  All that's left is  preparing the 2013-14 Catechist Binders, updating catechist files and some summer home study evaluations.  Mostly just paperwork.  And a more sanity inducing schedule of 9-5, Mon-Thurs.  I may even get ahead of the game, writing and developing some special Family Catechesis Events for November and March.  And then, in August, four glorious weeks of vacation before the whole thing starts up again in September.  There's a certain comfort in the cyclic nature of my work, since I can count on breathers after mad rushes.

In a finishing sort of mood

Last night I finished stitching my adaptation of the Friendship Sampler [designer unknown, due to my sloppy downloading and printing]. Since I had Barbara's blogaversary gift awaiting a finish [photos to be shown once the piece is in its new home] and I wanted to finish the Sampler in the same way, I spent this morning assembling and trimming two pin pillows filled with ground walnut shells and lined with muslin. The pin pillow is pictured above a swatch of the backing fabric. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it enough so that you can see all the specialty stitches I used to make this a real sampler: the border is made up of brick stitches, tent stitches and a square Rhodes stitch and I incorporated lazy daisy, long stitches, Queen stitches and eyelet stitches into the body of the piece. I had a grand time making the piece my own. And while in a finishing mood, I went on to finish this little patriotic ornament from Prairie Schooler. I used some hand-dyed chenille from RR Reproductions as trim for both pin pillows and some hand-twisted white cord for the ornament. For the ornament, I used some beads leftover from a Kreinik kit to make the hanger and added this cute little silver USA charm that has been kicking around in my bead box for years. Once I have posted this entry, I'll return to measuring, cutting and padding the boards for five Town Square ornaments that have been languishing in the finishing basket.

Keeping up with the sewing finishes, exchanges, S.E.X. & WIPs

I have a backlog of about 16 sewing finishes, so I am determined to avoid adding to it. For the past two months I have been completing two sewing finishes from the backlog each month and have been keeping up with current finishes. I want to get to the point when all I will have left are the two quilts for which I am collecting blocks. I intend to make a queen size quilt from all the Workbasket Quaker animals I have been stitching and a lap quilt from all the owl pieces I have been stitching. Those will be major projects and I will consult with some friends in the local quilters guild before graphing my layout for those finishes. Today's finish photos are in the "current" category.

First, the trick or treat bag for my grandson Liam that I stitched using Raise the Roof's BooWhoo? from the JCS Halloween ornament issue. I actually did the finishing on this piece during the last week of September but am only now getting around to taking pictures. Since Liam is only 14 months old, I can't very well fill it with candy nor would I want to ... so I am stuffing it with these socks from The Sock Lady.

The color ways are called Firefly and Dragonfly and I think they are the neatest baby gear I have seen yet ... and as the proud Grandma of my very first and, to date, only grandchild, I have seen quite a lot of neat baby gear in the past year or so. A lady on the 123 stitch board posted about The Sock Lady and, of course, I had to check it out. Pediatricians are telling young moms to delay putting babies in shoes for a while. Thus, thick socks are the new shoes. I am lucky inasmuch as my daughter-in-law and I have pretty similar taste ... useful since exchanging gifts is a bit tricky when my son and his family live on the West coast and I live on the East. But I can just see Christina getting as excited about these socks as I did ... and I can just hear Sean making the same comment as Bill did, "Why are there five socks to a set and, uh, wait a second, they don't match, do they? Never mind, forget I asked!" In any case, Liam's toes will stay warm no matter how damp and chilly the Northwest gets this winter.

And, just because I only received this picture recently: here is Liam's 2007 Halloween photo with the Trick or Treat Bag I stitched for him back then ... I don't know why it looks as though there is black tracery in the stitched piece ... it sure as heck wasn't there when I stitched it.

The second finish is Diane Cripps' Pumpkin ornament for my Halloween tree at work. I finished this as a flat ornament and created a beaded edge by loading three green beads onto each of the closely placed whipstitches holding the piece to its backing and then added a bracelet style hanger travelling from top left corner to top right corner stringing a copper bead alternating with five green beads for the length of the hanger.

I am also including some shots of a recent Halloween exchange ... I am one very lucky lady. I love the ornament ... even better than my own stitched version ... somehow it looks so much better stitched over one. And the socks will keep my inner child giggling all month long. I believe I'll make the ornament kit my purse project for waiting rooms and such.

Also, I received the custom-made buttons I needed to finish my Raise the Roof Crabby All Year last Saturday ... Patti A from Canada is an artist, don't you agree? I am now officially spoiled and will never look at a JABCo button in quite the same way again. Here's a photo of the finished Crabby All Year and a close-up of Patti's buttons on the piece.

And then, at the suggestion of one of the many enablers at the 123stitch MB, I checked out the buttons and trims available at Farmhouse Fabrics ...

Okay, so I went a little wild purchasing buttons ... mother of pearl and glass and brass and celluloid ... and the colors: ivory, ebony, ecru, tangerine, lime, purple, emerald and pearl. At least, I'll have no problem finishing my biscornus for the next little while.

And, finally, this is just back from the framer ... I stitched it last January but thought I'd get it framed in time to use this winter.