2023 Wrap-up and plans for 2024

It's the end of yet another year and time to check in on the stitching that I managed to do in 2023. Considering that all of the WIPs that I had pictures of in last year's wrap-up are not only still WIPs, they are WIPs with the exact same amount of stitching in them since I didn't touch any of them... that gives you a bit of a clue as to how things went in 2023. But I did manage to do some stitching - and even finished a few things - and started a couple of projects that will just get added to the WIP pile as we head into 2024. One other thing I did this year was to keep a stitch diary on a spreadsheet (as opposed to a written journal) which made it much easier to track what I stitched this year so I could do this write-up! There was a fair amount of stash aquisition this year, but a lot of it was for organizing things (mostly threads and beads). Once I get it all finished, I'll post some photos!

Other than the magnets below, this was my only FFO for the year (stitching finished in 2022) - it's probably going in my office at work.



Although it took me a whole year to post about it, I did finish "Autumn" from The Cricket Collection not too long into the new year (February), so it is hanging the closet with a bunch of other things waiting to be fully finished. Here's a photo of the completed stitching (click for larger version):



And I did Caterpillar Cross Stitch's "British Isles Sampler" stitch-along and mostly kept up with it month-by-month. Sorry that the color of the background fabric gets a little weird toward the left... I was trying to get it into some natural light for the photo but I couldn't quite get the whole thing in. It's also hanging in the closet waiting to be framed - maybe something to try to concentrate on in 2024! (click for larger version)



One little thing I did was "Moonlight Nessie" by Lola Crow Cross Stitch (purchased on Etsy). Since this one was on a very dark fabric it prompted me to finally buy a new magnifying lamp that was brighter and had more magnification than my old one. This one is also waiting to be fully finished (once I decide what I wante to do with it).



And finally, I started doing each month of Tiny Modernist's "Folk Calendar" on perforated paper to make magnets to put on the giant metal filing cabinets in my office. I back them with felt and then glue a ~1-inch long section of a strip magnet on them. Here are the four that I've finished (and fully finished!) so far:



And the new starts from this year that will finish 2023 as WIPS are:

"Spring" by The Cricket Collection - not much done here yet! The fabric has slightly more of a greenish tint than you can see in the photo.



"S'Mores Anyone?" by Lola Crow - this one benefitted from the new craft lamp! I stalled on it a little when I got to the part with the blended threads (not my favorite). But I expect to get back to this one in 2024 and hopefully finish it. (Wow, you can really see all the lint on that black fabric...)



And finally, I started "Hayride Happenings" by Blue Ribbon Designs when I was in the mood to stitch something autumnal after Halloween. But I didn't get a lot of stitching time for the rest of the month, so I didn't get too far.



Plans for 2024

To be honest, for the first few months of 2024, my goal will be to find some time for ANY stitching. I realize that a very busy and stressful time is exactly when I should try to find more time to stitch, but who knows if I'll manage to make it happen. If I do actually get any stitching done in early 2024, most likely I'll keep working on the Tiny Modernist "Folk Calendar" magnets since they are small and go fast, so I'll feel like I've actually accomplished something. After that - who knows? I think I'll just work on things that I feel like stitching on instead of trying to follow a plan. Maybe if things ever manage to slow down at work (HA!) I'll try WIPGO or something like that in the years to come.

I think that's about it for 2023 - Happy New Year!

July FFOs and stitching round-up

Wow, it's already August. As I wrote on another blog, as a life-long Texan, I see August as something to be endured, while in many parts of the northern hemisphere people are enjoying it as peak summer. Pretty much the only time I've ever enjoyed August is when I've had a chance to spend a few weeks of it in Maine!

FFOs

Let's get started with the remaining FFOs that weren't quite completed in the June FFO Frenzy!

First up is my second flat fold, this time of "Autumn Harvest" that I finished stitching in 2013. I think this is now the oldest stitched piece that was waiting for finishing that isn't being framed (there are definitely some older ones in the pile of things that I'm going to frame... more about one of those in a couple of months). I'm pretty happy with how this one came out, even with a little flub on the trim on the bottom. But hey, it's on the bottom so it's not all that easy to see!



Next is this little pillow I made from the thistles kit I finished in early 2020, shortly before everything went pear-shaped in the world. I had originally planned to frame this but when I mounted it I realized that the kit fabric wasn't square and it was going to be quite noticeable in a frame, but since this was small enough I figured it wouldn't take all of my fiber-fill to make it into a pillow. Plus it's always a bonus when I can pull out the sewing machine and continue to shake the rust off those skills a bit.



And finally, this was a stitching finish and FFO from the past month. I actually started this back in April but I did the bulk of the stitching in July. This is, of course, a Mill Hill kit! I decided to try doing this with only 2 strands of floss - most Mill Hill kits are supposed to be stitched with 3 strands - as a bit of an experiment. I don't really care for stitching with 3 strands, although I have figured out a way to do a modified loop start, which helps. But this design had a lot of colors and small areas, so I was afraid it might be a bit of a challenge with 3 strands, plus I was curious to see how the coverage came out with 2 strands. All-in-all, not too bad! I went back to 3 strands with my current Mill Hill, but I have another one in the stash that I think I might do with 2 strands instead of 3 since it's another more detailed design like this one.



WIPs

Time for a check-in on Temperature Tree! This is now complete through the end of July and I'm abolutely gobsmacked that I've only used the 99-101F color a few times so far this year. I'm beginning to think that there is some weird connection between my choices for this pattern and the actual weather. It was warm to start the year so I chose the hottest color range and then a week or two later, we had the Big Freeze. And now we've only hit 100F twice so far this year and that's been the highest temperature we've reached at all (NOTE: this is NOT A COMPLAINT). I'm sure that August will still be quite hot and I'm sure that I'll use at least one of the hotter colors, but I'm sitting here listening to thunder rumbling from the storms that kicked up with a "cold" front that is slipping down into central Texas. August fronts are rare, and especially this early in the month. It won't drop the temperature by much, but it will probably take some of the humidity out of the air, which always helps!



These next few WIPs are from the end-of-May bout of start-itis.

First is "Mediterranean Flavors" Dimensions kit, but I switched out the kit fabric for 28ct French Vanilla Swirl from my stash since it looked like it would be perfect for this design and look like a stucco wall in an Italian restaurant or something. (Sorry about the moiré pattern on the thumbnail)



Next is "Oregano" from a Mill Hill kit (on fabric, not perforated paper, like most of their smaller designs). This is part of a series of herbs that I want to do for my kitchen but I've only purchased this one so far. And I love oregano, so even if I never do the others, this one will still be appropriate for my home! Just the flower pot so far on this one.



This one is technically a re-start since I decided to start "Celtic Seasons" again, but this time with only 1 strand of floss. I cut out the Spring section that I had already done earlier this year and I'm going to try to make it into something eventually. I think the 1 strand version will work a little better with this design since it doesn't seem to make the backstitching disappear as much (and there is a lot of backstitch on this one!). This kind of threw off my plan to keep up with each season in that season, but I might get Summer started in August and then finish Spring next year as I come back around to it.



New Start

I technically have two new starts in July, but there really isn't much to show on the newest one, which I just started yesterday. But I thought I would show my current little Mill Hill, which you might even be able to already recognize as the "Pizza Slice" kit which oddly is part of their Autumn Harvest collection - I don't know about you but I eat pizza year round! :)



Plans

No haul this month (I'm putting myself on a buying diet for a while) so straight into plans! I'm mostly hoping to work a little more on the WIPs and new starts I mentioned, and possibly finish a couple of the smaller ones. But since I have been seeing it pop up a lot lately, I've been inspired to put my Glendon Place "Sleepy Hollow" back on the q-snaps and actually do some stitching on it for the first time in about 10 YEARS (!!). I did a little stitching on it to get it started (see below) and then it ended up sitting in a corner for a long, long time. Part of that was the time I was struggling with my eyes and then once I got a magnifying lamp, trying to figure out a good way to use it with large projects. But now that I've got that sorted - which is why I was able to work on Fairy House back in May - I think it's time for some stitching on the Headless Horseman! Here's where I got to back around 2011:



That's it for this month! Happy stitching to anyone who stumbles by the blog!

September Stitchy Stuff!

I had thought that I didn't do a ton of stitching this month, but when I started to take stock of things for this post, I had done more than I realized! Some of it wasn't stitching itself as much as finally doing some FFOs, including some projects that have been FOs for about 20 years.

First up - the final part of the Wonders of Space SAL is done! There is also a quote above and below the pictures that I need to stitch, but I'm waiting for a thread I ordered to come in. It calls for a medium blue, but I thought I would try a sparkly blue DMC etoile. If I stitch a little with it and I don't like how it looks, I'll just go back to the called for color.



Next up - I had to commemorate 2020 somehow and I really liked some of the plague doctors I was seeing around, so I got the Plague Doctor Ornament by Night Spirit Studio on Etsy and just did the doctor part on black perforated paper so I could keep it small and make a fridge magnet out of it. (And this a photo of it already on my fridge - I just finished it this morning!)



This is another finish that has been a little while in the making! The pattern is "Pumpkin Smiles" by Ursula Michaels from the October 2015 JCS magazine and I made a few slight changes in the DMC colors, but it's still pretty close to the orignal. The reason there was a gap in my stitching of this project was that it is on 32ct. fabric (2 over 2) and I was working on it when I realized that my old prescription glasses just weren't cutting it for working on that small a count anymore (and that's WITH a magnifying lamp). I got my new glasses back in July and started working on this again on and off since then and it's a definite improvement! (Which is good since I still have a lot of 32ct fabric in my stash and I really don't want to have to add even more magnificaiton since it starts to give me a headache after a while.) I took a photo with it still on my q-snaps and tabletop stand, but I did take it off to wash and iron yesterday. Let's see how long it sits around before becoming an FFO!



And here is yet another cute little Mill Hill kit! I really am addicted to them. And judging by the various cross stitch social forums I follow and how often they are sold out on 123Stitch, I'm not alone in that! This one is Moonstruck Manor, which is think is new for this Halloween/Autumn season. And this is an FFO and also already on my refrigerator.



I have one big new start this month - Temperature Tree by Stitchin' Mommy! I mentioned last month that I really liked the temperature record projects I have seen people do, including this one, so I bought the pattern and started on it this month. I decided to go with 18ct aida (2 over 1) since I didn't want it too big since it's going to be sitting around all year while I stitch on the leaves. The fabric is 'Jade' by Picture This Plus that I ordered on 123Stitch just for this project. I had also ordered a couple of skeins of the brown that I thought I wanted to use for the trunk and branches, but when I held it against the fabric, I didn't like it as much so I switched to DMC 801 (which isn't quite as dark as it looks in the photo, but it is definitely darker than the color I was originally going to use). As you can see here, I've done a big part of the trunk and the January branch. I might try to get all of the branches done before the end of the year since it actually goes pretty fast being all one color.



Now - the older projects that I made into fully finished objects!

This first one isn't all that old, since I only stitched it earlier this year. This is the same pattern of The Child that I did on perforated paper and made into a magnet, but I also did on a piece of scrap fabric and did as a hoop frame finish. I'm still perfecting my techniques on hoop finishes, but I think I'm improving!



I also decided that I was going to do something with the various bookmarks that I've stitched over the years. I ended up just glueing felt to the back and skipped trying to add the tassles to the tops of the ones that came as kits. The pumpkins were a relatively recent finish back at the beginning of 2020, but the other three are from old Textile Heritage kits. The Irish Shamrocks and one of the Tudor Roses were from kits that I bought on various trips to the UK and the other Tudor Rose one was a gift from a friend (more about that here... from 2010!)



I also have a bunch of other Textile Heritage kits that I've bought over several trips to the UK, most of which were stitched well over 10 years ago. I think all of these were originally meant to be cards, but I've made the four smaller ones into magnets and two into ornaments. I have a little rack next to my front door that is meant to hold keys, but I hang cross stitch ornaments there instead. I needed some other non-seasonal things to put there for when it isn't Fall/Halloween/Christmas. There are still more of this kits in the "to-be-FFOed" pile, but I know what I want to do with them, I just need to get around to doing it!




That's it for September! Now on to more Halloween and Fall stitching until the Christmas crafy bug bites me!

First finish of 2020!

Okay, technically the pumpkin patch bookmark was my first finish of 2020, but I'm not counting that. This is one I'm counting as my first finish of 2020:



This was one of the small kits that I mentioned throwing in to a supply order and that was making my hand cramp. Eventually that stopped happening, interestingly. But I did remind me that I vastly prefer things that I can stitch on a frame where I can use both of my hands for the actual stitching.

And speaking of... here's the literal first stitch on the Wonders of Space stitchalong:



I suspect that I'm not going to get as much stitching in for the next couple of months, but we'll see!

Welcome to 2020!

I really meant to write more about what I was stitching last year *during* the year but I never got around to it, so here's a 2019 round-up and a little about what I'm going to be working on in 2020.

First up - I finished the IT Crowd I posted about last year and framed it! And it's hanging in my office at work (and has even drawn a few chuckles and "Oh I love the IT Crowd!" comments). Here's the final version before I took it to work:



I also tried my hand at hoop framing some older projects and one new project. As often happens to me, the first couple that I did came out great and then the third one wasn't as good. (I have the same track record with Thanksgiving turkeys and my grandmother's pecan pie recipe). Here are the pizza penguin and Castle Coch, both originally stitched many years ago:



And this is the one that I wasn't as happy with the framing on (and this is also hanging in my office at work... for no reason whatsoever of course...):



And I framed this other old project and hung it up in my bedroom:



And I stitched up this little Celtic swirl card kit that I threw in my basket when I was shopping for some other supplies (I actually left of some backstitching in this because I thought it made the design a little too busy):



And this one was supposed to be my final finish of 2019 but I technically finished it two days into 2020. I had a pre-finished bookmark that I got in a grab bag I bought ages ago and I had saved this bookmark pattern from "The Cross Stitcher" magazine in 2008. I started on this in the fall with the original intent of finishing in the fall, but the fall ended up too busy:



And last but not least, here's a photo of my thread ends and leftover thread from a kit:



So what's up for 2020?

I've got a few projects that I've been stitching on for a few years now that I'll probably keep plugging away at, but of course I had to start a few new projects! I did a few stitches on another kit that I threw in to a supply order (that is actually one of the main ways I acquire small kits) but I have trouble with my left hand cramping if I stitch on something 'in hand' for too long. So I also have a couple of things on q-snaps that I can use on my lap frame.

I've signed up for the Wonders of Space stitch-along, which is my first SAL! We don't have the first part yet, but I'll try to post some progress photos of it as we go along. I don't know how well I'll be able to keep up through the first few months of the year, but I'm going to try!

The thing on my frame right now is something that probably shows how nuts I am, but I'm re-stitching the second large-ish project I did when I first started stitching 30 years ago. I've learned a lot since then so I'm curious to see how it comes out! I don't have the first project I did because it was TERRIBLE (I had no idea what I was doing....) but the second was Lichtenstein Castle, from the book Medieval Castles from Jeanette Crews Designs and you can see the first version of it here. Technically I'm getting a bit of a head start on the 30th anniversary of when I really got in to cross stitch since that didn't happen until the summer of 1990, but I know it's going to take a while since I have a lot less stitching time than I did back then!

More old stitching and goals for 2008

I'm almost done posting all my old stitching (well, the stuff that I have photos of, since I've given some away over the years). It's nice to have an almost complete record of all my projects! I'll probably post photos of some of the old large projects that still need to be framed (or re-framed in some cases) when they are finally totally finished.

First is a DMC kit that I stitched mostly while on vacation in Maine on vacation a couple of years ago. It's still in the unframed pile.


Next are two Cross My Heart cottage magnet kits that I got at the Spirit of Cross Stitch festival many years ago... they were both on the little refrigerator in my office, but unfortunately one of them was lost somewhere along they way (the one on the left). Someday I'll have to get a replacement for it, since I like the Tudor-like half-timbered design.


Next up are the remainder of the various Textile Heritage miniatures that I've bought on various trips to the UK over the years.

The one of the left are the four national symbols of the British Isles - the rose for England, shamrocks for Ireland, a thistle for Scotland and a daffodil for Wales. The picture on the right are (clockwise from upper left) - the crown of Scotland, the White Tower of the Tower of London, bagpipes, Hampton Court Palace and a Welsh dragon.


And this final image is another of the Textile Heritage bookmarks that I've stitched. I still haven't finished this one or the Tudor rose one with a backing fabric or ribbon, but that is part of the goals for next year. More about those goals below.


So, now the stitching goals for 2008. The goals are two-fold... the first is to put the finishing touches on some of the unfinished projects that I've been posting about here. There are a lot of things that need to be framed or otherwise completed beyond the stitching. My other big goal is to start working through the kits in my stash. I have lots of leaflets and magazine patterns that I want to stitch but the kits take up a lot more room. :) I have four fairly large Christmas-themed kits, so I'm sure I'm going to be stitching one or more of them at some strange time of year (like July), but that hasn't stopped me before (most of Celtic Christmas was stitched watching baseball).

Some more of my past projects

Here are three more of the past projects that I've stitched. I think all three of these were begun and finished in the 1993-1998 range.


The first is an ironwork gate design from New Stitches issue #10. Anyone who is familiar with the design might notice a big mistake in the gate stitching, but thankfully it isn't obvious if you don't know better. (If you're curious, the mistake is that I ended up making the space between the brick posts for the gate one stitch too wide, so when I went to do the backstitching for the gate I had to make the gate a stitch wider... I ended up doubling the center of the design.)


This next design is another from New Stitches, this one from issue #13. This is one of a pair of designs, where the other one is looking in to the house through the window. They've run several "in and out" designs over the years, but this is the only that I've stitched so far. This was also my first experiment stitching on a higher-count fabric. It's over 1 square on 22 ct. aida. I actually found that I liked working small and have done some more since, although several were given away as gifts and I never took pictures of them (bad me!).


This is from a different British magazine, Needlework, in the July 1994 issue, and is one of my favorite things that I've stitched. I'm probably going to do it again on linen eventually (I have this weird desire to re-do a lot of my earlier projects on different fabrics and in different sizes... you'd think I would be more interested in doing new designs instead!) I think this was the first thing that I stitched with variegated floss (the symbols at the bottom of the "England" and "Wales" strips) and I really liked how it turned out.


From roughly September 1994 to May 1995, I worked at a craft store to supplement the part-time job I was still working at the university (when I went full time at in June 1995) and of course worked in needlework and fabrics. This was the time that I caught the quilting bug (which will be its own series of posts eventually) but I also started learning about doing some new techniques. It was around this time that I got my first little linen project, the rose sachet in the picture above. I can't remember if this was a cover kit or something I bought separately (I think the latter), but the other two are cover kits from more British needlework magazines. The rose card was, I think, the first time I did beading on a design.

That's more than enough for today!