WIPocalypse

And here we are for the first 2013 check in post. For those of you who don't know me...

I am Sharon, 43 and from Manchester, UK.  I am married to Colin and have 2 gorgeous kids - Rachael, 13 and Luke, 11.  We are also owned by 2 demented cats - Biskey and Smudge, who enjoy terrorising the Danios in their aquarium.  I work as a special needs teaching assistant in a primary school, mainly with year 3, 5 and 6 children.  (For US readers that is 7-8 year olds, 9-10 and 10-11 depending on where their birthdays fall.)

I have been stitching since 1995 and have too many WIP's and UFO's to mention here but they are on the right hand side of my sidebar if you want to take a look.  I would like to finish them all one day.  As you can see from the list I have a varied taste in size and style of things I like to stitch.  Among my favourite designers are Mirabilia, Lizzie Kate, LHN, CCN and Papillon Creations.

This year I have joined loads of organised SALs to try to give me the kick up the rear I need.  I am a butterfly much too often when it comes to stitching and with having so many lovely designs on the go tend to switch between them to frequently.  I am getting better though as I have put a rotation in place which I do mainly stick to.  So anyway, this year I am doing WIPocalypse (obviously!), Theme-a-licious, Turtle Trot and a LK 6 Fat Men SAL. Hopefully this will mean some good progress on lots of projects.  Further information can be seen on the pages at the top of my blog.  Turtle Trot has the 13 projects I intend to focus on this year.

On to stitching progress. I have worked on the following projects recently.  Firstly, I have worked a little on Confetti of Hardanger. I am working on the eyelets with a bit of blanket stitching round the outside of light relief.  I am finding these 2 stitches quite tedious so am only doing a little at a time.  I am looking forward to getting to the cutting and filling stitches.

Confetti of Hardanger - Abi Gurden
progress as of 27th January

Around the World is now only 3 parts behind.  I have finished part 6 and moved on to part 7.  I am really struggling with the maltese cross stitch.  I hate it and think it looks tatty.  I suspect that is down to me.  So far I have restitched it 4...yes FOUR times.  I tried it the way it should be 3 times first of all with the yellow thread wrapped around the metallic but it just looked awful.  I reversed the colours and it still looks awful!

Around The World - Papillon Creations
progress as of 27th January

This is a close up of part 6.  I found the stitches round the cutwork bit difficult until I realised what I was doing wrong...oops!

Part 6 of Around the World - Papillon Creations

 A little more progress has been made on Garden Tools, but not much!

Garden Tools - Fleur de Lys
progress on 27th January

 Cinderella is coming on nicely.  I really enjoy this project when I pick it up.  The fabric feels divine and the colours are so pretty.  I would like to do this for myself at some point and there is a beautiful pink conversion on Joan's facebook group.  Of course I may change my mind once I start adding all the back stitch.

Cinderella - Joan Elliott
progress as of 27th January

 And finally we have the first part of Santa's Village which I should be stitching on this weekend.  Sadly though, I can't put Cinderella away so it will have to wait for next weekend which should be a lot quieter than this week has been.

Santa's House - CCN
progress as of 27th January