Floss Friday #39

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Last Friday I had my Quilting Zoom Call with my friends. I shared on Tuesday what I worked on. All of a sudden I found myself with no time to blog. So last Friday’s blog was a wee bit late getting posted.

Starts & Finishes

I was very focused this past week wrapping up a few projects including my my WIPGO projects. I got in all my March starts earlier in the month. I had considered starting a few things this week, but decided to focus on finishing instead. The result was FOUR finishes. I am so excited because that will be an all time high of 8 finishes in a month!

WIPGO Projects:

FINISH: May Calendar Crates by Stitching With the Housewives

For March, one of my projects was Calendar Crates. By default that meant it was the one that was a current WIP. When I started this project this month, I was only halfway done so I was super excited to have finished this one. As happens with everyone, I had a rough patch where I discovered stitching errors. So I could work around, others required hours of unstitching. Can you imagine my delight in finally finishing this one!

This was stitched on 14 count chalkboard black aida with the called for Classic Colorwork floss.

FINISH: Year of Celebration – March by Hands on Design

One of my choices this week when I decided to focus on finishes was to finish not only February but March for my WIPGO Year of Celebration project. I felt that February ended up being done quickly and it felt like a real win. Now I feel like it is truly a win.

March gave me some problems. The word luck was stitched three times and unstitched twice before I got it right. Once I FINALLY got that right everything else just flowed nicely to a good finish.

Both projects were stitched on 16 count dirty aida with the called for fancy floss including Classic Colorworks, Gental Arts, and Weeks Dye Works.

Non WIPGO Projects:

Once I finished my WIPGO projects, I took a list of what else I could possibly finish this month. Here are the results:

FINISH: Hello There March by Hands on Design

The Hello There projects are fairly small and I got pretty far in my start this month so it seemed feasible that I could finish in one night what was left to do. I was so happy that my optimism wasn’t misplaced.

This project is stitched on 16 count white aida with the called for DMC thread.

FINISH: January Stackables by It’s Sew Emma (FQS)

On the 25th this past week, the new WIPGO numbers were pulled and my Stackables series was one of them. I knew I was close to being done with just a few items left. I was thinking to myself, it sure would be nice to start April with a new Stackables. Can you imagine my shock when I actually finished this cute chart in one last sitting even though I had 2 items left to stitch – the big snowflake and the bucket?

This was stitched on 14 count Fabric Flair Marbled White Pine Board with the called for Classic Colorworks floss.

WIP Updates

With my focus mainly on finishes, I still wanted to make sure I touched every active WIP I had on my list for March. When the week started I still had two to go – Just My Type and Sail Away. I had modest goals but neither were reached.

Just My Type by It’s Sew Emma (FQS)

This project was released in 2021 but I started it last spring (2022). There is a lot of full coverage for this so I am not sure if I will finish this spring, but I wanted to make sure I spent some time stitching on it anyway. All of the supplies are from my stash and I am still super pleased with how it is turning out.

Sail Away by It’s Sew Emma (FQS)

This is another one whose chart was released in 2021 and I started stitching in Spring 2022. Once again everything for this project was from my stash. I decided to use DMC instead of fancy floss because of how strong the color is on my fabric – Sea Spray. This one will be out for a while. You could call this spring or summer but no matter how you look at it, I hope to whittle away each month or until it gets pulled in WIPGO.

2023 San Jose Temperature Butterflies by Stitchin Mommy

I get so distracted and forget to work on this yearlong project. I am loving the simplicity and just plain fun of working on this one. Once I get the butterfly outline done, it goes quick. So last night I stitched the right wing outline and started filling it in. I am thinking I will be able to finish February butterfly tonight and maybe even start on the March outline. I have definitely got a system going and it is working for me.

Tomorrow I will pull the temperatures for March and plug into my excel database which will spit out my DMC colors that I will then match up to the butterfly chart. Even stitching has developed a flow. I originally started with a random color, then had the brilliant idea of starting with the coldest color and working my way through each color. It really brings home what the month was like. Purple is my coldest color and when I picked it, I didn’t think we would see much of it here in San Jose. 2023 is on the books as one of the coldest and wettest years. I think I heard top 10 since recorded history. Maybe it was top 5.

Upcoming Plans & Thoughts

March started with 24 WIPs and I had six starts and eight finishes. I am going into April with 22 WIPs of which I am actively working on 14 of those. Right now I have 4 planned starts. Three of those are small projects that I should be able to finish same month.

WIPGO Projects:

April WIPGO projects are Stackables (March) and Truckin Along (March). Not sure how well I will do finishing them both during the month but I will definitely spend 5 days on each one. If it doesn’t finish them, it sure will make a dent on them.

Plans for Week Ending April 6th

I will be headed to Seattle Next Friday. Not sure if I will have time to post on Friday, but hopefully I will have some time Saturday to get it up. If not, we will see you back here in two weeks.

Meanwhile I plan to work on the following:

• Start March Stackables (and will take to Seattle with me)
• Start Hello April
• Start April Celebrations
• Start April 9 Patch
• Work on March Truckin Along
• Work on Fruit of Plenty
• Most likely will take Snowman Collector – The Needleworker with me to Seattle as well.

I’ve just now started sketching out my goals and plans for cross stitch for April. So next week is focusing on the known goals. Today I will spend some time making sure I have all my supplies needed for the new starts.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out my projects. I hope everyone has a great weekend. I plan on enjoying a few days of sunshine before the next storm.

Peggy Stockwell