March 31st Monday Update

 Last Monday of March. Wow. Wouldn't it be nice if tomorrow 2025 says Happy April Fool's and it's really January still? That would be nice.

So let's see what I worked on last week...

Sunday Monday and Tuesday I worked on 4 Seasons: Winter by Erica Michaels. I only had a little bit of the background yet to finish for the whole piece to be done. So Tuesday it was finally completed...

 My 8th silk gauze finish and still I'm loving it so much. I kitted up Spring, Summer, and Autumn of the 4 Seasons set so I can work on them and trust me I'm itching to start Spring bad.

Tuesday I also put 208 stitches into Christmas Lantern a Mill Hill Jim Shore kit...

 Wednesday I started on the Spring Quaker by Primrose Cottage. I'm using DMC 52 for this one and I love the way it's turning out already...

Added more Thursday. 678 added over the two days. 32ct Vintage Country Mocha for this set. 

Friday I worked on When I think of Spring by Puntini Puntini...

662 added. Doing this set on 32ct Lt Taupe Lugana with the suggested DMC threads.

Saturday was a busy day but I pulled out Trust the Universe by The Sunflower Diaries. Worked on it 48 stitches Saturday and then 405 Sunday...

April plans are ready to go. I joined in the Monthly Magazine Challenge Acrostic, their Springo and the I Spy from Stitching by the Shore...

Friday the Lola Crow frame will be released so I really hope to get that done before the first part is posted in May. I'm really excited to work on it. Like everything else haha. I am still really in love with my stitching. I get so excited to make progress.

 Flosstube 10 has just been posted. Wow. 10. Crazy. Jeremiah and me feel like we've done it forever now haha. It's weird. I enjoy it even though I mess up my words a lot. Typing covers up my bad slips of the tongue haha. Love yourself. Find all the reasons you can to smile. 

Mar 10th Monday Update

 Hello blogworld. How are you all doing here? Flosstube is just crazy. I have 399 followers now which is just crazy. I love the comments and honestly that's what I missed about here. I was glad to see some of you watching me. But I don't want to stop being here as well. #7 is loading now so I can post here while I wait.

Monday and Tuesday I worked on Along the Nesting Boxes by Jardin Prive. Remember I'm doing this one two fence posts a month all year this year. I finished the March section Tuesday. Total time was 4 days and 1,217 total stitches. Here is a zoomed in for just March and the whole piece now...

Tuesday when I finished that one I pulled out Mother Nature: Winter from Just Cross Stitch Feb 2023 issue. I will be doing the 6 piece series sometime in my life hopefully haha. Not promising this month but sometime....hopefully haha. Anyway Tuesday and Wednesday was Day 6 and 7. Here she is now...

I just had to backstitch the antlers to admire the beauty. I'm working on the top half and then I'll switch to the bottom page.

Thursday I added two weeks to the Peppermint Purple 2025 SAL. Weeks 9 and 10. Here is a closeup and the whole piece. Still in the DMC 155 section...

After that was done I pulled out Mason Jar Lineup by Dimensions. Still on jar 3 of the 10. I'm Day 10 on this one...

Friday was time for Heart & Compass by Erica Michaels. I added 23 more rows to the background on Friday. Saturday after some running around I got started and stayed up till 3:30am to finish it haha...

LOVE IT!!! Took 7 Days. 3,187 stitches on the 40ct silk gauze. This is my 7th silk gauze finish. Many more to come. Thank you to mom for purchasing all these beauties when she did. The background thread is dark but it shows up so much better in person. I do enjoy the overall design. Next up to replace this one is another patriotic. I did have to laugh at the 4 Seasons Winter one I have in my WIP tote that is Erica Michaels...

 See that small section of background left?? That's all!! Why did I leave this so long!! I also went down the rabbit hole of looking through my blog for info on these. I planned in 2019 to finish all 4 seasons. Didn't work did it? Haha. Love blog grand plans when you look back. Failed Katie haha. 

Anyway I'm hoping to get this out soon and actually *cough cough* finish it. Duh and then start another season already. Not saying I will finish them all this year....I learned that lesson haha. Hi Future Katie haha.

Sunday was Beer Dragon and I got a sad 100 added...

Campground was invaded by visitors and I spent time doing everything but stitching. Oh well that's okay. They are excited for the temps to start warming up. This week we might hit 70 degrees. 

Anyway I will keep it out to hit the 500 required monthly amount before moving on.

Saturday we went up to Fort Wayne. It was the 2nd Saturday of the month so time for a stitching get together at the store there...

8 of us. Thanks Fred for grabbing the picture for us. After that we went out to eat at a restaurant we used to LOVE and it was delicious. Fred stopped at a new cigar place. It was high class he said so expensive but he was glad he checked it out anyway. Then we drove by the old house. What a mix of emotions. It does look like a family moved in and they have made some changes. It was sad and yet nice to know a family is enjoying our old home. We happily made our way back to our country happiness though after. I honestly much prefer country life instead of those big fancy houses.

Okay finally caught up. Love yourself. Find all the excuses to smile. See ya next week.

Monday Update and January WIPocalypse

Grab a cup of your favorite drink I have a long post haha. 

First up. Last week recap. Monday no stitching. Big stepping day with my Fitness groups. Tuesday I worked on Blackwork SAL and finished Part 4. Also picked up Erica Michaels 4 Seasons Winter piece Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Back in love with silk gauze stitching!! Friday and Saturday no stitching. Friday busy stepping day again. Saturday we did some errands and then watched a WWE PPV in the evening. Sunday I worked on Rainbow Dragon again because my eyes needed a break haha. 

Where are the pictures you say? Well it's also time (yesterday) for a WIPocalypse update. So WIPocalypse is a fun push to finish all our WIPs before the End of the World. I like to use it as an excuse to keep track of my overall monthly progress. Also how many days I've been working on what. So let's look back and see what January has been like stitching wise...

Season 2 -- Hands on Design -- 6 Days

Started and finished the January part of the Year of Celebrations Season 2. 

Blackwork SAL -- Tangled Threads and Things -- 4 Days 

Started this awesome Blackwork SAL available here. Another part was released today but that will be tonight after this post.

Valentine SAL -- Cherry Hill Stitchery -- 4 Days

This one is a freebie on her Facebook group. I started it and made this much progress. 

Hedgehogs in the Snow -- Stoney Creek -- 2 Days

Here it was at the beginning of January...

Here it is now...

Rainbow Dragon -- Paine Free Crafts -- 4 Days

Here it was before January...

I just LOVE working on her because those beautiful colors. 

Winter Gnome -- Soda Stitch -- 2 Days

Here it was...

Beer Dragon -- Paine Free Crafts -- 3 Days

Before...

He got to come out for IHSW so a lot of progress was made on him.

4 Seasons Winter -- Erica Michaels -- 3 Days

Before...

The motifs are all finished just the background to fill in. My eyes have to be in the mood for this one though. 40ct silk gauze is tiny!! 

None -- 3 Days. Not bad at all!

So glad to be back and in love with my stitching again. I sure hope it stays that way all year. We also got a beautiful snowstorm. We got 5.8 inches...

Spike LOVES the snow. It's hard to convince him it's too cold for mommy to stand outside. He runs and plays in it so fast. We were snug though.

Have a great week. Love yourself. Smile. 

#24HOCS January Marathon Day 2

This was the first time I participated in the #24 Hours of Cross Stitch 24 Hours Marathon.

To break up the photo loading time I'm going to break the posts down to each day. I had a great time and got a TON of stitching done.

My goal was to work on 12 projects for 2 hours each. Let's see what I worked on Saturday.

Saturday I got a total of 8 Hours and 52 Minutes.

Remember I had come down with a bit of a bug. Well Saturday I didn't wake up till 10am which for me is unheard of. Izzy our dog didn't wake us up either so evidently we all needed the rest. Not as good for marathon time but you know what sleep is very important so I'll take it when I get it. We had donuts for breakfast. Finished some things and was ready to get back to stitching.

11:32am Let's Go! I picked Best Friend Santa back up since I hadn't reached the two hour mark yet...

 12:33pm I reached 2 hours on the timer officially so time to move on...

Next up Evergreen Snowman another Jim Shore Mill Hill kit. Another one from the Longest Day SAL in June 2017 but I had worked on it for 30 minutes for another marathon in 2019. So here it was before...

2:20pm We took a lunch break for BBQ yummy food from a local place.
3:20pm Back to work
4:00pm Stop watch hits 2 hours. Here is where I made it...

4:15pm Ready for the next one. Christmas Banner from Stoney Creek. I haven't had this one out since December 8th of 2014!!!

6:50pm I reached 2 hours on my stop watch. This is definitely a typical Stoney Creek. It had a million color changes. Plus this one uses glisson gloss which is I swear worse than Kreinik to work with. Sure pretty though. The wings really sparkle because of it. Just time consuming. So my progress was smaller...

Next piece is Rules for Life. I started this one for Jeremiah in 2012. Looks like I might have made a few stitches in 2013 but I don't see anything since then. It was before I tagged photos on my blog. Then I noticed my photo in my saved photos wasn't even updated. So who knows what I last worked on this one. Anyway here is my before photo...

This piece is called Rule for Life by Kincavel Krosses. I'm using Lime colored Jobelan evenweave and 986 which is a beautiful green DMC. Green is Jeremiah's favorite color as you can probably tell. Here is where I got after 2 Hours and 1 Minute...

I really really want to get this one back out. I can't believe how long it's been. It deserves to be finished.

10pm Started working on the last one for the day. 4 Seasons Winter by Erica Michael's and remembered that I LOVE these tiny 40ct silk gauze pieces. Here it was before...

Reached 2 Hours on the stop watch. On the right it says Brr with some little white stitches under. You can see if a little better in person. She has explained on her chart she wanted it to appear soft and dainty.

Midnight it was time for bed.

#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.