A WIP is a WIP is a WIP

Unless, of course, it becomes a UFO.

I've decided it's time to tally all the needlepoint WIPs I've got. Today is counted canvas day. I took pictures of all the ones sitting around on the main floor of my condo. I know there are some things lurking upstairs in the guest room, but I think these are a good start.

Ready?

In no particular order, these are all things I could finish up by just applying myself or projects I'm currently working on with my chapter of ANG. Actually a lot of them have sprouted up because of the guild. Hmmm.

This is Carnival, by Toni Gerdes. I went to the ANG Seminar in Philadelphia in 2012, and this is one of the classes I took. It's also one of my projects for the annual "Challenge" of my chapter of ANG. For the second year. Sigh. The color's a little off in the picture. That canvas should be yellow but is showing a distincly greenish cast to me here. What do I have left to do? The bottom right section, and the triangular sections on the left, which repeat motifs in the larger right part. The compensation for the triangular sections is killing me. And I think I just don't really like the thread I'm using for that bottom right piece. Oh, and the border. I have to do the border. This really is a lovely piece with fun stitches. I've just stalled on the left side, and inertia's taken over.

Leaf Collage, by Terry Dryden, is a workshop project. Again, from 2012 (I think, though it could be 2011; no, that's impossible). My guild chapter, Potomac Chapter of ANG, sponsored the workshop. Terry was a marvelous teacher, full of good tips on technique. We "painted" the blue sections with Copic markers; the leaves are photo transfers that Terry already had on the outlined canvas. What's great about this piece is how it's broken up into lots of smaller, manageable sections. I've been diligently (well, that might be a little too strong a term) stitching the sections with "spaghetti" threads and have actually made some progress. This piece is also a part of my annual Challenge. Also for the second year. There's a lot to be done on this, so I'm not optimistic about finishing it before the end of the Challenge year. I'm not happy with the stitching on the gingko leaf that I started during the workshop, so that will probably come out. I've learned some new techniques, so I may choose to stitch the leaves in a totally different way. But I'm getting way ahead of myself.

This is Marilyn Owen's Folding Ort Box, which I started in our monthly chapter meetings. Initially, the goal was to have it completely finished to send to the ANG Seminar in 2013, to be included in an exhibit of nothing but these Ort Boxes as stitched by members across the country. Obviously, I didn't make it. The square at the top left is the bottom, and the rest of the squares are the sides. Yes, they're all ultimately going to be square. I need to do the blackwork stitching on the bottom three, then finish the borders on the sides, then cut all the squares out and put it together. And voilà! An ort box that folds up in an origami fashion to a flat square. I painted my canvas to get the right shade of yellow for this. I really should get this done. Again, there's not all that much left to do. I do find the finishing intimidating though.

Debbie Stiehler's Imari Collage is the project of a recent workshop with Debbie, sponsored by PANG. We were lucky enough to have her come to teach just before she retired from teaching. (Ours was the penultimate workshop she led.) This is a daunting piece. Lots of metallic threads. Some very fine and unruly. There's a lovely or nue section that I was surprised to find relatively easy to do once I got into the rhythm. The finishing of that section, however, is very intimidating to me. I keep threatening to trim those long gold threads extending from either side to neat, short lengths and leave them on top instead of plunging them through the congress cloth. My friends just laugh. I enjoyed doing the plaid at the bottom left. There's another rectangle of that at the top of that column.

About a dozen of us are meeting once a month to work on this in an effort to keep our momentum going. Some are momenting more than others. This will take me years to finish, I just know it.

Another long-term meeting-program project we're doing in my chapter is the 2013 ANG Stitch of the Month project by Debbie Stiehler. This is what we covered in the first of four meetings. I haven't actually finished it; the borders should be completed all the way around. And I haven't even started what was covered in the last meeting. Arg. I do plan to try to catch up, though, since the next installment won't be until September (I think). (I should know this, since I'm in charge of the programs. Hahahahahaha.) There's a third color to be used, which I may decide to change.

Marilyn Owen's Halloween Treat is what we'll be working on at the chapter meeting tomorrow. I'm actually caught up on this and a little bit ahead. In case you haven't already figured it out, I changed the colors. Mine is not going to be a Halloween piece; I don't generally do holiday stitching, though there are exceptions. I had a hank of silk floss that had gorgeous maroon and green shades, so I used that for my jumping off point. Instead of the Halloween-themed buttons and embellishments, I'm using cats and cat-related ones. This has been a fun project (well, except for the borders and grid, which were just tedious and painstaking because if the count was off anywhere, the whole thing would have been out of whack). I've been enjoying figuring out which threads to use in each section. And this is what the original piece looks like.

And finally, the last long-term project I've been working on is a notebook series from StitchPlay Designs.

This is Michael Boren and Carole Lake's Building Blocks for Needlepoint series, which has been arriving every couple of months for a year. I'm working on the last segment now. Each segment included a booklet with a discussion of the threads to be used (three full skeins!), then directions for the stitch samples, along with a discussion of how each stitch can be used in your needlepoint. I've already used some of these stitches in other projects. It's been a great way to play with different threads and learn lots of stitches, and I'm really sorry it's ended because I did manage to keep up with this for the most part. I finally got a binder to put all of these in so I can use it for easy reference.

So those are my current WIPs in counted canvas. There are some others, as I mentioned above, but they're not really in the current rotation. Rotation. I say that like I actually do these systematically.

I have a number of painted canvas WIPs and even a counted thread project. Those will wait for another post. And then there are all the projects waiting in the wings, and they seem to be legion!

I'll catch up. I know I can. I mean, how hard can it be?

Kthxbai.