Welcome back to Floss Friday where I share my cross stitch projects. It has been another busy week with life happening left and right. I ended up missing getting any quilting done (until today) as well as missing my To Do Tuesday blog. #sigh. I had nothing to share. Days went fast and before I knew it, it was evening. Still needed to cook and eat dinner, so even my stitching time was abbreviated. I did work on projects.
Let’s start with a WIPGO update.
Results of April WIPGO
April was a WIPGO heavy month but short on time to complete those goals.
April Project 6: Crescent City Velaris by Woven Wild Crafts
The WIPGO goal was 2000 stitches. I stitched 184 and one night. Absolute fail! I would not have even finished my normal 400 monthly stitches. So this will stay on my radar. For May, I will need to do 1816 for WIPGO plus 400 for May so 2216.
April Project 13: Spring Baskets by Hands on Design
The WIPGO goal was to finish this project! Whoohoo! I did it despite my discovery of mistakes and a lot of unstitching this month. I love the colors. I am not sure what the flowers are supposed to be, but they sure give signs of daffodils not that I have ever heard of purple daffodils. But wouldn’t that look great!
I finished the Summer Baskets stitches just like on the cover and that is the plan with this group as well! Already made the pillow forms, so just need to assemble the pillow covers. I know I wrote myself detailed instructions when I did the summer ones.
April Project 14: Fruit of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery
The WIPGO goal was once again 2000 stitches. I only stitched 643 stitches in three nights. Definitely can tell not focused on cross stitching. LOL! So this is another one that will be staying on the radar for next month. May goal will be WIPGO 1357 plus 400 for May for a total of 1757.
March Project 4: Snowman Collector: The Postman by Cottage Garden Samplings
It was nice to finish up this WIPGO project from March. The goal was to finish. It will be time to start the next in the Snowman Collector series for May. This for sure felt awesome to finish.
MAY WIPGO
May Project 15: Spring Stitching Season by Stitching with the Housewives
Super happy to see this one pop up for May. I only need 904 stitches to finish this one up. Great excuse to push through and finish in May don’t you think?
May Project 18: Fieldguide to Dragons by Climbing Goats Design
Another one happy to see on my list for this month. While I would love that I only have 2000 stitches, the fact is there is 13000+ stitches left. As you can guess, my goal will be 2000 stitches done. With all the leftovers from last month, this is probably a bit optomistic but I am going for it anyway.
Starts & Finishes
I did have a number of starts and finishes this week. I had one start and three finishes. I almost had a second start, but I forgot to load the chart so spent last night loading the chart and had to manually added everything. That happens frequently when I have to scan versus having a digital file.
FINISH: HOD Merry Moments Ornament Club: Sweets for Santa by Hands on Design
Finished my first of five ornaments. This chart dropped in February so I am not to far behind. I have even started watching the finishing videos that Cathy has done. She is such a fabulous teacher. I am excited that she is coming to teach here in Portland. I got to do an in person class with her in Modesto, California like three years ago. Amazing teacher. Santa looks so adorable. Can’t wait to start the second one dropped in March.
START & FINISH: September Square Dance by Heart in Hand
Here a chicken, there a chicken, here there everywhere chickens! One night I for some reason thought Spanish Moss was green and pulled Seaweed to make a very interesting green chicken (see top row middle photo). The next night I realized, it was supposed to be a gray chicken. Another night of unstitching before finishing up this cutie.
I started this series in 2025 and was majorly derailed with the move. I am on track this year so I am going to take a few months off to catch up on some of my bigger WIPGO projects and will be picking this one back up in the fall. Love this and am beyond happy to have decided to stitch it 3 x 4. 😍
FINISH: Triple Play Pillows Series: Spring Baskets by Hands on Design
This was the last of this fun series by Cathy at Hands on Design. See WIPGO above for more photos and details.
WIP Updates
With all the finishes and starts, that did not leave much in WIPs. I squeezed in a little stitching on each project just to have forward progress in April.
I started the month with 36 WIPs April 1st. Ended the month with 33 – Four finishes and one start. Most of that was last week.
2025 San Jose Temperature Moon Phases by Climbing Goat Designs
Here is my only thing I did on this project this month. I stitched last night September 1st. Before I could start, I had to decipher and record all of September so I even know what color to stitch. I got it done and the first one on fabric! This is another one I am considering setting aside for a month just to get caught up on my 2026 project. I will muddle through May. We will take a look at it again at the end of the month.
2026 Vancouver Temperature Solar System by Climbing Goat Designs
The sun will probably be the easiest part of this whole stitch. I was just going to do one day and then realized that with the sun, I could do all of one color so I did DMC blue 312 and filled in a few more of the white highlights. I had forgotten that I had picked a 20ct black lugana for this project and luckily I purchased some 28 tapestry needles. So much easier to stitch when you have the right size needle. I had also forgotten that I am doing only one strand. I think if I actually worked a full night, I could finish up January (The Sun).
Instead of doing highs and lows of each day like I am doing with the moons, I choose to only do the highs. I just like how it looked. I felt the one with mins & maxs was too….busy. I choose 20 ct lugana because I want it to fit in an 8 inch hoop (I think). Size was the reason. I know if I used a larger ct, the hoops were harder to find. It is May now and I am very behind. That is one of the reasons I am seriously considering putting 2025 on hold until this one is current. While it is not bad doing them both at the same time, it is distracting. I am using the same floss temperature colors for both
Plans & Reflections
I did join Chantelle at 141 Design for her stitching zoom. I will be seeing her in person for her cross stitch retreat May 14th – May 17th. I have never been to a cross stitch retreat which sounds like it is a lot like the quilt retreat. I will need to bring my own projects.
I did attend the one workshop with Cathy from Hands on Design. For those you have to finish the stitching before you get there, because the class is all about finishing those stitches. Great learning opportunities.
May Plans
I haven’t solidfied all my May plans yet. Right now I am looking at starting the Make Today Count SAL project. The SAL started in April and I missed the start. Yesterday found me scanning the chart and then loading it into my app Markup R-XP. Since it was a scanned file, there was a lot of manual work to do. Turns out there are two complete charts in that one. I am planning on doing the larger chart. Don’t know if I will go back and do the smaller one.
While recapping what I finished this month, I realized that I haven’t pulled together the thread for the next chart in the Snowman Collection – The Scarecrow. I need to start it this month.
What am I thinking? I have 3 starts for May:
- Make Today Count (SAL) by Hands on Design
- The Scarecrow by Cottage Garden Samplings
- Light the Way (2nd in the Merry Moments Series)
I am hoping to have 2 finishes in May (both WIPGO projects):
- Shabby Winter Calendar
- Spring Stitching Season
I am currently planning on working on 11 different WIPs plus the 3 new starts. Busy month but plenty to choose from for the retreat.
Looking Ahead to Next Week
- Kit up The Scarecrow and determine if I am missing any threads
- Would love to final finish Sweets for Santa this weekend 🤞🏼
- Start Make Today Count
- Start Light the Way
- Shabby Winter Calendar maybe even finishing it
- Spring Stitching Season maybe even finishing it
- Mr. April
- March Month 2 Month Barn
That is plenty for this week. I am thinking I should plan on taking to the retreat some of my WIPGO projects. I dwell on it this next week since I have almost two weeks before I leave.
That’s a wrap for today. I should have some time to stitch this weekend since we are having a heat wave and I am totally not ready for that. I think I will just stay inside and enjoy A/C.
Happy Stitching,
Peggy Stockwell in Vancouver, Washington