September 22, 2014 .. Debbie

September 22, 2014

2015 Ultimate January Crazy Challenge 

The world lost a beautiful person and I lost a stitching friend from Fontana, CA. Debbie Bryant last month.  I only knew her via the internet and several stitching groups we both participated in.  She was an avid stitcher and each year participated in a "Crazy Challenge" that involved a ridiculous number of newly started cross stitch projects during January.

The way the challenge works is that a group of stitchers decide in the fall how many projects the group is going to challenge themselves to start AND finish during the coming year.  Each stitcher decides what designers, charts, fabric, threads and embellishments (if any) they will use.  The projects can be big or small, each person deciding on their own stitching style, skills and speed   Then on January 1st you begin by starting a new project EACH DAY until all the projects in your list have at least a few stitches in them.   In 2011 the number was 15.  So from January 1st till January 15th we started a new project for 15 days.  Then on the 16th each stitcher would decide what they wanted to work on.  All these projects remained Works in Progress (WIP) until completed.  The goal is to start and finish number of projects you have been wanting to do that have been sitting in your stash.

The one and only year I did the challenge was 2011, and while it was great fun and I did get several projects finished during the year ... I still am looking at several in my WIP/UFO box.  

A few days after we lost Debbie, Linda Scott put together a group to remember Debbie with a Memorial Challenge "DUCJC2015".  I have decided to join this group and see much of my stash I can get done during the year.  While I do have several new projects all kitted up and ready to start (23 as of today)  I will also be dusting off and adding some of the WIP/UFO'S in an attempt to finally get those done so they will stop screaming at me every time I walk into my sewing room.  

According to the Facebook page for the DUCJC2015 there are 72 stitchers as members, some of which will blog about their challenge throughout the year.  I will add links to their blogs on the side bar as I discover and visit them so you can too.  

Please take a minute to look at the separate page where I have listed the projects I plan to do (so far).  These are the new starts and are not necessarily in order of which I will begin them.

Here is a snap of a pretty little spiral notebook that has a page for each of my projects for this challenge.  I plan before the first of the year to get in my sewing room and pull out all my WIPs & UFOs, add them to the book and make a page here for them also.  Maybe by doing that, it will inspire me to get cracking, ...er, stitching on them and get some more finishes done.

 I hope to be more disciplined during 2015 both in my stitching, recording details about my stitching  and blogging.  I guess come January 2016 we will all see how successful I have been :)

Till next time,

Cindi
9/22/2014