February Stitchery Check-In: WIPocalypse, TUSAL & Smalls

February is a short month, and this has been a pretty busy one, but I was able to stitch fairly regularly, even though I had to reduce my goals a bit.  I decided to give up my intentions to stitch a Halloween ornament each month, in favor of making some room to finish up more WIPs (works in progress) and to try to get some of my completed items finished as ornaments or framed.

So, this month I focused on three projects - one WIP, one new project, and the 2nd in my year long Satsuma Street 12 Days of Christmas.

Before I show them off, he's my ORT jar for this month's TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-a-long, where we simply show off the snips of threads, etc, that accumulated during this month's stitching.  I don't remove my previous month's threads, so this is 2 month's worth.  I'll tamp these down and continue adding to the jar in March.

I had less frogging out of mistakes this month, but it was still a good bit more than I'd like!

I finished off all but one last medallion on my longstanding WIP: Metamorphosis from Ink Circles.  Just a few more days work (I am a slow stitcher!) and this will finally be done, and headed off to be framed.  I'm so excited for that - this thing has given me so many fits, but I really love the way it's coming out.

Next is a fun backstitch/blackwork piece from Steotch - The Needle of Steel, featuring a quote from Conan the Barbarian.  It's one my husband says often, so I'm making it up to decorate his home office.  The recommended colors are shades of pink, but I chose some overdyed silks in shades of purple and green.  This one works up quickly (even with a bit of frogging), and I expect to have it done in just a couple more days, yay!

I'm looking forward to showing off these when they're finished at next month's WIPocalypse Check-in.

Finally, there is this month's Satsuma Street 12 Days of Christmas ornament:

2 Turtledoves

Designer: Satsuma Street

suggested DMC threads

14ct Aida DMC Bright Ideas: Grasshopper

I am debating on whether or not these need a little touch of backstitch outlining to make some of the more subtle colors stand out, but I'm going to wait until they're all done, so I can be sure that whatever I do coordinates across all twelve ornaments.  My intention is to create a banner from these.

I'm using each of the 3 DMC Bright Ideas colors, plus white to make these - I think the end result is going to be really bright and cheerful.

This month's WIPocalypse question is: What is your favorite stitch other than the standard cross stitch? 

I used to do a lot of different embroidery stitches when I was younger, but gravitated to cross-stitch early and have pretty much stayed there ever since. I picked up blackwork a couple years ago, and enjoy it quite a bit too.  At my husband's suggestion, I recently bought a small needlepoint kit to try - I have no idea if I'll love that or not!

My intentions for next month are pretty simple: I plan to do the Satsuma Street 3 French Hens on white 14ct Aida, finish my two WIPs  above, and do one new start - also a Satsuma Street piece, this is Pretty Little Washington DC, and I'll be working on it just in time for cheery blossom season.

That's it for this month's check - in!  If you'd like to enjoy other stitching posts, check out the TUSAL SAL to see more ORT jars, WIPocalypse for more works in progress, and the Smalls SAL to see a variety of small pieces.