CROSS STITCH DIARY: January Stitches

Five weeks have passed since we last got together to discuss our stitching projects. I had so many planned starts last month which means that I have a lot of rollover this month. I meant to only have seven projects – one per day, but I kept seeing things I wanted to start. LOL!

Like with Halloween though, if I don’t finish those Christmas themed things by end of January, they will be put away until next year (or things calm down).

I am currently in four monthly clubs which I have not even stayed current with – Truckin Along, Prim, Sampler of the Month, and Snap Shot of the month.

Let’s get started!

FINISH: Cottage of the Month – December by Country Cottage Needleworks

December Cottage of the Month was stitched on 28 count lambswool linen with called for threads – DMC, Classic Colorworks, & Weeks Dye Works

I did have one finish stitch since last month and that is my December Cottage of the Month. I love it. When January rolled around, I worked on this at least 15 minutes every night to wrap it up.

This is my second in this series and I haven’t decided how I will be finishing them. Frame it? Wall hanging? Decoration? Pillow? Decisions. Decision.

December Truckin Along by Stitching with the Housewives

It is stitched on 14 ct chalkboard black aida cloth with called for Classic Colorworks thread as one piece instead of two. I have one space between the two designs.

After finishing the December Cottage, I decided this one would be my next one I would try and work extra time on to wrap up. So far, I have made a lot of progress. This week I finally started the truck. I really love this design although I am not a big fan of the gingham trees. I feel like some of the colors get lost. I like the striped trees better but still a super cute design!

With this series, I have been skipping around a lot. If I finish this one in January, I will look at starting February next otherwise, I will start March which came yesterday.

Mr. December, A Calendar Gnome, by Charlie’s Needle

Mr. December is stitched on 14 ct Fabric Flair Aqua aida cloth with called for Classic Colorworks threads.

The Calendar Gnomes are always a slow and anxious filled reveal. You can just now start to see his beard. He is going to have a plaid jacket. If I finish this one in January, I will probably jump to March next since this always takes me a while to stitch. I saw that Charlie’s Needle put it up in her Etsy shop this week.

Once I finish December Trucking along, this will be the next Christmas focused one.

Christmas Calendar by Tiny Modernist

Here is shown Block 10 where I am working on a couple of elves. Currently they are headless….
Christmas Advent is stitched on 28 ct gray linen with mostly called for DMC threads.
I have finished two squares since last month and started on my third.

Snow Village by Country Cottage Needleworks

Snow Village is stitched on 14 ct Blue Snow Fabric Flair aida cloth with called for DMC and Classic Colorworks thread.

December I started working on Peppermint Parlor. Houses always take more time than stands. It is coming along very nicely. The window display is so cute!

Winter Camper by Bobbie G Designs

Winter Camper is stitched on White 14 ct aida cloth with called for DMC threads.

I have been working on the trees and snowmen over the past month filling in with white. Sometimes I have a hard time seeing but I am really happy that I did the outlines first or this would have been really super hard.

Prim Stitch Series by Lori Holt

Prim Stitch Series is stitched on 25 ct Prim Laguana by Lori Holt with the called for Aurifil threads.

During most of fall, I had set this one aside as I was feeling overwhelmed. I decided that I should pull this out and if I only stitch on it once a week for 15 minutes, that was better than not stitching at all.

Here you see 3 of 12 Peace and Plenty is finally done. I received #7 this past week. I will continue plugging away on this one at least once a week for an hour or so.

START: January Sampler of the Month by Country Cottage Needleworks

Sampler of the Month is stitched on 16 ct beige aida with called for Classic Colorworks thread

This is a new monthly club with Fat Quarter Shop that shipped late. I received both January and February this past month. I love this beautiful teal house. I am not sure how long this will take so I don’t know whether I will skip months or not yet. I am really enjoying working on this. The house was fun and last night I worked on the snowflakes which was just as fun.

START: Santa Baby Stitch Quarterly by Fat Quarter Shop

Santa Baby is stitched on 14ct minty green opalescent aida cloth with DMC thread.

I have discovered that the Quarterly stitches with Fat Quarter Shop are a lot of stitches with a few colors. While that makes it “easy” to stitch, it also makes it boring. This one is no exception. Last night, I found an error in my rows so I decided to outline his right side. Currently I have only used Red 817 and White Blanc.

START: Pineneedles.com Advent Stitchalong

This free stitchalong is being stitched on 28ct mushroom evenweave with DMC threads from my stash. Half are called for and half are subsituted with something close.

As is typical with me, I did not keep up with this every day when it was happening. It took me a long time to pull together everything for this stitchalong.

First three days of the stitch-a-long.

I did save each day’s chart so I could continue plugging away at this one every week.

RESTART: Shabby Winter Calendar by Cuore E Batticuore

Original start on 32 ct Whimsey Belfast linen

I was so excited when my fabric arrived for this start. I worked on it the first day and discovered I was having some serious challenges with working with 32 ct belfast linen. It sucked the excitement right out of this project.

A week later, I decided that I should order 16 ct Whimsey aida to work on instead. I placed that order and am awaiting its arrival before picking up this piece again. I’m told it is shipping January 15th.

I will need to either do a smaller project on the Belfast linen or get better lighting/magnifying to work with this particular fabric. I was very challenged with this high count linen.

STARTING SOON: Cottage of the Month – January by Country Cottage Needleworks

I’m anxiously waiting for my thread order for this project. I also order thread for February so I wouldn’t have to wait again. These houses are actually pretty fast so I don’t really have a problem doing them in order. This is in that same shipment on January 15th.

Wrap Up

I still haven’t done any final finishes with my cross stitches mostly because I have’t really thought about it and most of my finishes are seasonal and those seasons have passed. You kind of lose the urgency to “finsh” when you won’t even see it until next year.

I have added to my sewing project list to make my American Spirit project into a pillow for my couch but I got until July right? Maybe I should take all those stitch finishes and make a list of final finishes so I can priortize and make the decision of WHAT they will be. Thanks for suggesting that! LOL!

The Snap Shot Club which was supposed to ship in December still has not arrived which is another monthly stitch. I am waiting…… I haven’t added to the Soon to Start because who knows when it will actually ship.

Caitlin’s finish – Christmas Advent. Each day finished approx 2×3. She found mini bags at Michael’s and Christmas themed clothes pins at Target. She hung them on a string of lights with chocolates each day.

Well that wraps up this month’s cross stitch diary. Hope you are enjoying my new craft (old). I have enjoyed getting back into this as my daughter is also cross stitching and it gives us something to chat about. Here is her latest finish.

Stay Safe!

Peggy