OhSewCrafty Blog

January was a pretty good stitchy month. Extreme cold weather, snow, and ice meant lots of time at home, and I did achieve my goals. First, my focus pieces.

Fairy Idyll had 3.5 days love and 3,000 stitches added. I’m really close to moving onto another page…. I made a working copy of 9 pages for this chart. It’s fun, working on the pink bedding after miles of yellow for the dress.

Fairy of the Clouds had 3 days attention and 3,000 stitches done. I love working on this piece, the colors are so pretty and the stitching is easy with long bands of color. I worked up to the midline of the chart (and beyond), so next month, I will go back to the bottom and start backstitching.

Santa’s Gifts had 3.5 days and 3,000 stitched. I just adore this chart, the animals are so fun. I worked on the robe, fur trim, blue lining, green gown, red trim, the brown sack, green ribbon and quite a lot on the wolf and the leaves around his neck.

Secondary goals were a mixed bag. I did a new start on Ghool School, ultimately 3 days and 2,000 stitches done. I started at the lower right corner and am working towards center. The walls are kind of boring but the vampire was fun. There are no faces charted on this, so I will need to buy the button pack, which I did not realize before starting.

Outlander Sampler had 2 days and 2,000 stitches added. I worked on Jamie’s bust, up the page break, and he’s quite handsome even in silhouette! I also did more on the standing stones, the stars, and the right border.

My other new start, Wheel of the Year, had 1 day, 402 stitches and I decided to frog it all and toss the chart.. It doesn’t look like the original art IMO, I think this was probably a computer conversion with too few stitches. Also I think the colors are kind of weird. The top border (in this section) is meant to be green pine, and it has black patches and lot of blue, strange. The word “solstice” looks more like “rotation” if anything. This is a large chart, around 300 st diameter. With so many issues in the first 400 st, I did not care to find out how many would arise in the entire chart. It’s kind of a bitter pill, since I love the art, but oh well.

After a few days of consideration, I decided to start the Deadly Aquarium SAL by Lola Crow for my Flora/ Fauna rotation slot. My hubby likes it, reminding him of our lunch at Sea World’s Shark’s Underwater Grill in Orlando. It’s big enough, so I’m using it for the Semisane Calendar SAL, as well. I gave it a 1/2 day and 1,100 st, quite a bit more than planned but I was really enjoying it, and I adore this fabric- Water Spirit Belfast by Seraphim. This will be a 2,000 st goal, monthly, but I gave myself a little grace since it was a late start on January 29th.

As for smaller goals, Mickey Stained Glass had 2.5 days and 1,500 added, not quite enough to finish the penultimate page though. According to Markup R-XP, there are 3,340 left to do. I may do a little extra in February and March, set myself for an easy birthday finish in early April.

St. George and Dragon had 2 days and 1,700 stitches done, mostly on George’s shirt, but also the left border. Then went back to the bottom and started backstitching the dragon and filling in some ninja stitches. The dragon (on the bottom half) is mostly backstitched at this point, though I didn’t do the eye or mouth, flames are in progress.

USA 250 had 3 days love and 1,500 st done. I worked on the eagle, the shield, and the left leaning flag. It’s getting close and should be finished in February or March.

As for my little ornies, I achieved 3 finishes, (clockwise from top left): Holiday Flair by Linda Jenkins (1.5 days, 495 st), Christmas Cake by Rhona Norrie (0.5 day, 244 st), and O Holy Night Shepherd by Linda Gillum (0.5 day, 107 st). I also made a new start, Regal Diamond by Kim Beamish from JCS Christmas 2023.

Overall, I’m happy with the Focus X challenge stream with WIP warriors. So I have my 8 big wips, plus USA 250, and I rotate the ornaments in one at a time until finished. At this point, only Cuckooo Clock is waiting in the wings.

January Question of the month: tell us about the oldest WIP in stash: Okay, that would be Mickey Stained Glass by Neni Designs (etsy), started January 24, 2024, stitched on 18 count grey aida. It was a confetti-tastic nightmare at first, but I managed to tame it with the help of Markup RXP. I made some really cracking progress in 2025, 20,616 stitches. Less is more with this one, so I aim for 1,500 st/ month, usually. I’m looking forward to finishing it this year!

Now for February goals: