Month: February 2025

Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse – February 2025

Anne S

The start of February was a busy time for me stitching my little heart out. It tailed off, though, and I moved into sewing mode for a while. I’m embracing being out of work for a while and ‘doing all the things’, ie working through all those WIPs and kitted up sewing projects that have been gathering dust for years. It really helps having a dedicated sewing space, something I’ve never had before.

Stitching WIP updates

Here’s my progress from February, including the starting point as at 1 February and their current status.

“Mini Sunflowers” by Heaven and Earth Designs – fully finished!

“All you need is love” by Design Works – fully finished!

“Creepy pin cushion” cushion by Shepherd’s Bush, before and after:

“Almost Halloween” by The Drawn Thread, before and after:

“Three Kings” by Mill Hill, before and after:

“Egyptian Garden Mandala” by Chatelaine, before and after:

“2024 Mirabilia Retreat Mermaid” by Nora Corbett, before and after:

“Supernatural” by PixelStitches, before and after:

“Seafoam” (canvaswork) by Needle Delights Originals, before and after:

New starts

Stitching

I continued adding a few smaller projects to my WIP list with some more new starts this month. Some Facebook group stitching challenges gave me the excuse to start them. I was aiming to have a bigger new start for my birthday but I totally forgot my birthday and everything that went with it and then lost my stitching mojo temporarily. Oh well, it’ll get started soon and will likely become my focus piece after I finish Three Kings..

  1. Cabana beach by Mill Hill
  2. The boys are back in town by JABC
  3. Girls night out by JABC

Sewing

  • Cali & Co mystery block of the month by Coriander Quilts – Block 2 (started and finished)
  • Tilda Club Jan 2023 – The Makers Tactical Tool Belt by Arabesque Scissors (started and finished)
  • Thimble pip (started and finished)
  • Bee Grateful journal cover kit by Gum Valley Patchwork (started, and just needs the leather catch to be hand-sewn on before it can be fully finished)
  • Slumbermouse Pourch by Kitty Rose Cottage (started, but put to one side now while I work on some cardmaking classes)
  • Tilda Club issue 36 notebook cover by Lilabelle Lane Creations (started earlier in the year and finished)
Slumbermouse pouch by Kitty Rose Cottage

Question of the month:

“What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?“

I originally signed up for the HAED SAL for Jellyworld, but I decided I’d have to dedicate pretty much all my stitching time to that project to meet the deadlines, and after only just returning to stitching after a 4-year hiatus I wanted to focus my energies finishing some older WIPs instead. I did join the WIP Warriors Facebook group at the end of 2024, and they have regular monthly challenges that are really varied – adding the gamification to the stitching has really been motivating to me, and I’ve been stitching regularly every day because of it. Continuing those challenges throughout 2025 will be my only type of SAL I think, because I can work on whatever projects I want to focus on while meeting the challenge commitments.

The only other SAL is a sew-along rather than a stitch-along – I’ve started making the monthly mystery scrappy quilt blocks designed for Cali & Co fabrics by Coriander Quilts. Instead of using the Cali & Co fabrics, I’ve been pulling my Tilda fabrics out that are in cool-tone colours, and loving it so far.

2025 goal achievements

Because I kept my craft goals small this year, and having all that extra spare time to focus on my mental health, I’ve managed to achieve a small number of my goals already, which I’m thrilled with.

  • *DONE* Hit the 80% completion mark for HAED’s Mini Sunflowers – I fully finished this one
  • *1/3 DONE* Finish three stitching projects (at least one should be a current WIP):
    1. All you need is love by Design Works
    2. TBC
    3. TBC
  • *DONE* Make progress on one canvaswork project (new start) (I started Seafoam by Needle Delights Originals)
  • *DONE* Make progress on at least three class/kit sewing projects:
    1. Sewing Day Project Bag by Fee Fee & Me (fully finished)
    2. Windy Walk Bag from Kitty Rose Cottage (fully finished)
    3. KJ’s Ruler Bag from Kitty Rose Cottage (in progress)
  • *DONE* Start a bed quilt (mystery BOM by Coriander Quilts)

Quilting

Coriander Quilts QAL

Anne S

Here’s my February/second block for the quilt-along by Coriander Quilts. I’ve realised I’m going to need to create 3-4 of each month’s blocks to have a quilt big enough for a queen-sized bed, so I may have trouble having enough of the Tilda fabrics … I guess time will tell. I have plenty of the teal ones that can be used, but some of the purples and greens etc I only have a fat quarter of each fabric, and I’m likely to need 1/2 yards. I might just have to get a bit creative down the track …

These blocks continue to make me supremely happy – you can’t help but feel that way when you’re with fabric colours that you adore 🙂 I can’t wait for each new block to arrive each month!

I was very unexpectedly given a $50 gift voucher to a quilting shop by a dear friend for my birthday, so I decided to use it towards a Sue Daley rotating cutting mat. It seems I have hundreds of half square triangles in my future with this quilt, and having a rotating mat will hopefully make it a lot quicker to trim down all those blocks! I know I shouldn’t be spending money right now, but I haven’t a small moment of self-indulgence for my birthday month 😉

Friday Night Sew In, Quilting & Sewing, Sewing

Friday Night Sew In – Feb 2025

Anne S

Yay it was Friday yesterday, which meant my sewing/stitching pals were busy creating and working on sewing and other craft projects.

In my case my first task was to put together this book cover, which was from Tilda Club issue 36 by Lilabelle Lane Creations. I managed to attach the embroidered panel on Thursday night, and put it all together yesterday (Friday) … however the notebook that it was based on didn’t end up fitting! I grabbed an alternative hard-backed notebook instead, which fits perfectly, but now the embroidered panel is off-centre and kinda annoying. I must say, though, the project itself is really pretty – and it was a great one to use this very colourful and busy Tilda fabric collection.

I’ll be truthfully honest that I found the instructions a bit lacking for this pattern. There seems to be one clear error where it says for both lining pieces “along one of the short ends on each piece…” to fold over and top stitch the edge. On the smaller piece of lining, though, the actual edge that needs the foldover and topstitching is the longer side and not the short one – the instructions contradict the diagram in the instructions.

There’s also no adjustment made to ensure your notebook fits other than for the height (ie it doesn’t take into account the width of the notebook), so the notebook I’d originally intended using for this didn’t fit thanks to the coiled wire spine – I had another hard-backed notebook I could use instead, so that was no drama though. When adding the embroidery panel it states to ‘take into consideration the 1/4″ seam allowance and the width of your A5 notebook’. What would’ve been super duper helpful (especially to this less experienced sewist who takes every instruction literally) is to also add a note to “take into account the 1″ back flap that holds the notebook in place”, and not just the 1/4″ seam allowance. Anyhoo, that’s just my lack of experience not thinking about that, so regardless of which notebook I ended up using the embroidered panel was never going to be aligned in the centre … my bad, and something I’ve learnt from for future projects! One day in the future I’ll do something to fix it – either by removing and reattaching the hexagon panel or adding a stamped fabric tag/label with a positive saying on it. For now I’ll just glare at it with a filthy look every now and then haha.

Last night I also started working on another project – another notebook cover, must be the week for it – but old fluffy bum (aka Smudge) decided she needed attention so it got put to one side. And while trying to finish it this morning she decided to join in the fun but this time kept swishing her tail by the needle, so I had to down tools for a while today too … at some point either today or tomorrow it’ll get finished and another kit can be ticked off the sewing list.

Cross Stitch, Finishes

Design Works All you need is love

Anne S

After finishing HAED’s Mini Sunflowers this week, I decided to keep momentum going, and after doing the required 100-200 stitches on this project for another challenge, I just kept plugging away at it until it was finished. This is now my second finish for the year.

This was a kit by Design Works – the black aida fabric was like cardboard and they only provided half the amount of floss needed, so I wasn’t overly impressed. Thankfully DMC white was a close enough match that you can’t tell where I used my own stash to be able to complete it (thank heavens for a monochrome design). I really do love the end result, though, and it’ll eventually get framed to hang in my kitchen area.

“All you need is love” kit by Design Works
Stitched on 14ct black Aida (kit fabric) with a mix of kit thread and DMC
Started 13 May 2020
Finished 6 February 2025

Cross Stitch, Finishes, HAED

HAED Mini Sunflowers

Anne S

I have a significant finish today – after 31,600 small cross stitches, it’s now in the ‘to be washed and framed’ pile. I started this during Covid lockdowns, then it was put on hold for a few years while my mojo had disappeared. Thanks to a bunch of stitching challenges this year it gave me the urge to focus on this project and get it finished. It will eventually get sent to a very very dear friend in New Zealand, someone that I’ve known my entire life and is part of my family by choice. My goal this year was to get this to 80% finished, so I’m thrilled to have exceeded that.

“Mini Sunflowers” by Heaven and Earth Designs / Marianne Broome
Stitched on 16ct antique white Aida with DMC floss as charted
Started 6 June 2020
Finished 5 February 2025