It's Leap Day

And time to post WIPocalypse update for the month of February.  If you want to see more wonderful work by other lovely stitchers you can see them here

http://measi.net/measiblog/

or if you are FaceBook fan, then check out the group, I love this SAL - you can go at your own pace and work on what sparks your interest.  Love looking at all of the HAED that people do, not brave enough for them YET LOL.

Each month we have a new question to answer and since this is Leap day the question is have we ever taken a leap of faith in our stitching journey (or something similar to that).

It is funny, while going through my stash that has been in boxes for the last 8 years (*see comment below) I found the first band sampler I ever did, which was about 24 years ago.  Sorry for the wrinkles as it it ended up in a box crumpled, not the way it was left behind.

** when we moved to CA I only took enough projects to keep me occupied for the next 10 years... the rest were packed away for when I moved back home.

 When you just look at it, it looks pretty good, but when you really LOOK at it you can see my mistakes.  Rows that went a little too far because they weren't centered right or areas that I got a little over zealous in the size of my stitchings.  So my leap of faith was my ability to to do speciality stitches and using silk.

Once I made this leap I never looked back.  These are just a few of the band samplers the I've done over the years.  I love working with the silk and over dyed thread as well as doing the speciality stitches.

So taking a leap of faith is always worth the risk, it can lead to something new and excited.  Since then I have ventured into using these threads and techniques in more than just band samplers, like needlepoint.

So what have I done since the last check in?  I've been busy, but not as busy as I would like.  I keep thinking - OMG it's almost March and I've not even touched some of the larger projects that I wanted to work on!!  What is wrong with me???

Then I look at what I'm doing and figure I need to enjoy the ride and the others will come.  I must say I am totally enjoying getting back into stitching, last year I didn't do much.  I try to put in a few stitches every day, and some days, those few turn into a lot.

So I have 3 actual finishes, The Iris bookmarked which is a birthday present for my sister in March.  The Crane which will go into a pocket mirror for my oldest granddaughter.  The last finish is the first of the Lucky 13 design with my SAL group in Saginaw.  Most of the ladies are well into this SAL and have completed 8 or 9, but I'm happy with my 1st one!!  It think there is one lady who hasn't started at all, so I have company back at the starting line LOL.

I have two new starts this month - the first is a needlepoint belt for my son, it's a dragon and  I'm just starting it, so have a very long way to go.   This makes an excellent traveling project as I don't need a chart to follow and there isn't a lot of detail in it, so should be simple to stitch.

My other new start is another needlepoint, it's the flowers.  This will go into a credit card holder for my sister's birthday in March as well.  I need to focus on this over the next week and get it done.  I have two of the 3 flowers petals stitched and the green leaves done.  I will get the yellow flower done next and then start on the back ground.  The center of the flowers will be french knots, would have liked beads, but they tend to break on objects used.

I made progress on my 1/1/2020 start - I'm about 1/3 of the way done with it and really enjoying working on it.  In fact it is sitting next to me right now waiting for some loving on this sunny but cold Saturday.

The last project that received love this month is my Song of the Season, which I pretty much finished up 1/3 of Part 2 - the right area of this section.  Then worked more on the center section, which I would call about at least 1/2 done :)  I'm hoping to finish up that section in March and then the last section in April.  With any luck this one will be totally finished this year.  The 3rd section should go faster, as there isn't a lot there - the alphabet and some other small motifs if I remember right.

I also worked on my Peter's Patch, but for some reason didn't take a picture, so will post something about it next month.

Once my sister's gifts are done I plan on focusing on my Peace Angel, would love to get the wings done and start on the dress this year.   My needlepoint small projects have been my lunch time stitching, before that I was working on this angel.  So she will get rotated back to the lunch hours.

Also will be pulling out another big project, just not sure which one is calling out the loudest.  Right now its my Family Tree design, really want to finish up the section I started.  However the Autumn Quaker is also calling my name.........love when the kids are yelling for me LOL

Hope you have all had a wonderful month, can't wait to see what you've accomplished.

Sandy