Cross Stitch Update

I haven’t had much stitching time.  I spent quite a bit of time last week preserving and canning.  It’s that season so I do what the season demands.  It’s not cross-stitch season.  For me, that is the winter months.  Beyond that, I’ve really been in a HUGE sewing mood…and I’m going with that.

I’ve been thinking about my stitching lately.  I started my Anniversaries of the Heart on January 1st as my New Year/New Start.  It’s a thing some cross-stitchers do.  They start a new project on January 1st with the intention that they will finish it over the course of a year.

I am doing pretty good with this.  I’ve been keeping up or catch up the next month.  If you look I have nine blocks done.  Really, it’s only 8 months’ worth as chart #7 has a bonus chart, the alphabet in the top middle is the bonus chart.  That was supposed to be stitched if I were to keep up.

Well…this is the December bonus chart…One blog reader added her dog to this block and I’m tempted to add Rosie.  We’ll see.

It has a bonus chart that is two spaces wide so, in December I should stitch the December block plus that double block.  UGH.  That’s a lot of stitching in one month.  I don’t think I’d be able to get that done.

SO…I am changing courses to ensure that I finish this in 2021.  I am going to try to stitch two blocks this month.  That might mean not stitching a lot on anything else and that’s okay.  I’ll feel better in the end if I double up and stitch extra.  So…I am going to stitch block #9 which is a block for our daughter Kayla and her family.

Then I think I am going to drop down and start working on the bonus double block that you see in the picture above.

For now, those are my plans.

Enough of that, let’s show you the finished August block. I had a miserable time with this.  I don’t know that I’ve ever ripped something out so many times.  The J’s on the left side of the house were a bugger to space.  This block is for my parents.  They had five kids…all have J as their first initial.  Do you think I could space those J’s?  NOPE.

I finally got it but then look at my block.  I had space that needed to be filled.  See where my needle was pointing.  I didn’t like that space.

I ended up taking the heart that is over here…

..and made another.  I added a few other motifs that were repeated in the design to fill it all in.

Here it is finished.  You can see the changes I made compared to the chart.

I am content with it.

I pulled the threads for the September block.  This one will be for our daughter Kayla and her husband Spencer.  At first, I thought I would remove the big moth and put their names there.  Instead, I’ll modify the bottom under the house and put the names there.  I like the moth too much to skip it.

I have been doing so good with squeezing things for the quilting aspect but not for cross-stitching.  I decided that I want to change that a little bit.  I pulled out this…

It is a freebie chart from The Primitive Hare.  I have several things stitched that are Valentine-related.  I need to fully finish them but they are stitched.  I would love to have them all finished and ready for my dough bowl when Valentine’s Day rolls around.  This was another on the list I wanted to finish.  So I pulled it out.  I often have to sit with kiddos (Gannon mostly) to get them to fall asleep at naptime.  I decided when I do, I’m going to pull this out.

This week I did the “alenti” of the chart.  I did make myself promise that even though I could finish this easily in a half an hour or so, I wouldn’t.  I’d save this for naptime only.

I think having a super simple project is just what I need occasionally too.  I do these LONG HARD samplers and then I never get a finish.  I think it drains momentum for me when I rarely have never have a cross-stitch finish.

Coming up is Blackbird weekend.  This is a stitch along.  It’s the first weekend of every month.  Cross stitchers are encouraged to grab a Blackbird Design project and stitch on it over the weekend.  I am working on this.  Last month I only stitched for half an hour on it.

Hopefully, I’ll have a little more to show you next week.

I worked very little on A Changed World.  I put my energy into finishing my Anniversary of the Heart August block.

Here you can see I added a little more to the zigzag on the left side.  I finished the braid that goes under the first set of words and that’s it.

I think this is going to only be worked on once a week or so until I can get some big progress on Anniversaries of the Heart.  I really want to finish that this year.  I think the turning of the calendar to September put a little bit of fire in my britches.

That’s it for this week.  Don’t forget to check out the progress of Judy and Denise…you can find their blogs here.
Judy at Patchwork Times
Denise at Just Quiltin