Tag Archives: a stitch in time

30

Dec. ’20

Cross Stitch: A Stitch in Time, an update 12/30/2020

The last time I showed this project was back in April. I’ve made some progress.  Because of all the confetti (and all my other projects), my progress is super slow.  But here is where I am now.

A Stitch In Time Aimee Stewart Heaven and Earth Designs 25 Count, 1×1 12/30/3030

Here’s a close up of what I’ve worked on recently:

A Stitch In Time Aimee Stewart Heaven and Earth Designs 25 Count, 1×1 12/30/3030

And how it looked the last time I showed a picture of it.

A Stitch in Time
4/19/2020

I can’t believe I didn’t post more pictures. Especially when I finished the previous page. There are times where I have so much joy working on this project. and then there are times where I feel frustration. I like to finish a diagonal at a time, hoping that I only experience the joy and that I put this away before frustration sets in. Sometimes those days happen when I’m trying to finish a page and do more than I can mentally do on this project at a given time.

Happy Stitching!

~Melanie

Posted by . Categories: 2020 Crafty Goals, Cross Stitch. Tags: , . 1 Comment

08

Sep. ’20

My weekly crafty update

With the new month, I have new things.  But this week saw me enjoying the following:

A Stitch in Time, I got another diagonal done.

A Stitch In Time
Aimee Stewart
Heaven and Earth Designs
25 Count, 1×1
9/5/2020

With my cross stitch, I use the tiny decision app to pick what to work on. This time it chose A Stitch In Time. I love working on this but I need young eyes so I primarily work on it in the morning or early evenings when the light is good.  Once I finish a diagonal then the tiny decision app picks my next project.  Because we started a new month this last week, I got to start a new project. This is a new thing I’m doing.  I have a lot of patterns and kits sitting around waiting for me to do.  By a lot, I mean probably about 65.  Some of them are all kitted up and some of them are not.  Anyway, I was watching something on YouTube and from something someone said, the idea of dying with all these unstitched projects made me sad. For some reason I wasn’t sad if I had a ton of WIPs. I was sad to not have stitched on these projects.  For quilting, and knitting, I can only have so many WIPs going on.  It seems once I have more than a certain number, I get twitchy and anxious.  I don’t know why. I guess my brain can’t take that many WIPs for those kinds of projects.  I realized that this is not the case with cross stitch.  Cross stitch takes forever for me. Mainly because I love big projects like full coverage Heaven and Earth Designs.  One of those working all the time, will take me over 3 years to do. So if I wait until one is done before starting another, it would take forever to get through and stitch all the projects I have.  So I decided it doesn’t matter how many I have going on. I get so much joy stitching on the projects that I love that I decided to start a new project each month.

 

September new start
Too Glam to Give a Damn
14 count, 4×1
9/5/2020

Too Glam to Give a Damn
14 count, 4×1
9/5/2020

For September, my new start is Too Glam to Give a Damn.  Luckily it’s a small one. I picked this in August and took the month to go through my stash, pick fabric and pull floss.  In this case, I also purchased floss from Joanns.  It’s pretty much called for colors with the exception of Kreinik gold. You don’t see it here as I’ve not stitched anything with the gold yet but I could not find Kreinik gold anywhere.  And I didn’t want to buy it from amazon.  So I just used the DMC gold in a skein.  The fabric is mystery fabric. I believe I won this from a giveaway from the Hobbies Up To Here podcast gals a year or so ago.  It’s perfect for this dragon fly.

New Start for October
Ariadne
Heaven and Earth Designs
No details yet
9/5/2020

And on September 1, I asked Siri to pick a number from 1-65 and it picked my October start, Ariadne. I will take the month of September to kit it up.  Because it’s a Heaven and Earth Design and full coverage, it will take a lot of Floss. I believe it’s around 98 colors.  But I will not kit up the whole thing, I’ll just buy the floss I need for the first two diagonals.  Even though I’m only buying floss for the first two diagonals, it’s important I buy all the floss for a particular color.  For example, let’s say I need 3 skeins of DMC 333 (which is a beautiful purple, if my memory is correct), I will buy all 3 skeins now even though I will not need all of the skeins in the first 2 diagonals.  The reason is because I will want to make sure all 3 skeins come from the same dyelot.  I’ve seen a lot of flosstubers (cross stitch channels on YouTube) try to match skeins and then you’ll see a line from where the old skein was next to the new skein.  With DMC, it’s not that big of a problem as long as you are working on the project in the same time frame.  But given that this will probably take me years to complete, I wouldn’t want to grab a skein 10 years from now because even DMC colors change from time to time. Most cross stitch patterns that I’ve seen usually indicate how many skeins you’ll need.  If your pattern does not, then you’ll probably just need 1.

~happy stitching.

Melanie

 

 

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20

Apr. ’20

Cross Stitch: A Stitch in Time, an update 04/2020

So I have a rotation of cross stitch projects and in general, I work on a project for a week then on Sunday switch to a new project. I have 4 projects in rotation.

  • Gamer
  • Snowman
  • A Stitch in Time
  • Mirabilia – Titania

Gamer is my priority project so when I am working on Snowman which is a small 6″x6″ I also have Gamer on the frame for me to put a few stitches in each day.  That way I’m able to work on Gamer for 2 weeks and hopefully get this finished faster. This last week I was working on A Stitch in Time, by Aimee Stewart and is a Heaven and Earth Design.

Before:

 

 

A Stitch in Time
2/23/2020

And how it looks now after I’ve worked on it a week before I put it away…

A Stitch in Time
4/19/2020

I must have forgotten to take a picture and update you on my March progress but it’s coming along and I’ve gotten it on the frame that Mama’s Bukid used to be on.

Happy Stitching!

~Melanie

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24

Feb. ’20

Cross Stitch: A Stitch in Time, an update

Last time I posted a picture here, was when I listed my 2020 Cross Stitch Goals.  Here is a picture from the beginning of the year.

This project is part of my rotation.  I switch projects every Sunday in this order: Mama’s Bukid, Gamer, Mama’s Bukid, A Stitch in Time.  Yes, I do Mama’s Bukid every other week because it’s my priority project and I want it done soon.  It’s also my longest xstitch project and I’m really sick of it.  So, the sooner I’m done with it, the sooner I can frame it and give it to my mother.  Anyway, I stitch a little bit every week night.  Lately, my week nights have been full of things that take up my time and I haven’t been able to spend as much time as I want so I do an hour or so here and there over the weekend.  Here’s where I finished at yesterday:

A Stitch in Time
2/23/2020

Because there is so much confetti, I’m only able to do about 55 stitches an hour.  It sounds like I’m a really slow stitcher but with color changes for every single box, there’s no way to do it but slow and steady.  It was difficult to do anything on this this week as I was overwhelmed with the complexity and how slow I am  at it.  But I persevered and was able to get 400 stitches done this week.  My goal was to do 1200 but it’s just not possible given the amount of time I’m able to devote to this project.  Some may say I have too many projects and that I should probably work on one project at a time but that’s just ridiculous!

Happy Stitching!

~Melanie

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03

Jan. ’20

2020 Crafty Plans: Cross Stitch

Last year I didn’t finish any of my cross stitch goals but I made a lot of progress on everything. So I moved my projects over to this year and added new ones.  Because I’m crazy and I am loving my stitching right now.

Mama’s Bukid – Cross Stitch Priority Project #1

Mama’s Bukid
12/24/2019

My goal for December was to finish 2.5 columns and I only got halfway.  So I do not think I’ll be finishing this in February as I had intended.  I am struggling hard with finishing this project.  Part of it was that December had a lot of events and family and friend time.  All of it was wonderful and time well spent but my cross stitch time was hurt.  And I am totally unmotivated with this project.  I have had to force myself to work on this.  It is really hard but it’s so close to finishing that I can’t stop, it’s just taking me longer.

Gamer Nouveau – Cross Stitch Project priority #2

My goal for 2019 was to finish 6 pages but I only got 2.5 pages done.  I will work on this one week a month until Bukid is done and then I can work on this two weeks a month.  I hope that this year I will be able to get 6 pages done. There are a ton of pages and I do want to get this done sooner rather than later. I started using a new app called Pattern Keeper and it has changed my stitchy life.  It has taken a lot of the struggles I’ve had working on full coverage pieces. I’m currently at 20% completed on this project.

And because I like big projects (or BAPs – Big A$$ Projects), the new cross stitch project – priority #3 is a HAED (Heaven And Earth Design) which is a full coverage piece also.  Here’s my current spot:

And here’s what it will grow up to be:

Each of those gridlines marks a page and I’m still only on page 2. I do not have a goal for this year other than working on it each month.

I’m also working on a smaller project: A kiss for Snowman

This is only about 6″ square but I’m not enjoying this project at all. I only work on it when I’m travelling. On my personal retreats I may take this with me to do some stitching.  Hopefully, this will be done soon and I can start a new small project.  I am currently in love with full coverage projects and I’ve got another one started but I rarely work on it.  I do have a lot of projects kitted up and I plan to start another 2 or 3 over the course of this year.  But, the 4 projects shown above are my top priority projects for now.

Happy new year!

Melanie

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