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
Belatedly adding my update for October, although it’s the first WIP update I’ve made for quite some time. I’ve gone crazy stitching quite a bit since my return home – it’s helped me to take my mind off Dad’s passing and Mum coping on her own. So without further ado, here are my WIP updates and some other finishes.
Just Cross Stitch ornament SAL
I managed to finish all the remaining ornaments for a 12-month long ornament challenge using the 2018 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue – I used my two wild cards to change out two of the ornaments where I didn’t like one or didn’t have all the required threads and nothing to substitute with. The ornies I finished in October were:
Works in Progress / UFOs
I dragged out a few older WIPs/UFOs that were in my to-do-list for the year but that I hadn’t touched yet … I’ve failed my goals this year miserably, but at least I’ve managed some progress on a few projects for the year, even if it’s really small progress …
Before: When Witches Go Riding by The Prairie Schooler
Before: When Witches Go Riding by The Prairie Schooler
I managed to add the words and a bit of the right-hand border into ‘When Witches Go Riding’ by The Prairie Schooler
Quaker Christmas II by ByGone Stitches
I completed my major goal of finishing the big motif in the centre, then continued to add a few more smallers ones off to the left and two smaller ones off to the right – ‘Quaker Christmas II’ by ByGone Stitches
After: Three Kings by Mill Hill/Jim Shore
I started working on the 3rd king on ‘Three Kings’ by Mill Hill / Jim Shore – the aim is to entirely finish that king by the end of the year, and now I’ll just continue working on him during November until he’s done.
New starts
When I first came home I decided to start a new canvaswork project – I managed great progress until my fingers got too sore to keep yanking the threads through the canvas, so it’s been put into time out for a while, and I’ll probably pick it up again in 2020 to finish it off, if not before.
‘Lahaina Breezes’ by Laura J Perin
After I finished my JCS ornie SAL challenge, I decided to pick up a quick project that’s been kitted up for years – and finished it in a couple of days.
‘Under the Sea’ by Elizabeth’s Designs
Question of the Month: Do you prefer to stitch on a rotation or one project at a time?
It depends on my mood at the time, to be honest – I work well with a rotation when I’m in the mood, it helps me to progress through projects quickly as long as I have them all set up together ready for me to work through the order of projects without having to hunt for items, or frames, or threads etc. I’ve been doing a screaming rotation of sorts for a while now – just stitching on what I feel like stitching on and not counting the hours at all. I’d like to get back to a formal rotation again, but I think I’ll wait until the new year for that.
Those that are friends with me on Facebook will know that I’ve just returned home after 3 1/2 months of personal leave back in New Zealand. My beloved Dad had a fall and broke his hip towards the end of June, and his recovery was far from smooth-sailing. He developed numerous infections during his time there, and was eventually sent home with an untreated infection in his system that took his body over a week later. After 3 months (minus that one week at home after 2 months) he lost his battle in the hospital and passed away on 26 September. It was probably a blessing at that point because he was suffering so much 😦 RIP Dad – I love you and miss you so much, and I’ll miss our weekly phone calls catching up with all of your news. This photo is from his first day home from hospital before he became unwell again.
Not unexpectedly, my craft mojo was pretty absent while in NZ – I tried doing crochet but lost the ability to count and after a couple of weeks of attempting different shawl patterns had to frog everything back again. I also struggled to see the fabric holes properly to be able to do cross stitch so most of the projects I took with me to work on in the evenings wasn’t of any use. I finally settled on a charity piece of stitching that was stitched on 14-count Aida cloth, and it became the piece that I could stitch on in the hospital room while Dad was sleeping or doing crosswords.
Since returning home on the weekend I’ve managed to get a lot of stitching done, and it’s actually helped to calm my mind and give me a bit of peace after such a tumultuous few months. First of all I did a bit of the canvaswork piece I was working on before I had the phone call from NZ.
“Lahaina Breezes” by Laura J Perin
Then today I finished the Christmas ornament that I was struggling to see the fabric on while in NZ.
“The Heart of Christmas” by Rosewood Manor (from 2018 JCS Christmas Ornament issue) Stitched on 32ct white Lugana with DMC 816 and 895, Kreinik #4 braid 002, and Mill Hill beads 03049 Started 8 September 2019 – Finished 15 October 2019.
Not sure what’s up next – I really want to finish the JCS Christmas Ornament SAL on Facebook this year, so that’ll probably be my main focus for the remainder of the year, unless I throw in a larger WIP inbetween the ornies. Time will tell …
Over the Easter weekend I had an exceptionally lazy and indulgent four days stitching my little heart out while watching old movie DVDs. The result was to finish three projects that I started in February/March during my Mum’s recent visit to Australia. The dragonfly was an earlier WIP that’ll be the subject of my April WIPocalypse post 🙂
“Flying Geese” by Laura J Perin Stitched on 18ct French Blue monocanvas with recommended threads Started 20 February 2019 – Finished 22 April 2019
“To All a Good Night” by Knotted Tree NeedleArt from the 2018 JCS Christmas Ornament issue with a mix of recommended threads and substitutes from my stash Started 3 March 2019 – Finished 22 April 2019
Mirabilia Retreat dragonfly by Nora Corbett / Mirabilia Stitched with kit fabrics and threads Started 10 February 2018 – Finished 22 April 2019
Sadly I became quite sick in early February with some virus that has had me nauseous and wanting to be physically ill on and off for six weeks. Sadly that meant a few weeks of annual leave were spent laid up in bed or on the sofa apartment-bound. This all coincided with the final visit from my Mum, which sadly meant no fun road trips for us on this trip, and our all travel plans had to be cancelled. On the positive, though, we had plenty of girlie one-on-one time at home watching TV and movies and just generally chatting. Mum has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and these types of days will gradually become less and less, and she’s no longer able to travel on her own. It breaks my heart to see her memories disappearing, but I try to stay positive and just respond the same way for the 5th time I’ve heard the same story on any given day – I still treasure the conversations and the laughter that we always have 🙂
As for crafts, my gigantic plans for the year became scuppered very early on, and I’m very behind with blogging and crafting. I did eventually manage a bit of stitching while I was on ‘holiday’ though once the nausea started to wear off, and this has been the result so far …
Dimensions: Stacked Tea Cups
This kit was a gift from a dear friend in the US, and I’ve been itching to stitch it ever since it arrived. I decided the colours were exactly what I wanted to work on and made a start on it before Mum arrived for our holiday. This was also my chosen project for “New start January” in an Aussie Facebook group called JK’s Groupies. Eventually I managed to finish it during my recuperation. I really need to take a better photo in daylight without all those ugly shadows! I also want to stitch this one more time but on a 36ct linen next time with DMC – I’d love to see the comparison, because I hated stitching on that awful cardboard-like Aida and I have more Dimensions kits to stitch up.
“Stacked Tea Cups” by Dimensions Stitched on 18ct white Aida (hideous kit fabric) with kit threads Started 12 January 2019 – Finished 15 February 2019
Elizabeth’s Designs: Ladybug
This was a WIP from 2018, and all I had to do was to stitch on the ladybird charm … five minutes later and it was all finished! 🙂
“Ladybug” by Elizabeth’s Designs Stitched on 32ct natural Belfast linen (I think) with recommended threads Started ? 2018 – Finished 15 February 2019
Keslyn’s: Santa’s Hat & Boots
Next was the April Christmas ornament in a Facebook JCS Christmas Ornament SAL. I really struggled with this one initially because of my ‘fuzzy head’, but I persevered and managed to finish it eventually – but oh boy it wasn’t much fun, and it took me a fair few days to complete it!
“Santa’s Hat and Boots” by Keslyn’s (from the 2018 JCS Christmas Ornament issue) Stitched one-over-one on 28ct white Lugana with recommended DMC threads but I attached small bells instead of the ‘Bead Landing Sticky Gems’
Laura J Perin: Flying Geese
After I finished all that over-one stitching, I started a new canvaswork project – Flying Geese by Laura J Perin. I thought the larger threads and canvas would be easier for my head to manage. It’s been a bit slow going, but hopefully this will be finished over the next couple of months.
The great thing about taking an extra week off work after Christmas is having more time to stitch and have a general overdue tidy-up at home. I came across this wee chart that has been kitted up for about 12 years as I was tidying up a pile of stitching ‘stuff’ – I figured rather than putting it back in it’s storage box where it belongs, I’d just suck it up and get it into the Qsnaps to get it stitched up. It took me two days to finish, but I really love it. And that also means another new start and another finish ticked off my 19 in 19 challenge for the year … bonus!! 😀
“Sweet Valentines” by The Sweetheart Tree Stitched on 28ct white lugana (I think!) Changed the red thread colours to be 309 and 816 instead of the chart colours (which were 316 and 3726) Started 6 Jan 2019 – Finished 8 Jan 2019 Stitch count: 40H x 40W
I’ve come to realise today just how woeful my online activity has been over the last 12-18 months or so, and my online albums are missing a lot of information and projects haven’t been added at all … my blog used to be the ‘source of truth’ for all my projects and chart information etc, but not any more. After spending an entire day today doing a bit of a tidy-up (nowhere near finished yet though), and trawling through a few years of photos on my iPhone (!), it’s prompted me to add the details of my last finishes from the end of 2018, and the first finishes of the new year. So, without further ado, here are the details …
“Joy” by Rovaris from the 2018 Just Cross Stitch Christmas ornament issue Stitched on 32ct Belfast linen with recommended DMC threads Stitch count: 36 stitches high x 71 stitches wide Started and finished 28 December 2018
“Special Delivery” by Pickle Barrel Designs from the 2018 Just Cross Stitch Christmas ornament issue Stitched on 32ct Belfast linen with recommended DMC and Weeks Dye Works threads (except using DMC B5200 instead of WDW Whitewash) Stitch count: 51H x 55W Started 28 December 2018 – Finished 29 December 2018
Finished – Glendon Place: City Sidewalks ornament
“City Sidewalks” by Glendon Place from the 2018 Just Cross Stitch Christmas ornament issue Stitched on 32ct Blue Sky hand-dyed Lugana by Hand Dyed Fabrics with Stephanie Stitched with a mix of Weeks Dye Works and DMC, using my choice of beads because I didn’t have all the ones as charted Stitch count: 78H x 68W Started 29 December 2018 – Finished 2 January 2019
“Two Stags and a Star” by Blue Ribbon Designs from the 2018 Just Cross Stitch Christmas ornament issue Stitched on 36ct evenweave from Sew-it-all Stitched with recommended Weeks Dye Works, except using B5200 Stitch count: 57H x 37W Started 3 January 2019 – Finished 5 January 2019
I’ve been on a recent canvaswork roll – a couple of smaller projects started me on the way to getting my canvaswork bug back in a big way, so I’ve been putting a few larger projects onto stretcher bars and making some good progress. I’ve really been enjoying getting back into the swing of things 🙂
“Holiday Square” freebie by Laura J Perin Stitched on 18ct mono canvas with recommended threads Finished 15 July 2018
“Medley Miniature” (kit) by Anna-Marie Winter Stitched on 18ct mono canvas with kit threads (silks and metallics)
Started 15 July – Finished 16 July 2018
“Double Delights – Charbleu” by Needle Delights Originals Stitched on 18ct mono canvas with recommended threads Started 16 July 2018 – Finished 22 July 2018
As well as these smaller finishes, I’ve also made significant progress on another Laura J Perin design, Seaside Blues … I’m really loving stitching this one sooooo much, the colours are truly stunning and right up my alley!!
Oops, for some reason I forgot to post the following Christmas ornament finishes from the start of the year … bad, bad blogger!!
“Warm hands, warm heart” by The Little Stitcher from 2017 JCS Christmas ornament issue Stitched on 32ct Vintage Belfast linen with Gloriana silks instead of DMC Finished 3 March 2018
“Frosty Friends” by Blue Ribbon Designs Stitched on 40ct hand-dyed Newcastle linen by Countrystitch I chose random silk threads to use instead of the charted threads Finished 25 March 2018
“Very Merry” by Lizzie*Kate from 2017 Just Cross Stitch Christmas ornament issue Stitched on 32ct Lambswool linen by Wichelt using my choice of threads Finished 25 March 2018
I haven’t been seeing much progress at all on my WIPs since I finished Mirabilia’s Red in blues – instead of working on my stitching I’ve been pottering along on my crochet journey and building my confidence a little bit with that. The highlight has been creating a blanket for my Mum, which I managed to finish and give to her on Mother’s Day during my visit home this month. She was so thrilled with it, and has been showing it off to everyone that comes to visit. I’ll put photos at the end of this post 🙂
I have managed to wee bit of progress on one of my WIPs, though, and I’ve been making more progress on that since finishing Mum’s blanket. This one is Rosewood Manor’s “Quaker Diamonds” – I really love the colours in this one, but I have to admit I’m not a huge fan of the Valdani threads to work with, or the colour changes every two minutes. It’ll be worth it in the end, though, as I think it’s a lovely design. This is what it looked like at the start:
And how it looks now … I decided to scroll down and work on the bottom section after I got a bit bored with the middle bits 😉
UPDATED TO ADD: Actually I just remembered that I did have one other small update – I managed to stitch the scissor fob for Cindy Valentine’s Bee Keeper Scissor Keeper and Fob. That means the stitching is entirely finished, and I just need to put them together 😀
Before:
Bee Keeper Scissor Keeper by Cindy Valentine
After:
And because I’ve been so slack with the WIPocalypse updates these last few months (because I had nothing to share), here’s a catch-up of the questions from the last few months:
25 March – What newer designers and product creators (fabric or floss dyeing, etc) out there have you discovered and recommend? To be honest I can’t say there are any – maybe because I haven’t been looking at all. I like to stick to my trusted favourites if I can, and truthfully haven’t had the need so far to look elsewhere …
29 April – Talk to us about your longest-running WIP or UFO. My oldest UFO is definitely an old design by Stoney Creek – one of my first ever XS projects, and I’ve stuffed it up so badly over the years, I don’t know where to start to frog it – and if I frog it I’m going to have problem with the dye lots because most of the thread colours have changed (the tree in the foreground probably needs to be frogged entirely). Also I didn’t do the content in the ‘background’ with only one thread, so it’s a total disaster really. I don’t have any love for this one, so not sure if it’ll ever see the light of day as a finished piece. (This isn’t the most current photo – because the tree in the foreground isn’t in this one!!)
Nature’s Resting Place by Stoney Creek
27 May – Where do you love to shop for stash? I now buy locally if I can from a FB supplier – but I still struggle with getting Rainbow Gallery threads for my canvaswork projects and have to order from overseas for those on the whole. After a poor experience from my normal go-to place for threads, I’m on the hunt for another store – the next time I need specialty threads I’ll be trying some new ones out. Otherwise 123stitch is probably still a favourite if I don’t buy locally.
Now here’s my pride and joy for the month – my Mum’s blanket! I had literally just sewn in the remaining ends and handed it to her, and within seconds she’d laid down on the sofa to try it out – she looks so happy here, it really warms my heart!! ❤ Originally it was going to just be a lap blanket, but I thought if I made it bigger it would be more useful anywhere, especially when she’s laying on top of the bed watching TV. She adores it!
