April Showers - just brings tears

 Wow life can change in a blink of an eye and all of your plans are out the window and you are looking to see if you have a Plan B in place - well think we are working on Plan XYZ now and will see if we'll ever get back to plan A.  Not to belabour the point, my Dad fell and ended up in the hospital and now rehab, so we are looking at what the options are from here.  I just love that the siblings who don't have time to come and help with their care are all of sudden wanting to be involved in the next step.....not that they want to actually come and help implement it, just want the decision making part.  At the end of the day, it really is up to me as my Dad left me in charge of things, so will work through it and see where we end up.  He will be discharged most likely next week and life will change for him and my Mom.

Sorry for the above, but it really has impacted my stitching this month - it was going really good and then it wasn't.  Might stitch a little bit this afternoon after I get the laundry done at my folks house and lunch for my Mom made.  

This is the monthly check in for WIPocalypse - you'd think after all of these years participating I'd learn how to spell it, but alas spelling has never been my strong point in life - as me to calculate how long it will take you to get from point A to point B at a certain speed and I'm there LOL.  

WIPocalypse is the brain child of Measi's blog and can be found here. WIPocalypse. Each month we post what we have accomplished and answer a question.  This month the question is What designer have you discovered lately?   Well that is an easy one - I've not been in a cross-stitch store since February when the shop was having their Super Bowl sale to get enough cash for market.  I missed the market lease event, so didn't get to see anything new - and to be honest I've not really been looking at any of the websites that post new releases.  My focus this year has been to work on the things I have in my stash, I have so many designs that I really would love to stitch, even the older ones.  The funny thing is, when I'm stitching I have no desire to purchase anything but maybe floss, when I'm not stitching, then I want to purchase everything.  The last couple of years I've been stitching more and my desire to purchase has gone down.

OK so now for what you all really want to see, what did I do this month....

I believe this is Ann Kirby by Needlework Press.  that house is a monster to stitch, I think I calculated it about 4000 stitches.  I'm close to a finish on it and then can move on.  I did get the birds in and started the border.  I found that it is off, but at this point I'm not going to re-do it!!  Nothing really connects, so I can fudge the mistake.  I will need to figure out what/where is a good counting point - the border was started in the wrong place as well,  will figure it out, this one most likely own't be out again this year and by the time it is I will have totally forgotten there was a mistake at all LOL.

Next up is my Ice Angel by Lavender and Lace.  I coverted the blues to purple and started this one a long time ago.  I've ranted about the rayon thread before, really don't like that thread, and almost all of the other threads are blended with a blending filament, so not a lot fun to stitch.  But I did work my way up to the wings and got them started and hope to get over to the face and hair soon and maybe once those are on I will be more motivated to finish it...who am I fooling???   Also found out that I didn't totally kit up this one - no floss in my bag for the face or hair - not sure if I took it out for something else??  or just never put anything in to begin with - thankfully I had floss to start the wings.

I was going to make April - Angel - April and work on only my angels, but that only lasted a few days and I was over stitching on angels.  I have 4 of them going, so maybe I'll pull out another one in May to work on and make some progress.  

So when I got tired of working on my Angel I pulled out Awake my Soul by La-D-Da.  I finished up the words and started on the flowers.  Not a lot of progress, but enough that you can tell I stitched on it for a minute or two.  I really like this one and would love to have it done this year - it is relatively small compared to most of my other projects.

Next up is Walking to St. Ives by Indigo Rose.   I was working on this one when I blinked and my life took a turn in another direction.  My hope was to get the 7 wives done and the words below it, but just got the wives done, except for their shoes.  And I brought the border down on the left side a little bit.   This one was started almost 10 years ago, and has been in my stash even longer.  I really like the sampler and would like to get it done.  But decided I'm not a blackwork person and not really enjoying the border as much as I thought I would.  So this one won't be finish anytime soon, but it will come out at least once a year for some love.

The last one is a Mind Independent and Free by Carriage House.  I finished up the zig-zag, which was a lot of stitching and the motifs underneath it.  I really like this one's staying and really want it done sooner rather than later as I think it's something my granddaughter should read every day - don't remember all of the words but the jest is that it's better to have independent thoughts than to have worldly goods.  In this day and age I thought it was appropriate.

I started on Autumn Quaker by Rosewood Manor, but didn't get enough stitching done to really show anything.  Hope to get more done on it today and maybe tomorrow and then will show it off with May's updates.  

My parents house isn't set up for stitching and I don't have a comfortable place.  So not sure how much progress May will have either.  I am hoping to finish a needlepoint and get it off to my niece for her 1st wedding anniversary in May.  It is almost done, just need to actually work on it to finish it up and then mount it on the box I got.  If I get it done I will post a picture with May's update as well.

Until next time - don't blink.....

Sandy