I'm back!!! Some of you haven't truly missed me as we are friends on FB. But I have missed interacting in the blog world. FB is ok, but I love the stories behind everything. The highs, lows, stresses, mistakes, achievements, and just nailing stuff! Also I much prefer to keep up with everyone's progress on a more personal level. And you just can't get all of that in a FB post or an Instagram pic and comment.
So it's back to my homeland. My original contact with the cross stitch community.
There are things I will only post here and not on other media. Here I will post all my progress, whereas on other media, I will only be posting significant progress or new starts, or that elusive thing (for me anyway) the FINISH!! 🤗
This is what's been happening since I last posted. I've had quite a few new starts! Those of you that know me won't be surprised. My friend Diane, celebrated her 50th birthday last year and roped me into doing 50 new starts for her 50th. To be honest she didn't really have to twist my arm too hard LOL!
I made it, but it was a close call, as I started my final one on the 31st December. I will show the 50 as they come up in this years rotation.
2025 GOALS
This is one of my focus on a finish wips, Mini Sisters Max Colours by Amy Brown and charted by Heaven and Earth Designs. It is a gift for my sister so you will be seeing it a lot in Gifted Gorgeousness which is held by the lovely Jo of Serendipitous Stitching.
This is where I am currently at with it. 12.28% completed 8,590/69,975
Another focus on a finish. The 2025 HAED SAL
Drinks on the Beach by Lars Stewart
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| Drinks on the Beach |
So far only 843 stitched. This quarter we have 24,735 to stitch. So I need to get a motor on!The requirement is that you have to stitch 6 full pages minimum, to qualify to receive all of the charts that were offered on the SAL. There are 4 I love and it was a hard choice. It was between Jelly world, Flamingos and Steampunk Portal. I figured that Drinks on the Beach would be the easiest stitch that would help me get 6 pages completed in order to get the others. Jelly world is the biggest chart amongst them all!! What do you think? Which one do you like?
I have started a daily rotation. On my last count I have 148 wips and 30 of them are supersized or even bigger! And they just haven't been getting the love they deserve. So I'm hoping dedicating a day on each of them will help get things moving. The rotation will kick in on Monday 10th February.
This week has been all about Supersized Past Present Future by Aimee Stewart and designed by Heaven and Earth Designs. This was my new start #32 in 2024 for the 50 new start challenge.
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| Total stitched for February was 1,541 |
I am doing this in diagonal stitching across the entire chart. It may be a little ambitious, but I want to stitch an entire diagonal each time it comes up in the rotation. Including when the diagonal is across the whole chart. It's okay at the moment as the diagonals are reasonably small. Let's see shall we 😜
January was not a great month for stitching. I flew interstate to attend my friend, Sharine's birthday. You may remember her, she is a blogger (which is how we first met) called Charbella Stitching, and like me she has let it lapse a little. Click on the link to see her blog. Her last post was in August 2024 and the one before that was in 2020. I'm going to try and get her to go back to it.
Sharine and I have known each other for at least 12 years and last year was the first time we met in person. It was so surreal. We attended a retreat in NSW and the poor thing had to catch a train that took 13 hours. She does not like flying. Luckily I do, as it only took me 90 minutes to fly to her.
We are both working on a chart together, Ghosts in the Forest by Charting Creations and the artist is one of my favourites, Dusan Markovic.
Sharine is stitching across the chart page by page and I am stitching down in columns. One day we will happily meet somewhere in there 🤞💕
This is not an updated photo of mine. I will have to dig it out. I have completed the first full column of pages and now I am back up the top and halfway through technically page 2.
I took it with me to Victoria and it was so cool to work on it with Sharine in the same room whilst watching movies together. I was there for a week and when I returned to Sydney I haven't picked it up again 😢
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| Mine |
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| Sharine's |
This was what I mostly worked on in January. Castle Cutaway XL by Steve Crisp and charted by Artecy.
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| From this |
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| To this |
I just wanted to finish at least one of the boys!!I love how Tereena from Artecy, charts nature. I have seen so many finished pieces by other stitchers that have worked on Autumnal trees, and beautiful water designs and it looks like a photograph. Even the trees in this picture, even though the original illustration is an obvious drawing, it still looks quite realistic.
Total stitched 1,406 in this session.
This currently sits at 22,276/645,050 or 3.45%. So it's one of my biggest babies!
Rotation
This is my 2025 rotation. But it is subject to change 😆
Monday: SAL's (15)
Tuesday: Gifted Gorgeousness (stitch on a gift to give to another - 7)
Wednesday: Samplers (5)
Thursday: Mini Sisters
Friday: Ghosts in the Forest
Saturday: One of my Supersized babies (30)
Sunday: One of my regular size or smaller wips (last count - 85)
I use an app called Tiny Decisions. And I have loaded all my wips by category into the wheels. I spin it up on each day that category is due and work on whatever wins the spin. I love all my wips so it won't matter which one I land on! (I say that now 🤣)
The only thing that changes is that every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month I go to a stitching group. The first one is at an RSL club where we hire the room for 4 hours and the second one is a little more local and we hire the hall for 6 hours. On these days I will be doing one of my Focus pieces.
2025 is a no new start and no purchasing of charts. I have allowed myself to buy things to kit up a stash chart only, but I'm not allowed to start it until 2026. Of which there are currently 36 charts waiting to be started. I know, I know but as my blog description states, it's about a lunatic that loves to cross stitch 😜🤣
I will be updating the accompanying pages soon too.
Ok, that's it from me. Now I'm going to dive into all your blogs.
Enjoy all your stitching and everything else that life has to offer.
QUOTE: The expert in anything, was once a beginner 💖
