New Year, New start(s)

Ok, this is now truly 2023 and I am not making any resolutions. Perhaps determined not to increase the WIP pile without finishing out projects from the last couple of years but it seems more than silly to make resolutions that are only going to stress me.

I had actually pulled out a binder, document protectors, and had planned on running off face sheets on some of the PDF patterns that I would like to stitch this year. I then spent a couple of hours fighting with the printer. I think it might have won because I still have two sheets that absolutely do not want to print. There are a couple of Mystery Stitch-a-longs on my list, two must stitch for birthday presents (need to be done and FFO’d by March), and then a number of random patterns which appeal. 

Left over from 2021 – four SALS which are all 60-80% complete. Four projects were ditched. And three regular projects. From 2022 – I have the 11/12 Zodiac Girls which just need beads and backstitching with the 12th yet to stitch.  The Spangler StoryKeep  is at about 50%. I ditched two mystery SALs. Fish ‘n Ships from LongDog is a bit over 50%. 

So I guess my plan is 23 in 2023 and will pull in whatever else I can find for old projects as I finish up 2021&2022. Adopting Gable Stitcher’s terminology – anything more than 10 years old is a legacy project. I really need to make decisions on them (I think there is one from 1986, one from 1994, and a couple from ~ 2013 which I am firmly placing in this bin) but there is really no hurry. Compared to the amount of supplies on hand – these take up absolutely no significant space or worry.

So – New Year, New Start(s)

• Fox & Rabbit’s 2023 Mystery SAL called Royal Gardens. The pattern is free this year only. So download it if you think you might want to stitch it at some point in the future. I am using Silks4U I think it is PR164 but anyway it is green The fabric is 18 ct Fiddler’s Cloth. Part 1 is 9277 stitches (ugh). The pattern works just fine in PatternKeeper. Otherwise there is no way I would tackle this.  My plan is about 900 stitches/day till Part 1/12 is done.  This is ~ 1900 stitches in…
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• Dark Goddess by WitchesGarden (pattern here on GumRoad). Since it isn’t huge like the other one – I am just using an ordinary piece of blue 14 ct Aida. The frame was released this month. Each of the next six following months will see 2/12 Goddesses released. I may not finish the frame this month (36xx stitches) but will finish enough to complete the frames for the first 2-3 goddesses. The recommendation was for dark fabric which I just can’t deal with. So I may wind up taking DMC 06 and backstitching along the columns of DMC 05 so that they stand out more

what was your start this year (if you did one)?