OhSewCrafty Blog

Hello, friends!  March wasn’t the greatest stitchy month, but I managed to address most of my goals.

Let’s begin with my focus WIPs.  The month started with Fairy Wind, which had 4.5 days love and 4,000 stitches added.  I would have liked to start backstitching, but I needed some new Kreinik colors for that.  So I started cross stitching the upper half.

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Feather Fairy had 3 days attention and 2,600 stitches added.  The feather skirt is growing, almost done with that bit! 

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Winter robin had 5.5 days love and 2,800 stitches added, some that of that backstitch counted for half, and a lot of the pale green feathering around the edge of the circle.  That is done with 1 thread over 2, so it’s a little faint, but it does create a nice soft effect, like watercolor paint almost. Previous:

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Smaller goals were met, Father Christmas had 2 days attention and 1,200 stitches done.  Miles of red, but it pops on the blue and I’m loving it.  

Poltergeist Pirates had 1 day action and 1,200 stitches done.  I adore this piece, the ship looks 3-D, Glendon Place charts are fantastic.  I filled in more of the mast, stitched more sails, and started on the deck of the ship with the railings.
Mickey Stained Glass had 1 day love (equivalent) and 1,200 stitches done.  Markup R-XP is a big help, even if it’s a little wonky.  It doesn’t capture all the characters and fails to distinguish between some.  But it still assists with all the crazy confetti.  The first page is nearing completion.  (it’s 9 pages in all).  The orange / brown bit on the right is the beginning of Mickey’s shoe.  I’m really looking forward to stitching his red robe!  

St. George and Dragon had less than 1 day love and 1,000 stitches added.  I worked mostly on the horse and its fancy outfit.  The horse has less fractional stitches, thankfully!  
Making a Brew had 1.75 days action and 1,200 stitches added.  This piece is great fun with all the Halloween colors.  I’m not sure what those egg-shaped things are supposed to be…cream and sugar, perhaps. 
I made a new start, small full coverage, Aloha Banana by Jenny Barton / World of Cross Stitching.  It had 1 day and 1,400 stitches added.  Kind of a weird choice, but I think it’s terribly cute and would make a cute easel finish for my summer mantle, and I needed something with sand for the WIP warriors road trip.   I was upgraded by the admins to a higher tier after I finished Leg 1 early, but I had less stitchy time in March and keeping up with Leg 2 is a challenge.  Also, it has words (well, one word) and the Daily 30 weekly challenges frequently include wips with words.

Another new start, also full coverage, is an ornament, Gingerbread Row by Laurel Susan Studio from the JCS Ornaments 2023, so it counts as a SAL piece, which I also need for the Daily 30 weekly tasks. And being full coverage, this will take many weeks to finish in 300 stitch sections (and grant me some breathing room, in terms of stitching SALs).  This one had a half day and 600 stitches added.  

Yet another new start, Easter Parade by Brittercup designs, from deep stash, on an equally dated Strawberry Milkshake Belfast (Silkweaver), had a quarter day (1 hour) and 300 stitches done.  I really wanted to participate in the Semisane Spring Start to Finish challenge, and this project is small enough to finish in a couple months.  Another cute mantle decoration, perhaps a dimensional rectangle.

Finally, last but not least, Decorating the Tree by Judith Kringle / JCS Ornaments 2023, had 1.75 days and 975 stitches and it’s finished!  (well, except for the star button at the top of the tree, but I had nothing appropriate in my stash).  Anyway, it’s basically finished, on Spellbound 32 count jobelan (Under the Sea Fabrics).  Overall, it required 2.25 days and 1,575 stitches.  

Question of the Month: What color and brands of floss do you love using?  DMC is my jam.  It’s (relatively) inexpensive, widely available, and good quality.  I also enjoy Weeks Dye Works variegated cotton and Caron Waterlilies (silk).  Recently I’m using a lot of Colour & Cotton variegated cotton for my Easter Parade and that is lovely too.  (I went stash diving for that project).  

Now for April goals.  April is my birthday hope and I’m hoping it will be “my” month and include lots of stitchy time.

Finish: Winter Robin, Christmas Kitten

Focus WIPs (4k each): Fairy Wind, Feather Fairy, Making a Brew, Poltergeist Pirates

Secondary (1.2k each): Father Christmas, St. George and Dragon

Tertiary (1 k each): Mickey Stained Glass, Easter Parade, Gingerbread Row, Aloha Banana

New starts (1 k each): 4th of July, Halloween train or Halloween party?