Floss Friday #55

Welcome to another edition of Floss Friday where I share what I have been cross stitching on during the week. Thank you for stopping by and I hope you can share any thoughts you have!

A little shout-out to Simba who wrote Tuesday’s post. Thanks Bud! I really needed the break.

Starts & Finishes

All my August starts are done so now I am working on my planned finishes for August. Pleased to have one this week. I have 3 more which I hope to finish (June Truckin Along, Tea Thyme, and August Celebration).

FINISH: Hello August by Hands on Design

What makes this series fun is the buttons that will go on when it is time to do the finishing. I am facinated by Cathy’s (the designer) DMC color choices each month. I am thrilled to check one more month off int his series. We are down to 4 more!

WIP Updates

Things are on schedule for my WIPGO projects. For my two big projects (Snowman Collector & Fruit of Plenty) have been trying to spend at least three evenings a month on each of them. My goal with my other active 13 WIPS is to work on them at least once during the month. With the five starts, that makes a total of 18 projects to work on this month.

Sail Away by It’s Sew Emma (FQS)

I spent an enormous amount of time on my stitching day pawing through all my flosses because I did not like the grays I had picked. With working on the lighthouse I discovered that my light gray (DMC762) thread looked like the white so I had no contrast. All the other grays on hand blended with my medium gray (DMC 168) I had used which is the gray in the border and pennant banner. So… I ended up going to the store and buying DMC 02 & 03 to use with DMC 04 on the lighthouse and seagull. Both these items use a lot of gray. I will finish the border with DMC 168. I am now satisfied with my color choices and hope things go a little faster next time.

This entire project was pulled from my stash and did not use any called for fabric or floss except now I am using the recommended grays.

The Needleworker (Snowman Collector Series #1) by Cottage Garden Samplings

I have been working away on the lower body of the snowman. I was going to do the white but decided it would be simpler to fill in with white after I finish all the buttons and gray snowflakes.

June Truckin Along by Stitching with the Housewives

I finished the main piece and have started working on the Word border which is a cute red and white checkerboard. This is one I am hoping to finish this month. Looking good so far.

June Calendar Crates by Stitching with the Housewives

I have been jumping around all over the place on this one. I am not going to lie. I find it hard to work on this while I am still working on the truck series since the designs are very similar. But I do enjoy the little scenes they have made in the center. They always contain a truck, a house, a quilt. Fun right?

WIPGO Project: Tea Thyme by It’s Sew Emma (A Stitch Quarterly project by FQS)

Finally got that break through moment with the finish of the cup and saucer. It feels like I am jamming now. Wednesday night found my finishing up the bird and one of the flowers. I was thrilled that I started a second flower. Not long now…..

WIPGO Project: Mr August (A Calendar Gnome) by Charlie’s Needle

Last night I worked on Mr August. I made some good progress. My goal is to work on this five times this month. This was my 3rd time. While, I don’t think I will finish this month, hopefully I make enough progress that it makes sense to keep pressing.

Upcoming Plans & Thoughts

I moved things around last week so some projects I had originally planned on working on never happened. They are now on this week’s calendar. Currently this is what this upcoming week looks like:

• June Snapshot
• Prim Stitch
• Fruit of Plenty
• Finish August Celebration
• Let’s Talk Summer
• August Sampler of the Month
• June Stackables
• Honey Tiny Town
• Tea Thyme
• Mr August

Some nights I double up on projects because I want to make sure I touch them this month but don’t have an entire evening to stitch on them. Over the past year I have found, that this is better than not touching them at all. So I kind of have like a priority list in my head. I move something to the top of the list when I have had it on the active list a long time or I feel if I focus I could wrap it up. Also working on two projects in one sitting helps me work on a project I lost interest in but still want to finish. You ever had one like that?

Sail Away and Tea Thyme are my current take it or leave projects. Tea Thyme is a WIPGO project this month and it looks like I may finally finish it. Sail Away … well there is always next year. September I will be pulling out autumn projects so a few of these will be put away until next spring.

I was reviewing my active versus passive WIPs. With the completion of Hello August, I have 15 active WIPs (oldest is Prim Stitch started in July 2020) and 9 passive WIPs (oldest is Snow Village started September 2020). Just 24 WIPs. Compared to my 100+ quilt projects. Looking pretty good here.

I have noticed that the Cross Stitch world considers a project finished when you finish stitching not when you Final Finish. I am seriously considering redoing my Quilt WIPs to be finished when I finish the top and make the quilting and binding as Final Finish. I think that would take away a lot of guilt. Right?

Anyway something to think about.

Peggy Stockwell