Further Thoughts on my 50 Projects Challenge

I have been giving a lot of thought to the projects that I would like to finish as part of the 50 Projects Challenge (its more fun than working). Since I want the finished list to contain a mixture of small, medium and large projects rather than just small projects this means that according to my calculations I shall finish the challenge sometime around the end of 2008. The calculations that I have done have been based on the assumption that I do not make any gifts for people and do not participate in any more round robins or exchanges. Since I love giving gifts the thought of not making any for over two years is not a good one but I do not want to make this challenge unrealistically long. So I have decided that provided at least 75% of the supplies for a gift come from my huge pile of supplies waiting to be turned into project kits the finished gift item can count towards the 50 Projects Challenge total. For example: I am about to start a small knitted gift for a dear friend, the pattern that I will be using is from a magazine that I already have and the wool is currently sitting in a box underneath my bed the only thing that I need to buy is a few beads. So although this project is not listed on my fully kitted stash list it will count towards my challenge total. I think this new rule of mine only slightly bends the existing rules since I will still be reducing my stash and the original rules state that items brought as a gift or to be used to create a gift do not count as stash purchases.

So far I have been doing this challenge for three months and have only completed one project but hopefully that will all change this weekend. Recently I have been a bit of a butterfly flitting from one project to another spending just a couple of hours on each one before getting bored and moving onto something else. I have decided that for the rest of the month of November, other than when I am working on the two RRs that I am currently participating in, I shall try and finish a project before moving onto something else. I have 5 or 6 projects which probably only need about 4 hours work each to be completed so am hoping to have at least 3 happy dances before the end of November.

Weekend Report

This past weekend I travelled down to London to attend a stitching class arranged by Susan Albury of Hanging by a Thread and taught by CA Wells. The class was great fun although I was the only person not to finish anything but since I have the day off work today I hope to actually finish one of the smaller class pieces today.
The above, very bad, photo is of Snow Forrest by Just Nan which I completed last week as part of the Just Nan Round Robin that I am currently participating in.

Productive Weekend

After last weekend which was super relaxing this weekend was hard work but great fun. I looked after my niece and nephew for almost the whole weekend. I have looked after my niece over night before and both of them for a few hours but this was the first time that my sister has spent a night away from her son since he was born six months ago. I had great fun but am now exhausted. Both little ones behaved wonderfully - the only tears we had where when I needed to go home.

Since I was looking after a baby and a toddler I had pretty much decided that I would get no crafting done this weekend but got a surprising amount done. Right at the end of last week I managed to finish off a piece for the Just Nan Round Robin that I am participating in. I have also made a start on the stitching for the CA Wells class that I am taking next weekend and have managed to complete all the outline stitching & the stitching on the one of the pieces. I then gave in to the urge to start something new and have start knitting a new scarf, I decided that I needed a no brain project so have started a simple ribbed scarf. The only problem is that when I digged out the yarn for the scarf I found three balls of sock yarn that I had forgotten that I had. I think on my next free weekend I need to go through all the boxes of stash that I have and list it all out, not just the fully kitted up projects and I might even see if I can find suitable projects for some of the supplies (without buying anything new of course).

Sorry for the lack of photos but I have left my camera at my sisters, I shall upload photos just as soon as I get it back.

Jumping In

I've seen this on a number of blogs now and think it is a neat idea so have decided to join in. The only rider is that it may take me a few months to complete but I will get it done. I am positive that I can manage to find enough supplies in my enormous stash piles to complete the five gifts so will not be breaking my no purchases rules.

The first five people to respond to this post (via the comments section)
will get some form of "art" made by me. An original hand crafted item, made with
one of the many mediums I use - stitching, knitting, beading etc. I will work to fit this to you and your likes. After you comment, please email me your snail mail
address (alicebazen@yahoo.co.uk). Think of it as something to look
forward to getting in the mail.

Its the Weekend

This week has dragged on for ever but finally the weekend has arrived and boy do I need a few days off. The week ended with a minor scare when I could not get the central heating to work but finally figured out that the pilot light on the boiler had gone out and after about a dozen attempts I managed to get it re-lit.

This weekend is all about me. Mum and Dad have flown over to Ireland to hide away in a friends holiday home over there since they feel that some quiet time alone together will do them both the world of good. So this means that I can focus on me. In a moment I am off to a full day beading workshop and then the rest of today and all of tomorrow will be spent stitching and watching all the programmes that I have recorded recently and not gotten around to watching (about 32 hours worth). On Monday I have a day off and am going to a health spa with a very close friend.

October Progress Report and November Goals

I think I was rather over ambitious when it came to setting my October goals and therefore have not achieved very many of them but I did stick to the important one - buy no stash :-). I am going to try and be a little more realistic when it comes to setting Novembers goals.

Octobers Goals / Progress
1. Finish Kate's GTG Sampler - I have been stitching on this one but have not quite finished
2. Start and finish Bakewell Tarts Sampler - No, not even started
3. Start and finish Sunflower - No, not even started
4. Turn Dog Rose Scissor Case into a scissor case - No
5. Finish Around the World - YES
6. Finish a beading project - No
7. Start and finish Celtic Heart - No, not even started
8. Start and finish Celeste - No, not even started
9. Start Dunedin - No
10. Complete stitching on first round of Just Nan RR - Almost, it is about 75% complete
11. Keep up with stitching on UFO RR - Yes it was posted 2 days late
12. Buy no stash - Most definitely a YES

Novembers Goals
In November I want to:
1. Finish Round One of the Just Nan RR
2. Complete Round Two of the Just Nan RR
3. Keep up with stitching on UFO RR
4. Finish one stitching and one beading project
5. Do some pre-stitching for CA Wells class
6. Buy no stash

I am still here

I haven't been doing much stitching, knitting, beading or blogging recently since life has gotten in the way but hopefully there is some light at the end of the tunnel and this weekend will see things becoming more normal at least for a little while.

I don't want to turn this into a woe is me post but in summary over the last couple of weeks, I crashed my car and gave myself whiplash and my Daddy has had to resign his job (which he loved and was a major part of who he sees himself as) due to ill health. This means, among other things that he and Mummy have to move since the house they have been living in was provided by his employers. At the moment Daddy is very ill and the road to recovery will be a very long one but he will recover. Mummy, who can normally cope with anything that life throws at her, is not coping at all well. So for the moment all I can do is be supportive and provide whatever help is asked for although my parents are not the best at asking for help.

A Stitching Finish

Around the World by Barbara Thompson, started while on holiday in New Zealand in Feb-2006 and finished on 01-Oct-2006. This piece was fun to stitch and something completely different from what I would usually choose. It is the first finish on the 50 Projects Challenge and so far I have not been tempted to buy any new stash. I am not sure how long that will last. I am now going to try and finish off a few of my more advanced WIPs just to get a few more finishes onto the list.

50 Projects Challenge Update

Following long discussions with Karen and Liz yesterday (who were both kind enough to come over to my house for lunch and lots of chatting about stitching, thanks to both for a great day) I have decided to add two modifications to my personal rules for the 50 Project Challenge: the first of which is that I will allow myself to buy the Loose Feathers Limited Editions by Blackbirds Designs, but I am only allowed to buy the charts, the second is that when I have completed the first 25 projects I am allowed to kit up 5 projects but I have to take at least half of the supplies for each project from my existing supplies piles. This will mean that I am still reducing the amount of stash that I have but will give me an incentive to keep going till I get to 50 finishes.

September Progress and October Goals

Once again I can not believe how quickly a month has past. September was not a very good month progress wise. I did however list out some of my stash and decide on taking part in the 50 Project Challenge which I am feeling very excited about.

For September my goals were
1. Finish Kates GTG Sampler
2. Start and finish Bakewell Tarts Sampler
3. Start and finish Sunflower
4. Turn Dog Rose Scissor Case into a scissor case
5. Finish Around the World
6. Finish a beading project

I managed to reach none of my goals, although I did make a tiny little bit of progress towards a couple of them, since I got distracted by a couple of Round Robins. This means that my goals for October make rather a long list.

For October my goals are:
1. Finish Kates GTG Sampler
2. Start and finish Bakewell Tarts Sampler
3. Start and finish Sunflower
4. Turn Dog Rose Scissor Case into a scissor case
5. Finish Around the World
6. Finish a beading project
7. Start and finish Celtic Heart
8. Start and finish Celeste
9. Start Dunedin
10. Complete stitching on first round of Just Nan RR
11. Keep up with stitching on UFO RR
and of course
12. Buy no stash