Tag: Sewing

Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse – November 2025

Anne S

Ooops, I totally forgot to finish and schedule this post for my November stitching recap, but better than never right?

Stitching progress:

First up I had a **finish** during the month again! Girls’ Night Out by Just Another Button Company

Cabana Beach by Mill Hill

Hard to see the progress of this one, but I now have a yacht on the horizon and the beach umbrella has started to get filled in. Sadly I realised I need to frog some of the magenta thread in the centre door before I can continue to fill in the white trim, but it’s getting pretty close now to being ready for the beading to commence. I think this may be one of my focus pieces in the new year to get it finished.

Supernatural by PixelsStitches

Another one getting quite close to a finish now – one more rotation slot or WIP Warriors challenge and it’ll be completed yay.

Three Kings by Mill Hill/Jim Shore

Getting oh so close to a finish now – other than the remaining few hundred beads in the border (which has been the focus in November), I just have to stitch the stars and add the three ceramic beads. I’m really hoping to meet my goal of finishing this piece in 2025 – surely I can manage that!? (talking to myself there haha)

Periwinkle Promises – Stitching is the Berries

I powered on through in November to finally finish all the Queen stitches in the outer border, phew! Still a few to do in the berries sitting among the blackwork, but the biggest hurdle of all is out of the way woohoo!!

Shepherd’s Bush – Finch Song

I managed 100 or so stitches on the waves border on Finch Song – small progress, but still makes it closer to a finish than it was at the start of the year.

I also managed to start working on the November block for the Cali & Co mystery quilt-along by Coriander Quilts. Smudge keeps sleeping on my project supplies, though, every time I sit down to finish it – so I guess it’ll be a December finish now instead 😉

Which specialty stitches do you find easy? Which ones do you find extremely difficult or are too nervous to try?

I used to detest French knots that I’d do anything in my power to avoid them – either replacing them with Colonial knots or using a petite bead etc. After trying them when the fabric was tautly held in a hoop or Qsnap and attached to my floor or lap stand, all of a suddent they became less daunting and I managed to master them. I learnt that sometimes it just needs perseverance to find a method that works for you individually, then the world is your oyster – I no longer shy away from any stitch, although I’ll admit bullion knots/stitches are the main one that I’ll avoid if I can because I simply don’t enjoy doing them. French knots, though? They’re like a long-lost friend that I enjoy catching up with every now and then 🙂 One of the reasons that I love doing counted canvaswork, they’re filled with unusual and fun stitches, and it pushes me out of my comzort zone to try new things.

Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse – October 2025

Anne S

I’ve decided to get back to a formal rotation again, because I struggle to decide what to stitch on inbetween WIP Warriors challenges. Some challenges allow me to use one project for multiple challenge prompts, which is great for making good progress, so I’m hoping between the two I’ll see more progress going forward.

I’ve always had printed rotation sheets with ten-square blocks that I can tick off manually as I’m working through my 10-hour rotation slots, but I’ve decided this time to try using a digital version (using Trello) instead to see if that’s easier. An example of my manual sheets if I’m ticking things off physically on paper:

This is how the Trello board rotation looks like, including 10 checkboxes where I can tick off every 1 hour or 1,000 stitches of stitching, depending on the project type. It means I don’t have to have a clipboard next to my stitching chair, and it’s on my phone all the time, plus I have the ability to drag columns around so the current rotation slot is always first on the screen. The app also syncs beautifully between the desktop version and my iPhone. Fingers crossed it works well – it seems to be going well so far 🙂 I’ve since added the project photos to every piece that I’m currently working on each column to make it easier visually to grab the next project in my rotation.

Stitching progress:

And finally here’s my progress through the month of October.

First up I had a **finish** during the month! Creepy Pincushion by Shepherd’s Bush

Egyptian Garden Mandala by Chatelaine

Working very slowly on the bottom right corner – the fabric is so difficult to work on, it’s taking me a long time to make progress. I did manage one full rotation of 1,000 stitches on it, though, this month … although I was super happy when the rotation slot was finished and that I don’t need to look at it again for a number of weeks.

Cabana Beach by Mill Hill

Really loving this piece to work on – my fabric substitution of a 28ct linen was such a good choice (I really dislike stitching on perforated paper), and the colours are such a joy to work with. It’s actually really hard to put this one down, I have to admit. Maybe once Halloween is over, and Three Kings is finished, I might move this to be my focus piece to get it finished.

Supernatural by PixelsStitches

I made some progress on Dean this month, as well as making some great progress on starting Bobby Singer. Just one more character (Crowley) not started yet, and I don’t think it’ll take long to finish. Doing 100 stitches here and there as part of group challenges has really made a dent in the stitching.

Three Kings by Mill Hill/Jim Shore

The beading of the borders has commenced, with two colours completed so far (purple petites and turquoise) – I’m halfway through completing the gold petites in the side borders. This is the most stunning project I’ve worked on in some time, it’s such a pleasure to look at, I’ll miss it when it’s finished.

The Boys Are Back In Town by JABC

I want to change the colour of the grey wording as the colour blends too much into the background fabric – just not sure which colour to go with, a darker black/brown from the vampire, or a green or brown from Frankenstein … oh decisions, decisions!

Girls Night Out by JABC

Great progress on this one thanks to a challenge where I was able to choose this project multiple times. Really hoping to have this one finished before Halloween – fingers crossed!

Prairie Schooler – When Witches Go Riding

I almost completed the wording this month – just one ‘b’ left to go. I ran out of the original hand-dyed thread I used in the header, then used 3371 as charted instead which is vastly different, so in the future I’ll need to unpick the header and the tree and start again before I can call this one finished. In the meantime I’ll keep chipping away at it until that’s necessary.

Periwinkle Promises – Stitching is the Berries

Those queen stitch borders are the death of me, it’s soooo slow going. But I did at least manage to complete one round of colour, and I just have the one inner border of queen stitches left to go before I finish the bands. I’m forcing myself to get the queen stitches done first so the rest is like a treat at the end 🙂

Nora Corbett – 2024 Mirabilia Retreat Mermaid

Only about 230 stitches progress on this one this month, but she’s a real joy to stitch using mostly silk threads and beautiful teal colours in the mermaid tail.

Luca-S: Sea View

What retreats or stitching events would you love to attend someday?

I have to be honest I’ve decided for now that stitching retreats just aren’t for me. I’ve been to some wonderful ones over the last 25 years, but I find some personalities at our local ones too stressful to be around, so I tend to avoid them now for my own mental health. It’s a real shame, because I used to get a lot of enjoyment out of attending them. I do have to admit, though, I’d dearly love to attend one of the cardmaking events in the US, but won’t visit there until the current administration isn’t there.

Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse – September 2025

Anne S

I finally got back into stitching again in September by joining in with a few stitching challenges in the WIP Warriors private group. Progress is only 100 stitches in some cases, but that means 100 stitches closer to a finish! 😀 Photos below are before and after progress during September.

Egyptian Garden Mandala by Chatelaine

Cabana Beach by Mill Hill

Supernatural by PixelsStitches

Three Kings by Mill Hill/Jim Shore

The Boys Are Back In Town by JABC

Girls Night Out by JABC

Finch Song by Shepherd’s Bush

Creepy Pincushion by Shepherd’s Bush

Sea View by Luca-S

2024 Mirabilia Retreat Mermaid by Nora Corbett

Prairie Schooler – When Witches Go Riding

Needle Delights Originals – Color Delights-Seafoam

Indigo Rose – Catherine Agnes

Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches – Raphael’s Raspberries

ByGone Stitches – Quaker Christmas II

Periwinkle Promises – Stitching is the Berries

Do you have any sort of record for your finished pieces? Tell us how you record their information.

Honestly I’ve been quite slack in recent years, but in the past I’ve always kept a Word doc every year for all my finishes. These contain a photo of the finished piece, along with key information about the stitch count and fabrics etc used for it. I also include some notes about who I gave the piece to or any challenges I faced during the stitching etc. I then printed the pages out and keep them in ringbinders. This year I started on reworking the format so I could reduce the number of pages if possible, with the intention of having them printed into a book format instead so I can look back on them all in later years 🙂 I also keep a photo in my Flickr albums of each finished piece.

For my WIPs I tend to rely on my blog to keep track of them, and have them all listed on a Works in Progress page. I try to update the page annually, updating the ‘starting image’ for any projects where I made progress in the previous year, but once again have been pretty slack with keeping that updated on a regular basis! I think I’ll probably improve once I gradually get more consistent with doing actual stitching each year.

Tilda

Tilda sewing updates

Anne S

I recently joined a Tilda project bag exchange, and this is the pair of project bags that I created for my exchange partner – one larger one and a smaller one that can be used inside the main bag or for smaller projects. My partner’s favourite ranges were pinks/greens so I was pushed outside my comfort zone, and ended up ordering some older ranges from the UK that I wanted to use for the main fabrics.

I also caught up with the Cali & Co mystery quilt-along by Coriander Quilts, after not being well enough to sew for a few months. I was originally going to make these into a queen sized bed quilt, but considering just keeping to the original QAL size instead – I guess I’ll need to officially decide in December after seeing all the blocks finished.

Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse – March 2025

Anne S

I didn’t stitch as much during March other than during the first week or so – I think that seems to be how I naturally work on my crafts now by stitching at the start of the month (as I’m motivated by the Scattergories challenge that’s released on the 1st of every month), then followed by sewing and cardmaking once I’ve finished at least six of the stitching categories.

This month’s Scattergories letters were N and S, so I did approx 100 stitches for each of the categories in the following WIPs:

“Almost Halloween” by The Drawn Thread – I made pretty good headway on it this month as I managed to find prompts in the design for Spiders (Save a spider day – NOT one I personally celebrate!), Spectre (ghost) and Skeleton. Then I decided to just keep working on it to get it finished, as there was so little left to do on it. That means Almost Halloween is my 3rd finish for the year 😀

“Sea view” by Luca-S – this was supposed to be my birthday new start but I totally forgot it was my birthday (!) and then felt too flat to stitch. I managed around 200 stitches in early March then realised I needed to frog about 1/4 of it so it’s currently in the naughty corner … it did give me enough stitches for Shells in Scattergories though.

“Girls Night Out” by Just Another Button Company – I used the thread colour of Sweet potato for Scattergories.

“Supernatural” by Pixel in Stitches – Supernatural TV show was another Scattergories choice.

“2024 Mirabilia retreat mermaid” by Nora Corbett – the only category I used the letter N for, that of Designer name, for Scattergories.

“Three Kings” by Mill Hill/Jim Shore – I actually completed this update back on 10 February, but I forgot to update my blog post, so I’m adding the updated image here now 🙂

I also managed to finish three project bags between 28 February and 3 March.

Which are your favorite three designers?

This is a really hard question to answer, because my tastes are so eclectic. If I had to really choose, though, I’d probably say the following:

  • Nora Corbett / Mirabilia
  • Lizzie*Kate (the inspirational samplers and the fact they’re normally fairly quick to stitch)
  • Just Nan or The Victoria Sampler or Periwinkle Promises or … haha
Quilting & Sewing, Tilda

Tilda patchwork project bag

Anne S

While I was on a roll with making project bags I decided to finish making the final one today. As it used the last piece of Pellon in my stash, I’ll need to wait for a while now to make more.

I’m really thrilled that all the 2″ squares came from my Tilda scrap bags, and the only pieces of fabric that came from my stash were for the top and back panels and the lining. I’m so very thrilled with this one, it’s definitely my absolute favourite of them all. I can definitely see me making more of these in the future! This one is a big bigger than the others, which will be more useful for my canvaswork WIPs.

Quilting & Sewing, Tilda

Koala project bag

Anne S

I decided to try a different type of interfacing for this bag as an experiment, and it was an epic fail that I won’t repeat. BUT even with all that, I’m in love with this project bag – I love everything about it: especially the predominantly mint colourway, the smaller patchwork block sizes. This one just makes me happy to look at it! It was great fun rummaging through my vintage Tilda scraps to find coordinating fabrics that worked with the critter panel.

Koala quilted project bag
Quilting & Sewing

Kangaroo project bag

Anne S

I’ve been wanted to make more project bags for a long time, but the sewing bug totally disappeared after Mum was hospitalised four years ago. It’s back with a vengeance, and I finally made my first ever project bag in this style (I’d previously made a vinyl-fronted bag, but decided it wasn’t my favourite style). And it was a quilt block tutorial of all things that sparked the inspiration!

I was searching YouTube tutorials for scrappy quilts and came across potato chip quilts. In one video the maker was showing different styles of the block, including using a focal fabric in the centre of the blocks instead of using two cut fabrics. I’ve had a large panel of Australian critters in Christmas sweaters for a while and had no idea what to do with them, and all of a sudden inspiration struck! I chose the kangaroo on a pink background as my tester block, because I can’t stand pink and it wouldn’t matter if I messed it up 😉

I started with the larger sized fabric cuts, as per the quilt block, but quickly realised that it looks great for larger quilt sizes, but isn’t quite the look I was going for as project bags. For this one I also tried to have a continuous look of the blocks going around the shape, including in the space above the zipper, but that just added extra complexity and I’m not sure it really adds to the overall look – I’m not sure. One thing I’m super happy about, is that I found a great kangaroo zipper pull which suits this little project perfectly! Overall I’m super happy with it, though, and I think adding the darker zipper tape helps to take away the emphasis on the pink colours. I’ll probably end up keeping this one (even with all that pink, yuck) – in some ways it’s a good reminder of my starting point for future bags … 🙂 And what a wonderful way to combine my new adventure in patchwork with something that’s practical and useful while improving my skills! 😀

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)