#24HOCS January Marathon

This weekend is the first #24Hours of Cross Stitch Marathon of 2020 and the first one I've been able to participate in finally. I'm going to join in but I have come down with a bit of a bug so who knows how much I'll actually get done. She started this awhile ago with a 24 hour straight marathon. Since some people just can't stitch that long in a row she has now made it Friday through Sunday. The goal to stitch as much as you can in that span. I heard on her latest floss tube she is even going to have a few giveaways this time for if you participate for any length of time.

I wanted to come up with a fun plan for the marathon. I had Jeremiah and Mom pick 6 numbers each to come up with a list of 12 WIPs from my WIP list on my Goals and SALs tab above. I'm going to go down the list they picked and work on each project for 2 hours according to my stop watch. I might not get to them all but boy I'll sure try. I didn't let them pick a number for a new start or for a WIP I've already worked on this month. What they came up with was some really great older pieces. So let's see the list. I will show before and after pictures Monday with my wrap up post.

1) #20 Elegant Squid - Ink Circles
I haven't worked on since 2016.

2) #50 On Beach Time - Hands on Design
I haven't worked on since the Longest Day Marathon 2017.

3) #72 Wave Dancer - Dinky Dyes
I haven't worked on since 2015.

4) #9 Best Friend Santa - Mill Hill Jim Shore Kit
I haven't worked on since the Longest Day Marathon 2017.

5) #22 Evergreen Snowman - Mill Hill Jim Shore Kit
I haven't worked on since the another Longest Day Weekend Marathon 2019.

 6) #12 Christmas Banner - Stoney Creek
Wow I haven't worked on since 2014.

7) #55 Rules for Life - Kincavel Krosses Freebie
Even more Wow here. Haven't worked on since 2012. Before I even tagged my photos on my blog.

8) #1 4 Seasons - Erica Michaels
I worked on this one last July.

9) #41 Let's Get Spooky - Ursula Michael
I wanted to work on for October 2019 but didn't get a chance. So last time was for the January Challenge when I started it in 2016.

10) #27 Free to Be Me - Val's Stuff
I've worked on a few weekends at the cabin. July last year was the latest time.

11) #26 Flock Together - Hands on Designs
I haven't worked on since 2017.

12) #29 Grab Life - Hands on Design
I haven't worked on since the Longest Day SAL 2017.

I love how 3 of the Hands on Design set has been randomly picked. I swear they were randomly picked too. 8 numbers were picked that had to be skipped. 3 were WIPs I have worked on this month already. 5 were going to be new starts. How fun. So wonder how many I will actually be able to hit the 2 hours on. Luckily we don't have any plans and I've changed the menu around to be no cooking for me. We are going to binge watch The Mandalorian finally on Disney Plus. Sunday we also have a big WWE Pay Per View to watch. So should have lots of stitching time as long as this bug leaves me alone.

Grab your stitching and join in. See ya Monday with how I did.

Monday Update

Lots to talk about so let's go. First let's see what I worked on last week. After my little Stitcher's Code finish in my last post I got to work on the Homely Houseplants SAL prep. She gave us a pattern that we could start with ahead of time. This way we would be ready to add the plants when they get released. February 1st we get the first of 12 plants. They are released every 2 days. So here is my fabric all ready to go now...

The fabric is a piece of 28ct Cornflower Blue Hand dyed piece I had in my stash. I used DMC 400 for the mahogany wood look. I can't wait to get the first plant now! Plus just really glad to have all that COUNTING out of the way. This took me a lot longer than I thought it would. 5 hours and 17 minutes. The finished piece will be 8.5 x 11 inches. I think it will make a really neat larger pillow. Need to find a fun plant fabric for the back.

After getting that done I pulled out Beer Dragon. Remember this cutie...

 Here it was last time...

Friday I got 200 stitches in. Saturday I got 200 more. Sunday we were busier than I thought we would be so I only got a few odd and end stitches in. I'm working on filling in the final 400 stitches to complete the column. Here is where I am now...

So before putting it away I will finish those last 400 stitches. Just harder to count those spread out stitches so I don't worry about it.

Saturday we went to a local hockey game. Fred's company has their company Christmas party. Since everyone is busy around Christmas they wait and have it end of January. We had a buffet dinner and watched the game. It was fun but we stayed out late and I swear I'm still tired from it. Sunday we went down to our cabin to meet up with Dad and Bev. We wanted to book our April trip to Las Vegas again. I'm actually going to go in a plane. I know *gasp*. So since they fly all the time they helped us with getting it all setup. What a pain. But we have our tickets. Jeremiah is looking forward to his first flight. The last time I flew was 2001. So been a long time. But the thought of being TONS cheaper than the train and being there in 4 hours instead of 3 days was worth it. After getting our tickets we ate out together and then we headed home. It was a long day but it was fun to see our cabin again. We missed it.

So that last thing I have on my January acrostic is 4 hours on the Boba Fett piece for Jeremiah. Since I still have 12 days left I picked the last 3 letters I had blank. E, T, and X.

E is Salt Water Taffy because it's designing by Joan Elliott. I want to have at least 4 hours on it.

T is Camping Out Mill Hill Kit. The first section I am going to do is the tent section. I'll at least finish the tent section.

X is Wish Upon a Starfish because it's all just X's in this design. I want to have at least 4 hours on it.

So 4 more things to mark off to complete the whole January acrostic.

Have a great week! Here's hoping for a lot of stitching time.

Finish and another new SAL

It's finished...

Part 4 of the Stitcher's Code SAL is finished and put together. 3rd finish of the year and 3rd finished finish of the year. Extra worth celebrating I think. Reminder this is the 4th part of the 6 part SAL from Stitchingly and Durene Jones. Go here to see more about this one. The other 5 parts will come up with the WIPGO picks so I'll finish them up when their number gets picked. After working on this one I am really looking forward to the rest. It was a fun fast easy stitch.

Next up I'm getting my fabric ready for the new Stitchonomy SAL coming February 1st Homely Houseplants. If you haven't signed up get busy the sign ups close January 23rd. Go here to sign up. Trust me when you see it you'll kick yourself for not signing up. It's free ya know. Go sign up now. I know for me this will finally be a houseplant I won't kill haha.

Remember the Witchy Stitchy Challenge I did in October? I had to stitch 1 hour a day for 13 days and if I posted before and after photos on the Facebook group I would qualify for a free needle minder. I received it and LOVE it...

Now that same group is doing a new SAL. Go here to find out more information and sign up. Basically you stitch a half hour a day on any piece in February. Post a before and after photo each day. I also see on the website you can do this via email. If you succeed you will receive a Love to Stitch needle minder. I think you have to pay shipping if you are located oversees. This time you can miss 4 days. But the 29th is a mandatory stitch day because of it being Leap Day. For the Halloween SAL I planned a fun Halloween Biscornu and worked on it only for that SAL. I'm planning a Valentine related piece for this one. I figure that's perfect for a February Love challenge don't you think?

This weekend is also IHSW (International Hermit Stitch Weekend). Of course things keep coming up but tomorrow should be a full stitching day at least. I'll stitch when I can Saturday and Sunday too. I need to get the fabric ready for the houseplants SAL and then I think Beer Dragon will come out for the rest of the weekend.

Have a great weekend! See ya Monday for an update.

January Gifted Gorgeousness

The lovely Jo is yet again hosting the wonderful Gifted Gorgeousness. On the 15th of each month we are supposed to make a post about anything we have received as a gift or are stitching as a gift for someone else. This is a way to share how wonderful the stitching community is.

Go to Jo's January check in post and also sign up on the main page for the SAL. Jo explains more on her post.

I'm so thankful to have a family that supports my addiction hobby. I received many new wonderful patterns for Christmas this year.

So let's look back to after Christmas and what I've worked on that qualifies for this event.


I finished this beautiful Hinzeit piece with a backing fabric that Rachel was so kind enough to send me for my 40th birthday last May...

It sure turned out beautiful. Thanks Rachel!

I've been working on 99 Bottles from Ink Circles. It's a present for my husband. It will be finished this year. In order for that to happen I plan to add 4 bottles a month which is totally achievable...

This month's 4 bottles finished up the 5th shelf.

Janet from Janet Jabber Flosstube channel is a close personal friend of mine. She was working on this seasonal set and I fell in love. They are from New York Dreamer. Right now I'm working on Winter. From the sound of all the comments it totally makes sense I fell in love with them...

That's it right now. Please come back next month on the 15th to see what I will be posting about then.

Monday Update

Howdy. It's Monday so let's see what I've been up to. Last week I had a good stitching week. Last Monday I already shared with you that I finished Merry Noel. So Tuesday I got to work on my 99 Bottles monthly 4 bottles goal. Wednesday I finished up the goal of adding the 4 bottles...

Here is a close up so you can see the 4 bottles I added. This finished off the 5th shelf so I stitched the shelf as well. Here is the whole piece now...

Updated my counter on the right side. 44 Bottles Left now.

Thursday I had my finishing day I reported already. Then I pulled out Winter Time. My goal for the month was to add 4 hours to it. Here it was before...

I put in 4 Hours 15 Minutes...

This one is really fun to work on. Love the way it's turning out. I do have to tell those who knew I was planning on giving these charts away when I am finished. I might not be able to do that. The owner of the charts that gave them to me has a sister and she really wants these charts back when I finish them. I'm sorry to the few that were really interested in hopefully winning these charts.

Saturday I started another piece from my acrostic goals. This is Stitchingly's SAL called Stitcher's Code...

The designs are done by Durene Jones. Part 5 has since been released too...

Love it!!! So true for me haha. I'm doing this SAL but as individual pieces instead of a full project. I let Jeremiah pick 1 through 5. He picked 4. So I got started on the scissors block in the first photo. Here is my progress after the weekend...

I'm stitching them on 18ct white aida with the suggested DMC threads. Going to do my little double sided pillow finish for these.

Sunday Janet from Janet Jabber Flosstube channel hosted a gathering for stitchers. We got together at a hospital cafeteria of all places but I'll tell you what it was actually perfect. We had wonderful lighting. Comfy chairs. More than enough room. Restrooms, Food, and lots of parking of course. It worked wonderful. Plus it was probably less than 2 miles from my house. So even better! There were 4 of us close friends and another local lady from Fort Wayne that attended. It was wonderful. Of course I would much rather it be a whole weekend retreat. But it felt like a mini 3 hour retreat. It was so motivating. (Not that I have been having a problem with that lately haha). We gabbed and gabbed. I did get 1 hour and 32 minutes worth on stitching in the 2 to 5 pm time span haha. Yep too much talking. It was a lot of fun. She is already talking about setting up a date for February. I really hope I am available to attend.

Sunday after I got back home we finally got a chance to watch the new Joker movie. Wow! What an actor Joaquin Phoenix was in that. He sure nailed that role! We really enjoyed it a lot. Also finished up Chernobyl the mini series that was on HBO. What a sad event. I'm not normally a historical event show type of person but I am really glad we watched that series. Amazing how accurate they made the show compared to the real photos and videos. Definitely a story that deserved to be told.

Now it's a new week. I hope everyone has a great one. I'm going to keep working on the Stitcher's Code Part 4 until I finish it up. Be back to share that with you when it happens.

FFG - January

Today is the 10th of the month which means it's time for a Fully Finished Gallery post. Rachel has given us the perfect push to finish off our stitching so it can displayed like it deserves to be. I sure needed it. I have a bin full of old pieces that need finished. I call it the box of shame. Those lovely pieces don't deserve to be in there at all. So watch those counters on my right side. I plan to do better on those!

Head over to Rachel's check in post to see what lovelies have been finished this month.

Let's look back and see what I've finished off since the last check in post.

December 20th Snowflake SAL from Stitchonomy was finished. I did my first hoop finish...

I also finished the December Lizzie Kate on the 20th...

January 4th I went to my LNS and picked up some framing...

These are Box of Shame finishes. The top ones are Pine Mountain Snapshots 7 were stitched in 2017. 5 were stitched in 2018. You are Loved was finished in 2018. Ocean in  a Bottle was finished in 2019. So 14 total Box of Shame pieces finished off!!!

Yesterday I pulled out all my sewing stuff again finally. First I had way too much fun organizing. Got my fabrics all into sections so it's easier to find what I need. Christmas in one pile. Halloween in another. Now of course I want to go shopping. Spreading it out makes you realize it's not as much as you thought you had haha. Anyway after playing with everything I did have some more finishes...

January Fairy was first up...

The fabric under her is what's on the back. I thought the snowflake fabric was perfect for the back of her. Next up was Merry Noel...

Rachel sent me this gorgeous fabric in my 40th birthday present last May. I love it. I think it was the perfect fit for the back of this one. Both this and the fairy are new finishes for 2020.

Last up was a fun finish on a piece from 2017. Harvest Garden Mill Hill...

I bought this wooden pumpkin at AC Moore when we were traveling. I painted it. Glued the Harvest Garden on and some fun things around it. I just LOVE how it turned out. Fall button pack, 3 burlap flowers, and 2 gorgeous resin flowers.

So a whopping 19 finishes to report this month. I'm beyond happy. Rachel I told you that you would be proud of me.

So let's count them all up now because of this SAL...

2019 I reported 41 finishes

Jan -- 19 more

Total of 60!!!

Awesome! Now to keep adding to it. I plan to finish off the fairy each month and at least 1 piece from my Box of Shame. Here's hoping I can stick with it.

Finish and WIPGO

I just had to stop back in today with another finish to share...

Love Bits: Merry Noel from Hinzeit
 Stitched on 28ct Cream Lugana
Threads are Suggested DMC
Started Jun 23rd for the Longest Day Marathon
Took 3 Days Total 5 Hours 52 Minutes

My 2nd finish for the year. What a fun little piece. Love that charm. Now I can mark off a piece from my WIP list and an acrostic letter. 

I also just discovered another fun Facebook/Instagram/Blog/Floss Tube Event. It's called WIPGO. It's basically a bingo card filled with your WIPs. Each month the owner of the Facebook group picks two numbers. You work on the WIPs in those boxes. You set your own rewards for when/if you hit a Bingo. At the end of the year if you complete them all you will have a full card so should pick a bigger reward for that. So as we all know I love joining things and I love motivation so I decided to join in. Go here for the Facebook group. I've heard it's big on Floss Tube right now as well. I don't know if it's available via just email or not. Probably. I would assume you can just make your own bingo board and follow along. I downloaded one available on the Facebook group and got busy filling it out. Here is what I came up with for the challenge...

So let's look at what I'm planning. As you can hopefully see. Each row has Beer Dragon or Dragon Eye in it. 200 stitches required on each one to count that block filled in. I've put 4 small Mill Hill kits on there. The 6 part Stitcher's Code SAL I put 5 on there because I knew I was planning on doing one part this month already. Then I filled the rest with old WIPs that deserve attention. Minimum 2 hours of progress to call that square finished. I left off the Free spot. So whatever month she picks the middle spot I'll have 3 focus pieces instead of just 2. January # 6 and 12 were called. So you go across from top left to right then down next row left to right. So Merry Noel was block 6 and Beer Dragon is block 12. I finished Merry Noel last night so I was able to fill that block in already. 

My reward for Bingo was hard to decide. But last night I finally remembered I have fallen in love with the Mini Patterns that Frosted Pumpkin has available on her website. So when I get a bingo Jeremiah is going to pick a mini pattern as a reward. Then if I fill the whole card I want the Hello Seasons! Bundle set. 

So we'll see what I can accomplish with that. Looks fun and is extra motivation for stitching and progress which is always nice. 

Fred picked the next choice from my acrostic list and just happened to pick 99. So I will be finishing up my 4 bottles for the month next.

Monday Update

I have a lot to share so pull up a chair and let's go.

Saturday I picked up my framing. Are you ready for these beautiful pieces?!?!

First up is the Pine Mountain Snapshots. I did these monthly in 2017. I wasn't able to finish them that year and got a few finished up in 2018. I got them all stretched and my framer made a frame to pop them in and out each month. I need to go back now and update my Box of Shame finishes because these 12 are in that count.

Next up is Ocean in a Bottle from 2019. So happy this one can finally be on display. Now to find the right spot to hang it.

Last is You are Loved from 2018. This was designed by Hinzeit and hubby got it for me for a Christmas gift. I think it will go to the cabin to be displayed. The frame is a light green and I really love how it pulls the green out of the design.

I love the way each one turned out. Professional framing is something I get for special pieces that really deserve that extra touch. I'm so thankful to have these framed and ready to be displayed. I'm lucky to have a LNS (local needlework store) that does framing and their prices are fantastic.

Two more things to share. Sunday I had my first finish of 2020...

This marks off I for the Year Long Alphabet challenge because January is Ice Cold or maybe there's Ice in her drink haha. Also marks off ! on the monthly acrostic because I was really really looking forward to working on this one.

She took me 11 hours and 56 minutes total. I'm happy with that time for these adorable fairies. Again I'm stitching them on 32ct Lambswool Evenweave Suggested DMC 2 threads over 2.

Sunday I also pulled out another piece from my acrostic. My cute random number generator or AKA Jeremiah picked a number which represented Merry Noel. I started this Hinzeit last year for the Longest Day Marathon...

I had set the goal of finishing the top Merry part before putting it aside. Here it is now after last night's work on it...

I hope everyone has a great week.

Welcome WIPocalypse Post

I'm joining in WIPocalypse again. I've enjoyed this one for several years now. The idea is to finish all our WIPs (Works in Progress) before the apocalypse. How would that ever be possible? Only if all the designers suddenly quit designing. Only if all my stash suddenly went missing and all the stores closed in the world. There is no way I will finish them all. So I just do my best and enjoy the ride while I can.

First I guess it would be nice to know a little about me. My name is Katie. I am happily married to my husband Fred. We have a wonderful son named Jeremiah who is now 21 years old. Wow. That's just not possible. He has a disability called Cerebral Palsy so I devoted my life to being his caretaker when he was born. Best job in the world. Cross stitching was something I could do with my hands while watching him grow up. I've always loved crafts so doing something when sitting still was definitely a requirement. We bought a house with my mom 12 years ago. We traveled all the time together and have been so fortunate to be so close. We made so many amazing memories with all our amazing travels. In December 2017 she had a stroke. It was luckily mild but still affects her overall health so being a caretaker for her became another part of my life. We also have a close relationship with my Dad and Step Mom. They bought 16 acres and decided to make a private family campground gathering area about an hour and half from our home. We bought a 12x24 shed last year and converted it into a home away from home. Our little cabin. Now that traveling has slowed down we spend most of our time there if not here at home. Now you know a little about me. Let's get to my stitching.

I've sorted my WIPs into two totes (mostly haha). I listed all the contents of those totes on my Goals and SALs tab above. This year there are 75 things on the list. Now this isn't a completely accurate count. Since the fairy calendar I'm working on is really only one project on that list instead of 12 separate pieces like they can count for. Oh well. It's a good starting point.

I also like to use this SAL as an excuse to keep track of what I've been working on since the last check in. Every day I make a note in a planner about what I've worked on that day. This helps me know how many days I've spent on a project. Also because of #24HOCS I now keep track of my time on a stop watch. If I put my stitching down I just stop the stop watch and then start it again when I pick it back up. I love having an accurate idea of how long each project takes now. So I've been using Jen's planner that's available on Etsy to keep track of my monthly #24HOCS challenges. Jen is the host of the #24HOCS. I also use a weekly planner that Jeremiah buys me for Christmas each year. For the last 3 years he was getting me a Walking Dead calendar but honestly the squares were so little I would run out of space a lot. They use a whole page for a large photo instead of writing space. So I told him this year I wanted something different. We looked and looked and most of them were flowery or girlie. If you know me well you know that's not me. Then I found the perfect one haha...

It's ornery and hilarious. There are real snarky phrases throughout and they make me laugh a lot. Here is a glance at this week...

Pardon the bad words. More than enough room to write everything I need to write down.

So as far as goals this year let's see...

• Finish the monthly Fairy from the Lili of the Valley Calendar every month

• FFO the fairy and at least 1 piece from my Box of Shame

• 4 Bottles on 99 a month to finish 99 by the end of 2020

• A list of 24 pieces I would really like finished for the A-Z challenge in #24HOCS you can read these on the right hand side of my blog page 

As far as SALs I'm participating in...

• First Saturday of the Month Jo's People Choice
• 10th of the Month Fully Finished SAL Hosted by Rachel
• 15th of the Month Gifted Gorgeousness Hosted by Jo
• Last Friday of the Month Smalls SAL Hosted by Mary unless the date changed
• Last Sunday of the Month WIPocalypse Hosted by Measi

• Stitchonomy Year of SALs First one is starting February 1st. There are going to 6 throughout the year with giveaways if you complete them all. Link on the right side of my blog.
• IHSW (International Hermit Stitch Weekend) 3rd full weekend each month. Try to stitch along with participants all over the world. Warn your family. Grab your stitching. The chores can wait. 
• #24HoursofCrossStitch Monthly Acrostic Challenges and other fun challenges
•  Any Blog Hops that the lovely Jo Hosts

That might be all. We'll see. I just love joining in these fun challenge/SALs so I always keep my eyes open for new ones.

My word for 2020 is stress-free. I want to enjoy every day the most I can. Stitch when I can on what I want. Finish things that make me happy. Finish old pieces so they can be displayed like they deserve to be. Enjoy life in general! I look forward to seeing what the year brings.Thanks for stopping by. Hope you come back.