I have worked on 2 cross stitch pieces this week.
What are you hand stitching today? We hope you will link up your instagram or blog post today and share your projects with us.
Benefits:
*It keeps the energy going for long term projects that are bogged down with "this is taking forever" negative energy. Of course it's taking forever, it's a hand stitched project!
*Putting in 1 thread alleviates the guilt that comes with not working on a project you have loved. You can feel good about making a bit of progress with each thread.
*You don't have to solve any problems. Just pick an area that you know you can put a thread in, and then put the project away. Often times I find that my brain is working away quietly in the background solving a project's problem while I put in some stitches.
*It is a great feeling of accomplishment ("a stitcher's high") when you have touched 4 projects! I feel like a stitching star who deserves applause when I've made all that progress! LOL
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What are you hand stitching today? Please share your progress with us and link up your blog below!
Hello slow stitchers!
I'm so sorry to not have a blog post today. My Dad died suddenly yesterday so I am in a bit of a grief fog. I will post the link up party below and then will be off the computer for a bit while we make arrangements. And I will use my stitching to keep myself together...one stitch at a time.
This past week I have had tunnel vision on my 2025 Blessings Sampler start. I heard that starting a blessing sampler at the beginning of the year will bring blessings to your needle/stitching and/or to your home/family. I don't know if this folklore is true, but I fully embraced it and started stitching my sampler on New Year's Eve.
I dug through my fabric stash and have picked out a backing and a binding to make this into a little wallhanging. I just need to buy some kind of stabilizer so I can complete it.
One of the things I thought about while stitching this sampler is what I would like to hand stitch in 2025. I have made a little list which I may or may not follow and I will share 3 of them here:
1) Do more finishing! I have so many UFO's waiting either for finishing or problem solving to more toward a finish.
2) Toward that same end - no more online purchasing!
So maybe that is a good decision to stop any further impulse buying? The order that I am saddest about is not getting a 2025 Book of Days. I ordered it from 2 different companies just in case and they have both disappeared. All of the orders are apparently "in transit" and one even says it was delivered... which it was not.
3) Finish my "Life is Beautiful" quilt. All of the embroidery and hand quilting is done, and the blocks just need to be sewn together in quilt-as-you-go fashion, which I enjoy to do. I have brought the box out of storage and will "set myself up for success" by getting everything ready for when stitching moments happen.
Do you have any hand stitching goals for 2025? Link up your blog post below and share your projects with us!
I'm so happy to be your host after all these years! Thank you for coming back, for reading my posts, for linking up your posts, and most especially... thank you for all the words of encouragement that you leave for all the slow stitchers! Because stitching is mostly a solitary activity, we do enjoy connecting with others who share our wonderful hobby!
I made a New Year's Eve video to share my plans for a 12 x 12 day, which means you pick 12 projects and stitch each of them for only 1 hour. You can watch that video here. And if you want to see the results of the day, you can watch the progress video here.
Also, here is my last big finish in 2024 which was the Nordic Christmas Countdown project from Evertote, Modern Folk Embroidery and Roxy Floss.
It used 25 different floss colours and contains so many different motifs. The birds and the reindeer are my favourites, but I loved stitching it all! Total number of stitches = 5,465!
For yesterday afternoon's sewing I tried something new - a "4 thread day". My idea was to stitch one thread on 4 different projects. Does that sound like a good idea or a bad one? Maybe it's a little too frenetic for some people, but it did give me a chance to work on 4 completely different stitches. I stitched one thread of red, one of white, one blue, and one purple!
It's the week between Christmas and New Year, which is always a bit disorienting for me. There has been a lot of cooking, tidying, visiting, and eating delicious food. I'm ready for a vacation to recover from the holiday!
I have made a couple of changes as I went along.
One change I made was to switch out the pink on the left half star, with a softer light green. I like it much better as I thought there was too much pink on the bottom. I still need to add 2 reindeer, finish the birds and stitch something under the crowns (either my initials or hearts). I am very proud of keeping up with this stitch along in such a busy month.
On New Year's Eve I am planning to participate in the "12 by 12", where you work on 12 different projects for one hour throughout the day (to read more about 2023's event click here). And on New Year's Day I will start a mystery quilt sew along with Scrapdash called Pretty in Paisley. So it will be a busy few days coming up!
I seem to have a preference for blue these days, and I'll show you one more blue project.
