OhSewCrafty Blog

Doesn’t January mean guilt-free starts?  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 

Here’s my start of Winter Fairy by Joan Elliott.  I’m stitching her on 32 count belfast linen in the “Karma” colorway, from my old and vast Silkweaver stash (I used to be a fabric-of-the-month club member).  This is a light blue/purple mottled with white, a cool color just perfect for this design IMO.  I started in the center with her white blanket and worked up a bit to the left, down to the right to the bottom right corner, and across into the bottom left quadrant.  I’m mostly done with the white blanket now.  Normally I’m not crazy about stitching with white and other super pale colors, but I don’t mind it at all with this project.  The various shades of white are so pretty and delicate.  There’s not really any confetti stitching so it works up easily and quickly.  After 8 days, I estimate I’m about 33% done.   I am curious about something.  The chart contains quite a lot of backstitching.  Some is straight horizontal and vertical stitches, following the sides of each cross stitch, like stair steps, while other parts are done with diagonal stitches to smooth out the edges (like I normally backstitch).   Anyone have any ideas why the chart contains both, or why you would backstitch with the stair-step method? 

Given my quick progress, I hatched a grand plan, as goal no. 6 of the WIPocalypse.  I want to stitch all 4 of Joan Elliott’s seasonal fairies, in the appropriate season.  That gives me 3 months per fairy, with an estimated completion time of 4 one-week rotations for each.  4 weeks over 3 months isn’t too much and should give me plenty of time for other projects.  January-March will be dedicated to Winter.  April-June for Spring.  July-Sept for Summer.  Oct-Dec for Autumn.  If I can’t finish each project within the 3 months, I’ll move on with the idea of finishing later.  At the same time, I’ll try to keep my WIP/UFO count (currently at 8) in the single digits.  I would like to mat/frame them in a complementary style and hang them all together on a empty wall (and there are plenty in my house!).  This post by Stephanie’s Stitches is an inspiration.