Floss Friday #42

Just a quick update on what I have been working on this week. I was able to finish all my planned starts for May and even got one planned finish done. Let’s take a look.

Starts & Finishes

This is the last of my planned starts and the second of my planned finishes for May. This are on track.

START: May Year of Celebration by Hands on Design

This series is being stitched on 16 count dirty aida with the called for floss – DMC, Weeks Dye Works, and Classic Colorworks. WDW Bittersweet has been unavailable for months so I subsituted CCW Tangerine. The butterflies turned out so cute! I got a done on the night I started this because I just couldn’t put it down!

START: June Truckin Along by Stitching with the Housewives

This is being stitched on 14 count chalkboard black aida with the called for Classic Colorworks floss. I wasn’t sure if the green was really going to showup. While I was working with it, it just felt like there was no contrast. But in the picture everything looks fine. Sometimes the borders for this series has just not flowed very well. I was happy to find that this one was fairly easy to stitch and color changes were pretty minimal. I really like the strawberries and their blossoms.

START: October Cottage of the Month by Country Cottage Needleworks

This is being stitched on 28 ct lambswool linen using the called for flosses – DMC, Weeks Dye Works, and Classic Colorworks.

This was my last piece of linen so I had to undo April Cottage that was on it from my mess up back in March. You may remember. If not, don’t worry about it. I purchased some more thread so I could just use a seam ripper (carefully) instead of unstitching. That took half the night. I was super happy to finally get this final month started. It is the last one I need to do in the 12 month series of Cottage of the Month. Normally, I would wait until fall, but I am anxious to just finish the series so I can do the final finish for all of them.

Currently I am not thrilled about the cottage color. I am using called for but it doesn’t seem like very much contrast. I’ve decided to keep plugging away to see if the details bring out the house. I looked at the pattern picture and it looks fine. So I am not sure…. I will wait and see.

FINISH: May Hello There by Hands on Design

This was stitched on 16 ct white aida with the called for DMC floss. I can’t wait to finish this series! I have all the buttons for the finishing. They really make this series special. 5 down and 7 to go!

WIP Updates

I am following my plan for the month which encompasses my random WIPGO projects. As you know I finished 1 of the two last week. (Yea! For an easy one). A couple of nights ago, I realized I didn’t put on my May calendar my starts from April so I did rearrange the plan to include those. I also realized that two of the below projects could probably be finished if I worked on them one more time this month (which wasn’t in the original plan) so I accomodated that possiblity. Here is this week’s progress:

Fruit of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery

I started this project in 2021. It was the first time I ever worked on a real sampler as well as a multi page pattern (there are 12 – one for each month of the year). Because it is a sampler, it is customizable. Soon I will have to make those decisions. I have decided I would stick with the year that I actually started this. I have no idea what people ususally do. this one has you pick your own “house” for the middle icon.

Interesting enough, I finally have got a rhythm for all the scrolls and lines. What takes me so long is when it is reverse. You fill in the background and the design is what you DIDN’T fill in. It gets pretty intense and seems to be where I make the most mistakes.

Can you imagine how thrilled I was to move onto page 5 (May) after being on page 4 (April) for like four months? Overall, I am just enjoying the process. 2023 I have made an effort to work on it at least three times each month. Last year, I tried working on it every day for 15 minutes. Didn’t work. Year before I tried working on it every Sunday. That didn’t work. But this three times each month seems to be working for me. Love the progress this week!

Butterfly Dreams by Dimensions

Once I finished all the X’s with this one, it has been slow going. Did you know that this was my first project when I jumped back into cross stitching in May 2020? Yep it was. I have been 90% finished for like two years. What is left is all the backstitching. Man, this one is a lot of backstitching and most of it seems random to me. I finally finished the last butterfly backstitching this week and moved onto backstitching the flowers and stems. Way , way , way easier. I almost finished the whole right side!

Now I am hopeful that I could finish this one with just one more sitting! This one is not a planned finish, but I am super hopeful to finally knock this one off the WIP list.

August Snapshot by Pine Mountain Designs

I have no idea why this one has been taking me a long time other than I probably have only worked on it once a month since I started it in 2022. This series is not a hard series. I just think over time, I have gotten distracted (Squirrel!) with other projects.

Now I am thinking I am close to finishing this one! Once again, it wasn’t a planned finish for May, but wow! When you are this close, why not? My goal this month was to finish the picture with August and the ice cream. Done ✅. This week I finished that and moved over to the beach snapshot. It just flowed. (Seems to have been a flowy week. Maybe that happens when you get your mojo back).

Now I am looking at my May calendar to work another night on this one to hopefully wrap it up!

WIPGO PROJECT: Autumn Beauties by FQS It’s Sew Emma

This one I thought I might be able to finish it during May. Now that I have been working on it, I think I am going to stick to my original goal of spending 5 nights/sessions working on this one this month.

This is a four page pattern. I just finished page one last night and started page two. Made some great progress, but I am not seeing this going as fast as I had hoped. I made some great inroads on the interior of the project. I plan to finish the sunflowers and raven before switching to the border. I have myself working on this one on Thursday nights during the month because that is usually the night I am home and have the most stitching time. It will be fun to do a before and after photo at the end of this month.

Upcoming Plans & Thoughts

I am really close to finishing several more projects but I thought I would focus on just one this week as well as my WIPGO project – Autumn Beauties. My plan for the upcoming week is to:

1. Work on Just My Type – finish the bird
2. Complete the outline for April Temperature Butterfly
3. Put some time in on Prim Stitch Series #10 – currently working on border
4. Finish May Year of Celebration
5. Work some more on Fruit of Plenty (goal is 3 times this month. I got two to go)
6. Finish the boxes on Mr. July – A Calendar Gnome
7. Finish another house in the Big Hearted Tiny Town
8. Another session working on Autumn Beauties – finish Raven, sunflowers, and work on border (This would by 3 out of 5 sessions. WIPGO goal is 5)
9. Put away floss for finished projects and start looking at June starts so can order needed floss.

This week got some happy mail from Fat Quarter Shop. I received Stitching with the Housewives Quarterly Season for Summer, July Month 2 Month by Stitching with the Housewives, 4th of July Let’s Go Ride a Bike by Stitching with the Housewives, as well as, May Stackables by It’s Sew Emma. Got to get them all scanned into my iPad as well as logged into my spreadsheet so I know what I have.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!!!

Peggy Stockwell