A third of the way through January 2021 - my year to Plan to Plan

Hello Stitchy Friends

It is a warm Summer afternoon here in Frankston, spending the day as quietly as possible because it’s too warm to be overly active. 

The cricket is on the telly, I’ve got Floss-tubes running on the laptop, Stitching in hand and plans for an old fashioned cold meat and salad platter for dinner.

How are your plans for 2021?  Are you stitching one project or many?  How to you organise your rotations?  I stumbled onto a group, rather late in the day (thank you Jo) and found WIPGO 21.

This is a facebook group and rather simply, you make a BINGO board of 25 numbers and put in 24-25 goals for the year.  The middle square is a free space, or can be used for anything you like.  If you have many, many WIPS, this can be a way to ensure you work on 25 of them at least once in the year.  You can set your own monthly goals for each project – eg;  to finish a square or page of pattern, to stitch 100 stitches, stitch ONLY on that project for the month called.   I decided that with 10 or more WIP’s to stitch anywhere from 3-5 dedicated days per month on the project.  For the rest of the month, I can bring up ANY of my WIP’s to stitch on as long as they take my fancy.  For example, the Weather Sheep – I feel I should stitch at least one week a month on this, to keep the temperatures under control.

Here is my WIPGO 21 card. 

I did align my Boothy Threads 12 days of Christmas with Jo’s WIPGO board, but the rest were placed randomly.  I decided to call my ‘FREE’ square my ‘No Guilt Start’ month and to kit up and start something I had found in a recent clear up.

The numbers are called late in the previous month and if 13 is called, as it is a ‘FREE’ square for most, another number is called.   January Numbers were 6, 13 and 18 – As luck would have it, both number 6 and 18 are labelled a ‘Seasonal Start’ – with the intention of finding a series of Summer/Spring/Autumn/Winter charts.  I’ve not yet found just what I’m looking for, but I have until Jan 25 to ensure 3 days are stitched on each.    Have you any suggestions?

As number 13 was called, I have had NO GUILT to kit up and start Mirabilia's Mermaids of the Deep Blue - Pictured is my WIPGO finish for January - I have stitched 3 days on this and you can see I managed to complete the elbow of the mermaid on the left.  I'm stitching this on an off cut of hand dyed evenweave - from the same batch that I stitched on my original mermaid.

I do have a New Year start and finish for 2021 – the Year of the Sheepie Revisited.

I have had this chart in my stash for awhile and found some random Aida and stitched it up using DMC floss pulled at random – something that approximated the model stitch.  Fleece on Earth by Silver Creek Samplers. Those with a keen eye will see that I changed the last word from ‘Men’ to ‘Merino’ with a bit of fiddling about.  I’m really happy with the stitchy finish and plan to FFO it later in the year.

I have made a start too on the 2021 Weather Sheep – or Meteo de Moutons.  I’ve pulled one strand of DMC 3790 and started on the fences which will hold my sheep.  One of the paddocks have open gates and that will make more sense later in the year.  I still have not sorted out what colours will be used, but know that there will be one colour for each degree this year.  I hope to have 2020 Weather SAL finished this week.

I realised my 2020 TUSAL jar was full and with the bit of stitching I’ve done in the past 10 days, have a good start to 2021 TUSAL

  I do like this abstract picture of floss and might use it in other platforms.   Like other TUSAL orts, this will probably be used to stuff an ornament – might even use it on Fleece on Earth (note to self:  that is a fine idea!)