Happy Mother’s Day to everyone. I am headed to Seattle (via train) to spend the weekend with my daughter and her In-Laws who are here from Germany. I decided on potholders as gifts for Jannes’ family, so I am furiously sewing. LOL!
It has been a pretty productive stitching week even though most nights were just a couple of hours. I think it is because I only worked on aida projects this week. I am always faster with aida and of course lower count. But several of my projects were 18 count.
Starts & Finishes
This week was good. I finished all five plus evenings working on WIPGO projects Calendar Crates. One down and two to go! Let’s take a peek.
FINISH: August Mini Calendar Crates by Stitching with the Housewives
This little beauty took me longer than I expected. I thought I would finish in two days but it actually took me four. It was probably only a total of 6 or 7 hours but, I just was too busy to sit that long this week.
Still. It felt good finishing this adorable little sunflower chart for August. It is stitched on 14 ct chalkboard black aida with the called for Classic Colorworks floss.
START: August Main Calendar Crates by Stitching with the Housewives
Because I finished the mini, I started the main chart which is fairly large. I was thrilled to make such great progress on the house which is at the center of this chart. It is being stitched on 14 ct chalkboard black aida with the called for Classic Colorworks floss.
FINISH: May Stackables by It’s Sew Emma (FQS)
I love the colors of this project. So very springy. Really Teally wings on the bee is a nice touch. My favorite item to stitch was the bee. I stitched this on 14 ct marbeled white pine board with called for Classic Colorworks floss. Next up to stitch in this series for me is July.
WIP Updates
With the plan to be gone most of the week this upcoming week, I deliberately worked on multiple projects this week to hit up as many of my existing WIPs as possible. It felt good.
2024 SJ Temperature Library by Kristi’s Corner
Now that I am current on this project, I am attempting to stitch once a week on it. I actually worked on this twice this week. I did the first 3 books then the next 3. This will be a colorful shelf as the weather has been all over the place in these first 10 days.
July Truckin Along by Stitching with the Housewives
This is the last month in the Truckin Along Series that I started in 2020. This moved to the top of my list this week. So I have spent an hour each day for the past three days plugging away on this one. I filled in all the flowers in the bed of the truck as well as the truck itself. Last night I stitchec the cat on the hood as well. Now that was fun!
I will be leaving this at home tonight but will pickup again when I get home on Wednesday. So excited to finish this series so I am very motivated to work on it.
Fruit of Plenty by Modern Folk Embroidery
I was sitting here reflecting on how this is by far the biggest project I have ever worked on to date. My very first multi-page chart. Luckily it was only two colors so that was easy at least. I struggled in the beginning while I figured out how to stitch when you have multiple pages. For me, it ended up being easiest to complete the entire page before moving on to another page. After two years though, I have gotten better at recognizing page changes but still it is easiest to stick with the basic philosphy. I do find my self finishing a leaf or a flower on the vine nowadays, but still for the most part, I end when the page ends.
It was real exciting to start on the center which is the house motif. I considered picking a different house than the default one but it really best represents my own home, so I left it. Jacob had some very cool houses so it was a tough decision. I am stitching on 16 ct white aida with Weeks Dye Works Lagoon and Esmeralda. I just love it!
Snowman Collector: The Clown by Cottage Garden Samplings
This is my first Cottage Garden Samplings chart and may well eclipse my Fruit of Plenty as biggest project stitched when it is finished in the distant future. I still need to unpick the original border I selected but haven’t gotten to it because this clown is truly a delight to stitch. While Needleworker was close to my heart in subject matter, it was very hard with tons of color changes and pattern changes. Stitching The Clown is just joy. I finished the elephant and filled in a few spots in his pants this week. Fun!
Fabulous House: Green House by Cottage Garden Samplings
I spent so much time in the sewing room working on those potholders for my trip, that I only had a few hours to work on this one. The fabric is called stone but it is such a light gray blue to be almost white. When I stitch with the white it is hard to see plus it is 18 count. Despite all that, these yellow daisies were so fun to stitch. I was excited that I could finish the whole “panel” in one sitting. Even got to stitch a little on the 2nd floor of the Green House. Beautiful colors!
Upcoming Plans & Thoughts
If you haven’t been following me, I am headed out to take a trip and I usually only take one cross stitch project and one english paper piecing project. For this trip I saved my WIPGO project: Let’s Talk Summer as my cross stitch project. I am close to finishing the large chart and still have the medium chart to go. I hoping with all the train time to make huge inroads into this project. I already finished all of spring and fall in this series which only leaves Summer and Winter.
I will have two stitching nights when I get home. I will pickup July Truckin Along to be my “hour” project for those nights. I have on my schedule my second night of The Clown, Winter Camper, and the Temperature Library. That’s a lot for two nights so one or two may end up being dropped. For now, I will remain optomistic.
I have one of my last Immersion Zoom classes today. The regular course is done, but we have four extra weeks where they don’t cover new material but answer questions. So I am headed out.
Have a great Mother’s Day Weekend and I will catch you on the flip side!
Peggy Stockwell in San Jose, California