Hello My Stitchy Friends. Welcome to this week’s update on my cross stitch projects. I appreciate you stopping by. While I did not stick to my plan, I had a good week. Let’s dive in.
Starts & Finishes
No new finishes but I do have one start. I was definitely feeling festive.
START: Santa 2011 by Prairie Schooler
I was really feeling the christmas vibe and wanted to work on something about Christmas. I had forgot that I had pulled out my Prairie Schooler Santa bag. Earlier this year I finished the 2009 (hockey) & 2010 (skiing) Santas. This snowshoe Santa will be so cute when finished.
I am stitching on 18 ct putty Khaki davos fabric. It is an interesting fabric to stitch on for sure. Very lose weave. Working with the called for DMC threads.
WIP Updates
Just going to be upfront that I got side tracked this week. I did work on mostly things I planned but totally got fixated on Shabby Winter Calendar and wanting to finish November’s goal. I only worked on one non-Christmas project even though I was supposed to do more. I went with what made me happy. Christmas is making me happy.
Dec WIPGO Project: Santa’s House by Cottage Garden Samplings
This one may be this week’s fixation because I only have like a 1000 stitches left until this is done. It was a great feeling stitching the lamp, sled and deer. So much fun! I think I am down to just white, gray, and red to stitch. Need to finish the border and fill in all the snow stuff.
Nov WIPGO Project: Shabby Winter Calendar by Cuore e Batticuore
To finish up my WIPGO Nov goal I needed to finish Day 18 this month. Stitching a moose with a sweater was outright fun! There are only two days left to stitch and then the top and bottom “borders” to finish. This was a 2020 start. Love the colors.
Stitching Quaker by Prim Rose Cottage
I almost didn’t work on this one this week. As I mentioned I was feeling extremely festive. I pulled out the bag and started at it. The word Stitch was half done and I just couldn’t resist after that. LOL! So before you know it, I was also working on the heart in a hoop. Believe it or not, doing all that was 400 stitches. I am working with Colour & Cotton threads. I worked with them once a long time ago and it was an okay experience. The colors choosen by Primrose Cottage really have me hooked. I like them a lot.
Christmas Calendar by Tiny Modernist
This project should have been a fun project from 2020. It lost a lot of its fun when I had to restart it in 2021 when I realized I cut my fabric too small. I was halfway done at the time. So sometimes I stitch across and sometimes I stitch down just to do something new. I am currently working on Day 9 and I want to do Day 10 at least this month. 9 is almost done. I finished one mitten and most of the other one. As you can see, I started a little bit on Day 10 already.
This is stitched on linen with called for DMC.
Penguin Advent SAL 2025 with Climbing Goat Designs
Sadly, I am days and days behind on this one. I did finish restitching Day 1. I have no idea what days I have stitched at this point. I am now stitching by areas. This is the center of the piece. Love it. I peaked at today’s release and it is a baby seal. It is going to be adorable. At least it is a winter theme so it will be easy to keep going.
This is being stitched on Fabric Flair 16 ct snow on aqua. The photo doesn’t do it justice.
Plans & Reflections
LOL! This is definitely my motto. While the photo isn’t Christmas themed it is me! Slow 🐢
This past week did not go as planned. As an accountant, I feel that a plan is the roadmap and I am certainly allowed to make detours on a daily basis. I have found that I am not stitching as many hours in the evening. I have been doing more quilting, crafting, exercising, cooking (of all things), and of course, reading which has left less time to stitch. My plans have been bigger than my time. Thinking on how to deal with that – probably need to have less projects each month. We shall see how my ADHD feels about that. Maybe this is where my 2026 word of the year “PLAY” will actually payoff with less guilt with playing around with things that look fun and interesting.
Upcoming Week’s Roadmap (plan)
I moved a few things from last week to this coming week because they still need to get done. I wanted to make sure I included my WIPGOs that I need to work on as well.
- Santa’s House (Dec WIPGO)
- Spring Baskets #2 (Dec WIPGO)
- Winter Camper (May WIPGO)
- Penguin Advent SAL
- Crescent City Velaris
- Christmas Calendar finsh Day 9 & start Day 10
- Start Pop of Christmas (I have it on my calendar for Christmas Day)
- Kit Giver ornament
- Kit Pointsetta ornament
- Pull together finishing supplies to finish Prairie Schooler Santas 2009 & 2010 (wouldn’t that be cool)
2026 WIPGO board
I have started working on my list of 25 projects to go on the WIPGO bingo board. Overall it works well for my cross stitch world. I tried it once for quilting. Didn’t work so well for me. Not sure why other than if I don’t feel like doing something in quilting, I don’t. It seems easier to commit to the cross stitch. Hmmm.
Thinking back on it maybe I set the goal at the time I did the project back then. Nowadays, once I know the the projects for the month, I set the goal. I have some generic goals I use such as work on 5 times in a month or 2000 stitches, but I really tailor the goal to what also is going on in the month.
I played around with the idea once of setting a quilting bingo board with activities, not projects. At that time, I was doing a bingo board each month and trying to get bingo each month (meaning finishing 5 in a row). Maybe, I should dump that on it’s head and make a 2026 quilting bingo board with activities…. Bind one item, cut a project, english paper piecing, etc. This is growing on me. Thoughts?
Anyway, my cross stitch list is almost done for next year. I am kind of waiting to see if I finish a few things this month before finalizing my Cross Stitch WIPGO board. Last year I didn’t have 25 WIPs so some of my items were starts. Only reason I got behind this year was because of the move. Total derailment for months on end. Still coming out of that one.
I think that you have had enough of my rambling thoughts. 💬. I wish you a safe and fun weekend. Here in Vancouver we are getting a small break before the next atmospheric river arrives. They say it will come with snow.
Happy Stitching 🪡🧵
Peggy Stockwell in Vancouver, Washington