There’s definitely a feeling of impending autumn in the air here in New England. The humidity of summer shut off a couple weeks ago. The leaves are starting to get a lighter tinge to them, and the mornings have had a crispness that I absolutely love. Before that, though, the traditional checklists to kick off autumn need to happen – Labor Day weekend, my son going back to school, catching a glimpse of the first tree turning red. (I would add in pumpkin spice coffee… but that’s already started – Erich brought home a pumpkin donut for me this past week).
Is anyone else participating in an S-theme stitching month – Sampler, Smalls, Starts, etc – for September? Last year I did smalls. This year I feel the itch to do samplers. Later today I’ll be finalizing which ones I’ll be working on. I’m taking a virtual class through the EGA that I wasn’t able to start on time, so that’s on the list. I Love New England is on the list. But I would like to add a couple more.
Upcoming One-Month Challenge – One Stitch Per Day
October will be our final one-month challenge month. As always it is optional, and as always, remember – it’s just one stitch a day. One often leads to more… and you’ll make great progress! Every. stitch. counts. If you can’t join us for this month’s one-month challenge, we will host them again next year.
Off to a busy day – one of our close friends is moving in with us today to save on rent due to the price explosions in New England. The space is just about ready, but I have some other chores to get out of the way before the truck arrives.
Until next time, Mel.
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Important SAL Announcements…
Question of the Month: What is your comfort zone regarding the number of projects to have kitted and in progress at any one time?
Next posting date: September 24, 2023
Topic(s) for next time: Are you a seasonal stitcher? If so, which seasons do you find yourself more productive or less productive?
Need all the basic info about the SAL? Go here for all details for 2023!
*~~*~~*~~*~~
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.
In the last several years, a popular stitch-a-long trend has been to do a “temperature thing.” I’ve seen them in cross stitching, knitting, and crocheting – and I’m sure they’re done across other craft and art forms as well. I decided to join the bandwagon in 2021 with a pretty tree from Stitchin’ Mommy on Etsy:
Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy. (picture is from my black and white working copy, sorry!)
Each limb of the tree is a month, starting on the bottom left. Each leaf represents a day. The stitcher determines whether they’ll be doing the high temperature, an average, a low, etc. There are suggested colors and temperature bands for each color in the pattern. Since it’s so customizable, I created my own bands based off their suggestions, but just used floss colors that I happened to have sitting around in my stash.
The tree trunk and branches took me much longer than I expected to finish, but I’m now working on the leaves. It’s going to be so pretty when it’s done! I added the heart “carving” in the tree for my initials and the year.
Temperature Tree as of July 30, 2023. Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct Dreamin’ Lugana from Silkweaver (old stock) with DMC.
As of now I have all of January and about half of February 2021 noted. I am doing high temperatures for each day, according to Weather Underground’s closest station to my location. I like using this site because historical temperatures are super easy to find, and I can sort the view by a week at a time – easy to stitch! 🙂
Since Providence’s temperatures vary widely and I wanted to have a very colorful tree, here’s my color code, if you’re in need of customizing your own color-coded temperature pattern. As I’m an American, I’m working in Fahrenheit, so the Celsius conversions may look a little weird in this chart. Some colors were skeins that had missing labels (perfect for this type of project!):
DMC Color
Temperature (F)
Temperature (C)
839
Tree
Tree
815
96+
36 and above
3721
92-95
33 to 35
Mystery burnt orange (920?)
88-91
31 to 32
922
84-87
29 to 30
3824
80-83
27 to 28
3855
76-79
25 to 26
728
72-75
22 to 24
783
68-71
20 to 21
832
64-67
18 to 19
734
60-63
16 to 17
469
56-59
13 to 15
988
52-55
11 to 12
368
48-51
9 to 10
3815
44-47
7 to 8
890
40-43
4 to 6
3809
36-39
2 to 3
3768
32-35
0 to 1
340
28-31
-2 to -1
Mystery purple
24-27
-4 to -3
792
23 and below
-5 and below
I am working on this project for the Stitch-a-Long SAL (SAL SAL) in August for both WIPocalypse and the Stitch All The Things versions, plus Semi Sane’s Wheel of WIPs, so I’m really hoping this will be an August finish!
It’s a beautiful Sunday here in New England – one of those days where you know you NEED to spend as much time outdoors as possible because it doesn’t get much better. I’m hoping to spend a good portion of this afternoon on my patio, a drink and stitching by my side, just soaking it all in.
If you’re crazy like I am and are participating in Stitch Maynia this month, I hope that your progress is going along as you’d hoped! I’m doing well. A few days behind on the daily project calls, but nothing that I can’t catch up on before the end of the month. 🙂 I won’t lie, though – I’m looking forward to the more relaxed stitching again after this challenge. Settling into the June/July One Month challenges will be a refreshing change. I’ll be focusing on I Love New England for both months, and will be doing it as a strand-per-night challenge (one 12-inch length). That should get me moving nicely toward a very rewarding finish!
Upcoming One-Month Challenges
June and July are our two back-to-back monthly challenge months. As always they are optional, and you can design that challenge however it fits your life – as two separate months, as one two-month block of focus, or just fitting in a month in the middle as your life allows. As always, remember – it’s just one stitch a day. One often leads to more… and you’ll make great progress! Every. stitch. counts.
I want to get a couple of small house chores done so I can slack off and stitch all afternoon… so time to get moving. Have a lovely rest of the Memorial Day weekend if you’re in the US, and enjoy your June stitching!
Until next time, Mel.
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Important SAL Announcements…
Question of the Month: What project brings you the most joy and why?
Next posting date: June 25, 2023
Topic(s) for next time: Half-year recap: How are you doing with your goals so far this year?
Need all the basic info about the SAL? Go here for all details for 2023!
*~~*~~*~~*~~
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.
Considering how wild April was around here… I got quite a bit done on my projects! I’m happy. April’s short-short version, in no order of priority, are:
I’m back on track with WIPGO. Finished my stitches for March and all of April
My husband got a new job, started his training, and today started his first regular shift – which means a total adjustment for Max and me in the evenings.
Max passed his most recent belt test at martial arts and is now an apprentice black belt (yellow rank). 7 more stripe colors and he will test for his full black belt.
Work was crazy… total chaos. But that’s April at my job every year. Now with just a bit of added zing as the department gets bigger.
I got absolutely no writing done this month for letters. Very frustrating. Work stress just had me in a mood where in the evenings I needed to grumble and stab fabric.
I did get quite a few postcards out for Postcrossing, though.
My eye doctor has confirmed that I get to avoid bifocals for another year (yay!)
Erich’s new job confirms that we can actually take our first family vacation this summer since Max was born because Erich finally has TIME OFF.
Max is all signed up and ready to go for summer camp. (Day camp – not away camp).
I’m now the Secretary for the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild, and loving the energy. Me taking minutes during meetings? Sold. Great way for me to be involved, especially as a long-distance member.
What the heck Boston Bruins?!? Grrrrrr….
Cities: Skylines is an obnoxiously addicting computer game.
So is Dinkum – which is the Australian-themed Animal Crossing. Introduced to this one at PaxEast.
And onto the April stitchy updates. The theme of this month was “frogging and move forward.” Oh, so much miscounting that had to be fixed to get anywhere.
Picking up where I left off in March, I completed my stitches on the Halloween Candlestick SAL from Lakeside Needlecrafts. This was a SAL that I had a very, VERY small start on last October.
Halloween Candlestick SAL as of 4/30/23 – stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct Pumpkin evenweave from Fabric Flair with charted DMC.
It turned out that my small start of only – 30? – stitches from the link above was already miscounted. That’s what I get for rushing it through during a short SAL! Thankfully I wasn’t off by too much. Repaired the count and moved it forward. It’s now starting to look much more like the center ghost-shaped candlestick. I can start removing some of those grid lines that I needed to center it. With Halloween Candlestick done, I could cross off my final WIPGO goal for March. Huzzah!
Next came Book of Ink Circles (aka BoINK) by Ink Circles. I joined a challenge on this one to stitch for Stitchy Clue in Semi Sane Stitchers, but had to bail on the game after only a couple days… just too much with everything else going on. One 600 stitch roll just killed my momentum for the game. I’m not a fast stitcher, even when I’m just doing lines like on BoInk. But hey… again, made some really good progress here:
BoInk by Ink Circles as of April 16, 2023. Stitched 2 over 2 on 28 ct Thunderstorm linen by Silkweaver. Outlining in GAST “Cinders”.
I added another row of squares at the bottom of the framing for this one. One more set of those large squares with the notches from the top row, plus the adjoining middle squares, and then I just have the edge work to finish for the full frame. And then the fill work will begin! My d20 needleminder is positioned in the exact center of this piece, just for perspective. It’s not as big as I thought it would be. I seem to say that about a lot of projects.
The next piece I worked on was Early Americans. With Betsy Ross and Molly Pitcher squares completed, it was time to move onto a new one. I decided to add one of the gents – John Hancock. It’s a much lighter square than the other two so far. I’m nearly halfway done already.
Early Americans: John Hancock by Little House Needleworks as of April 16, 2023. Stitched 1 over 2 on 40 ct Granite Dust linen by Silkweaver with charted threads.
Very brown, I know. But it moved quickly! After how long Molly Pitcher took me, it felt so good on this piece to get through a bunch of the block in one go. There’s a pretty heavy roof on this one, but it’s straight back and forth rows – so again, should go quickly. And then three down, six to go! Maybe Martha Washington will be the next, since that one is the one with the exceptionally large house.
I then took a break from WIPGO for a weekend online stitch-in with the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild. Members in the Dallas-Fort Worth area had an in-person stitch in, and I hosted the remote one. I decided to pull out my Temperature Tree SAL and start adding some leaves on it. I was able to get all of January and most of February’s high temperatures recorded!
Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy as of April 30, 2023. Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct Dreamin’ Lugana from Silkweaver with custom DMC temperature range.
Really, really liking how these colors are patterning so far! Eventually this piece will come up on my WIPGO this year. When it does, I’ll post my exact temperature breakdowns and the colors I’m using for each range. But the quick summary is that I have 4-temperature increments. I start at 23F (-5C) and below, and the highest is 96F (35C) and above. So far it’s clearly cold – but that’s January and February in New England! The colors will get much warmer in tone to deep reds for the summer. Each branch on this one is a month, and each leaf is colored to the high temperature for that date as recorded on Weather Underground. Knowing how fast these leaves stitch up, I’m going to plan to do some on other meetup weekends with the guild. This will definitely get done this year!
Next up was Live on Little by Plum Street Samplers. This was the second piece that needed some frogging work before I could stitch. The entire white line that starts running to the right at the roofline was miscounted. I had some legs going over one, some going over three. Really not sure what I was doing when I originally put them in, but I figure I may just not have had good lighting! So I had to carefully frog those stitches out.
Live on Little by Plum Street Samplers as of April 30, 2023. Stitched 1 over 2 on 40 ct Old Massachusetts linen from Primitive Hare with charted threads.
My floss was pretty ratty after that, so I finished off the end that remained good. I then moved back over to the bricks on the “front” of the house to do a little work there. But I didn’t get much done. That’s okay. Not quite feeling this one right now. But the correction work is done. That’s what’s most important. I won’t be stuck. I’ll get back to this one!
Finally, I stitched on Winter Welcome by Park Hopper Bart for a couple of evenings while watching Bruins hockey. I did some very good progress on this one, especially considering the evil Etoile thread. One more good round of stitching, and this one will be done!
Winter Welcome by Park Hopper Bart as of April 30, 2023. Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct Winter Berry linen by Fortnight Fabrics with charted threads.
This project is very hard to photograph well. The fabric is a beautiful blue, but it just washes out in photos. The white floss is much more visible against the fabric in person. I’m guessing I may have about 4 hours left of work to wrap this one up. Not much at all! The rest of the “Winter Welcome” text on the bottom, a few smaller snowflake motifs in the center and on the side of the words, his arms, his carrot nose, eyes, and hat. That’s it!
So a very good month. I’m happy with the stitching progress. Now it’s time to settle into the insanity of Stitch Maynia. I want to film a FlossTube this week for Maynia. I’ll probably do it on Friday night since Max has a “parents night out” event at his martial arts studio and I’ll be free for about 3 hours.
I apparently do not understand that if the 23rd falls on a Sunday, that there’s another Sunday in the month unless that month happens to be February. Yikes! So sorry if that caused any confusion. Hopefully you just rolled along with it as I did.
Spring has exploded here in New England – we had nothing on the trees, and then two exceptionally warm days in the week after Easter just made the entire world pop with greens and pinks and whites. I’ve been trying to embrace the world renewing itself to help buffer some serious work stress going on in my life. Stabbing fabric 10,000 times is also helping diffuse a bit of it! Cross stitch is nothing if it isn’t cathartic at times!
May brings us to Stitch Maynia, named after the now defunct Facebook group. Even though the group is gone, the stitch-a-long lives on among many, many stitchers. My personal tradition is to line up my projects, number them, and then let my Facebook Friends pick random numbers from the range given to select my pieces for me. The first year I erred in having ALL kitted projects on that list, and I somehow wound up with eight different Wentzlers for May. That was a bit extreme. So future years were narrowed down to the stuff I actually consider among active WIPs. That still gives more than plenty for them to choose from. This year was “23 in 2023,” so I had 23 projects chosen. The other eight days of May will be reserved for WIPGO work. I’m planning on finally filming a FlossTube later this week to feature the pieces chosen. Stay tuned!
Upcoming One-Month Challenges
June and July are our two back-to-back monthly challenge months. As always they are optional, and you can design that challenge however it fits your life – as two separate months, as one two-month block of focus, or just fitting in a month in the middle as your life allows. As always, remember – it’s just one stitch a day. One often leads to more… and you’ll make great progress! Every. stitch. counts.
Off to get my Sunday moving along. Have a lovely rest of the weekend, and happy stitching!
Until next time, Mel.
*~~*~~*~~*~~
Important SAL Announcements…
Question of the Month: Give us five projects in your stash right now that you’d really love to start – and why you haven’t yet.
Next posting date: May 28, 2023
Topic(s) for next time: What project brings you the most joy and why?
Need all the basic info about the SAL? Go here for all details for 2023!
*~~*~~*~~*~~
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.
