January WIPocalypse Intro

 I have been participating in WIPocalypse since 2012.  At the beginning of the year we are to introduce ourselves and share any plans we have.

I am married with two grown children.  I live with my husband and one cat.  I am an old fashioned stitcher.  I do not use Pattern Keeper etc.  I use paper patterns and my magnetic board.  In the past few years I have just started buying PDF patterns but I print them when I am ready to kit them up and stitch.  I also keep my floss on bobbins.  I like to have each project fully kitted with its own floss.

 

Plans for 2026 include:  Participating in Brringo with the Magazine Monthly Challenge Group and doing their monthly acrostics and any pop up challenges.  I also will be doing the 26,000 stitches in 2026 with the Full Coverage Fanactics.

I hope to finish two of my older wips this year - Jolly Snowman and Princess & the Dragon.

Jolly Snowman by Joan Elliott

 

Princess & the Dragon by Teresa Wentzler

I do have at least 5 new starts planned.  Some of them will be started as part of Brringo in January.

Here is my empty Ort Jar and my 2025 ornament full of the 2025 orts.

 

 I am starting 2026 with 14 WIPs.  I like to have 20 wips at the most.  I have a 2026 tab for my WIPs and it has been updated with starting photos.

 

December WIPocalypse

 The end of December and the year is over already.  This month we are to recap our stitching progress for the year.  2025 was a good stitching year for me.  I had 11 finishes which included some large projects that had been on the go for a long time, a few medium projects and alot of smalls.  This is the most finishes in one year I have ever had.  I am a slow stitcher and by steadily plodding along I was able to finish these large projects this year.

 

 

Dandelion Fairy Kingdom finished in April

Crane Paradise was finished in July

Butterfly Fairy Night might not have been as big as the other 2 but it was certainly a larger pain to stitch on.  After 11 years and many mistakes I finally finished it in November.

Then I had 2 medium finishes:

 Hedge Hog Kit by Riolos was finished in June and now hangs in my living room.

 Unplug & Go Outside was finished in May.

I had 6 more small finishes which are shown on my 2025 WIPocalypse page.

During December I also did the Magazine Monthly Cross Stitch acrostic.  Here are the projects I worked on for that:

 

Princess & the Dragon was worked on twice for the Challenge and I brought it out 2 more times.

Owl Faces was worked on once for the acrostic and came back out another time after that.

Raccoon Teapot was worked on once for the acrostic and I kept it out and finished it on 12/15/25.  Last finish for 2025. 

 

Once I finished the Acrostic I rotated thru my projects and added more stitches to them.

 

 Jolly Snowman was worked on.  This one is now my oldest WIP.

 Homestead Harvest put in more windows and more of the white house.

 

Gnomes was worked on.

Funky Cats got more stitches

QS Porthole of Fantasy getting close to finishing page 2.

 

 Harvest Corn was also worked on.

Autumn Sampler working on the centerpiece

Queen of the Sea more scales added

 

Suncatchers one turtle done 5 to go

 Stock Car #3 closing in on a finish

 

Hello Autum

QS Magic Island finished page 7 and started on page 8
 

In December I managed to work on all of my Wips.  I started the year with 13 wips, had 12 new starts and 11 finishes ending the year with 14 Wips.

 

Here is my year end jar of Orts.  Ready to be emptied and ready to be filled up for 2026.

 

 

For Christmas my daughter got me some needle minders.  This is the first time one of my kids has gotten me a stitching item.

 

 

In January I will be participating in Brringo with the Magazine Monthly Cross Stitch group and have a few new starts planned for that event.  I also have plenty of projects ready to start in 2026.  Trying to keep it a mix of small and large so I can see some finishes in 2026. 

 

November WIPocalypse

 This month's WIPocalypse question is: Question of the Month:  Which specialty stitches do you find easy? Which ones do you find extremely difficult or are too nervous to try?

I don't like specialty stitches.  I have a hard time looking at how to diagrams.  I am left handed and can never get my stitches to look like the charted ones.

Here is what I worked on this month:

 

For the Magazine Monthly Acrostic I worked on:

  

Suncatchers

 

 Stock Car #3

 

 Raccoon Teapot and I also took it with me to Michigan for a quick overnight trip

 

Funky Cat

 

Butterfly Fairy Night and I kept it out until I finished it on 11/21/25.

I started it on 9/11/14 and I am glad it is done as I struggled with it.  I think because of all the mistakes

I will eventually make it into a pillow.  I have the Day one done and that one only took 2 years.

 

Then I worked on the following projects:

 

QS Porthole of Fantasy working away on page 2.

 

QS Magic Island top of page 7

 

More of page 7 after I moved the scroll rods

 

Hello Autumn

Autumn Sampler

Queen of the Sea

Magazine Monthly Challenge had a pop up event - 2025 Turkey Trot.  You had to stitch on a piece with a bird on it and put in at least 500 stitches.  I chose Owl Faces and made good progress on it.  Added 1,061 stitches

 

I also bought 2 patterns from Pigeon Coop Designs.  They had a sale.

 

 

For December I will be working on the Magazine Monthly Acrostic, my two full coverage pieces and whatever else I get the urge to stitch on.

 

 

October WIPocalypse

 Question of the Month:  What retreats or stitching events would you love to attend someday?

Someday I would like to go to StitchCon.  So far I have not attended any retreats.

I did the October Acrostic with the Magazine Monthly Challenge group.  I stitched on the following projects:

Gnomes was worked on twice.

Butterfly Fairy Night was on 4 times and I kept it out and worked on it several more times during the month.  I managed to finish all the stitching on the Fairy.  I just have a small amount of backstitching to do.  I have to corners left to stitch and this one will be done.  I will keep it out in November in the hopes of finally finishing it this year.

 

Autumn Sampler was also worked on.

Then I stitched on the following projects:

 

I put more stitches in Stock Car #3.

Raccoon Teapot I ended up taking this piece to Florida to work on.

More work was done on Owl Faces

 

I added more stitches to Queen of the Sea.

Jolly Snowman filled in more background

 

Homestead Harvest still working on the big white house.  But I did add a window this time.

Porthole of Fantasy.  Started on page 2.  I work on this one during the weekends.

QS Magic Island.  I finished page six and have a good start on page 7.

 Princess and the Dragon.  Working on the Princess's dress.  Slow going as lots of blends and quarter stitches.

 Then I had a new start - Mill Hill Harvest Corn.  There will be lots of stitching and beads in this one.  It is bigger than I thought.  Here is what it will look like when done and then the start I made on it.

 In September I participated in ABCingo with the Magazine Monthly Challenge Group on Facebook.  I had two bingos and my  name was drawn for a prize!  I got a $40 gift card to Garon Stitchery.  I got a pattern and a project bag

Then Stitches So Beautiful was having a sale and I bought 2 patterns.  

 

I also did some finishing this month.  Here are two that I got fully finished.  I have 3 more that are almost finished and I will show them next month.

 Faces of Faery 90 by Jasmine Becket Griffith/HAED. Finished 6/7/21.

 Gathering Honey by Better Homes & Garden CSCC May/June 1987. Finished 10/19/2009