Boy howdy. Back in the 70's I worked for several years on 2 5×7 stitcheries I ordered from a sack of cat food.

They were just yarn on a material that was a forerunner to plastic canvas. I find 'em in the bottom of the fabric box every few years. Took me forever.

Around 1975 or so I was in London, and went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Great place. All of you who read this who haven't been there yet, put it at the very top of your bucket list.

What impressed me the most was seeing some of the most amazing embroidery I've ever seen in my life, truly museum worthy (unlike my pitiful work, which is fortunately appreciated by the recipients). And they weren't finished. Nope. It was obvious to the most casual observer that these had been abandoned about three-quarters of the way through, and it gave me great solace to know that even the very best of needlewomen could not get all of their projects completed.

It was a version of the Ra pectoral - very pretty. The materials supplied with the kit were cotton floss for the main element and white wool yarn for the background.

I started it with the supplied floss just using basketweave and didn't like it, so I ripped it out and set it aside. Somtime in the mid 1980s I pulled it out and tried stitching it with some fancy stitches, didn't like the results so I ripped it out and put the project back in storage. I kept coming up with new ideas, trying them out, ripping them out, and putting it away. Somewhere along the way I bought all new floss.

A few years back when looking at thread on Ebay I found some Chinese silk with metallics spun into the floss. I ordered it and tried it on the Ra piece - with just a basic basketweave it looks like a beaded prioject! I plugged away at it for a couple of years and in the summer of 2012 while recovering from my knee replacements, I finished the background.

So I'm at about 35 years, too. Except that although the stitching is complete, the project isn't. I still have the rolled up canvas in a box with other pieces that need to be framed, made into something, or thrown away. That big tote is getting full, so I need to spend a year just doing finishing!

what do you plan to do with it?

The reason I eventually finished the stitchery I talk about in the OP, is that it was always intended for my friend Don. I certainly didn't think about it very often in the decades it was put away, but it was always out there for him.

Right now I have a bunch of embroidery projects, mostly stamped pillowcases, that are intended for specific people. None of them are going to take years and years, but for me having a specific recipient in mind helps.

Or find someone to give it to. I have few friends who appreciate my needlework for me to gift things to so most of my stitching these days is for my own enjoyment or for things for my own house. I do have one niece who loves some of the things I've done, but she lives in an efficiency apartment and has little room. Last year I gave her one of my framed pieces but only after she was sure she had a place for it.

I made some things intended for friends, but stuff happened and the various people are no longer in my life. Those items are some of the things in my tote waiting to be made into something.

My current cat is into attacking things so none of my needlework is in his reach. He's almost 14 years old so I've been saying once he was gone I could get out some pillows I've made. We're adopting another cat soon - some friends have her and their dogs are not accepting her. I'll have to see how she does with the house. She was a barn cat but before that she may have been a house cat.

my son born in 1970!

I have a set of three needlepoint pillow patterns, which are geometric patterns. which I loved then and still like. I DID finish the first one, which is beautiful, and decided to frame it, not wanting to put on a pillow something which took so much work. The patterns are not printed on the fabric, which means following a printed pattern, counting stitches. I don't know if my eyesight will be good enough to do the two others, but I really would like to try. I've moved two times since then, and have just now unpacked all my fabric, etc.. I'm thinking about going into a more creative route with all the stuff I have, but needlepoint is something you can do while watching TV or listening to the radio, and I have all the thread which was included in the set. I don't knit or crochet, but I do like needlepoint.

If I do one more, maybe that will be enough! Good luck to all you needleworkers! Do the things you like and don't feel guilty about not finishing something.

In my little informal quilting group, we have challenged each other to finish up some of our UFOs this year. When we got together on Saturday, everyone brought their list.

Mine is so long, it's scary. Apparently I'm a professional class taker.

We all worked out a plan to get some of them done. And everyone chose one project to finish and submit to our guild UFO challenge this summer.