April's Check-in for WIPocalypse

http://measi.net/measiblog/ Measi's blog hosts the WIPocalypse where Stitchers receive encouragement from each other to pull out those projects that are hidden, I mean lovingly stored in the dark depth of a very large bin(s), I mean small basket sitting by the bedside and finish them up before the world ends.

This months question is so befitting for me - to talk about your oldest/or longest running WIP/UFO.

Where do I start? I have several that are very, very old, in fact one is older than my kids, but since I've not really worked on it for a long time, I don't think it is the one I want to talk about, but it still haunts me.

I have two that I would put into the long running projects.   The first I started maybe 15 years ago or so, but could be longer, wish I would have written it down.  I had done an angel for myself and one for my first grandchild and got this bright idea that I would do an angel for each of my children, starting with the oldest.   I mean at the time they indicated you could stitch one in about 400 hours or so, that's not a lot right?

However life happened, the grandchildren start to come - and there were rag quilts to sew, Christmas stockings to stitch and of course angels for each :)  so this angel got put aside with the though that one day it would be finished.    Also I really didn't like stitching with the rayon thread and thought I would switch it out before I got too far.

Well when my daughter got so sick, panic set in and I felt like I had to finish it.  If I could finish it she would get better.  So I pulled it back out and stitched on it for a couple of week until reality set in and I knew it wasn't going to make a difference.   I found myself crying more than stitching and decided it was time to put it back away until I got through my grief.  One day it will come back out and I will finish it.  Since my granddaughter has her own angel, this will be an added one, I'm thinking when she gets married or gets her own home it will be something to give her, or maybe for her child one day?   Still don't like working with the rayon thread, but I'll get it done one way or another.

The second longest project is my Mirabilia August Fairy - Peridot.  She is pretty much all stitched and ONLY needs beads added and I have maybe 1/2 of them on already.  I don't know why I'm procrastinating on finishing this one.  She has been in this state for several years now and patiently sits on the floor stand waiting for the rest of her love to come.

I'm hoping to have her done and off to my daughter for her birthday this year.  I have 3 other pictures that need to be framed, so will most likely do them all at one time.

We won't talk about all of the other 40-50 projects that are waiting for love, some are older, some are newer, but if you stick around long enough and you'll most likely see or hear about each of them.  They all have their own story to tell and if you listen closely enough you can hear it.  I don't stop stitching on them because I don't like them anymore, I generally stop because I get distracted by something else :)  There aren't any that I can honest say I don't want to finish.

So what have I been doing since my last post?  Not a whole lot of anything.  Hubby had a knee replacement.  While the surgery went well, he has some other complications that delayed his rehab and extended his time in the hospital.  He is home now, but for some reason has decided that he needs to be waited on hand and foot.  Generally I wouldn't complain too loudly, but this time of year is extremely busy at work as well.  So I've not had an opportunity to go and stitch with my lady friends, or go and stitch at Starbucks on Sunday mornings.  I'm too exhausted by the time I sit down in the evening to pick up any stitching.  I don't enjoy cooking, I really don't like cleaning the kitchen and I certainly am not going to wash the windows no matter what hubby thinks!!

I'm hoping to get that corrected here shortly, hubby is off the walker and using a cane, so he can stand long enough to cook dinner!!  I'm still having to bring him his food and clean the kitchen afterwards, but it's getting there.

Last weekend I decided to re-charge my mojo with a new start (like I need one more project going, reference above 40-50 started currently), but did it anyways.  I'm hoping for another grandchild, so I'm planning ahead :)  I enjoy stitching the SB stocking and they are generally easy and pretty fast.

While I have not been stitching, I did do some knitting on my sock.  It was easy to knit while waiting for hubby to go to doctor appointments.  Knitting is my go-to when I need something portable and mindless to do because its just a basic sock pattern.  I finished the first sock and started the second.  Since I've not knitted in a sock in the long time I had a hard time remembering how to do things and had to print out my instructions.  Unfortunately, I don't know where my original instructions are that had my hand written notes, oh well.  

Once these are done, I have some little baby socks that I want to start., see the picture of the cover of the book I got.   Until I get these socks completed though, I've banded myself from the yarn store because I know I'd buy more yarn that I really need.  However I think these are the cutest things I've ever seen.


I hope you've all had a better month than me.  I'm hoping to do better about posting in my blog too.  If I can just get through May I will be OK.  Only 4 more weeks and then I can breath again.

Sandy