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.
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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!
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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.
The past month is a bit of a blur for me. The super busy season that I normally have at work in the spring arrived a month early in early March, rather than mid-April, and it took me by surprise. It’s not a bad thing – it means that I should be able to enjoy the warmer weather a little more and settle into summer project work a bit earlier than normal. And I will definitely look forward to that!
Because of the unexpected work load combined with the expected break for PaxEast, my stitching went a little slower in March. I still got a decent amount done, though – and I’m happy with my progress. Still steadily working toward some yearly goal accomplishments.
I Love New England by Sampler Needlework as of April 1, 2023 – stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct antique white linen with charted DMC.
I Love New England was my focus piece for March for the WIPocalypse. While I didn’t manage to stitch on it every day, I definitely completed more than the “one stitch minimum per day” on it, so I’m pleased at the progress. My goal had been to complete the inner “small” lettering. I have about… ten words left? What slows it down a bit are the sneaky one-off color changes in the words. But still – I’m getting there. I don’t know that I’ll have this piece ready for the fair this year as I’d originally hoped, but it will definitely be ready for next year.
My goal for this in April is to get that small lettering done.
Celestial Medley by Sudberry House as of April 1, 2023 – stitched 2 threads over 2 on 28 ct antique white evenweave with charted DMC
I only spent a couple days on Celestial Medley this month, and it was spent in confetti stitching of the blue cloud on the top right. Really happy with my progress on this one. The chart isn’t the clearest, due to its age. It’s a hand-drawn one with very small symbols. Next time I stitch on it, I’ll finish that fill-in and then move back over to the yellow moon on the upper right. Eventually I’ll have to figure out what I’m going to mount it on when I finish it. I don’t know if it will be large enough for a standard metal cookie tin, but that’s the idea I’m going with for right now.
Snowball Fight by Dragon Dreams as of April 1, 2023 – stitched 2 over 2 on 28 ct unknown evenweave with charted DMC.
I figured out why I stopped stitching on Snowball Fight last time I’d worked on it – I was off by a row with that dragon’s wing on the right. So aside from starting a little bit of the snow they’re standing on, most of my two days of WIPGO were spent frogging and correcting that wing. Thankfully not that many stitches, but it took me a bit to figure out why things weren’t matching up! (I apparently failed at counting to two… seriously.) I wasn’t really feeling this one since it’s getting to springtime, so back into its project bag it goes for a while. I’ll give this one another whirl in autumn.
I didn’t stitch at all on my fourth WIPGO piece, Halloween Candlestick SAL. Like Snowball Fight, there’s frogging to do. My tiny start wasn’t even correct (UGH!). And after frogging Snowball Fight, I decided to just get back to that one later. I’ll get it done this month at some point!
And that’s all I did in March. Hopefully April will be a little more productive!
What a crazy month! I felt like I was just running crazy all of February and just in a funk. Maybe it was delayed emotion from January’s losses of Carol and Noby, I don’t know. But I just was a big ball of crabby for the better part of the month. I finally took a week off from work President’s Day week since it was also school vacation week here in Rhode Island. That definitely helped a bit. I could have used another week, though. but I have a couple more vacation days to enjoy with Erich and Max at the PaxEast gaming convention later this month.
I don’t know – I’m just a little mentally off. (sigh) Hopefully I shake it soon. I’ve been wanting to do a FlossTube video too… but haven’t been able to since early December due to various illness rounds and rough voices. Maybe I’ll try to get something filmed later today.
Stitching-wise, February was a good month. I finished my WIPGO goals – two days each on Fruits of Plenty, Deep Blue Sea, Bayun Cat, and Dear Rine. I’d hoped to fully finish one of my smalls, but didn’t. But I did get some progress made on some other stitching I was itching to do. The “Stitch What You Want When You Want” philosophy is a good one. 🙂
Onto the stitchy updates…
I spent a good portion of the month focused on The Fruits of Plenty. I really wanted to get the original February portion done. Didn’t quite get there, but I made a lot of progress and I’m very happy. I’m taking a break from it this month to focus on another piece, but I’ll be picking it back up in April.
Fruits of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery as of February 13, 2023 – stitched 1 thread over 2 on 40 ct Antique Ivory linen from Silkweaver in DMC.
I did wind up having to do some frogging on Fruits to start the month – my original heart outline was miscounted. I discovered it as I started to do the blue fill-in pattern… and then discovered it was STILL off as I finished the fill pattern- but it’s even. So I just made a quick adjustment to my fill-in. It won’t affect anything else. And now my “mistake on every piece” record continues to be 100%. 🙂
Of all of the pieces I worked in February, Bayun Cat was the one that I feel most satisfied with. It just moved along, and I feel like I have a good placement of the center of the piece now – the rest should flow nicely.
Bayun Cat by Owl Forest Embroidery as of March 1, 2023 – Stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct Belfast linen provided in kit.
Bayun is tricky to photograph – my camera tends to really wash it out. I had to over-saturate the photo a bit to really get the true color of how pretty and variegated those yellow and orange flosses are. I love the little houses that the cat is curled around. 🙂
Dear Rine got two days worth of stitching for WIPGO, but I confess that I’m just not really feeling this one right now. I managed to get a full circle and a portion done. So… yeah, not a lot. But that’s ok. That’s my whole goal with WIPGO – to just get something into these WIPs. Even if it’s a few stitches. My mood will likely change at some point and then I’ll get into a zone with this one and plug ahead.
Dear Rine 2017 (Dierencirkels) by Rine Oddens as of March 1, 2023. Stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct Poltergeist lugana from Silkweaver with DMC.
I’m working on circles to see what I’m going to be able to fit from the original pattern since my fabric is a different shape than what’s called for. I think I’m going to end up 4 circles short of the full pattern – I think I’ll manage to fit 45 comfortably – 5 rows of 9. Then I just have to decide which of the circles I’m not as interested in stitching. The geometrics I can eliminate easily. It’s the animals that are harder!
The final WIPGO piece of the month I worked on was Deep Blue Sea, and my goodness I struggled! I was fighting the fabric, I was fighting my chart. UGH. I think it’s honestly just because I find the Chatelaine charts a little hard to wrangle. It’s like working on a Wentzler in a way – a lot more concentration is needed to get stuff done.
Deep Blue Sea (Mystery XV) by Chatelaine. Stitched per charted on 28 ct Phantom linen by Picture This Plus in customized mix of silks and cotton threads.
Once I figured out what the heck I was doing, I did manage to move through another quarter of the coral in section 3, though. I’ve left this on my Lowery frame for now. I forgot to finish a little bit of the coral in the top center section. I’d also like to get the straight band stripe done on the left before I put it away to rest for a bit. Depending on how this year continues to go… this may be my focus piece during the summer. It’s one that I really do just need to settle in with for a while to get into the right mindset. Once I do that, progress comes pretty decently.
So that was all of the WIPGO stitching for the month. Goals accomplished – yay! Then it was time to settle into whatever else I felt like working on while I was away for a couple nights with friends. Normally I attend Stitcher’s Hideaway in February. This year I was a bit tight on funds due to cats and kids and all sorts of things, BUT… my friend Christine and I had already reserved our room at the end of the retreat last year outside of the block rate. So I decided to still go up to the hotel to get away, stitch, and just have a mental health retreat to try to shake this funk. It kinda helped, it kinda didn’t. A little drama there… but it’s over and done. Overall, I had a nice time. It was good to spend time with Christine and one of our other friends, Val, who I only get to see a couple times per year due to distance. I do think like with so many other things post-Covid, stitching retreat life is starting to change direction a bit. We’ll see where it leads.
I did a slight bit of stitching on I Love New England, but forgot to photograph a before photo. It wasn’t anything exciting though – about 300 stitches on the border in a straight line. That’s coming up for WIPGO for March, though – and is my focus piece for the month. So I’ll do before and after photos on that for March.
I set a goal for myself to finish the tree limbs in my Temperature Tree for 2021 so I can finally get the leaves on there and finish it. I’m happy to have completed that goal in February!
Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy as of February 25, 2023 – stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct. Dreamin’ Lugana from Silkweaver with DMC 839.
Now I have twelve limbs ready for daily leaves. I have the temperature records written down through the end of October for that year. Just need to get the rest of the year written down, and I can start patching in leaves! The heart gap on the trunk is my own custom addition – I’ll scratch my initials and the year in there. It just felt… right. One of my friends suggested stitching this year’s leaves in there, but I have other temperature charts selected for 2022 and 2023. I don’t mind having it backdated. I’m taking a one-month break for this one, and then I’m going to start plugging the leaves in. This will be a definite finish for this year – likely sometime this summer. I can’t wait to see all of the colors blossom!
Finally, I started one of the other temperature charts I just mentioned. This one’s for 2022. It’s called Temperature Drink Shelf from Kristi DiClemente (KristisCornerNeedle on Etsy)
I will be changing the top “Grab Yo Drank” to “Na Zdrowie” since I come from a good Polish heritage family. I’m going to use the same threads and color chart for this one as I am for the tree for 2021. Here’s my very little start on it:
Temperature Drink Shelf by Kristi DiClemente started on February 25, 2023. Stitched 2 threads over 2 on 32 ct Sea of Fog evenweave by Fortnight Fabrics with charted DMC.
I’m stitching the glasses as I go along that shelf partially to help with the counting. It’s a looooong shelf. Like… 180 stitches long. But once I have one in, it’ll be much easier for the rest of the months!
And that’s the insanity for February. Lots of stuff worked on! Every stitch counts… 🙂
I’m finishing up a much needed week’s vacation from work today. The first half of the week was spent at home, split between a bit of housework, a bit of personal self-care/self-interest projects, and battling the latest in a long line of minor head colds. (whee). The latter half I spent away at a hotel with a friend. We stitched, we enjoyed some fabulous BBQ, and we watched murder mystery stuff until the late hours of the night. I definitely needed the time away!
It’s also been a nice month of stitching progress. I’ll be getting my progress post up tomorrow once I finish the last of my week blocks for the month. I’m really happy where I’m ending up. 🙂
Challenge Heads Up – March One Month Challenge
March will be our first one month challenge of the year. If you are interested in participating, choose one of your WIPs and do a minimum of one stitch per day, every day, on it for the month of March. The theory is like potato chips – you likely won’t be able to do just one! It takes just a few minutes if you are having a super busy time, and it’s at least 31 extra stitches that you didn’t have in your piece at the beginning of the month. Remember… every stitch counts. Every single one. If you fall behind? No big deal – it’s not a ton of stitches to catch up! Just jump back in. If you can’t join us for March, there will be additional months in June, July, and October. Or of course – pick your own month that works for your schedule!
Enjoy your stitching in March – and I’ll see you at the end of the month!
Best, Mel.
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Important SAL Announcements…
Question of the Month: What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?
Next posting date: March 26, 2023
Topic(s) for next time: Tell us about your favorite places to buy stitching supplies.
Need all the basic info about the SAL? Go here for all details for 2023!
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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.
Noby (orange) and his littermate Elly (black) many years ago in their younger adult days
The rollercoaster that I’d mentioned in my January 16th post continued through last weekend, and so I’m now behind in updating what’s been going on in my stitchy life. Along with Carol’s passing, we had to say goodbye to the last of our original band of (pre-Max) cats, Noby, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge on Saturday at the ripe old age of 17. It wasn’t unexpected – he had been quite ill for a long time, and we’d been avoiding facing reality over the holidays. I’m glad he’s no longer suffering and that he’s able to run free with his sister and the extended cat family we had. I miss him though – even his annoying, gross habit of sneezing right in my face.
Work has been kinda busy lately too – the usual uptick of meeting preparations seems to be coming about a month earlier than normal. It’s not a bad thing, but I felt like I was caught a little flat-footed the past couple weeks. I made some good headway to get back on track early this week though – so all good there.
With the emotional and work weirdness, my stitching hasn’t been quite as productive the last couple weeks. I’m still quite happy with what I accomplished, though!
Apache Wedding Blessing by Kooler Designs as of January 21, 2023. Stitched 2 over 2 on antique white linen with charted DMC.
I completed both of my remaining WIPGO goals for January in the last two weeks of the month – two days of backstitching on Apache Wedding Blessing, and two days on Mute But Not Silent.
For Apache Wedding Blessing, I focused on the top left corner of the piece – outlining that upper feather and then running the straight line outlines for a couple of the poles. I’m happy with two nights of progress. I may bring this with me to Stitcher’s Hideaway later this month to get a bit more basic backstitching in on the poles on the other side. I would estimate I’m about one third through the backstitching at this point, and then I have a little more tension cleanup work on the left hand side where I originally pulled a bit too tightly. I’ll be fixing that side by simply running a tent stitch over my existing stitches to fatten them up a little bit.
Mute But Not Silent by Amy Mitten as of January 23, 2023 – stitched one over two on 32 ct Lambswool linen with charted silk floss.
On Mute But Not Silent, I decided to focus on the first of the two large H’s. While a good chunk of the work was double running stitch outlining the outside, I did also add some cross stitches in the center of the structure of the H to give it a bit more dimension. I still need to add a four-sided stitch into the center of each of those circles, and then that H is complete… and I can move on to the next one. These Dutch-style letters are quite ornate! And they don’t match each other – the stitches are put in different configurations, so I need to count almost the entire time.
Even though this is a “murder mystery” piece, I do know what the entire piece looks like. I posted it here on my WIPGO Week 4 post. The mystery will be linking the individual motifs to the storyline so they make sense. Definitely a fun way to stitch a piece – and have a little extra “if you know, you know” behind it on the wall.
Fruit of Plenty by Modern Folk Embrodiery as of January 21, 2023. Stitched 1 over 2 on 40 ct Toasted Almond linen with DMC 800 and 840.
With my WIPGO stitching completed, I decided to pull out a couple pieces that were yelling at me to get some work done and threw them into the option pit for Semi Sane’s “Choose My WIP” challenge.
The first was Fruit of Plenty from Modern Folk Embroidery. I managed to get a little over 1,000 stitches in on this one in about a week of puttering. I’m very happy with the progress. And it will get more in February since it’s a featured WIPGO piece!
I outlined the entire cartouche you see centered here, plus filled in some of the blue at the top of it (where the “2” is shaded in). For February I’m going to try to finish up this section, which represented the February block in 2021. It’s super-intense stitching, so I do not expect to keep up with this throughout 2023. But I’m going to push it as far as I can this year. My goal was a modest three months completion. I should make that just fine.
Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy. Stitched 2 over 2 on 32 ct “Dreamin'” Lugana by Silkweaver with customized DMC.
For the final week of Choose My WIP, I stitched on the 2021 Temperature Tree by Stitchin’ Mommy. I have had a heck of a time overcoming the tree trunks on this one. Not sure why I’m struggling so muich – but I just have hit one of those ruts. I’m sure once I get that final trunk in, this piece will move a lot faster as I stitch in the individual leaves. I’m very happy to have added three limbs onto the tree – just a little more to go! About one and a half limbs!
This piece will definitely get finished this year. I already have a couple of other temperature projects waiting on the wings that I’d like to start – but I won’t until this one gets done. The heart you see is custom. This piece didn’t have a year or initials added in as part of the design, so I decided I’d carve my initials and the two-digit year right into the tree. I’d waffled whether I would change this to 2022 or… since it’s now 2023, the current year. I decided to leave it as a 2021 piece. I already have found a couple other fabulous temperature record pieces that I’ll work for the most recent years.
I will post my WIPGO Week 5 piece tomorrow, even though it’s not Wednesday. For now I need to head to bed… it’s been a long day and I’m wiped out!
If you want to see what else I worked on in January, my weekly updates are here and here.
