My Stitching Goals for 2021

So last year I only completed three out of my five goals. Well this year I think I have went a little crazy with all my goals for this year.

So here is my list of my 2020 goals:

1. I would like to have the rest of my monthly series all finished. So that is seven patterns to start and finish.

2. My Christmas Time pattern I also want to get finished and also framed so I can have it up for 2020 Christmas. 

3. One of my WIP’s that I haven’t touched in a long time is the: Love from Dad, that I want to give to my dad as a gift. This piece I would like to finish and frame this year and give it to him for Christmas. 

4. This plan isn’t as big as the finishes I have in my plans, but it is something that some would call: a mini finish. I would like this year to get a page finish on my Death by Cross Stitch pattern. 

5. My last plan is that I would like to finish the two Letters in my Winter Bell Pull pattern. They are both mostly stitched just have a little more full crosses to do and then the speciality stitching and backstitching to finish them off.

So you can probably see that I didn’t complete all my goals that I had made for myself. But I was able to accomplish more then half and I did have twelve finishes so I still feel like 2020 was pretty good stitching wise.

So I’m now going to give you my list of my 2021 goals:

1. Start and finish the last three birds from the monthly series.

2. Finish Sunflowers in Summer by Country Cottage Needleworks

3. Start and finish Home Sweet Home by DMC

4. Get two page finishes on Death by Cross Stitch by Long Dog Samplers

5. Finish Winter Bell Pull by Stoney Creek Collection

6. Finish Birthday Needle-Roll kit by Victoria Sampler

7. Start and finish The Grey Code

8. Start and finish The Mandalorian

9. Start and finish A Good Marriage by Lizzie Kate

10. Start Autumn Bell Pull by Stoney Creek Collection if the Winter Bell Pull gets finished

11. Start and finish 2021 zodiac animal Christmas ornament

12. Start and finish Midnight’s Christmas Stocking

Now, I know that this year my goals are a lot more since last year. But this year I decided to add any starts that I want to start this year and make it a goal to finish them too. I would be really happy if I could complete all of my goals this year.

I will be back with a new update on my stitching before the end of this month or on the 1st of February.

Hope everyone is well, wherever you are in the world.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

The WIP’s I’m Bring into 2021

Well, happy new year to everyone. I know it is already two weeks into the new year, but as of right now I still feel like wishing everyone a happy new year.

I hope everyone for whatever you decided to do that you had a good a safe new year and were able to celebrate with at least some people that you love and still were able to do it safely.

So, if you already have I hope that you enjoyed seeing all of my finishes that I had in the year 2020. I am really shocked that I had that many finishes, because before I had gathered all of them up I had kind of thought I hadn’t done that much stitching. Then again 2020 was a very long and crazy year. And with the start of this new year I hope that it will be a better year, even with the things that have just happened with only a week into the new year that we can still make this year a good year.

Okay well now on with all the stitching.

In my last post I showed all my finishes, so many of you must be guessing is that in this post I will be talking about all my WIP’s. Well, you guessed right.

Winter Bell Pull

Designed by: Stoney Creek Collection Started on: January 9th,2019 Last Stitched on: March 19th, 2019

Now this piece I am really sad that I didn’t stitch on it all last year. I am really hoping though that this year I take it out and I can make some great progress on it.

Gift of the Eagle Feather

Designed by: Dimensions Started on: I started stitching it in 2015, but my mom started it years ago. Last Stitched on: Before 2018

Now everyone that has been reading my blog for a long time knows that I don’t really stitch on this piece unless I hate everything else I have or I want to just stitch big blocks of colour. I have no goals for this piece and it doesn’t matter when I finish this.

Birthday Needle-Roll Kit

Designed by: Victoria Sampler Started on: June 5th, 2017 Last Stitched: Sometime before 2018

This piece is going to be stitched on this year as it will be a gift to my grandma.

Death by Cross Stitch

Designed by: Long Dog Samplers Started: January 18th, 2018 Last Stitched on: January 11th, 2021

I have been stitching on this piece since the start of the new year. I have fabric and patterns coming in that I will be starting this year. So I will be stitching on “Death” until the haul arrives. Don’t worry when it comes in I will be making a post showing off all the goodies I bought.

So this coming weekend my next post will be my goals for 2021. I have kind of went a little crazy compared to last year’s goals, but you know for some reason I feel like I want to be making all the goals I can. Don’t know why I feel this way as usually I don’t want to make any goals for my stitching.

Well, see you next time everyone.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

The Finishes of 2020

So usually when I have done a blog with all my finishes for the year I write it much early and then post it before the start of the new year. But of course as has been the many problem of 2020 things have happened and getting done to write has not been a big priority. I have been manily focused on stitching and around Christmas and the New Year spreading time with the family members that I could be with while keeping everyone safe at the same time.

Even though this year has been so crazy I have surprisingly made a new record of number of finishes in a year

2016 saw one finish, maybe two, but looking back at my records it shows only one.

2017 saw nine finishes.

2018 saw eight finishes.

2019 saw six finishes.

And 2020 got a big 12 finishes.

It has always been my goal to get ten finishes in the year or get 12 finishes in the year. I have never been able to finish that many. Until this year that is.

Birds of the Month-September-Rose Breasted Grosbeak

Designed: Stoney Creek Collection. This piece was started: October 28th, 2019 It was finished: January 4th, 2020 It was stitched on: 40ct. New Castle linen Colour: Pearl Grey

With Love

Designed: The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Started: January 12th, 2020 Finished: January 17th, 2020 Stitched on: 40ct. New Castle linen Colour: Silvery Moon

Birds of the Month-November-Tufted Titmouse

Designer: Stoney Creek Collection. Started: January 18th, 2020 Finished: February 1st, 2020 Stitched on: 40ct. New Castle linen Colour: Light Mocha

Birds of the Month-February-Blue Jay

Designed: Stoney Creek Collection Started: February 1st, 2020 Finished: February 27th, 2020 Stitched on: 40ct. New Castle linen Colour: Dirty Linen

Stitch Well

Designed: JBW Designs Started: March 29th, 2020 Finished: April 15th, 2020 Stitched on: 40ct. New Castle linen Colour: Antique White

Jedi Code and Sith Code

Designed: Elizabeth Spurlock Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/SavingGraces?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=866777571&section_id=22690474 Jedi Started: August 21st, 2020 Jedi Finished: September 27th, 2020 Jedi Stitched on: 40ct. New Castle linen. Jedi Colour: White Sith Started: September 27th, 2020 Sith Finished: November 2nd, 2020 Sith Stitched on: 40ct. Weeks Dye Works linen Sith Colour: Onyz Fully Finished Together: November 27th, 2020

Love From Dad

Designed: Sue Hillis Re-Started: June 15th, 2020 Finished: November 27th, 2020 Stitched on: 28ct linen Colour: Cream Fully Finished: December 15th, 2020

Floral Monogram-D

Designed: Cross Stitch Crossaholic Etzy Store: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Crossaholic?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=699397708 Started: November 27th, 2020 Finished: December 14th, 2020 Stitched on: 40ct. New Castle Opalescent Colour: White Fully Finished: December 14th, 2020

Made a yarn holder for crocheting and sewed on the stitched piece. Gifted to my mom for Christmas.

Christmas Time

Designed: DMC Started: November 13th, 2019 Finished: November 8th, 2020 Stitched on: 32ct linen Colour: Opalescent White Fully Finished: December 15th, 2020

Birds of the Month-March-Red Breasted Nuthatch

Designed: Stoney Creek Collection Started: February 28th, 2020 Finished: December 14th, 2020 Stitched on: 40ct. New Castle linen Colour: Dirty Linen

Birds of the Month-December-Northern Cardinal

Designed: Stoney Creek Collection Started: December 14th, 2020 Finished: December 27th, 2020 Stitched on: 40ct. New Castle linen Colour: Opalescent White

Well, another year gone and with that a stack of finishes and WIP’s crossed off the WIP list.

Happy New Year Everyone!

It’s Been Far Too Long

Well, hello everyone. Wow, I really never wanted to have such a large back in my last post. It will be good to tell you though that I have kept up with my stitching over the four months since I last wrote to you all, and since I have done quite a lot of stitching this might be a very long post. So I say grab a nice hot beverage (There’s already snow on the ground now, so it’s cold out) and enjoy reading and seeing what has been going on in the last four months.

So now for me to think back to what I was doing four months ago, which is actually quite hard right now where as before it wasn’t hard as I had my WIP tracker where I would mark done everything I worked on everyday. But because of printer problems I haven’t been able to print of new papers and so this whole year I have not been able to track any of my progress. Now of course if I would just post on here more often I wouldn’t run into this problem at all.

So thank goodness I took some photos cause looking back I see that on June 15th, just two days after I made my last post I went and started working on “Love From Dad”

This is what it looked like the last time that I stitched on it.

And this is what it will look like when it is all finished.

So I actually do remember that I made put in just a few stitches,andbefore I realized that I was never going to like stitching on this fabric. Now I knthat when I first started this that I didn’t really like the fabric, but I just assumed that with time and stitching on all different types of counts of fabrics that going back to this 28 count fabric would be fine. But I guess I was very wrong. So that day I went looking for fabric and found a nice plain 32 count linen and I restarted!

While the fabric was horrible to stitch on Midnight thought it was the perfect piece of cloth to curl up on.

This is what I have so far. Sorry I don’t know how long I stitched on it before I stopped.

I did make a little more progress on Christmas Time, though it was not very much as I needed threads that I was missing. Of course with pandemic going on the one package that I really wanted to come on time actually got lost in the mail. So with reordering back ordered items I did not receive the package till just a few weeks ago.

So close to being finished.

Okay so if you have been reading my blog for awhile now or have just read my old posts (inside hoping I’m not the only one that does that when I find a new blog). you probably know that every year I stitch something for my fiance for either Christmas or his birthday. Well this year it’s going to be a gift for Christmas. It is really two separate charts however I will be getting them framed together in the same frame so really it only counts as one gift. I already have one chart done.

Jedi Code by: Elizabeth Spurlock Stitched on: White Newcastle 40 count linen

Sith Code by: Elizabeth Spurlock Stitched on: Onyx Weeks Dye Works 40 count linen

My fiance has always asked me if I could stitch him up the Sith and Jedi codes and I looked and looked and would just tell him that I could find any charts for it. Well I went and decided to look again sometime this year as it had been a long time since I last looked and I found an Etsy shop that had them. Of course not knowing anything about Star Wars I had to show my fiance the charts to make sure that this was what he wanted.

This is the link to her Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/SavingGraces?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=563294556

So I have now showed everything that I have stitched on in the four months. I must say although I have only had one finish looking at it all together it really looks like I have accomplished a lot. The reason for this though is probably because of the challenge that I am in on: Embroidery.com Cross-Stitch+Hand Embroidery group that is on Facebook. It is the same FFacebook group that does the #ILovetoStitch challenge this year and last year that I was in. Last year in October from October 13th to Halloween we had the #WithyStitchy challenge, this year it is October 1st to Halloween, so it’s 31 days of stitching. We have to stitch every day for 30 minutes inorder to win the challenge. This year the hashtag is: #WitchyStitchy2020

I hope everyone is have a good rest of their year (cause you know this year is going to be over in two and a half month), and is able to get in lots of stitching.

Happy stitching everyone!

Being Social Again

This date marks two full months since I last was on here. I haven’t even been on here to read other peoples’ blogs. Things have been better for me mentally, even with everything going on in the world not just with COVID-19 but also the BLM movement(which we are not going to talk about either, because my blog isn’t the place for that nor do I want it to become a place for that).

I have finally gotten into a place of actually wanting to write and be part of the stitching community again, not just for the blogs I follow, but also talking to stitchy friends. With how it was going on in the world and at work my mentality just seemed to really suffer. I feel like I want to apologise to those that might be reading this and wondering where I have been. I won’t though as I really could only stay sane with focusing on work and trying to stay in touch with loved ones.

So for the last two months all I have been doing has been working and stitching(with of course some binge watching of Netflix) and I guess I finally feel like I can start doing this again. Thank goodness for my craft and pulling me out of my hole.

I have no new progress on Birds of the Month pattern as I was feeling I needed a break from that stitching, but I did finish the Stitch Well piece that I had started at the end of March. Then when May came I decided I would take that whole month and stitch only on Death by Cross Stitch and see how far I could get.

Well, if some of you remember I made a list of goals for myself this year and one of them was to get at least one page finish on Death by Cross Stitch.

Goal Completed!Yep, that’s the whole border completed across the top. After finishing one page before May was finished I started page two and then when I realized the same border went across the rest of the pages I decided to just go ahead and stitch that and I finished it with only having to stitch on it just two more days in June. I’m really happy with my progress and with the other projects I want to stitch and finish I’m not sure if this will come up again to stitch on this year.

The last piece I have to show you is Christmas Time which I have stitched on a lot, which is weird since usually when Christmas is over I don’t want to stitch on Christmas things at all, but I am loving how it is coming together, loving all the fancy stitching, and I think I might be able to finish this before June ends(that is if my threads come in time(postal is horrible right now)).

Well, I’m hoping that I can make a blog post for you guys a lot sooner then this one. With things slowly reopening here and new cases not being higher then 3 or 5 every day I can only hope that things will get better and better as days and weeks go by.

Stay safe

Black Lives Matter

And

Happy Stitching! 

Another Month Gone…Wow Lots Has Happened

Well, hello everyone, it’s been a long time, hasn’t it? A lot has happened in the world since I last wrote on here and actually that is the reason I haven’t been on here to write. I have done lots of stitching (well kind of) but my mindset to go on here and write something has not been in the right place. When I write to you guys I do it when I am feeling the best and just want to share my stitching and sometimes stuff that is going on in my life.

I am still working as I work in a care home so my life has not changed much with the pandemic going on. There is no sickness or COVID-19 at my place so we are trying to keep residents safe by having the building closed to all visitors and having the residents social distance the best we can and just with that it has been a little stressful. Also not being able to see my family has been a little hard and since I really don’t want to get the virus and then carry it into the building I have not gone anywhere but home and work. So because of that, I want to try not to talk about the pandemic or my work.

So with the pandemic and with social media encouraging everyone to stay home and stay safe, the cross stitching community has embraced this saying by designers to create free charts for people to stitching during this hard time. I have seen many posted through Facebook and found one I liked and with just how I have been feeling I put my WIP’s to the side and decided to start a new project.

It’s called: Stitch Well

It’s by: JBW DesignsThis is my first time stitching on 40 count one over one. While stitching it I thought it looked pixilated and uneven, but now seeing it in the photo I think it looks really good. I guess when you have it only a few inches from your face everything can look pixilated.

If you are wanted to get some of these free designs or even just look at them there is a Facebook group that has them all listed under files: https://www.facebook.com/Keepsakes513/

The next piece that I have done some stitching on is my March Bird of the MonthI’m really almost done this piece, just have a little bit of the beak to do and then the backstitching. I think though with just everything going on I just realized I needed a break from stitching all the birds.

The last piece that I did some stitching on since I last posted was actually my Christmas Time. Well, that is all the stitching I have done in the last month. It doesn’t really look like a lot, but I’m hoping that since I am now officially on vacation for 10 days that it will be a nice break from work and I will be wanting to do more stitching. If things are going well I might even post again before my vacation ends.

Stay home

Be well

Happy stitching!

 

 

 

 

The End of #LovetoStitch

Hi, everyone, so it has been a month since my last post. I wanted to make a post sooner, but the first two weeks were not going great for me personally, so writing was just not in it for me. Don’t worry though I did do lots of stitching. You may even be surprised to know that I have two more finishes since I last posted. A lot of that is due to my stitching every day in February(well besides two sick days where I couldn’t). Why did I stitch so much? Well that was because of the February #LovetoStitch challenge

So just like last year, there was the #LovetoStitch Challenge, which is a challenge to stitch for 30 minutes every day in February. Embroidery.com Facebook group is the place that organizes the challenge, you have to post before and after pictures each day to show that you did your 30 minutes and then the people at embroidery.com will see who stayed with the challenge and they will get a prize. Last year was scroll rods and this year I think she said was going to be a needle minder.

On February 1st I finished the November Bird of the Month.

It was started: January 18, 2020

Finished: February 1, 2020

I loved stitching this bird, it went faster than some of the other ones that I have stitched and I really enjoyed stitching this tiny bird.

I started it: February 1, 2020

Finished it: February 27, 2020

Even with me stitching on this every day for the challenge it still took me 27 days to finish this one. I think because all the white stitching on it made it take more time. I always seem to have problems with stitching with white thread. Takes me longer to make it look right and I seem to get my thread tangled up more than any other coloured thread of the DMC line.

I started the March Bird of the Month next and this is how far I have gotten so far. This is pretty good progress so far for only stitching on it for two days.

If you remember my other post where I talked about my goals for the year, one of them was to get all the Birds of the Month Series completed this year. So far I have seven of them finished, one is a WIP, and then only 4 more to start and finish. Right now as things stand I am feeling pretty confident to meeting this goal. Don’t Know yet how I feel about the other goals I set for myself this year, but then again we are only in March so there is lots of time still for everything else.

I just wanted to thank the challenge that was hosted again this year. Really got me to stitch on the February Bird when I was having to stitch all the white. Maybe if I didn’t stitch every day I wouldn’t have done as much as I did. I plan on trying to keep up with the challenge of stitching every day and see if I can continue it through March.

If things are going well stitching wise and life wise I want to try and do a post either before my birthday and right after.

Happy Stitching everyone!

New Year, Two Finishes

Hello, everyone, hope everyone is having a great start to there weekend.

Since I have last posted I have been stitching like crazy, and I mean in a good way. I haven’t been forcing myself to stitch at all, just been enjoying coming home every day and stitching. Well, that is until Saturday.

See, you all know that I was going to have this up before the 20th as I knew I wouldn’t be able to write this on the 20th as it was our 5th anniversary and the 21st I went to see my sister before she goes on her trip, so that is why this post is coming up now.

So, what happened on the weekend? Well, Saturday we decided to do our house cleaning, taking down the Christmas, and cleaning out our fish tanks. We had gotten done the tree and cleaned up the living area and we had just gotten out the big white water buckets to start the fish cleaning when we started to hear running water from above. (side-note we live in a basement suite.) Then suddenly water started coming out of the light fixture and the air vent. Luckily we had the buckets and were able to get them under very quickly, however, we both still got soaked while getting the light fixture off and getting the buckets in the right spot. So the reason for this was that the upstairs neighbours got a plugged toilet and it flooded down to us. So, now the drywall of the ceiling is still wet so since then till now we have big construction fans and dehumidifier running, long story short it is very loud in the house.

The new year has just started and I have already had two new starts and two finishes. Which is just great!

My first finish of this year: September-Bird of the Month-Rose Breasted Grosbeak

Started: October 28th, 2019
Finished: January 4th, 2020

I now have five finishes out of the twelve patterns from the series, so only seven more to finish.

My next finish is also my new start for the year. I started this piece to help contribute in helping the fires that are happening in Australia. There are many designers that have been making designs and having the proceeds go to a charity that helps in some sort of way. I fell in love with the chart that Frosted Pumpkin designed.

First year start and second finish: With Love

Started: January 12th, 2020
Finished: January 17th, 2020

Please go to there site: https://www.thefrostedpumpkinstitchery.com/collections/new/products/with-love-pdf-cross-stitch-pattern

They are still donating money and also they have listed all the money they have donated so far.

My new start: November-Bird of the Month-Tufted Titmouse

Started: January 18th, 2020

I will be back with an update and a talk about the #ILovetoStitch Challenge for 2020.

Happy Stitching everyone!

My Stitching Plans for 2020

Happy Friday, everyone!

I hope everyone had a great week and has been getting lots of stitching done to start off the new year.

Now I always love making plans at the start of the year, do any of these plans really get started or finished, not always as life takes over, however, I seem to still love making plans.

2020 Plans:

1. I would like to have the rest of my monthly series all finished. So that is seven patterns to start and finish.

2. My Christmas Time pattern I also want to get finished and also framed so I can have it up for 2020 Christmas. 

3. One of my WIP’s that I haven’t touched in a long time is the: Love from Dad, that I want to give to my dad as a gift. This piece I would like to finish and frame this year and give it to him for Christmas. 

4. This plan isn’t as big as the finishes I have in my plans, but it is something that some would call: a mini finish. I would like this year to get a page finish on my Death by Cross Stitch pattern. 

5. My last plan is that I would like to finish the two Letters in my Winter Bell Pull pattern. They are both mostly stitched just have a little more full crosses to do and then the speciality stitching and backstitching to finish them off. 

So that’s all my plans for this year. Now, it really doesn’t seem like a lot, but this year I really wanted to try and be realistic on my goals and really think how much stitching I could do in a year. I really want to focus on making progress on my WIP’s each year, because as every stitcher knows there are always going to be days in the year when you just want to have a few new starts and forget about all your WIP’s. 

I will be coming back with an update post before the 20th, so look out for that.

Happy Stitching, everyone! 

All the WIP’s

If you have been reading here for a while you know that I don’t like having lots of WIP’s, in fact, I think the most WIP’s I have ever had has been nine. So my unannounced rule has been to not have more than ten WIP’s as when I had nine I found it very stressful and I do better having around five or six I have found.

Some of these WIP’s haven’t been stitched in over a year, but I still count them as a WIP and will be considered a WIP until they are finished or I decide I will never finish it and then I consider it as a UFO.

WIP #1:

Title: Christmas Time

By: DMC

Started: November 13th, 2019

Last Stitched On: Today

WIP #2:

Title: Winter Bell Pull

By: Stoney Creek Collection

Started: January 9th, 2019

Last Stitched On: March 19th, 2019

WIP #3:

Title: Love from Dad

By: Sue Hillis

Started: January 1st, 2018

Lasted Stitched On: April 20th, 2018

WIP #4

Title: Gift of the Eagle Feather

By: Dimensions

Started: my stitching is started sometime in 2015 my mom started it back when I was very young so it might be a 15 year or older WIP

Last Stitched On: Sometime before 2018

WIP #5:

Title: Death by Cross Stitch

By: Long Dog Samplers

Started: January 18th, 2018

Last Stitched On: June 19th, 2019

WIP #6:

Title: Birthday Needle-Roll Kit

By: Victoria Sampler

Started: June 5th, 2017

Last Stitched On: Sometime before 2018 

So there you have it, all my WIP’s. I will be planning on doing my next post that has all my plans for the new year that will be up some time during next week.

Happy Stitching Everyone!