Reality vs Expectations

I am a lifetime crafter. It doesn’t seem to matter what type of craft activity I am planning for, I always seem to think that I can finish things in a much shorter length of time than is realistic!! My expectations have always been unrealistic but the fantasy continues.

Maybe I will use an X factor when trying to think about what I can accomplish. If I think a project will take a month, I need to tell myself it will take 3 months. If I have 10 projects on my list for the year, maybe just getting touches on all of them but finishing 3.

That being said, I am making great strides on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. The full coverage black background really makes block #6 pop!! This is my current progress, with 6588 stitches complete out of 8464 (plus half-stitch overlay).

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It is easier to predict how long I will spend with one of the Lego builds. I was “expecting” the Ahsoka Shuttle to take about a week … and it did! This is my finished build with the mini figs.

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The next Lego build will be another smaller ship. This time I am over on the dark side with a build of the Tie Bomber.

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The last project that I have been working on is another baby blanket. It is a repeat of my favorite crochet blankie pattern using mary maxim Baby Blankie in color Apple Blossom. This is my progress with 10 rows completed.

Here is to hoping the next post will have me working on house #7!

May the Fourth Be With You!

Happy Star Wars Day! If you have been watching The Bad Batch (I promise I won’t give away the ending), the final episode of the series was this past week. I was sorry to see it end. The finish was sort of predictable but not what I expected. I like how it was handled and found it satisfying. I wonder what will be next.

I have been stitching, crocheting and building.

Stitching first —
This month is May Maynia and for my May stitching activity, I have decided on May Mono-Mania. For the entire month of May my stitching will be on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I am hoping that I will finish house #6 and maybe make some progress on house #7. House #6 is the most stitch intense of the chart, it is the only one that is full coverage and it will also have a half-stitch overlay on the main part of the house. I am still deciding if I will do the half-stitches, probably yes since it’s such a fun and interesting idea.

This is my progress with 4419 stitches completed. The total for this house will be 8464 stitches plus the overlay ….

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Crocheting second —
I have been trying to get at least one row done each night on a baby afghan. Sometimes I manage a little more but some nights there is a pause. You might recognize the pattern for the afghan, it is the Rolling Ripple Blankie. I finished this last night, I think this is my third finish of this pattern, I have used a different color of the Mary Maxim Baby Blankie Yarn for each one. It is such an easy pattern and at the end of the day it it perfect since little thought is needed. This one is done in peach. Sadly, the Baby Blankie line of yarn has been discontinued but you can use any worsted weight yarn with the free pattern that is available on their website.

The finished size of this blankie is 24″ by 32″ and that is a little longer than the pattern states (24″ x 28″). Full disclosure, my gauge is never right which is why I stick to blankets and scarves!

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Last but not least, I am expanding my fleet with Ahsoka Tano’s T-6 Jedi Shuttle from Lego…. a new build that I will be starting as soon an I bring out my table, hopefully today.

Picture is from the Lego website.

May the force be with you!

Stitching at the Back of the Pack

The WIP Warriors road trip is still on leg 2. I am not at the end of the pack, but I am feeling pretty confident that I will be in the last group that finishes the tour of Tasmania

I seriously don’t know how anyone can get 1,000 or mores stitches done everyday, it boggles by mind. That being said, I am very happy with my daily stitch count (about 200 stitches per day) and my projects show it!!

This is my progress on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow (HHRH). Another house is complete!! House #5 has 6,026 stitches. I am tempted to just ignore all of my other projects and focus on HHRH until it is completed. If I was able to stitch about one box a month, I would be looking at a Thanksgiving or Christmas finish. As a general rule, I don’t have enough discipline to do that, there are so many amazing things I want to work on!! But maybe….

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow from Carriage House Samplings

My one finish for the month is an adorable Mill Hill kit. This is Squirrelly, with a total of 962 stitches. I will probably finish this cutie into an oranment to hang with the Halloween/Fall decorations.

Squirrelly by Mill Hill

That is it for now. Keep stitching!!

Taco Time Cross Stitch Finish!!

Taco Time is a fun design!! My piece has not been washed or pressed and I have no idea what I want to do with it, possibly a frame — it would be great to be able to find some type of paddle or bread board to mount it on.

Taco Time was designed by Marianne Savage for Design Works Crafts. The fabric that comes in the kit is white 14 count aida, I changed that to 28 count white evenweave fabric by Zweigart. I used the floss provided in the kit and had enough although it was really close (as in 1 or 2 inches left) for a couple of the colors. This is my first Design Works Crafts kit that I have stitched and I own a few others – they have some great designs.

As much as I like the design, I was very disappointed with the floss. There is no question, I will not use the floss from their kits again. I found it hard to use. Some strands had almost no twist and the thickness was not consistent. The floss in the kit comes pre-cut in about 24″ lengths. Personally, I like a loop start when possible, the floss in the kit is too short to make it worth the loop start. Stitching with a length over 18″ tends to cause to much wear on the threads. They managed to make the floss both too short and too long at the same time.

Bottom line, if I really like something from Design Works Crafts, I will be buying for the pattern only. I will replace both fabric and floss.

Back to stitching!!

Having Fun On A Virtual Road Trip

This year I was able to join the WIP Warriors Facebook group. They allow new members for about one month at the end of the calendar year. If you think it might be something you would like to try, put it on your calendar for November 2024. If you are in the WIP Warriors group you can also join The WIP Warriors Road Trip. I joined and it has been a lot of fun.

Just clarify, a WIP is a work in progress. For this group a WIP is a project that has a minimum of 200 stitches completed. The original idea of the group was to only work on projects that have already been started with no new starts and try to get some projects finished. It has evolved and there are multiple categories, all with the same goal of finishing projects.

I have been stitching for a long, long time but I have nowhere near the number of WIPS as some stitchers. Some of them have 100 or more WIPS, yikes!!

Back to the Road Trip…. I don’t know where they traveled virtually in years past, but this year is Australia. The trip started with a cruise from Seattle to Australia, landing in Sydney. There was also an option to join by starting in Sydney. The admins for this group are truly amazing. The number of activities, how they organize, answer questions and keep the trip on track is remarkable. We are now on Leg 2 of the journey and I have downgraded my “ride” twice — I am now at the lowest level. As much as I enjoy cross stitch, I also need to have time for needlepoint, knitting and crochet. But even with the downgrade it is a challenge to keep up!!

So, how much stitching did I really get done???
Total stitches in January = 6598, total in February = 5974, and March = 6543. That makes my year to date total 19095, with two pieces finished. To be clear, I am traveling in the bottom third towards the end of the pack and feel like I spend a lot of time with my stitching. I always knew I was a slow stitcher and this confirms it, haha!

I started writing this post in February and kept getting distracted so I am going to end it here with ….

Hope you had a Happy Easter!

What??? February???

There are just not enough hours in the day, or week.

The new year has been very good for me. I have completed one cross stitch, one large lego, one medium lego and one small lego. But, the majority of my “free” time has been spent playing with the cross stitch software called WinStitch.

This is The Apothecary Shoppe from Witchy Stitcher, it is stitched on 28 count linen in a color called Newt from Dixie Samplar using DMC, two over 2. Stitching with only one color is fun since I don’t have to pay as much attention — of course, that is also what can get me in trouble. The amount of backstitch is surprisingly heavy but really makes the piece pop!! This project was on my 2024 WIP list.

The next big finish was Titanic from Lego, it was a fun build! The ship is huge measuring 54″ by 18″ by 7″. It is 9,090 pieces. I actually finished this before Christmas but this is my first blog post since then.

Another Lego finish that I just completed is from the Harry Potter series, Dumbledore’s Office. It is always fun to see the special touches for this series. This is larger than expected and measures 15.5″ by 7.5″ by 3.5″. It is designed with some movement and is able to be attached to the the other parts of Hogwarts that Lego has created.

The last Lego set I built is part of the BrickHeadz series called Battle of Endor Heroes. The figures include: Luke, R2, Lando, Wicket and Leia (seriously, where the heck is Han??). Cute, fun, fast…

My newest adventure is WinStitch. WinStitch is charting software designed for cross stitch that has an export function to make the charts compatible with Pattern Keeper. I have a couple of sampler patterns that are from McCalls Needleworks and Crafts, 1974. The samplers will be spectacular but the charting from 1974 is lacking. The patterns are charted for one half of the pattern and then you are supposed to mirror image the pattern for the opposite side. Yikes! WinStitch to the rescue.

I have almost half of the first sampler re-charted into WinStitch and it has been quite a learning experience. Happily, the software is amazing and can do magical things with rotating and mirror imaging. Due to the number of inconsistencies in the original chart I decided to try to find a copy of the original magazine so that I can see a full page photo of the original sampler. It is on the way and that will help answer questions I have about the sampler and motif placement and the border.

Hope that your 2024 is fun and productive. Remember, finished is better than perfect!

The Kits On the Ridiculous List of 2024

There was a clarification for the Cross Stitch Kit Start 2024!

In addition to mass produced kits, projects that have been “kitted” are also welcome. Well, that changes things in a good way. I have some pieces designed by Mosey ‘N Me that were kitted by a shop many years ago, they will be at the top of the stack.

Chief John from Mosey ‘N Me

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“Percy”-ville Pilgrim from Mosey ‘N Me

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Princess Harvest Moon from Mosey ‘N Me

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Prissy Pilgrim from Mosey ‘N Me

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“Pru”-dence Pilgrim from Mosey ‘N Me

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Reindeer with Frame from Design Works

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Ho Ho Ho Santa with Frame from Design Works

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Taco Time from Design Works

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Merium Patrick Sampler from The Posy Collection for Hancock Shaker Village
(photo from Hancock Shaker Village website)

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Mary Hill from Needlework Press (photo from the Needlework Press website)

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The only large kit is the Mary Hill Sampler. All of the other kits are fairly small. The series from Mosey ‘N Me just look big because they are stitched on 7 count fabric but the largest is Chief John with a stitch count of 74 x 59

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And, as expected, I have another new start that I forgot about. This is Harriot Hey, she will be the sampler for the Our Sampler Years 2024 stitch a long.

Harriot Hey from Tabby Cat

FIVE days until Christmas!!

“Christmas is a togethery sort of holiday. That’s my favorite kind.” – A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Stitching Groups and The Ridiculous List, Part 2

There are so, so many stitching groups across the internet, I’m guessing that the majority of them are on Facebook. But, I don’t use other social platforms so I don’t really know. I find groups, or groups find me in a variety of ways. Other FB friends or FB will recommend groups and are often a happy surprise. Zoom meetings with other stitchers, workshops and floss tube are also ways I have found stitching groups.

The most recent finds for me are WIPGO 2023, WIP Warriors and Cross Stitch Kit Start 2024. Will they help me stay focused on specific projects? Enable more new starts? Cause my resource center to grow? Probably yes to all three.

WIPGO has been around for a while in a variety of forms. Basically, it’s Bingo with cross stitch projects. You create your own bingo card and assign a project and stitching goal to each square. The same project can appear on your card as often or as little as you wish. A moderator will call the numbers and you will try to stay on task and get some stitching done. My board for 2024 is ready to go.

WIP Warriors is new to me but has been a FB group for a few years. The original idea was to stitch on current projects and not start any new pieces. It has evolved and is a combination of (1) stitching WIPs only … or … (2) stitching only WIPs until a piece is completed then you can add another project … or … (3) do whatever you want. Not so sure that option three is that useful in getting projects completed, but hey, it’s supposed to be fun. I am doing option 2 and have 12 projects from my last post, with room to add some of the new starts as they become WIPs.

Cross Stitch Kit Start 2024 is brand new group. The idea is to pull out, dust off, and get stitching on projects that were purchased as kits. Tricia already has prompts that are inspired by the names of the Moons each month (Wolf Moon, Snow Moon, Pink Moon, and so on). Many stitchers have a variety of kits from Dimensions, Bucilla, Design Works, Lanarte, Thea Gouvenor and more. Sometimes there is something that you want to change, it could be the fabric (lets face it, too often kit fabric is not the best quality), floss (also, not always the best quality), or tweaking the design.

In addition to the three groups listed above, there are a few other groups I have been in for years that are geared to actually making progress on projects (rather than just show and tell), my favorites are Floss In Space and Magical Stitches.

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These are the projects I want to start in 2024 that are not kits. I will post photos of kits I would like to start in my next post.

Kaleidescopic Meadow from Burda Cross Stitch Magazine

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Let Freedom Ring from Lila’s Studio

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Elevenses from fiddlesticksau (photo from their etsy website)

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Rudloph the Red Nosed Reindeer Ornaments from Dimensions

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And They Sinned from Examplar Dames / Examplars from the Heart

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Monopoly from C&L Crafts & Co

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Pagoda Sampler from McCall’s Needlework & Crafts Magazine

There are only TEN days until Christmas!

“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.” – Buddy the Elf

The Ridiculous Project List is Longer….

Okay…. this must stop!! 

I can’t seem to help myself, another group was started on FB that I joined. The new group is all about getting kits started. I have kits that need to be tweaked to be able to start them (changing fabric and/or floss, or maybe recharting parts). Instead of making the changes the poor things end up back in the storage tote. Of course, the new group sounds like a great way to get some of those projects out of their totes but it is making my 2024 list even longer.

Because this is a little out of control, I plan to post pictures based on category. Today will be my cross stitch projects that are works in progress (WIPs).

The list has grown to include a few more WIPs that were tucked away. There are several that were on the list last year, or the year before, or even the year before that. The photos below are either from the cover or from the designer website. I will post progress photos as I work on them:

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Dutch Beauty Sampler from Permin of Copenhagen

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Houses of Hawk Run Hollow from Carriage House Samplings

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Hannah Campbell Sampler (SAL) from Hands Across The Sea Samplers (photo from the HATS website)

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Apothecary Shoppe from The Witchy Stitcher

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My Pink House from Ewe & Eye & Friends

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Sweet Summertime from Counting Puddles

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Squirrely from Mill Hill

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Monday Meddler from Cross Stitch & Country Crafts

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Birthday Wish from Ewe & Eye & Friends

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Margaret Gibson from The Scarlet Letter

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Colonial Window Box from The Heart’s Content

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Merry’s Little Lamb Sewing Roll from Merry Cox

Next week I will post the pictures of the cross stitch projects I would like to start in 2024. The following week I will post pictures of the needlepoint, knit/crochet or other miscellaneous things that will hopefully make an appearance in 2024.

Christmas is in ELEVEN days, enjoy the journey to Christmas Day!! 

My Ridiculous Project List

So, here I am thinking about my list of projects I want to work on in 2024. I seriously don’t know why I put so much thought into this because it changes constantly. And it continues, here it is (as of today)…

Cross stitch projects that are works in progress (WIP):
Dutch Beauty Sampler
Houses of Hawk Run Hollow
Hannah Campbell Sampler (SAL)
Apothecary Shoppe
My Pink House
Sweet Summertime (aka Lemonade)

Large cross stitch projects that will be new starts:
Let Freedom Ring (a repeat from last year that never got started)
Kaleidoscopic Meadow
Harriot Hey (SAL)
Seaworthy Sampler

Small cross stitch projects:
Mill Hill ornaments and houses
Punch Needle & Primitive Stitcher – miscellaneous cross stitch, as long as they are small
Sled Ornaments – finish the charts I have left (about 6)

Needlepoint WIPs:
Creation Day One from Ehrman
TS Elephant
Stockings

Needlepoint new starts:
Genny Morrow – anything smallish
Pat Thode Halloween House

Other crafty:
Afghan in knit or crochet – one baby size, on full size
Scissor Tassels

The list is absolutely ridiculous, I’m such a dreamer!! If I can get a few stitches in each project it will be a win, any finish will be exceeding expectations. I’ll post pictures of the projects on the list before the year is over.

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These are the projects that have seen the most attention in the last couple of weeks.

This is Dutch Beauty, it is such a beautiful piece. It is an adaptation and not a reproduction, a fabulous stitch.

On the left is Page G (there are 21 pages!!). On the right, the right half of the project.

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Progress on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow… I thought I would have four of the houses done before the year ended and am now hoping for three. Maybe, maybe not.

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This is a new start, Day One of the Creation Series designed by Alex Beattie for Ehrman. I am finding basketweave with tapestry wool harder on my shoulder than I expected. I will work to find the sweet spot of how long I can stitch on it. I was a little bummed but I’m hoping maybe a 10 minute timer might work. It will be good when there is a little more done so I have a place to bury the ends!

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I haven’t worked on anything else but I am gathering supplies to try some different finishing techniques. I will start with ornaments since they are small and I have some finishes ready to go.

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Last but not least … Lego building. Titanic has not seen any activity for a couple of weeks but I plan to have it out later today. I am about half way through the second set of bags, it looks amazing!!

Titanic Part One (complete)

Titanic Part Two (in progress)

Titanic Birds Eye View Part One (complete) and Part Two (in progress)

That’s all for today! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!