Can you believe this is our last Friday of 2025?! It has been a year of new beginnings for myself and I am loving all of it. How about you? I hit all of my major goals, but missed a lot of little goals. Overall a great year!
December goals were a wee bit ambitious and then I went and took off for a week. 🤪. Total derailment but it sure has been fun trying to hit them anyway. The past week went pretty good overall. You want to see?
Starts & Finishes
I had one start and two fiishes this week. Feeling very pleased about that.
DEC WIPGO FINISH: Fabulous House #1: Santa’s House by Cottage Garden Samplings
Finished the first in the Fabulous House series. It looks good. I really enjoyed stitching this one. I finished #3 in the series earlier in the year. I am thinking for 2026, that I will stitch on each house during the month it is “for”. For January that will be Castle. I have already started kitting it up. So excited to work on them each month.
DEC WIPGO FINISH: Spring Basket #2 from the Triple Play Pillow Series by Hands on Design
This one finished up very nicely. I have one more to do and the whole series will be completed. I hope to be more proactive with final finishes this year. Love the colors. This was stitched on 16 ct Fiber on a Whim Steel I believe. My database says dubloon, but I know that is wrong because that is a tan color. Used all DMC called for floss. Gorgeous!
START: Pop of Christmas by Bent Creek
I saved this one for Christmas Day. This normally would only take me two days to completely stitch. I barely got in 150 stitches and I had to import into Markup R-XP and do the setup. Setup went quickly. I use a size 24 needle for the pearl of cotton thread. I look forward to finishing.
WIP Updates
Christmas Calendar by Tiny Modernist
This week I finished up Day 9 and 10. They look great. For a closeup of the Day 10 finished look at cover picture. I am stitching on 28 ct linen with called for DMC.
MAY WIPGO: Winter Camper by Bobbie G Design
This WIPGO is still hanging on out there. I have left one more night of this to stitch. I was looking at it and it is actually really close to be done. 2026 will be the year right? One of my first projects in 2020 when I was getting back into cross stitching. I messed up early on and have been compensating every since which doesn’t make it a fun stitch. I am determined to finish it anyway. Very close now.
2025 Advent Penguin Stitch A Long by Climbing Goat Designs
The last part dropped on December 24th morning, so I found myself reloading the chart on last time. I finished the center. I made a mistake but I couldn’t even tell you where it is now. Currently working on the Penguins building a snowman. ⛄️
The designer said that next year’s would be Polar Bears. Sounds like fun.
January 2026 WIPGO
Whew! I got my list together in just a nick of time. The numbers dropped on Christmas Day.
Project 2: Shabby Winter Calendar by Cuore e Batticuore
I am excited to get to work on this in January. My goal will be to finish this project.
There are only two days and the winter solistice footer to finish. Sounds doable right? I am excited for this pull!
Project 7: 2025 SJ Temperature Moon Phases by Climbing Goat Designs
I still have this on my list to get some time on it for December, but this is where I am today with this project. So far behind on this one. I have never been so behind on a temperature stitch before. The last time I made great progress was when it was selected for WIPGO before.
The goal is to finish July and August. To do that, I need to do 2 moons a day for the whole month of January. Good luck to me.
Plans and Reflections
Plans for this last week of 2025
There sure is a lot of things left on my list to do for my December goals:
- Crescent City Velarius (400 stitches)
- Fruit of Plenty (400 stitches)
- 2025 SJ Moon Phases (LOL goal is July – good luck on that!)
- Fieldguide to Dragons (400 stitches)
- The Postman (400 stitches)
- Finish Pop of Christmas
- Start & Finish June Square Dance
- Start December Stackables
- Start Dec Calendar Crates
- Start Dec Month 2 Month
- Start Spring Basket #3
- Start Giver Ornament
- Start Pointsetta Ornament
I have mulling how I might still do this. Only way I can think of is to start one new project every day this coming week before starting one of my bigger projects
Next Year
As is my norm, I have big plans for 2026. I already got my 2026 WIPGO bingo board setup. I would also like to have some final finishes for my cross stitch. Since 2020, I have finished literally hunderds of projects. Only a few have been final finished. I need to make a list of them and the finish I hope to do for them. Hopefully next week I will have an update for you.
Some of the series I have been working on are driving me crazy. The first couple of years, I would work on a “month” until finished and then start which ever one coordinated with the start month. After a couple of years, I truly lost track of what needed to be done. So last year, I switched to working on them in order. This has been easier to track what is and isn’t done but I find myself working on projects not related to the time of year. I noticed my motivation was very low on these projects.
My Snowman Collector is one large project, so I really should continue to work on it in order, but I could theoritically finish the borders and then work on each month in its designated box. Knowing my penchant for mistakes, this would more likely than not backfire on me. I am leaning on continuing the way I am already working.
On the other hand, the Fabulous House series, Calendar Crates, Month 2 Month, Stackables, and Calendar Gnomes could all be current month projects. Some months would be lighter than others because I have finished a number of the series. I think overall, I would be more motivated.
Other News
This holiday season found me checking out learning the hows and whys of Zentangle (and hopefully Mandalas). I am enjoying working on this mediative doodling. It is meant to be a self care exercise. Being present and letting go.
I also couldn’t resist sharing these photos of my grand fur babies modelling their santa hats made by their daddy. Ho! Ho! Ho!
That wraps up this week’s updates, projects, and news. Have a great weekend!
Peggy Stockwel in Vancouver, Washington