2017 Crafty wrap up and 2018 plans

Happy New Year friends

I hope you had good time welcoming the new year, in whatever way you did. I had a day off and we had a relaxing time at home and I tried a new recipe which was a success.

I have been reading everyone's wrap up of crafty finishes in 2017 and plans for 2018. I love reading statistics...numbers and pictures speak to me rather than just plain text.

Let's see how I did with my 2017 goals.

Goals for 2017

1. Dedicate more time for crafting specially on holidays/vacation   ✔ Non crafting reduced from 42% in 2016 to 34% in 2017

2. Try blackwork       ✔ Made a blackwork ATC for swap

3. Learn 2 new ways of finishing cross stitch ❌ Only one new way, biscornu

4. Pick fabric painting again ❌

5. Keep trying to crochet       ✔ Made a crochet hat

Plans for 2017

1. Participate in following monthly SALs

a) New Year New Start with Stitch Maynia (FB group)- I will start Dimension kit "Indian peacock" on 1st Jan 2017. ✔

b) Tour de Designers 2017 - SODA stitch with Stitch Maynia (FB group) - I will start "The Love Rain" on 1st April. ❌

c) Tour de Designers 2017 - Lizzie Kate with Stitch Maynia (FB group)- I will start "I Cannot Count"  on 1st July. ❌

2. Blog SALs/Activities 

a. I will continue to participate in Gifted Gorgeousness SAL . ✔ Yes managed to post all months.

b. I joined Kaye's Friday Frolicking somewhere near April 2016 but shamefully posted only once in 2016. Will try to post more often. ❌ Posted only once

c. Catch up posts for The Alphabet Club. Haven't posted about this since April 2016. ❌ Posted only four times

Apart from above I joined the blog- A New Stitchy Start 2017 and posted only once. I also joined Theme-tas-stitch 2017 hosted by Kerry in February and posted 5 times for the SAL.

Wrap up for 2017 

2017 was clearly a year of exchanges, I participated in 4 cross stitch exchanges and had fun making things for my partners. I enjoy the process of getting to know my partners, making something they will like .I had a total of 6 cross stitch finishes this year. 

I added 9844 stitches to the only WIP from 2016

Progress as on 14th December 2016

Progress as on 31st December 2017

My new year start will be the second WIP I will carry into 2018.

Indian Peacock by Dimensions.Design by Suzanne Nicoll

Knitting caught my interest this year and I learnt some new stitches .I had 9 knitting finishes, achievement being finishing my first baby blanket. Shown here are 5 which have already been gifted.

I'm very proud to say that I hosted a national level knitting event -WWKIP day here in Kuwait. The event was a huge success with considerable media coverage.

I also helped my friend Tammy with a cross stitch workshop for kids in December.

I'm more confident with crochet now and made one hat for hubby.

A little about how much I spent this year on needlework:

Cross stitching supplies                                                 $51.8

Knitting supplies including badges for WWKIP              $122.4

Needlework exchanges                                                  $36.9

Apart from needlework, I took a dig at a new hobby: Postcrossing. It involves sending postcards to random people in the world and bringing a smile to their face.

I finished reading 7 books this year.

Just noticed that my last post was 100th post on my blog. I would like to thank my readers who visit and leave a comment on the posts. Your comments encourage me to blog.

Goals for 2018

I have set simple goals this year to craft every day and finish the WIP from 2016

Plans /SALs:

My choice of designs prevents me from joining any designer specific SALs. As the idea of a SAL is to stitch along with other crafters, I enjoy stitching and posting for a SAL, when the host is involved. By now I know which are the SALs host who make special efforts to leave comments.

I will be joining following SALs this year:

1. Gifted Gorgeousness

2. IHSW

3. I may join an Instagram SAL called #gardengatesal later in the year.

I'm thinking of joining Smalls SAL as usually I stitch birthday cards all thru the year. Need to check what the perquisites are for this SAL.

I will also like to blog more often and leave comments regularly on blogs I follow.

So that's it my friends for 2017 and I hope you have lots of crafting time in 2018.

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL December Update

Hello Friends,

It's that time of the month when we show what gifts we have been working on or/and what crafty gifts we have received. If you don't know what I'm talking about , check Jo's blog for more info.

Also last GG check in for the year, where did the time go?

After finishing the knitted blanket, I picked up my nemesis project and have made some progress on it. I'm still searching for reasons why I wasn't able to finish it this year.

Yesterday night I found out that I have done a counting mistake in the left middle section where you see the blue. It broke my heart. I was already finding it difficult to continue with this project with small count fabric and the number of stitches. And then another mistake. But my very helpful husband tried to calm me down and said that the mistake doesn't effect the whole project , so don't frog . So I have decided to continue without frogging , will just not use the blue stitches as reference to stitch. But I will finish it one day.

Never one to give up easily, I tried my hands at crocheting again and made a beanie for hubby. Not bad for first time haan!

I have been using free time at work to knit small things like wash cloths. It gives me a feeling of satisfaction to use my free time productively rather than surfing internet .

On another note, I realised I have never shared the news of adopting a cat with my blog friends though I do post about her on Instagram.

We welcomed "Twitch" in our house in July and she has become such an important part of our lives. No day is complete without cuddles and playing with her . She loves to sit in my lap and contributes specialty fibers to all my projects.

Here she is posing with the cross stitch stash I bought from Michaels in New York in September.

Sorry can't figure out why this picture is rotated.

That's it my friends, I will be back with the yearly crafting report post soon.

Here's wishing my Christian friends Merry Christmas. Enjoy time with your family.

August crafting report

Hello Friends,

Wow its been more than a month I posted on my blog , I have been feeling so lazy to write a post, comment on blogs and craft .

Today is first day of 5 day long weekend here and I thought I will gather myself together and write a post at least on the last day of the month.

This month has been busy with deadlines at work, vacation planning and festivals. But there have been days when I had time to craft but I sat on the sofa wasting my time on my phone. At least I have started reading again and managed to finish 3 books this month.

Here is what I have to show for the Gifted Gorgeousness and Theme-Tas-Stitch SAL run by Jo and Kerry respectively.

As you know my craft group meets fortnightly and it has become a tradition to receive gifts from very generous friends every meetup. This is what I have received over last 2 months:

Gifts from Tammy: A card made using chain stitch crochet, a crochet bowl and a bookmark

Gifts from Z: Solar eclipse coaster, Friendship day card and tiny embroidery hoop kit

A market bag, belated birthday gift from E

My house is full of such crochet gifts now and anytime someone visits for the first time they can't help notice all the crochet/knitted/cross stitch decorations in the house, out of which only one is made by me ..ha ha

I have been trying to finish the knitted blanket for my friend's baby. The baby arrived a bit early but I started missing cross stitching after knitting straight for two months. I started a weekly rotation to get some progress on my WIPs, which worked most of the times.

Here is the how the blanket looks like as of today

Progress on the Butterfly Project I'm making for my bestie, see if you can see any difference from last time :)

I picked up another WIP "Indian Peacock" for the Animalia August for Theme-Tas-Stitch SAL. This project grows faster than others as it has lot of half stitches. Love the colors in this one.

I sewed two bags to hold my projects with help from my husband during the month

Bag to hold Qsnap of 11*17 inch

Drawstring bag to hold knitting projects

What a feeling it was to use fabric from my stash for making these bags! My fabric or any other craft stash isn't big but I start feeling guilty/bad if I don't use the stash after more than one year I have bought it. Does that happen to you? Do you feel guilty of not using every single thing in your stash?

Next month we will be travelling for our annual holiday , which means time for some exchanges. I have already committed for two swaps, may do some more...ha ha.

That's it my friends for this month, I'm really dying to finish some of the WIPs. Its been too long I had a proper finish.

I will try and leave comments on your blog this weekend , hoping the lazy spell gets over soon. 

Year 2016 review and Crafty plans for 2017

Hello Friends,

Another year has come to an end and it is time to reflect on the year gone by.

2016 was a good year to say the least...I think I grew as a human being and have found ways to be happy(read avoid circumstances/people which/who make me unhappy).

The year has been good one with vacations, visits to meet family and some surprise meet ups with friends...something I always wish for.

As you all know, 2015 was a major breakthrough year cross stitching wise, 2016 may not have been so exciting however there are some new things I did in this year.

1. Participated in a cross stitch mystery SAL.

2. Started to write a daily and a craft journal.

3. Participated in postcard exchanges.

4. Won a cross stitch giveaway on Instagram.

5. Bought a cross stitch magazine in Kuwait.

6. Joined a book club and have managed to finish listening to one audio book.

7. Participated in a cross stitch blog hop.

8. First independent knitting finish.

9. Participated in a cross stitch ATC swap on Instagram.

10. First charity stitching.
11.Participated in monthly handwriting challenge on Instagram.

I managed to finish 15 cross stitch projects this year, 7 of which have not been gifted so can't show you yet.

I also made 1 knitted scarf, 1 crochet coaster, 1 quilling card , 1 washi tape card and a embroidery hoop this year.

Here is a pie chart showing my year round crafting,less stitching days compared to 2015

At the start of the year, I set up some crafting goals .Let’s see how well I managed to achieve them

1. Try blackwork - ❌

2. Learn 2 new ways of finishing cross stitch - ❌

3. Stitch on evenweave fabric-Yes stitched on 25 ct vintage lugana ✔

4. Stitch a medium/big size kit - Yes stitching a kit bought in 2014, however have swapped the fabric✔

5. Use stash the maximum -I only bought one cross stitch kit this year and my spending on needlework stash was half of what I spent in 2015.😅✔

6. Pick fabric painting again - ❌

7. Try embroidery other than cross stitching :) - Yes did some free hand embroidery ✔

8. Keep trying to crochet- I have now finished making a single crochet coaster 😁 ✔

9. Learn quilling. This has been pending since 2010- Yes made a birthday card for DH✔

The score is 6/9, not bad haa!!!

I enter the New Year with only one cross stitch WIP and have made some plans for year 2017.

Candamar Designs kit-My only WIP from 2016

Monthly SALs I will be participating in

1. New Year New Start with Stitch Maynia (FB group)- I will start Dimension kit "Indian peacock" on 1st Jan 2017.

New Year New Start 

2. Tour de Designers 2017 - SODA stitch with Stitch Maynia (FB group) - I will start "The Love Rain" on 1st April. This was a gift from Justine.

3. Tour de Designers 2017 - Lizzie Kate with Stitch Maynia (FB group)- I will start "I Cannot Count"  on 1st July. The Kit was bought in 2015, however the patterns calls for specialty threads which I don't have.

Blog SALs/Activities 

1. I will continue to participate in Gifted Gorgeousness SAL .I recently found out that my bestie is pregnant ,so that means I have 2 birth samplers to stitch now.
2. I joined Kaye's Friday Frolicking somewhere near April but shamefully posted only once. Will try to post more often.
3. The Alphabet Club . Haven't posted about this since April. Need to catch up

For goals, I would like to work on goals 1,2, 6, 8 of 2016 which I wasn't able to achieve. My resolution for 2017 is to dedicate more time for crafting specially on holidays/vacation.

The goals I have set are not stringent , however I'm sure I will need encouragement from time to time from you my friends.

Wishing you a healthy and a crafty 2017.