OhSewCrafty Blog

May was a pretty good stitchy month, all my goals were met though my Maynia starts went through the 11th hour.  

First, my priority projects.  Father Christmas had 5 days love and 3,000 stitches done, I cross stitched on the hat, face, dove, and gift, did more backstitching, and starting beading from the top down.  He will certainly be a June finish goal! 

Next up is Christmas Blue Angel, she had 3 days attention and 3,000 stitches done.  I filled in the lower right page, and started working on the lower left.  She’s stitching up pretty quickly and I think it will be possible to finish later this year.

New focus Poltergeist Pirates had 3 days love and 3,000 stitches added, virtually all backstitches counted as half.  So, crazy as it seems, 5,900 backstitches were not enough to finish these 4 pages, which are the “meat” of the chart.   Still I love how it looks with the backstitching, and though I had hoped to get 15k on this project, I’m now confident that I will get that and more, hopefully a finish by the end of the year.  

Now for the secondary pieces, first up,  Belinda Botanica received 2 days attention and 2,000 stitches done.  I continued working on the lower left page, her dress, apron, the vines, grassy ground, terra cotta pot, and started a pumpkin. The dress is a little patchy because those stitches will be metallics or beads.  I’m pleased to announce Belinda will be moving to the 3k focus category in June!  

Winter Bellpull by Stoney Creek had 4 days love and 2,050 st added.  I finished the I panel with a little backstitching and border stitches, then did 2k on the N panel.  I think the rabbits are pretty cute.  It should be less than 2,000 stitches to finish the N panel in June. 

Now for my slow but steady pieces, St. George and Dragon had 1.5 days devoted and 1,500 stitches done.  I worked around the lower right corner of the border, extended it up a couple inches, and started working on the dragon again, the claws, back leg, back spine, I did a little on the horse’s foreleg too.  

Mickey Stained Glass had 1.5 days attention and 1,500 stitches done.  I continued working on page 4, the center left page.  The purple background goes much faster than the water, thankfully.  It’s coming along, and then I’ll start page 5, the center-center. It will require another 12 months to finish this at the current pace.  Maybe I can bump it up a little, next year.  

Positivity Rules had 2.5 days and 1,500 stitches done, plus a visit from the frog.  I made a mistake, doing a single color challenge, and had to undo quite a lot.  That was a bummer, but I’m back on track and bumping this one up to the 2k category, in June.

 Last but not least, I worked on my spring start-to-finish piece.  Egg with Tulips had 1.5 days and 1,100 stitches done.  I finished the cross, did the tent stitch shadow, and started backstitching. It will certainly be a June finish goal.

 In addition to all those wips, I did a limited Mania challenge, 4 new starts x 600 stitches per.  I think I’ll share those in a separate post because this one is already quite long. 

Question of the month: how to do personally distinguish between a Work in Progress and an unfinished object?  Well, WIPs live in my WIP box and regularly see the light of day.  My UFO, Rocky Point, is stashed under my bed in multiyear timeout (perhaps forever) because there is a mistake somewhere.  It’s a beautiful design but I don’t really need a large lighthouse (I have 2 smaller ones framed & hung in the guest bathroom).  I may have other UFOs, but I do not recall.  Out of sight, out of mind. 

Now for my June goals: 

•3k / finish: Father Christmas, Christmas Blue Angel, Poltergeist Pirates, Belinda Botanica

•2k: Winter Bellpull, Positivity Rules

•1.5 k: St. George & Dragon, Mickey Stained Glass

•1k: mystery start TBD (I need another piece by one of my current wip designers for the Daily 30 yearly challenge)

•600 st/ finish: Egg with Tulips, any others

Happy Stitching