WIPS and UFOs

WIPs and UFOs we all have them, though what is the difference? All for me will get finished in the end, it's just timescale.

A WIP (work in progress) is the one mainly on the go, that I keep coming back to after having been lured away by other shiny new projects, the "I must do that" things that appear in magazines or on the many websites (Facebook is the worst - Sew and So keep putting up lovely kits, my wish list on their site has more than doubled in size since I "Liked" them).

My current WIP is a design called Frederick the Literate - a tabby cat sprawled over a bookcase. It's a design I looked at for years before finally giving in and purchasing. Stitched on black aida, it's not the easiest to do, though the pattern is relatively simple. I'm going to need to get a small daylight lamp I can attach to my lap frame I think, if I am going to avoid him moving into the category of UFO.

Unfortunately I've been tempted by another and have just started this one now too:


It's a design by Dracolair Creations, called Rune Sampler. It features a Norse style ship in the centre and then an alphabet of rune tiles across the top, with quite an elaborate border. It's fairly tricky, with a lot of half crosses, but stitching on evenweave makes these a lot easier to do.

One problem with this one, apart from many of the flosses are blends of two shades, is that the pattern is DMC and the threads I have are Anchor. It just means that I have to convert between the two, and somethines the shades don't match. (DMC has a larger range) My last hour of sewing last night was spent unpicking the work of the previous half hour. The colour blend that I was stitching the background of the border in just didn't look right. So it's back to the floss box this afternoon to do a bit of experimenting and see if I can find something else I'm happy with instead.


The UFOs (Unfinished Objects) however, sit there, taunting me. Occasionally they are things I have grown out of or gone off, I'm thinking in particular here of a hardanger table runner that I could probably have finished in a couple of weeks if I set my mind to it, but it's been sitting at the bottom of a box for so long it has discoloured, and I have no idea where the right copy of New Stitches would be. Other UFOs are ones that are too complex and involved to be able to pick up on for a couple of hours an evening.

I am in the middle of a lovely sampler by Teresa Wenzler, and I know I will get it finished, but it won't be this year - or next. It has been on the go for about 5 years now.

It's on my floor standing frame, so until it is done I'm not allowing myself to start another biggie. The main reason for stalling on this is there are so many colours and then most of them are a blend of two threads as well. It is worked on evenweave over two threads in the main, but there are places where it uses a single floss over one thread. It is not an easy pick up project. I'm looking forward to a peaceful few days over Christmas where I can settle down in front of movies (and pretend to watch) while i engross myself in the work.