WIPocalypse - 26.01.13

OK so the theme for this WIPocalypse post is to introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year.

So here's my introduction I am a 37 year old married mother of one.  My son was 3 this month and my husband and I will have been married 5 years in March.  I have been cross stitching since I was about 10 years old and have a stash too large to contemplate.  There are so many stunning charts out there that I want to stitch and keep buying.  

I have set out my current projects and goals for the year in my last blog post so would direct you there  rather than repeat myself.

My main focus piece at the moment was an Ink Circles design but it is a secret project so I cannot give any more information or pictures at this point.  I am so happy to say that it was finished on 20th January 2013 thanks to my amazing sister.  We decide to stitch it between us in a kind of mini round robin.  I still can't share any pictures yet but will do later in the year.

I've completed the second and third part of the SamSarah Perpetual Calendar and here is "January".  

The next part is a blank marker so that when the month only has 1 figure i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc then this blank will replace a second number.  The background is all stitched in one colour and I chose an Anchor variegated thread number 1266.  As I approached the half way mark I really didn't think I was going to have enough thread to finish it but luckily I just managed to scrape the last stitches in which is a good job as I think this is a discontinued thread.  I've tried to make the background a bit more varied by stitching in circles within the green circle borders and stitching lines outside the circles.  I'm really pleased with how this one has turned out.

There are 48 parts to this design to it could take me a few years before I am ready to display it but isn't that the way with all cross stitch projects!

As I was stitching the second part of the perpetual calendar I was looking at the first part and really wasn't happy with the fact that the letter T and the word Tuesday really didn't stand out against the background colour I chose.  Here is what the original design looks like.

This is the photo of mine as charted.  

I tried unpicking the cream for the letters but it took about an hour to unpick one letter so I decided to just over sew the original stitches with a dark blue.  Here's how it looks now.

I still don't think I'm 100% happy with it but I'm going to leave it as it is for now and if I get all the other parts stitched and still don't like it I may restitch this one.

Here's all three of the parts I've stitched all in a row.

I've made some more progress on the Gerbera Daisy cushion which I'm pleased with.  Here's where I am currently up to with it.  There's less than 3500 stitches to go so hopefully should be finished in the next couple of months.

Also when I received the last issue of World of Cross Stitching I fell in love with the retro spaceship and robot designs and immediately ordered the fabric to stitch it.  I'm going to stitch all four designs on one piece and hopefully my son will like it in his room. 

So now my main focus piece is finished I have a quandry - do I start something else new or do I pick up another WIP - can't decide at the moment but I'm sure you'll find out soon.

Keep stitching and smiling