#24HOCS January Marathon Day 3

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 Sunday.

Sunday I got a total of 7 Hours and 42 Minutes.

Woke up late again. Feeling a ton better finally. We decided to have a nice breakfast. No cooking for 2 days was sure nice though. We had pancakes and eggs. Yummy.

Noon I was ready to go for Day 3. 4 Projects left on my list. Let's Get Spooky was first for the day. This was one of the Ursula Michael word play design. I was really in love with them a bit ago. I started this one in January 2016 for the DUCJC (Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge). Here it was from that start day...

2:12pm I reached 2 hours on the timer...

2:25pm Free to Be Me from Val's Stuff is ready to go. Another Jeremiah piece. He is so patriotic. I have worked on this one a few times down at our cabin. Here is the before...

I reached 2 hours on my stop watch and reluctantly put it down. This project is on my WIPgo board for this year so when the number gets called for it I have decided it will be finished. Really won't take much more really. Here it is now...

5:50pm our WWE pay per view was starting. This is my favorite pay per view of the year. Lots of action but I thought a lot of stitching time too. There were some matches I just couldn't stitch and watch. So I noticed I did put my stitching down a lot. Time for Flock Together another fun Hands on Design piece. Here it was before from 2017 progress...

9:00 I finally hit the 2 hour mark. Told you I put it down a lot. Here it is now...

This was another one I didn't want to put down.

Last piece is another from this series from Hands on Design. Grab Life. Here it was before...

It hasn't been out since the start day for the Longest Day SAL in 2017. I tried working on it but the show was too good. I did reach 1 hour and 42 minutes on the timer before admitting defeat and putting it down...

So I hit 23 Hours and 37 Minutes over the whole weekend!!! Wow. I had a blast but I'm glad we don't do this every weekend. I enjoy the working on different pieces but there were a few that I really didn't want to put down. There were a few that went on forever. My eyes were so tired each night haha. It felt like way too much work and concentration. I like to be able to mix in life with my stitching.

Now back to just enjoying my stitching and I probably should do all the chores that I put off hahaha. Thanks goes to my family for putting up with my "work" weekend. Don't worry I'm back on duty now. Thanks for reading along. Hope you enjoyed it. Remember I posted the model photos on the post right before these progress photos. If you want to look back and see what one of the pieces is going to look like when finished. 

#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.

September WIPocalypse

Boy this year has just flew by. What a fun year but I keep forgetting my sign in posts for my blog SALs. Sunday was supposed to be the WIPocalypse check in post. I meant to do it Monday morning. Here it is Wednesday haha. I keep blinking and missing days I guess. Let's get to it...

WIPocalypse is a fun SAL that I joined in a few years ago. It's a fun SAL to stitch all our projects before the apocalypse happens. I like to use it as an excuse to keep track of what I've worked on since the last WIPocalypse post and how many days I've spent on each project. The goal of course is to have finishes to celebrate. Of course with me I tend to have a bunch of new starts and no finishes haha.

My last post was in July. It was a sad check in. Since we've been traveling so much this year my stitching has sure suffered. But the memories we've been making are priceless so I wouldn't miss them for anything even my stitching. Let's see what I've been working on since July 31st.

Under the Sea SAL -- 4 Days. I started and finished up the May section...finally haha.

Two cute seahorses were added for May. Here is the whole piece now...

I have 14 Days into this one now.

Spring Bell Pull -- 5 Days. I've been working on the I block. Here it was before with 3 days of progress on the I block...

Here it is now with 8 days of progress...

Here is the whole piece...

With 32 days total. So close to a finish on the I block as you can see.

Flock Together by Hands on Design 2 Days. I take this one on vacation and try to work on it. So here and there it's getting progress. Here is what it looks like now after 4 days of work total...

Dream of the Sea Beach Club Kit -- 2 Days. I worked more on the pincushion. Here is my progress after 4 days total...

Here is a reminder of what the whole set looks like...

I've already finished the bottom right piece. This is the top right piece that I'm working on now.

June Snapshot -- 6 Days. I started on June finally. Here is where I was able to get to so far...

Halloween Mini's by Artecy -- 1 Day. I felt like doing something Halloween so I got a start on the Skeleton Face from this set...

Here is my start on it...

Unfortunately I've not worked on the Family Crest in this span. I feel so guilty about that. Hopefully I will fall back in love with it soon. I just needed a break. As you can see I've been bouncing around and just enjoying my stitching when I do have time. I've had 38 days of no stitching at all. So my time is still pretty crazy busy. We've had a wonderful vacation and 2 camping trips since July 31st also.

Next check in October 29th. Here's hoping I actually remember to post for it.

Longest Day SAL

Yesterday I joined Jo in a fun SAL called the Longest Day SAL to celebrate the longest day of the year with the arrival of Summer. She worked on beautiful WIPs. I thought that would be fun. Then I noticed a stack of things I wanted to start. What better excuse to start them then a fun SAL. So I decided to do new starts and spend an hour on each one before starting the next one. I warned my family. I warned my couch. I was totally lazy haha. So let's see what my day looked like...

9am -- Here we go. 1st Start...

Refuse to Sink

Hands on Design - To the Beach #9

Starting Point - Bottom Left

10am -- 2nd Start

Flock Together

Hands on Design - To the Beach #3

Starting Point - Left Side 

11am -- 3rd Start (with break to take dog out...Izzy didn't get the memo about not needing me haha)

On Beach Time

Hands on Design - To the Beach #5

Starting Point - Bottom Left

12pm -- Lunch Break

1pm -- 4th Start

Stars in the Sky

Hands on Design - To the Beach #6

Starting Point - Top Left

2pm -- 5th Start

Grab Life

Hands on Design - To the Beach #8

Starting Point - Top Left

3pm -- 6th Start

Oh Whale

Hands on Design - To the Beach #1

Starting Point - Bottom Left

4pm -- 7th Start

Mill Hill Kit -- Snowy Owl Snowman by Jim Shore

Starting Point - Center. I don't know why Mill Hill kits I've noticed take a lot longer. Weird.

 

5pm -- Dinner Break

6pm -- 8th Start

Mill Hill Kit -- Best Friend Santa by Jim Shore

Starting Point - Center

7pm -- 9th Start

2013 PALs Limited Edition Hands on Design 

(Last one of the set of 4 so far. I finished the other 3 already.)

Starting Point - Bottom Left of Top Panel

8pm -- 10th Start

Mill Hill Kit -- Sea Turtle

Starting Point - Center

9pm -- 11th Start

Mill Hill Kit -- Evergreen Snowman by Jim Shore

Starting Point - Center. Ice cream called my name and I only got a half hour on this one haha.

So 11 new starts. I really enjoyed my day. I have to admit it was really hard to stop at the hour mark. I really wanted to keep working on each one. I was already told (by mom haha) that Flock Together must be worked on and finished soon. She really likes that one. I also know there are a few of the To the Beach pieces I don't own. Need to fix that of course. Thanks Jo for the fun reason to be completely lazy and get a ton of stitching worked into one day.