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. 

Stitch every 'Day' in 'May'

Hello Friends,

The title of my post is what my target for the month is. You see I was quite surprised to see  that I haven't been stitching much this year, when I made the Pies for my last post.
I know some of you stitch everyday and that's inspirational. I sat thinking why can't I do that: I have a normal 10 hr job (no overtime), don't have to cook for a big family or neither do I have pets who need much care (I have budgies ,but they hardly take any time). So I realized I'm being a lazy bum ...
I have set up a target to stitch every day this month even if it's a single length of thread. It's been a success so far, Thursday being an exception.

Enough of my rant about my time organization .So here is my check-in for Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL, IHSW hosted by Joysze and Friday Frolicking.
I have been working on EMS Flower of the month series which will be a gift for my aunt. I have completed July and August Flowers . Except the back stitching and some stitches with white. I prefer to stitch white at the end to keep the stitches clean.

Yesterday morning was my craft meetup and it was so good to see my friends after 2 months. We had a wonderful time discussing crafts, current affairs and stash addictions.
I got wonderful gifts from Tammy, which she bought all the way from Jerusalem.

I tried my hands at sewing again to make a laptop sleeve. It's not pretty or neat however it sure is very useful with the season of dust soon approaching.

That's it my friends for today. I will be stitching the EMS piece today and then pick my HOM Mystery SAL piece tomorrow for rotation.

IHSW April Update

It’s time to show you what I stitched during  IHSW .

For those of who don't know about IHSW, it’s being hosted by Joysze at Random Ramblings. Here is how she describes it "International Hermit and Stitch Weekend takes place every 3rd full weekend of each month, from Friday till Sunday. In our very busy and hectic lives, IHSW is a chance for us to squirrel some time away for ourselves and "Hermit and Stitch." It is a time set aside to take care of us and our love for stitching."

I started a new project last Friday(8^th April) : House of Margaret Mystery SAL. It’s a SAL where the designer will be releasing small portions of pattern in 17 weeks and the sign-up is free.

I stitched the second part which was released on 15^th during the weekend. Here is my progress:

  

 I will pick up my Flower of the Month project today as all that is left to stitch now in HoM Mystery SAL piece is some white. I usually stitch the white at the end of project to keep it clean.

I was not able to be a true hermitter or hibernator this week. Had to step out of the house for a dentist appointment. I figured I had too much wisdom to survive in this world, so decided to get my wisdom tooth out.

However, I’m happy that I was able to stitch on the way to and back from the Dentist in the car. As the HoM design has no confetti, it was very easy to stitch in the car with absolutely no counting required.

As I stitched this piece on Friday, it also counts for Friday Frolicing .

I hope all you hermitters are having a productive IHSW. I will be visiting your blogs soon to check on you..lol