Happy Sunday! I am reaching you from the past today. As I write this, it’s early on Easter morning. The sun is shining and it’s just a lovely day. But when you read this – I will be nowhere near home. In fact, I’m hoping that I’ll be sitting comfortably in a lounge chair on the beach in Florida. My son and I are heading for a much-needed trip to Grandma’s. 🙂
My stitching slump has continued through April, but I am pushing through. I’ve finally managed to finish one of my goals for WIPGO this year – the Molly Pitcher square from Little House Needleworks’ Early Americans series. I’m constantly amazed at how big the houses are for LHN projects! 🙂 I have big plans for Stitch Maynia next month, though – a very crazy rapid rotation of WIPs to get my imagination moving again. I always seem to have fun with the chaos, even if I don’t get a ton done on any particular project. Do you have any completely impractical but fun ways to get you stitching?
June/July Months
In case you’re an early planner – June and July will be our next one-month challenges. Take a WIP and do a minimum of one stitch per day, every day, for a month. These two months are back to back intentionally – get some serious work done on a WIP that needs, love, create your own month, or just work one month as it works for you! As always, it’s an optional challenge and not required to participate in the WIPocalypse.
Website Change Reminder
Please make sure to link up to https://www.measi.net (no /measiblog after it).
If you celebrated any spiritual holidays recently, I hope they were fruitful ones to sooth and inspire your soul. Have a lovely May, and I’ll see you again here next month!
Happy Stitching, Melissa
*~~*~~*~~*~~
Important SAL Announcements…
Question of the Month: What is your favorite store (either online or brick and mortar) to purchase your supplies?
Next posting date: May 29, 2022
Topic(s) for next time: Retreats and seminars – have you ever been to any stitching events? If so, tell us about them!
Need all the basic info about the SAL? Go here for all details for 2022!
*~~*~~*~~*~~
Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch – no worries! Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it. If you miss a few months, not a problem – just jump back in when you’re back with us! It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.
Happy Sunday! It’s a lovely spring day here in Rhode Island – the sun is shining, the grass is beginning to green, and we have forsythia flowers and lilac buds starting to reveal themselves.
I’ve been in a bit of a stitching slump since I returned from my retreat last month. I just could not get myself motivated to really work well on anything. Experience tells me to not force it, though – I’m in no danger of not stitching anymore unless I try to make it a chore. So I get a few stitches done here and there, and just enjoy whatever else is attracting my brain. 🙂 How do you work through a slump? Do you find pushing through and forcing yourself to stitch more effective, or do you put it down for a while and do other things?
I’ll be away next month during the update time, so I’m scheduling that post today. No more getting myself too far behind!
March Focus Month
How did you do? Let us know your before and after photos, and your method to keep yourself on track?
Website Change Reminder
Please make sure to link up to https://www.measi.net (no /measiblog after it).
Off to enjoy the weather. Have a great month stitching everyone!
Best, Melissa
*~~*~~*~~*~~
Important SAL Announcements…
Question of the Month: Topic(s) for next time: Tell us about a technique, designer, pattern, or anything else in stitching that you’ve been nervous or afraid to try.
Next posting date:Â April 24, 2022
Topic(s) for next time:Â What is your favorite store (either online or brick and mortar) to purchase your supplies?
Need all the basic info about the SAL? Go here for all details for 2022!
*~~*~~*~~*~~
Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch – no worries! Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it. If you miss a few months, not a problem – just jump back in when you’re back with us! It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.
Apologies for not updating this on Sunday. I returned home from my Stitcher’s Hideaway retreat on Saturday and immediately fell into post-retreat exhaustion for a couple days. I’m definitely out of practice with socializing! Three days of it took everything out of me! I had a great time, though – and the time away was definitely needed. It was nice to do something that felt completely normal again after two years!
Now I’m back to everyday life – working from home (still!), enjoying the reality that I can be involved with my son’s comings and goings to school and after-school activities and still work full time. Somewhere in between all of that, I’m finding time to stitch as I watch the seasons begin to change again. 🙂
I think – finally – that I’ve fixed the SSL issue here on my blog. Please let me know if you are running into any issues, but it’s automatically loading with https:// instead of http:// now.
March Focus Month
March is our first focus month of the year. Pick one of your projects, and vow to put at least one stitch in it every day for the month of March. It’s likely that you won’t be able to stop at just one, and will find yourself making some great progress! But if you have a busy day… that’s okay. Just one stitch. Every single one counts. If you miss a day? Simply make them up. 🙂
Website Change Reminder
Please make sure to link up to https://www.measi.net (no /measiblog after it).
Have a lovely March with your stitching. Stay safe, and may those needles keep smoking!
Happy stitching, Melissa
*~~*~~*~~*~~
Important SAL Announcements…
Question of the Month:Topic(s) for next time: What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?
Next posting date:Â March 27, 2022
Topic(s) for next time: Tell us about a technique, designer, pattern, or anything else in stitching that you’ve been nervous or afraid to try.
Need all the basic info about the SAL? Go here for all details for 2022!
*~~*~~*~~*~~
Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch – no worries! Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it. If you miss a few months, not a problem – just jump back in when you’re back with us! It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.
We received about two feet of snow yesterday (approx. 60 cm for those of you not in the U.S.), and it’s a beautiful snowy wonderland outside my window today. As the storm blew through, I spent many hours stitching away and getting progress made on a couple of pieces. Thankfully the power didn’t go out, so it was just a nice, cozy day inside under a quilt on the couch!
Tonight, once the shoveling is done and my son has had a good dose of sledding over at the park, I’ll be planning my February stitching. February is always a bit of an eventful month for me since there’s a large letter writing event I love to participate in every year. Fitting the stitching in can be a little tricky! I’m excited for this year, though – because Olympic Stitching is back. And we have several events for you to choose from to move your projects forward. 🙂
Olympic Stitching
The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will be held February 4th-20th. No need to convert to any specific time zone – wherever you are, fit the event to your time! The organized events are as follows. However, if you have an idea for an additional event – let me know! 🙂
Marathon – pick one piece, and dedicate yourself to progress on that single piece for the duration of the Olympics.
Olympic Flag – You may stitch on any piece or combination of pieces, but only stitch in the colors of the Olympic rings – blue, yellow, black, green, and red, as well as white (the background of the flag).
Sprint – Choose either a time block (for example, 3 hours) or a number of stitches that you can do fairly quickly in an afternoon, and see how many projects you can work on during the Olympics. If you prefer to limit to a certain number of pieces and just do a rapid rotation, this also would count as a sprint.
Decathlon – Pick ten pieces by ten different designers and complete at least 200 stitches OR 3 hours on each during the Olympics.
Hopefully this will give you a fun challenge to push forward with some progress!
Website Change Reminder
Please make sure to link up to https://www.measi.net (no /measiblog after it).
And that’s it for now. Have a lovely February, and I’ll see you at the end of the month!.
Happy stitching, Melissa
*~~*~~*~~*~~
Important SAL Announcements…
Upcoming Events: Olympics Stitching, February 4th – February 20th. Details above in my post. 🙂 Also – March will be our first focus month of the year – pick one piece and plan to put at least one stitch in it per day for the month.
Question of the Month: Describe your stitching style – are you a one-at-a-time stitcher? Do you stitch on rotation? Are you a chaos wrangler? Are you comfortable in your current stitching style, or are you still searching for that stitching zen?
Next posting date: February 27, 2022
Topic(s) for next time: What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?
Need all the basic info about the SAL? Go here for all details for 2022!
*~~*~~*~~*~~
Please remember that this stitch-a-long is intended to be fun – so if you’re too busy to post, too busy/ill/etc. to stitch – no worries! Post when you can and share what you have going, even if you’ve only been able to toss a single stitch into it. If you miss a few months, not a problem – just jump back in when you’re back with us! It’s not a race or a competition – we’re all just here to cheer each other on with our progress.
Last year I joined the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild(abbreviated TRSG going forward) to participate in an online class for Amy Mitten’s Mute But Not Silent project. The class was great – a blend of new-to-me stitches (cut work!!!) and some history about Dutch samplers. I’d also been curious about joining a formal stitching guild, but have felt the EGA to be a bit too intimidating and not quite cross-stitch friendly, so it was nice to discover a group that is supportive of cross stitch and a variety of different styles. I’ve enjoyed putting names to faces with some stitchers who I’ve seen in Facebook groups over the years, too! The group is local to the Dallas, TX area, but for now they are meeting virtually. Until it goes back to in-person meetings and isn’t accessible, it’s a great opportunity for me to learn, branch out, and get a sense of how a guild membership can work (and as they’ve been doing this for over 20 years – it’s going quite well!)
One of the things that TRSG does every year is a project called M.A.G.I.C. – My Annual Good Intentions Contract. MAGIC goals are ones stitchers choose themselves for projects that they’ve already started that they intend to finish – either in stitching or to be fully finished (FFO’ed) if stitching is already complete. There’s a form on the membership website to enter in your pieces (due by February 1st), and a couple progress check-ins will be done during meetings through the year. Totally fun, just to keep folks motivated. 🙂
So I’ve entered my M.A.G.I.C. list for the year onto the website. Now I just need to get these suckers done this year! My list is as follows:
Witches Wheel (Glendon Place) – The stitching on this is done, but I have all of the beading to do. Ideally I’d also like to get this framed so I can enter it into this year’s Big E fair.
Jade Band Sampler (iStitch Designs) – I am currently on week 11 of 30 on this sampler. If I just stick with this, I should be able to complete this easily in 2022.
The Castle (Teresa Wentzler) – I completed the stitching on this way back in 2005. It’s never been framed, and that needs to be rectified. So this is a FFO goal.
You Were Hatched (Teresa Wentzler) – I have the Celtic braid corners to complete on this ornament before FFOing this in time to hang on my tree next Christmas. I’d had this stalled for a while because there was a time that I was going to create this into Max’s birth sampler… but then I went another direction. So ornament it will be!
Mirabilia Round Robin (Mirabilia – customized) – Completed back in 2011!!! Not framed!!! What’s wrong with me?!? So yes – big FFO goal for the year. This needs to go on my wall. Soon.
A Stitch for Sweet Freedom (Lindy Stitches) – This cute little piece is one I started last January for Inauguration Day. I’d like to have it completed by the end of this year.
Apache Wedding Blessing (Kooler Designs) – Crosses are done, but I completely burned on the backstitching on this. The friend it was intended for will celebrate her 20th anniversary in a couple years, and I’d like to have this done for then.
Bird & Berry Box (Barbara Jackson) – This project was via a class I took through Celebrations in 2020. The class was short and I didn’t really get to work on it much, but I’d like to get all of the smalls stitched and assembled this year.
Winter Welcome (Park Hopper Bart) – I received this pattern in the recent Nice Box from Black Needle Society, and it’s so stinkin’ cute!! Not large at all, and it’s a design that should also be easy to frame. So my goal is to get this both stitched and FFO’d.
Christmas Pin Pillow (Kathy Barrick) – This is another project I received fully kitted in the Nice Box. I started this on New Year’s Eve, and would like to complete it this year. My goal is to only finish the stitching for now – if I can FFO it, great. I’m not sure yet how I will finish it (kinda need to get a sense of the finished size first).
Flying Lesson (Silver Creek Samplers) – Silver Creek is quickly becoming one of my “whimsy pattern” favorites. I received this project in the Black Needle Society’s Trick or Treat Box in October. My goal is to stitch it. Unsure for finishing quite yet.
I Love USA (Mani di Donna) – In 2020, Celebration of Needlework was held remotely, like so many other things. I supported the retreat by paying for my membership and my normal classes, even though I’d be sitting at home in front of my computer. Mani di Donna’s project was one of the eight via the Round Robin class on Friday evening – an event I enjoy participating in every year. It’s a small fob and flosswinder set. My goal is to do both the stitching and finishing for this.
Temperature Tree 2022 (Stitchin’ Mommy) – My intention had been to complete this tree in 2021, but I wasn’t able to get things done… so it’s becoming a 2022 temperature tracker instead! Fully stitched. I’ll FFO it in 2023.
It’s a lot of things to try to finish, but I’m optimistic. Many of these projects are either small, or just need final framing. In true “me” fashion, I made it official by creating a planner checklist page for myself. Now that it’s in writing, it’s an official goal! 🙂
