Stitching - A Year End Review (Shameful, Pic Heavy, & SUPER Long!)

Yeah, I'm not even sure why I'm bothering with doing a stitch review, especially since my stitching SUCKED this year, but I'm "calling" it motivation for 2021! But first, let's start with ORTs. You can tell how my stitching has declined since Hotel California compared to all the other year's before it, and even how much its declined even since last year (this was my worst year ever). So, here they all are together (sorry for the glare):

Here's paultry 2020 (and maybe the glare helps here...it makes it look fuller than it actually is, but trust me, it's just sad):

When it comes to stitching itself, I apparently didn't do an hourly "the road so far" count last year again (I seem to remember being mad at myself for not doing that last year either). So NOW I'm going to mark where I'm at now and at least I'll have a total for how much I stitched this year! I'll just go through each project one at a time, show where I ended last year and where I am now, so bear with me, this might be long! For fabric types and sizes, to at least "try" to keep this short, those are listed under their titles under my WIPS tab, so I won't relist it all here. I'm going to start with Jasmine Becket-Griffith's Faces of Faery 167, a HAED (because it's the first in my Flickr album, and no other reason), and I'll go down the Flickr album line until we get finished! I left off Faces on June 23, 2019 here:

I stitched on it for THREE DAYS this year (sad) and ended here on June 21st, 2020 and I'm now at a total of 29.53:

Addict2CrossStitch's Everest was a project I kitted up in 2017 along with a lot of the other ones, but apparently I never started it.

I started it on January 12th of this year, stopped by the 18th of January (and apparently haven't touched it since...it's REALLY wide). It's a really nice project to stitch, I was really enjoying it and I've stood on that bridge in Animal Kingdom dozens of times, so it's also a great memory trigger, so I'm not sure what my problem is other than being a lazy stitcher. Anyhoo, here is where I made it after 26.53 hrs total:

Now we come to my love/hate relationship with Hook by Tilton Crafts. As much as I love this design (and I know there is a whole set of these to match), black and white projects are definitely NOT for me! Apparently my relationship with this is so troubled, I hadn't touched it since March 5th, 2018!

For about a week in May, I tried again, but on the 25th, I stopped again and haven't picked it up since. I stopped at 52.2 hrs in total and I'll try harder this year to at least finish the first row (which is a whole bunch of the white background with just a little more of his head and hair).

GeckoRouge's The Bride Dollmaking (or Dollmaker, I call her different things) is probably one of projects I worked the most on (which isn't saying much). I left off on her December 31st, 2019:

And she was the project I started right back on Jan 1 and hopped back to throughout the year. I finished Row 2 Sept 25th for a total time of 217.97 hrs so far. Whether or not I'll get row 3 done this year remains to be seen. As much as I love this design, I will say, considering the cost of this kit, I am a tiny bit disappointed in the loss of detail from the original picture to the project. Part of me wishes it was either bigger or had more colors to bring out the details that are in the original artwork, but oh well, I still love it, here you go:

Neni Designs (I believe she calls herself something different now, but her shop is the same on Etsy) Happy Haunts. This "should" have been a quick stitch, like Lilo and Stitch was. It hasn't been. For some reason, I just can't get into it. I left off April 29th of last year:

And, as before, I worked on it exactly three days this year, ending on March 29th, finishing at a total of 102.25 hrs so far (pitiful). This should have been a finish, again, oh well:

Ah, the joy that is Annya Kai's Maleficent by HAED (and yes, I call it that because my pattern says that...I bought it literally the day it came out, and it IS Maleficent, not "Evil Queen"...I get copyrights, but if they are gonna rename for copyrights, get your Disney villains straight! I find it offensive they picked that title...ok, rant over). Maleficent got the most love of the year because I REALLY wanted to finish her. I failed. I didn't even finish row 6. But I got close and then row 7 is only a partial row, so maybe this will be her last year (but I'm not counting my chickens). I left off on her on July 7th of last year:

And, on November 8th, I just couldn't go any further on that row, but I ended at 722.72 hrs total, which is one of my highest hour counts as well (although I don't think it's my highest). Plus, when you get to the bottom, and your not in the faces or the "cool" parts, it is pretty boring.

Speaking of which when it comes to action-packed, Alice and The Bouguereau Princesses by Jasmine Becket-Griffith (another HAED). It's a massively HUGE project, my largest yet and it's hard to tell how big it is from the pictures. It's going to cost a FORTUNE to get framed! I worked on them quite a bit as well (although, again, that's not saying much this year). I left off here April 21st of last year:

But because it's so big, no matter how much progress I have, you can't tell it. I left off on November 29th for a full total of 737.62 hrs (another high one):

Now, the bane of my existence, Suteki by Aimee Stewart (can you tell I like HAED's?). I haven't touched her since November 27th of 2017! And that was probably more of a HUGE thank you to my Sister for taking care of me during my stay in Hotel California, but I could't stick with it. This project is a gift to her and, if I ever finish it, I know she'll love it (and I'll be SOOO happy to see the back of it), but it's also kind of weird how those really painful pieces tend to be the most genuine gifts (like the giant Jesus head I gave my now-passed Grandmother...I HATED that project and I still hate brown, but she loved it more than any other gift she ever received). But I have to finish it to make it a gift! So here is where we left off:

What little I did stitch this year, actually wasn't that bad as it has been in the past. For now, I'm at 179.28 hrs and that's high for this project, but it's also the most confetti-heavy project I've ever done. It's horrendous! If my OCD could stand all the hanging thread, it would be great for parking, but I just can't do it. So here we are now (again, only three days work, but better than nothing):

Jessica Clark's Snow White is a retired HAED that I'm glad I got a chance to get. She is a great artist and it's a shame they don't have her design's licensed anymore. I love this art (although I DEFINITELY picked the wrong fabric). I haven't touched Snow since November 12th, 2017, probably because it's one of the two projects because I worked on while my Grandmother was in hospice:

I worked on her a lot in January, but just started back in December (and December 30th was it's last hit). For now, I'm still working on her, so she'll be where I'll be until I get ready to switch. So, for the end of 2020, she's at 157.52 hrs total. Anyway, here's where she stopped:

Speaking of hospice, the other project was another HAED, Annie Rodrigue's Night Wish, which hasn't been touched since November 24th, 2017 at it's row finish:

I started hard on her in January of this year, but by February 19th of this year, I guess I forgot about her, because I haven't touched her since. Maybe she should come up after Snow. So far, she's at 184.63 hrs total. I probably have mentioned it before, but I got this project because it's all purple, but it's more pinky purple than blue purple (which is MY purple), so, for me, it's kind of disappointing. Maybe that's why I'm having trouble with her. She's still beautiful, but I wish she was more bluish. Oh well:

HAED's Sleepy Hollow Mural by Lewis T. Johnston was "supposed" to be my first Q-Snap project. It didn't take me long to realize I HATE Q-Snaps. I've used rods for so long, I'm just not built for anything else. It's probably why I haven't touched Sleepy Hollow since December 20th, 2017:

On May 10th of this year, I put it on rods, and suddenly, I was just very happy with it! Granted, I only stitched on it for four days, but I made a lot of progress (although you can't tell it from the Q-Snaps to the rods). For what little I've done, the 140.22 hrs seems like a lot, but it was because I was fighting with the Q-Snaps so much. Now, that number won't grow as much. It's a horizontal piece, so it's still very awkward to work on, but give me rods any day!

Then there are the three that I refuse to call UFO's, but I guess that's what they are. They are so old, I wasn't keeping time when I started these. Tartan B (which I haven't touched since Dec 23rd, 2017 (and would't take me but a couple days to finish it, but I swear it's like working on the biggest HAED ever and I make NO progress after HOURS of work!):

A Summer Ball, a project I don't know why I hate, but I do...I haven't touched since January 5th, 2015!

And lastly, Disney World's 25th Anniversary (which is just funny considering 2021 is Disney World's 50th Anniversary). This project is hard for me because of the dark fabric. I have to use a lightbox, which gives me a headache, so it's just too much. I haven't touched it since May 23rd, 2015. I will finish it, but who knows when!

For the record, I forgot to mention that during HAED's last 50% off sale, I cleared my wishlist completely. Three projects by Aimee Stewart, Beach Combers Bounty, A Pirates Life and the Super Size, Max Color Oasis.

It's been a while since HAED has had anything new I've wanted, so I've been wanted to clear that list for a while. Now it's done. Unless they come out with something great from Jasmine, I'm probably not going to be buying anymore from them. I just prefer the non-dithered style they used to do (and I have more stash than life).

Speaking of though, most of you guys do seem to think that starting a new project might help, and my mind has been stewing over this. The one project that has been digging at me is this one and there is a matching Heroes and Villains Book as well:

Time will tell if I start it, but I think I've rambled on enough! That was my 2020! Sad, I know, but here's to a MUCH better 2021!!