April 2015 WIPocalypse

We've reached another full moon, so it's time for a WIPocalypse check-in, as hosted by Measi.  Actually, the official check in date was Saturday, but since I still don't have internet access on the weekends, I am a little behind on reporting. 

April's question is: Which specialty stitches do you love doing on projects? Which do you dread?

For me, I pretty much dread all specialty stitches.  Most of all, I hate French knots (even though those aren't really a specialty stitch per se).  I can do some specialty stitches, I used the lazy daisy stitch on my Victorian Tree ornament last year, I just don't like the extra fussiness I guess.  And I'm definitely not brave enough to branch out on a pattern with tons of specialty stitches.  Beading is specialty enough for me right now!

Now I suppose I should tally up my progress for WIPocalypse this month.   Looking back at my original WIPocalypse goals, here's where I stand so far:

Goal 1: Keep up with the 2015 Flower of the Month SAL - I did some good progress in March and got caught up with starting.  Now to start April this month. 

Goal 2: Crazy January Challenge, completed.  I have also finished stitching 5 of the 31 projects so far. 

Goal 3: Keep up with the other SALs I've taken on this year.  So far, so good, although I have missed TUSAL a couple times.

Goal 4: Work on my 10 Turtle Trot pieces.  No progress on this last check-in.  And I haven't got much progress so far this month either.  I'm actually thinking about adjusting my TT pieces a bit. 

Goal 5: Finish Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin when it comes back to me later this year - cannot complete yet.  But I've been seeing the progress on my pattern in our Facebook Group, and so far Days 5, 8 and 9 of the 12 days of Christmas are complete.

Goal 6: Other projects to start - none started yet.

And a New Goal 7 (just for April): Finish the A to Z blogging challenge!

My finishes for March the February and March parts of Frosted Pumpkin's Woodland Sampler, (my contribution to Round 2 of the above mentioned Round Robin group), Sparrow on Vine stitched for Love Quilts, and Hoppy Spring stitched for a spring exchange.  I'm not going to post pictures of these finishes again, since long time readers of my blog have already seen them several times this month, but you can click on the links to see them if you wish.

And I have new things to share too!  Although not really a "goal" I did reach a landmark, my first "finished-finish".  I finished up Hoppy Spring as a flat piece, which is my first time ever finishing a small project (beyond a few bookmarks in the past).  I used Vonna's very nice finishing tutorial to help me.  Thanks to the very limited selection of supplies at my local Joann's, I had to really improvise my supplies, but I think it turned out okay despite that.  

 
Here's a picture of the fabric I used for the back:

So what do you think?  Did it turn out okay?

 
I also had a long stitching session this weekend thanks to our church's semi-annual broadcasted conference.  I was able to get done my Round 3 project for the Frosted Pumpkin Round Robin.  This is the November block of Dessert of the Month Club:

Isn't it cute?  I love the eyelashes.  I had a hard time deciding which  block to do, but in the end my brother helped me choose this one.  No progress pics on this one unfortunately, since it went so quick.

Well, I guess that's it for this (rather long) update post.  Until next month!