January 2019 WIPocalypse post

Yes!  I WILL participate in the WIPocalypse this year!  I will post regular updates, and make progress!

Wait.

I was supposed to post 2 days ago?  Well crap.

LOL

So here is my update...
...I actually finished something!  My New Years' start, Plum Street Samplers' "Cape Cod Keeps" stitched as a single piece, is done.

I even took it in to my local frame shop, because I had the perfect frame in my stash of finishing materials (something I acquired from a thrift store years ago, I'm pretty sure I had another piece in mind for it, but this was just too perfect).  My framer is only charging me $20 to mount it, put spacers in, and replace the glass.  And yes, I know I *could* do it myself, but I'm just never quite pleased with my own stretching/pinning/lacing skills when it comes to framing.  For an ornament or other small....sure.  But not things I want to display more permanently.  And I can't complain about $20 charge!  It seems more than fair, and I like supporting a local shop instead of the big craft store chains.

I'm currently working on a small, and I also need to start a tooth fairy pillow for my niece and ANOTHER ornament for a niece or nephew arriving in August....my sister and her husband were taken completely by surprise with this one.  They are referring to this one as "Daisy" until it is born.  I'd also like to dig out another WIP for February - either Ink Circles "Turrets and Town" or my Lavender and Lace Family Garden sampler.

WIPocalypse Question of the Month:What SALs are you participating in this year?
1) well, obviously the WIPocalpyse!
2) the Fully Finished Gallery SAL - posting will happen on the 10th of each month.  I love the idea of showing off a fully-finished thing every month, and I certainly have the bin of completed-but-not-finished items to support such an undertaking.
3) I might join the Smalls SAL again, but I'm not sure.  If I do, I probably won't manage a small finish every month (obviously, since I've already missed January.)

There, I've managed my first WIPocalypse post and it wasn't TOO late....we'll see how I do with the next deadline (February 24 - see, I'm including it here so I have no excuse for forgetting!).

Trying the WIPocalypse AGAIN

If you look to the right, and scroll aaaaallll the waaaaaay down to the bottom of my list of post tags, you'll see that I've attempted the WIPocalypse SAL at least 3 times (2012, 2015, and 2018).  I think I may have started it another year or 2 in there, and then deleted the tags because my posting was embarrassingly sporadic.  But its a new year....so let's try this again!

INTRODUCTION
I'm Erin.  I've been stitching for about 30 years now, blogging for almost 15, and on Teh Interwebz for longer than that.  I'm a librarian, a wife, a mom, and a juvenile diabetic.  I love many nerdy things, including renaissance faires, Firefly, and Big Bang Theory.  My stitching tastes swing wildly from pop culture/geekdom quotes to Quakers and even "cutesy" pieces, and I have a weakness for Halloween and All Things Santa.   Besides stitching and collecting patterns, I also love to find nifty finishing ideas - I've put a mermaid sampler in a lighthouse, finished numerous pieces into box toppers, and modified all sorts of things into ornaments and display pieces.

So, what do I want to accomplish in 2019?  Hmmm.  I got crazy last year and did my own version of "May-nia," and kitted up/started several pieces that - ahem - aren't finished.  I'm easily distracted by small things, especially if I have envisioned the Perfect Finishing Project!  The big projects end up languishing.  I shall list them here, if only to shame myself into working on them.

1. Modern Folk Embroidery's "Secret Sky" Quaker.  Huge, even on the 36-ct. linen that I'm using.  I'm using a variegated DMC floss, so that kept the price down, but I've yet to roll the scroll bars despite starting it in May of last year.  I'd like to finish a solid chunk or 2 of that.
2. Ink Circles "Turrets and Town."  I'm about...1/2? 2/3?.... done with this one.  
3. Marbek/Serendipity Designs' "Seaside Angel."  I went so far as to order a special background fabric for this one - "Sky, Sea, Sand" from Sunny Dyes - and made a bit of progress.  Then I discovered I was missing some metallics, put it away while I waited for my LNS to order them, and never got back to it.
4. Much to my embarrassment, I discovered Told In A Garden's "Family Treasure III" band sampler hidden in my grandmother's old desk in the spare bedroom.  Ack.  I started that in 2015.  I got creative and replaced a band of hearts that I didn't like (the more I looked at them, the more it looked like 1985) with lazy daisies, and then burned out and tucked it out of sight.  Time to buckle down on that one...
5. Small project - I promised my niece a tooth fairy pillow.  She wants one like the one I made her sister, only in different colors.  It should be easy enough, since the pattern is from a "One-Hour Cross Stitch" book...it is just the fiddly finishing that I need to be in the mood to do.
6. Other small projects as they call to me....
7. And one final thing - I have a mission to finish at least one or 2 of the many mermaid-themed patterns in my stash before Celebration of Needlework at the end of May.  To that end, I've started Plum Street Samplers' "Cape Cod Keeps" as one large(r) piece instead of 2 small pillows.  I've changed almost all of the colors, and modified the design a bit...
   
   The large seaweed flowers to the left of the whale just made everything seem too crowded, so I left them out altogether (which is also helpful from the floss conservation standpoint, because I'm not sure I have enough of the green over-dye that I'm using!).  This is not the greatest picture - it was taken last night under my stitching lamp and with my phone - but I'm posting it now just to keep me honest!!  
8. Oh, and I dabble in quilting from time to time, too.  My attempts are laughable, but made with love, so you never know what might show up here...I started a superhero quilt for my husband some time ago, and that's still in pieces on my basement table....

So that's about it for now.  I hope you'll all check in on me from time to time, and I'll try to do the same and cheer everyone on.  (I also have to confess to being a less-than-perfect blog follower -work and parenting and all that, you know.)