Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching celebration! If you enjoy creating hand made projects with needles and threads, you have come to the right place!

This week I have been stitching on my Extraordinary Birds SAL by Lola Crow and I am enjoying it very much. I worked on the peacock which is feat #9 (feat #13 was just posted, so I am behind) and it was very challenging. There was a lot of backstitching which felt like I was doing embroidery, because it was done over a couple of stitches on top of the cross stitches.

Instead of the recommended 2 strands, I used only 1 for the green embroidery because there was so much of it, and it just took over the design. But wow the overall effect is just stunning and totally worth all the time, counting, and effort. I just can't believe I stitched something so complicated!

I am excited to start the next feat/step and it will be the romantic birds with some quite interesting mating rituals! That should be fun!

What are you hand stitching this week? We love to see your projects, so please link up your blog post below.

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Hello stitcher! Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party where we hope you will get lots of inspiration and encouragement to help you on your stitching journey!

I had been making great progress on the project that I picked for Colorado Cross Stitcher's Summer Camp - the Anti-Summer Club pattern. It has been such a hot summer that this design suited my experience perfectly.

When I messed up stitching the umbrella, I transferred the pattern to Pattern Keeper and all of a sudden realized that I had chosen a project (to finish in August) that has 8,691 stitches! I had no idea looking at the paper chart that it was so intense. And here we are passed the middle of the month, and although I have made a valiant effort with 1,567 stitches done, it's still only 18% of the required stitches.

That realization took all the wind out of my sails for this project! I still like it, but realizing I wouldn't meet the deadline meant that I was going to start a couple of other projects! I know it's crazy, but that's what happened!

So I started a Silver Creek pattern called "The Miracle of You" on Roxy Floss Co.aida using 2 strands of thread.

And then I watched Sarah's Stitchy Spot flosstube video and started a project that she was working on called "Determined Woman" by Sew Be Stitchery.

As I watched the video, I searched for the pattern online, purchased the pdf, picked a scrap of fabric and some threads from my stash, and started stitching this new project before the video was over! What on earth!?!? I was a determined stitcher!

My WIPs are out of control and yet I keep starting new projects! Maybe I can blame it on the hot, hot weather? But I am having so much fun and soaking up the joy of each new start! 

What are you stitching this week? Do you have a case of startitis, or are you meeting your goals and finishing projects?

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! We are well into a very hot August here and I have to admit that I have not spent much time outside this summer. We have had frequent poor air quality warnings and regular heat advisories. 

This was yesterday:

Heat Warning

Issued at Sat 5:07 AM Aug. 9

Issued by: Environment and Climate Change Canada

Description

Multi-day heat event begins today.

What:

Daytime highs of 30 to 35 degrees Celsius, with humidex values of 35 to 40.

Overnight lows of 19 to 22 degrees Celsius.

When:

Beginning today.

Additional information:

Slightly cooler temperatures are expected by the middle of next week, bringing an end to this heat event.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm tired of it! So I found the perfect project to work on... Anti-Summer Club! It fits the mood perfectly for me. And also, it's hard stitching and made me even crabbier! I don't really enjoy stitching with black or white as it seems to be harder for my eyes. But I persevered and messed up the lovely lace pattern on the umbrella. I ripped out and re-stitched, and finally said "my umbrella is unique" and chopped it off on the left side so the skull could fit underneath. UGH!

Eventually I decided that the paper pattern was too hard for me to follow. Maybe it's heat stroke - it's a lovely, easy looking pattern! So after the umbrella fiasco, I imported the project into pattern keeper (which is a cross stitching APP) and it has been smooth sailing ever since. It's so much easier for me. You can see on the left side (tilt your head!) that yesterday I added 371 stitches for a total of 769 stitches completed. This project has 8,691 stitches in total. Now why on earth was I thinking I could start and finish that in August?!? Craziness! Anyway I am 8.85% complete. Stay tuned to see how this drama will play out!

But there has been some fun stitching while sitting beside the window air conditioner - Extraordinary Birds SAL has seen some progress. 

I finished feat #8 (of the 11 steps that have been posted) without any mistakes. I still need to finish the backstitching on his head. This is the Rhinoceros Hornbill, which is a fascinating creature. I have really enjoyed learning about the birds of the world in this project by Lola Crow and it has been a highlight of my summer stitching.

How are you managing this summer? Or winter if you live downunder? Link up your blog post below and share your progress with us!

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