OhSewCrafty Blog

Hello, my name is Stephanie also known as Ms. OhSewCrafty on Flosstube and Instagram.  I’m the webmistress of Stitch from Stash on Facebook, and a dedicated product crafter (but I wouldn’t do it all if I didn’t love the process).  Cross stitching is my main hobby but I also enjoy sewing, knitting, and various other crafts.  The general plan for this year is to keep my WIP count ~8, at max, and get finishes in a timely fashion.  

*WIP photos are mine and pattern photos belong to the respective designers*

1. Charmed Santa, from Leisure Arts “Charms of Christmas”,  is my first dragon to slay, so to speak.  As you can see, he’s close.  It’s just a matter of finishing the top half with some fill in, then lots of backstitch, and finally the application of the lovely brass charms.

2, 3, 4, and 5 are the Queen Anne House (ready for beads), Palace Theatre, Post Office, and Firehouse, all to complete my Mill Hill Christmas Village, hopefully by June.  This is my 3rd year for this project and it’s high time to finish.  That’s sort of the theme for this year, “Series Killer”.  I really want to complete, or at least make headway on, the several series I have underway.

6. Winnie the Pooh by MCG Textiles needs ~8,000 more stitches, including several petit point sections, my goal is to complete by April or so, which would make it a 2 year project.  I have always sort of “dabbled” with this project, never giving it more than a weekend each month. But that will change this year, as I’m tired of having it in the WIP pile.  

7.  Spooky House by X’s and Oh’s, was my old stash/new start in January 2018, and I found the going a little rough last year.  It’s beautiful, but it is many shades of grey, fractional stitches, tiny details, etc.  Towards the end of the year I started backstitching the bottom half and I’m now truly excited about the project, the backstitch makes it come alive.  So my goal is to finish by October.  The top half will be a little easier to stitch, I believe.  But the first task will be to finish the backstitch on the bottom half.  My new motto is backstitch early and often!  

8. Bird of Happiness by Riolis was a 2018 Maynia start, and it’s around 50% complete.  It’s a lovely pattern, and stitches up quickly, but I didn’t give it much time last year.  It would be great to finish by May, then perhaps a new “magical menagerie” start for Maynia.

9. Fantasy Triptych by Teresa Wentzler is my 2019 new year/old stash start.  So far it has 3 days progress and I estimate I did about 40% of a page, with a zillion blended flosses.  I love it and I am hoping to stitch about half of it this year.

10. Joan Elliott is probably my favorite designer, and I’ve missed her patterns since I finished Water Goddess last October.  So I started my long awaited Christmas Teddy on a beautiful fat 1/8 of opalescent white belfast and gave it the last 3 days.  I think this chart would be perfect in my son’s room.

11. Save the Stitches by Elizabeth Almond.  Last year I got bitten by the blackwork bug and I’m really excited to start (tomorrow!) this mammoth project, 24 parts. I would be thrilled to complete 12 of them this year, we shall see. 

The rest would be new starts that I hope to stitch when a spot opens in my rotation.

12. Celtic Winter by Lavender & Lace, my own blue/silver conversion, which I hope to start very soon after Charmed Santa is finished.   This is part of my series killer goal, she is my 4th Celtic lady, which is probably enough. Summer would be a bonus, I suppose, I’m happy to have Spring on the wall from April-August.  The goal is to finish when she’s seasonal, probably November.  I would say December but I’ve learned over the past few years that December is not a good stitchy month for me, far too many other commitments.

13.  Seasonal birds by Lesley Teare; I’ve completed only the spring blue tit and I need to get this series back on the go.  The patterns aren’t large, so I hope I can start and finish one in the appropriate season.  Here’s the Autumn Wren.

14.  Seasonal Bellpulls by Stony Creek, again I’ve completed only the Summer version and I really hope to continue with the series this year.  Here’s the Spring one, isn’t it gorgeous?  As I learned when I stitched Summer though, these bellpulls are not trivial.  

15. Ornaments.  My plan for Maynia is to start some ornaments so I can rotate 15 projects throughout the 15 days.  Here’s the Mill Hill Vintage Sleigh, which I’ve had in my stash for a while and really want to stitch (would love to do the whole series, if I’m honest).

16. Ana by Nora Corbett is intended to go on the same fabric, facing my finished Gigi/Fleur Delacour.  She wouldn’t take long to stitch up, maybe I can start her in October.

17.  I am determined to try at least one new-to-me designer this year. For years I’ve been admiring and stashing Glendon Place patterns and I really love her Gingerbread Grove.  The fabric is my favorite sky blue, PTP “Haven”, and it’s in my stash.  I’m hoping to start this in July, after finishing the Mill Hill Christmas village.

18. Full coverage is one of those things I enjoy but not all the time.  I  had 3 full coverage WIPs last year, and that seemed like too many, but the last one should be finished by April.  Hopefully I will have room in my rotation to start Twilight Bridge.  I love this chart, it reminds me of the Yeats poem, the Lake Isle of Innisfree.

19. Knitting.  As I type this, I’m wearing one of my handknit sweaters and it’s like a warm hug.  Though I hardly need more sweaters, I need to do something with my crazy yarn stash.  So my goal is to stashbust a little, with at least one accessory and one garment project.  I’ve joined the Reading & Stitching book on FB, and the theme this year is Harry Potter.  I may not get around to stitching giant Hogwarts crest pattern, but I’d love to knit Hermione Grainbow by J.R. Lockwood, and I have bunch of yarn (in 8 colors) stashed for it.

Rickie by Berroco is a fun, whimsical pattern hat in bulky yarn and would surely be a quick knit, how long can it possibly take to knit 124 yards anyway?  And it would stashbust my 2 skeins of Berroco Sundae.

I suppose 19 is quite enough for 2019!  But I did get 19 finishes last year, so with all things remaining the same, it’s feasible to at least start all of these projects.  However, whether I can do that and maintain a low WIP count remains to be seen.