OhSewCrafty Blog

 Time to recap… happy New Year everyone!  

Goal No. 1 was Maiden and Unicorn by Vermillion Stitchery was about 50% finished and now it’s about 95% percent after 29 days this year, I suppose.  It needs a bit more xstitch (feather on her headpiece), lots more backstitch, and beading, and cleanup of all the parked thread of course.  I have allotted 5 days for her in January 2018 and that should be enough time to finish.

Goal No. 2 was Snowman & Friends Stocking by Dimensions Gold was a half done UFO, which I finished July 14 after copious backstitching, couching and french knots (hello swirling snow!)  Christmas in July for the win!

Goal No. 3 was Castle by Teresa Wentzler, was 70% complete and I finished May 23 after ~ 7 evenings of backstitching that dragon with various metallic fibers.  Yay for Maynia (serial starting event), which lights a fire under me to finish stuff!  

Goal No. 4 was Fall Fairy by Dimensions Gold, which started about 3% done, it’s now about 50%, after 22 days effort this year.  As for the finish goal, I fell short obviously, having drastically underestimated the time I would need for completion.  Hopefully I can finish it next year.

Goal No. 5 was Summer Bellpull by Stoney Creek, which was 80% complete, I finished March 13, after ~2 hours of backstitching on each of the 6 blocks, well in time to sew it into a bellpull before Summer, but that didn’t happen, oh well.  

Goal No. 6 was Earth Goddess by Joan Elliott, which I finished February 27, with copious backstitch especially that green Kreinik vine.  I do love her so, one of my favorite finishes all year.

Goal No. 7 was Aphrodite by Mirabilia, which I finished March 24, and actually framed during the summer.  The secondary goal was to start another mermaid, which I did in November and made a nice little start.

Goal No. 8 new starts, especially King Arthur’s Court (31 days effort), Fire Goddess (finished August 30), and Titania (finished December 4).  Besides those, I started 22 other projects… egads!  What happened to the Year of WIPs?  I managed to get 24 finishes, so my wip count remains decent.  I did meet most of my finish goals, but seriously I don’t want or need to be starting so many projects.

Goal No. 9 was handknits.  I did not work on any of the projects mentioned in my intro post, but I did start & finish a rather epic sweater project, Shakespeare in Love.  No pics yet, sorry.  Soon, I promise!   I also started another “Christmas” sweater… Coraline by Ysolda.  It’s beautiful and easy but slow, with 200+ stitches on US 4 needles.  

Goal No. 10 was sewing clothes and home dec projects.  I sewed my son’s Halloween costume, which took a lot longer than I supposed it would when he chose the pattern, but I did manage to finish it, and he loved wearing it to trick or treat, and as dress up clothes since.  I wasn’t really feeling the home dec projects, but at least I managed to decorate for Thanksgiving, then Christmas, in timely fashion(s).  I suppose framing falls under this category… I framed 12 projects in 2017 and I am very proud of that number, it went a long way towards reducing the backlog and using the frames I had stashed.

As for my December stitching, early in the month I had a bee in my bonnet to finish Titania, which I managed Dec 4th.  I worked on King Arthur, and Winnie the Pooh, Maiden & the Unicorn (pics above) and started a new project on December 10th, the Mill Hill Wagon ornie, which I did finally finish Dec 30.

Honestly December wasn’t the greatest stitchy month because I spent an a lot of time framing and on various Christmas prep, gifts, decorating, baking, wrapping, family fun, travel… I was too tired to stitch most evenings and then I got sick before Christmas.  Hopefully I can get back into a groove in the New Year because I have big plans!