OhSewCrafty Blog

February started with King Arthur’s Court… I gave it 8 days… 3 days to finish the bottom half with the backstitching, gold metallic, and ninja stitches.  Another 5 to finish the last page (top right), plus stitch the gold metallic and start the backstitching the top half.  Another 2 days during the Olympics challenge to finish the backstitch and all the little ninja bits… I finished February 25!

February 9th started the Olympic challenge.  My stitching time was quite limited at the outset because it was my son’s birthday weekend.  Thankfully my first project for the daily rotation was the mini mandala SAL; the February chart stitched up lickety-split, seriously, less than an hour. 

I then rotated onto Mill Hill General Store, which got 3 days in total.   I managed to get it just about ready for beads & backstitch, and cleaned up most of the parked threads.  The ones that remain will be used for beading.  I’m really looking forward to beading it next month, which will jazz up the rather dull color palette.

Bright & Beautiful Spring Bird got 2 days total, I managed to get the bottom half mainly stitched.  I also worked a bit on the top half and got all the parked threads ready to go on the top half. This project is rather slow going with all the color changes and a fair dose of quarter stitches, but I think it will look fantastic after I backstitch.

Boo Club got 1 day, which was enough to stitch “Treats” and work the border further down, blogged here.  This project is fun to stitch every month, it’s like candy compared to my bigger pieces.

Spooky House got 3 days total; I created a floss card for the blends, and starting filling in the area I started in January.  I stitched a bit more of the pattern on the right, also the window and started the moon with Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid PB10, white pearl.  I’m very thankful to have finished with the lattice fence area, thankfully there is no more of that on the chart!  This pattern has a lot of fractionals and progress felt very slow, but in the end, I felt like I was getting somewhere.

Fall Fairy had 2 days total, I mainly worked with the parked threads and started working the far left column down.  It’s mostly tree trunk and a few pink flowers. I didn’t make much progress and I blame the fabric, that aida is not easy to stitch on.  Next time I start a Dimensions kit, I’m subbing the fabric.  Good quality aida isn’t even that expensive.  I wish they would kit with Zweigart… some of the European manufacturers do.  

The month ended with Winnie the Pooh, it took 3 days to get the 1200 + stitches I needed for the Full Coverage Fanatics monthly by the numbers SAL.  It’s still in progress, pics next time!  

Topic(s): Gadgets!  Show us your favorite stitching gadgets!  and How did you do with Olympic Stitching, and what goals did you achieve?

My favorite new gadget is probably my new Ott light/magnifier that I received for Christmas and just tried recently, to do the 1×1 section on 28 ct fabric, for Winnie the Pooh.  It made that work quite easy.  The magnifier is a good size (5″ diamater) and strength (1.75x).  I can position it higher if I only want to use the light, which is very bright and clear.  No more need for the table lamp & floor lamp combo I’ve used in the past!  I attached the clamp to my side table or I could attach it to the Lowery if I had the light bracket.  It’s highly adjustable and seems quite sturdy, time will tell.  The only drawback is the flip shade to protect the magnifier… it kept flipping closed when I was trying to use it so I eventually pried it off and I drape a cloth over the magnifier to protect it when not in use.  As for the Olympics, the daily rotation challenge went okay.  I managed to work on all the projects as intended and I hit my finish goals (Mini Mandala, Boo Club, King Arthur).  However, I think the daily rotation killed my mojo a little… I had 2 days in February that I didn’t stitch at all.  It wasn’t a complete loss since I knitted a bunch on those days and the first sleeve on my Coraline cardi project is well underway.  Still, I hope that March is a better stitchy month.  

As for March, my focus pieces will be Enchanted Mermaid, Lord’s Prayer, and a secret (gift) piece.  I might try to work on Bright & Beautiful too, if I have time.