CROSS STITCH DIARY: April 2021

I’ve been focused the past two weeks on finishing up my February themed projects so I could try and get caught up on my Monthly series. I realized today that I just have too many monthly series so it is making it hard to work on my non-monthly projects.

Good news is I have finished 2 of the 3 February Monthly projects and almost done with the third. I also finished one of two March projects as well. I did start all five new starts that I showed you guys. I expect to start in the next two weeks 4 new projects (all monthly series) and to put away two more winter projects until Fall.

Let’s take a look at the finished, the new starts in progress, ongoing projects, possible new starts, and those I am putting away.

FINISH: February Truckin Along by Stitching with the Housewives

I was totally jazzed to finish this project last night. While these projects are never hard, they are time consuming. This was a fun stitch out.

FINISH: February Snapshot by Pine Mountain Designs

The snapshots go fairly quickly, but so far, I have made a mistake with both projects that I have finished. For some reason counting seems to be an issue (LOL!). I fixed one of the several mistakes I made, but the others I improvised because I did not notice unitl I was pretty far along. Looking at the above picture, I don’t even remember where I messed up. (Yea!). Because this series has so many skeins of thread each month, it is always slow to ship. April arrived last week.

FINISH: March Sampler of the Month by Country Cottage Needleworks

This was a fun stitch. I love how the colors of the rainbow are also the color of the flowers in the borders.

February Cottage of the Month by Country Cottage Needleworks

I thought I did so good when I started this one. I am working on big piece of Linen with the idea of being able to stitch 4 cottages on this piece. When I stitched January, everything went according to plan. Not so much the case with February. I only have an inch extra cloth on the bottom, but not to worry, I now have a back up plan if need be.

I should be able to finish this last February project probably next week. I just need to put in the “trees” in the planters, the words, and the final border.

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

This is what I stitched at the end of March. Once I decided I wanted to finish up my February projects, this little guy got shoved aside while I focused on the three February. Being down to one February and one March project as current projects, this little guy will rise to the top of the list and will get a bit more attention. I just love the daffodils!

Prim Stitch Series by Lori Holt

It’s been a few weeks since I stitched on this one. It is an easy project to stitch just not capturing my attention the way some of the others do. It was one of the first projects I purchased when I wanted to get back into cross stitching May 2020.

Modern Folk Embrodiery SAL 2021

I really wish I had more time to dedicate to this project. It is my first real sampler and I am enjoying the challenge of figuring out where to go next with this two color sampler. If I take one on the go this summer, this will probably be the “one”. I kinda of wish I had done teal and black, but I can’t really regret the colors I chose for this sampler. I certainly should have thought about picking DMC. It certainly would have been cheaper. I really do like the varigation that Weeks Dye Works thread brings to a piece.

Serendipity SAL by Fat Quarter Shop

This week I was able to finish the March15th release. I had to put it down because I forgot to download the April 1st release. I did that last night so I can start the second row. Today the third row will have been released so I will need to download that one as well.

This is one of the more enjoyable patterns released by Fat Quarter Shop. Many of their projects are intense and not easily finished for the average stitcher. That is not the case with this project.

START (SOON): April Snapshot by Pine Mountain Designs

I have been stalling starting my next Snapshop project as I really wanted to skip March since we are already in April. I was relieved when this arrived last week. Earlier this week I prepped this project so I could start it in the next seven days.

START (SOON): April Sampler of the Month by Country Cottage Needleworks

I could have started this one already. Everything is ready to go. I just have been trying to finish more few February projects. Now that I have, this one will get underway in the next seven days.

START (SOON): May Truckin Along by Stitching with the Housewives

With finally finishing February Truckin Along last night, I decided I would skip ahead to May for the next one in this series. I have to laugh because I am all over the place. So far I have finished August, October, December, and February. This one will be started in the next 14 days.

START (SOON): May Cottage of the Month by Country Cottage Needleworks

I won’t start this one until after I finish stitching February so that means in the next 14 days. I have already finished November, December, and January. I thought I could keep going in order, but just too many monthly stitches so I am skipping March and April to start this one.

PUT AWAY: Shabby Winter Calendar by Cuore E Batticuore

I absolutely love this stitchy project and it makes me sad to have to set it aside for a few months. It took me so long to get everything together to start this project that Winter was basically over already. At least I got to start it. I look forward to working on this again.

PUT AWAY: Snow Village by Country Cottage Needleworks

Another project that I just love to work on and I am sad to have to set this one aside for awhile as well. With summer around the corner, it only makes sense to work on a few other projects on my back burner. I can’t wait to work on this again soon.

Wrap Up

Next month it will mark one year since I picked up tapestry needle and aida cloth to continue a cross stitch journey that started in high school but pretty much ended with my first child.

I still have to do a final finish. I have Singing in the Rain sitting in the wings wanting to be the first.

I feel like I should pull out and finish the project that started it all – Dimensions Butterfly Dreams. I was stitching in hand with this one. I am very close to finishing this and it is a spring/summer project. So you may see this one again.

There is also the new arrival from the Quarterly Stitch Club – Fresh Cut. Even though I am feeling overwhelmed, I may just start it to say I started it. The colors for this project would go well with Singing in the Rain.

I hope you have found something to inspire you to pick up needle and thread. Thank you for stopping by.

Peggy