Late WIPocalypse and Post-IHSW Report

WIPocalypse
I'm a few days late posting the first WIPocalypse update, but after the hellish and emotionally exhausting few months that I've had, my brain got itself in gear and decided it would be great to get on top of all my work and then stitch a LOT. I'm very pleased with this development, so I'm just gonna roll with it and try and be as productive as possible.

The theme of this month's WIPocalypse post is introductions: "Introduce yourself, your projects, and any goals you have for the year!" So, if you're new to this blog I'll take this opportunity to tell you about myself.

My name's Heather, I'm 20 and I live in the UK. I've been stitching for two and a half years and I've gone from softcore stitcher to addict to obsessive. I'm a student of Spanish and Linguistics at University of Southampton, and I'm on medical leave for my third year - I should be studying in Barcelona this year, but due to mental health issues (yay!) I'm at home for the year, studying under my own steam (which I am NOT good at) and writing my 6,000-word quasi-dissertation. Next year I finish my studies - and I don't intend to be a teacher when I graduate! I live with my younger sister who's terribly artsy, a crafting mother and a father who (fortunately) appreciates all of the creativity we spew forth between us. I stitch while watching Netflix, under a quilt in the library (which is actually a glorified study). I'm not religious, I'm a Grammar Nazi, my favourite colour is purple and I'm a stashaholic. I'm very bad at replying to comments, keeping on top of my Feedly posts and commenting on other people's blogs. I do love reading comments and blog posts though; I promise!

Here are the ten pieces I'm going to be working on this year...

1: An Important Flower by Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks

2: Mae Govannen by Hancock's House of Happy


3: H by Selina Fenech (Heaven and Earth Designs)


4: Into The Deep by Passione Ricamo


5: North and South by Serenity Cross Stitch Designs (photo is on its side!)


6: The Quiltmaker by Lavender and Lace


7: Tigger's Butterfly Days by Designer Stitches (on its side again - sorry!)


8: Day Trip by DMC


9: Orange Tree by DMC


10: Basilica Santa Maria by Anchor - I'm actually planning to restart this on a nicer fabby

My aims for the year are definitely NOT to finish all of them (I'm not sure that's even humanly possible) but if I could finish two or three of these I think I'd be happy. I've set myself goals for when I'd like to finish each one but I think they're all probably entirely unrealistic!

So that's my introduction post, and I'll hopefully be back in a month with some progress photos!

IHSW Update
This weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, and because I haven't participated in about forever, I figured I'd make the effort. I sat down to work on my YOTA piece this weekend (Mourning by Austitch) and got a good few hundred stitches in.

Before:

After:
 

This piece is a major pain in the behind because there's so much black - and it's not even just pure black! There's actually a LOT of navy blue in there as well, and you can't tell at all from looking at it. I hope to have this top hand corner of black done by the end of the year, but if I steadily continue putting stitches in, I think I should actually get through this a lot sooner :)

I also worked on a little freebie kit from a magazine but I forgot to take a photo because I'm silly. Oh well, next time!

Other
I finished a piece! This is actually Finish #2 of 2014 but I haven't taken a photo of the first one yet. This is TARDIS by Jodyri Designs, stitched in Dematerialising TARDIS (also by Jodyri Designs) on an unknown fabric. I would have finished this last year but my last two strands of thread went missing on Christmas Eve and I never found them, so I had to order a new skein which came last week.

I'm really pleased with how it's turned out! I need to take photos of Finishes #1 and #3, but I should have another post soon. Heh, maybe if I remember :/ Until then...

Happy stitching!

Heather xx