I had a nice surprise when I just looked at my last post which said that I'd lost 50lbs. A nice surprise because as of today I've now lost 61lbs, so another 11lbs since the start of the year, which I'm very happy with. I'm now in between clothing sizes again so all my clothes are looking a little baggy lol.
On the stitching front, my rotation came and went AGAIN! but the one great thing that January brought was the final realisation that my hobby had turned into a chore. I was so taken up with trying to get a rotation that worked and make sure that I stitched on all my WIP/UFO's that I had totally lost all enjoyment in my stitching. I felt guilty about everything that I wasn't stitching on, and felt I wasn't allowed to start new things because I hadn't finished others. I kept looking longingly at my huge stash collection, and just being frustrated because I couldn't let myself stitch on it, and so felt it was just being wasted.
So after a long chat with Sally one night, who was feeling a little the same as me, we made a pact to stop being so obsessive over our hobby, to start stitching on what projects we want, when we want, and to put away and ignore anything we've lost interest in. I realised my ufo's aren't hurting anyone, but forcing myself to stitch on them is, me, because it's taken my love of stitching away. And we also decided if we want new starts then we shall have them! lol
Since that night I feel like a totally different stitcher, almost like the person who started stitching about 15years ago. I've stitched some days, and not others, but when I have I've just enjoyed each stitch. In the past few weeks I've stitched on LK's ABC Christmas, HAED's Moon Fantasy SK (which I hadn't intended to stitch on, but called to me one day lol), L&L's Celtic Autumn and my January new start the Personalised Sampler I had designed for my family. I'm stitching this 1x1 on 25ct antique white lugana using Vikki Clayton Hand Dyed Fibers in BeWhined. I did start this on 1st January using different fabric and threads, but I didn't like how it was looking, so started it again on my birthday in this colourway and am much happier. Apologies for the shadows on the pics, but I wanted to take the chance to get some photos while the sun was out, which is a very rare sight at the moment lol.
