WIPocalypse 2014 for January

The first question or writing idea for the first WIPocalypse blog of the year is to describe myself and my projects and goals for the year.  Right, so here goes:

Trying to look snobby but only looking like more of a dork.

My name is Carla and I am an Employment Security Specialist with the State of Alaska living in beautiful Juneau, Alaska.  I made it to my 48th birthday, and for you regular readers you know how that went down, ha, ha. I have three grown children, two of which live in Alaska and the third is stationed overseas at this time with the US ARMY. Not only am I blessed with my beautiful children, all three have beautiful mates.

I was introduced to knitting by my maternal Grandma which led to crochet and sewing.  Having been introduced at such a young age to the wonderful world of crafty things, it wasn't such a hard leap for me to fall madly in-love with cross stitch.  My second son's aunt Jane was the enabler for that relationship in 1988. How empty life would be without my beloved cross stitch! And now that I am older and I no longer have wee ones running around dragging the youngest around the house by her feet, I am free to stitch all of the time.  The more I think about it, the more I think "why retire?  I could continue working so I can afford to continue stitching!"  I'll have to think about that a bit more later.

My girlfriend Nancy and I decided to do 2014: The Year of the Magnificent Teresa Wentzler as our project. So far we have two other brave souls, Krystal  and Leonore who have signed on to do one or two or ten projects and anyone is invited.  You don't have to do anything complicated if you don't want to.  You can join and just do something small.  Our point is to celebrate TW as best as we can by stitching her beautiful patterns.

Current WIP list is as follows:

1) Christmas Challenge

2) Bookmark Kit

3) Nouveau Biscornu

4) No Drama

5) They

6) Celtic Goddess

7) Quilted Snowman

8) You Can't Drink

9) Tiny Butterfly

10) Cosmos

11) Skull

WIPs 1, 2, 6, 7, 9 and 10 are all patterns provided for me or parts of kits.  The rest are patterns I have to create or have created because they have been requested by other's who think I have nothing better to do with my time.  I'm actually happy to have all of these things because I've been warned that the larger TW projects take some time and due to the repetition on the border's makes for some tedium so breaking it up is an option.

Now, I have tried to have more than one project going at one time and honestly, it hurts my brain.  This is how I ended up with so much on my plate right now and it's only the middle of January!  Some of this is bleed over from 2013, and with all of the distractions going on last year (moving, bronchial pneumonia, a most beautiful summer, and so on) it was difficult to stay focused on the task at hand.  Still, I'll get these cleaned up and out of the way in no time.

My first big TW project is English Cottage Sampler.  My girls came through and found the fabric I required in just the right size. It has been ordered, but sadly puts me over budget for Stitch from Stash  in January.  Sigh.  I'm waiting for my fabric to arrive from the UK.  I would REALLY like to start this project in January.  

Until then, I'm finishing up Christmas Challenge this week and will work on Stretch the Magic Dragon which is a small, free TW pattern from her website TW Designworks.  

Don't forget, this weekend is IHSW and if you want to join us in my Hangout on Saturday the 18th, just let me know!

Until this weekend my pretties.....