WIPGO 2023 – Week 38 – Hugs & Kisses

Hugs & Kisses came into my possession kind of a weird way. It was never mine to finish solo, but it’s going to end up being that way. This one has a little bit of a story…

In 2009-2011, I, along with a few other stitchers, formed a bi-weekly cross stitching gathering at the Warwick Public Library in Warwick, RI. We were a small group, but it was relaxed and friendly… and all seemed good. We went to our first mutual retreat together in 2010 at Stitcher’s Hideaway, went to Celebration of Needlework, and all seemed to be going great.

And then in the autumn of 2011… it fell apart suddenly. I’m still not quite sure what happened, honestly, but it’s many years in the past now. I moved on, had Max, fell into another group of stitchers, and life has moved on.

Before everything fell apart – one of the other stitchers and I had an idea to do a round robin back and forth… just the two of us, and then gift this piece to another stitcher. I provided the fabric – a remainder cut off of my Mirabilia Round Robin from the year before. She provided the floss, converting the called for colors to DMC. She kicked it off, did some of the stitching, and then passed it on to me to work on.

And it’s been with me ever since.

This is my third Blue Ribbon Designs project, and I have found that I enjoy stitching the frames, then filling them in. My estranged friend did a large amount of the top four squares, and most of the rest has been me. I’m planning on continuing squares from here on, then filling them in once I have all of the frames completed.

I don’t have a specific timeline for this one. Since it will move pretty fast once I get the frames done, maybe I’ll put this on my MAGIC (My Annual Good Intentions Contract) for the Tudor Rose Sampler Guild next year.

Since I’m delayed posting this one, here’s what I accomplished between Go Fish on Semi Sane Stitchers and WIPGO over my retreat weekend at Stitch New England. 🙂