May Wrap up…..

First of all, I hope everyone is enjoying a great three day weekend and celebrating America and remembering those who have sacrificed to make this the land of the free and the home of the brave.    Here on the east coast of the US of A, we are on the third day of rain, rain and more rain and below normal temperatures.     No problem says I!   I can get some finishing done.

This month my WIPGO calls  were, first, Jeweled Baubles from Shannon Christine Designs.   I first saw these piece completed at my friend Diane’s.  I got on line immediately to order it.  This pattern is one of those that is definitely not captured in the picture.   Lots of color changes, half stitches, and confetti stitching, Kreinik and beads.  Most definitely not a take along piece to work on.

I put 5 to 6 hours of stitching in to this and met the WIPGO goal.  Four ornaments done and four to go.  It may look like a missed a lot of stitches but those spaces are where the beads go.   

 

My second call was Harvest Friends from Teresa Kogut.  This is being stitched  as a (yet another!!) Round Robin with two friends.  Each of us stitching the same ‘pumpkin head lady’ on all each other’s pieces and then rotating it back to the owner.  I put some time in on this piece doing the boarder outline.   I concentrated on getting the border done only to have outline not meet.   Out it came and I started again.   Another few hours and at least double the WIPGO goal but I am back on track.   The outline of the border that remains stitched IS correct.   You know how many times I have eaten the words I said to my daughters when teaching them to cross stitch…… “it’s not cross stitch if you don’t have to frog occasionally”…. Too many!

I did get my geraniums bought and planted in my pots.   I had to go with white this year as there were not enough of the reds I wanted.  Some vegetables are in but some more to buy.  There has been progress, albeit small.    I also planted an assortment of Coleus.  

This past week we had record breaking high temps but I did manage to weed some flower beds.   I paced myself, drank lots of water, wore a hat and took breaks.   I cannot believe Mr. W actually had the AC on before Memorial Day!   Then you get to this holiday weekend and it is 30 to 40 degrees cooler. 

I finished Primrose’s Star-a-day AND fully finish it.   Since I changed the number of Stars and Stripes I did not stick to the star a day assignment.    When I saw how my friend Ruth of  Spectrum Farms Needlework (floss tube) finished hers, I knew how I wanted to finish mine.   I am not 100% happy with my finishing work and I am debating about taking it apart.  Part of me is saying “from the top of the bridge it will look fine”  so it may stay as it is.  

I was able to keep up with HOD Patreon and stitched and fully finished this month’s ornament.  

Mid-month I attended the Creative Hands Gathering in Gettysburg, PA.    It was a great weekend.  Even though I pledged over and over again on the drive out that I was not buying anything that went out the window in the first half hour with all the fabulous choices.     I decided I needed to start including the wool kits in my X-Stitch ap under “Miscellaneous” and have already added the new patterns and my existing kits in stash to the X-Stitch ap.   Good news is that I have far fewer than I thought I did.  

Look at some of the Show ‘n Tell!

Our Retreat Gift was this lovely wooden box.

 

Each vendor designed a pattern suitable for inserting on the top.   It was hard to choose!   So I didn’t.   I selected one that was springtime like and a more fall theme.  Both are wool appliqué patterns.

Another goodie gift we received.

While there, I did stitch three perforated paper patriotic small patterns and fully finished them quickly once home.

 I am starting to fill up my patriotic tree.  These last three gave me 10 stitched ornaments.  

On the way home, we walked through the town of Gettysburg and visited the battlefields.  

 

 

The Pennsylvania Memorial

View from the top of the PA Memorial.  The arrows on the plaque indicate the direction and distant to other landmarks or cites.

We also visited Eisenhower’s farm.

View from the front yard.

View of the back of the home

Custom wallpaper that has the State Seals from all 50 states.

Chandelier over dining table where he hosted dignataries.

Much memorabilia was on display.

That squarish item at the bottom left of the round table is Ike’s remote control.    I am surprised it is not connected to the TV with a cord - IYKYK!

 

I am heading to Ohio later this week.   I am a member of the Western Reserve Sampler Guild and they are hosting a 25th anniversary weekend.  I think I will take the  French Alphabet to the retreat and dedicate all my stitching time to it because I have been neglecting it.    It seems like when I pick it up and start to work on it, I don’t want to put it down.  But then again, Harvest Friends could be what I take.  Hopefully there will be noticeable progress on whatever I take with me.  Lucky for me, these are my two largest WIP’s.

Thanks for coming along with me on my travels.   Thanks for stopping by and commenting.   Stay safe, stay healthy, don’t sweat the small stuff and keep on stitching.

    

February and March WIPGO and more

My babysitting has picked up again.   My son had a temporary schedule change. Temporary being 15 to 18 months but at the end he will move into a Captain’s position.  So a possible monkey wrench gets thrown into my comings and goings.  And an even worse monkey wrench into their lives.  I wish I was closer than 65 minutes so I could help more easily.  

After a long period of snow cover, we could see the ground again, for about 2 days.  I can’t remember when we have had a snow fall last so long.  Then we got hit by the Blizzard of ‘26.  We got about 12 inches but since the ground had been warm for several days, the sidewalks and roads were melted and cleared the next day.  I am happy to get one good snowfall each winter and this year I got two!   And 8 days later it was in the 60’s!

I’ve done a thing……I joined a Patreon.   Why do I just have to jump in with friends.  FOMO, I guess.  Enough true confessions.   I joined the HOD Ornaments Patreon.   I have always “planned” to do an ornament each month so maybe this year I will accomplish that goal.  I did not order the finishing supplies because I have a ton.   I can use that to justify the enrollment.  I plan to do as much as I can from my bulging buckets of finishing supplies.   So you see, I am eliminating hoards of stash.   Sounds good to me.    Seriously though, the selling point was the monthly finishing tutorials.   

The candle above is the second in the series.  One of the best things about this ornaments “club” is the first five use the same colors.   My rack of floss can sit at the ready by my stitchy spot.  

WIPGO call for March had me working on # 3 and #4.  Heart in Hand 2025 Collector’s Heart and  ABC Bonhomme de neige.   Both are new starts.   WIPGO is meant to eliminate WIPs.  I added each to my board because they are the smallish side and because I have wanted to do them since purchasing I just don’t seem to ever get to either one.  

Actually, I no longer have enough WIPs to fill the board so there really isn’t a need to rationalize!  When the space opens up, they will get added to the mix as a take-along piece.   Because each appears on my 2026 WIPGO board two more times, I am fairly confident that  neither will carry over to 2027 WIPGO.   One can have fantasies.

    

For ABC Bonhomme de neige, I substituted DMC for the called for Gentle Arts.   First of all, I am using things from stash and second, these are small motifs and I think the DMC will work fine.   The fabric also from stash. It is 32 ct. Picture This Plus in the color Glacier.  It is more blue that it appears here.   You know how we all don’t like stitching with white?   I am actually using a laying tool on all the white stitches.  Craziness!

Now here’s a different sort of work.   The owner of the cross stitch store Floss and Flame in Dover, Delaware went to the Nashville Market.  My friend and I helped out by covering her store with her kids while she is in Nashville.  A different experience.   I don’t know how much help we really were but it was fun to see all the shoppers that were attending a nearby retreat.  

I am sticking to my resolve as far as the monthly ornament and WIPGO.   The first week to 10 days of each month are being devoted to WIPGO and my HOD ornament.   After that, I have been working on my two larger samplers.   Not this month though.   So this may be the only cross stitch you see for March.  I promised myself to spend March on quilting and on a scrapbook book I halfway finished for my daughter’s big 5-0.  Unfortunately she was gifted with a concept and a partial book   It really involved much more time than I had allowed to get it done.  

Another reason there may not be much cross stitch going on……the weather.  I know it will find me outside.

As always, thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching, crafting, sewing, knitting…..being creative.

January 2026

A little after the fact but Happy New Year!  Don’t you just love the new year when you get the new planner or calendar and it is all pristine.   All clean and hopeful with the year spread out before you and promises to keep your planner/calendar neat.  Short lived promises if you saw what mine used to look like.   Scribbles, scratch-outs, doodles and arrows this way annd that, post-it notes.   Using my new electronic calendar has some drawbacks.   No way to doodle on the pages.  

I thought long and hard for my word for the year.   I settled on diligent.  The internal perfectionist in me needs this word.  I am alright on my work, it is my duties suffer.  I am a procrastinator on tasks I do not like by distracting myself with ones I do like.  I need to be more focused on my “have to’s”  and let the “want to’s” fall in place behind them.    I need to stop is the mindless scrolling on Instagram or the countless games of Sudoko…..like when stitching, I hear the voice say - just one more game….. and I admit I can be such a squirrel when it comes to projects catching my eye or chasing a new high score.   Oy!

I did decide to do WIPGO again this year.   I had always been successful until last year.   I needed to change my approach for the amount to be done on each project.   Rather than list each project and pledge to be finished in the month it was called, I have the luxury of putting lower requirements since I have fewer WIP’s.   And WIPGO did that for me.   Last year, I got to June and just caved.   I wasn’t getting anything finished and it just seemed too overwhelming with all the projects on the list and none coming off the list.   I dialed it back for 2026.   One project may show up three times on the 2026 WIPGO board with an assignment of  5 hours of work that month.   Very doable.  Forward progress will be seen.  Some will even be completed.  It is another win/win.    I will be diligent to stay the course.  

For January, my WIPGO’s were Liberty Inn by Chessie and Me.    I logged my 5 hours and made great progress.   It appears on my board two mores times.  A definite finish in 2026.   I could have kept going but I stitched to the assignment.

The second WIPGO was Quaker Friends, a Round Robin from a couple of years back.   I also logged 5 hours on it.   It was mostly fill-in on the little scattered do-dads in the background.   It too appears on my board two more times in 2026 so I am not worried about finishing it.   If I am diligent, I will get there.   I can tell WIPGO might work better for me this year as I am anxiously awaiting the announcement of the February numbers.

 

Those background motifs meant lots of color changes.   

I chose Chantelle 141/Teresa Kogut Blessings Drum  as my Blessings Sampler.   It was an EZ PZ stitch to complete. I wanted to get it out of the way so started it January 1st. 

Even though I live in NJ, I am only 5 miles from the bridge to Delaware.  Two friends from  my EGA and my DVHSG guild are heading up the Delaware tapestry for the America’s Sampler.   I hosted  a day at my house to give south Jersey stitchers an opportunity to stitch on the tapestry.   For more information check this link.   The concept/goal of the project is explained with details for each state’s tapestry.   It is a good thing both Becky and Amy are retired because this project has taken on a life of its own for them.    This is the artist’s concept for the Delaware design.

American Sampler from Crocette a gogo is a sampler I started with two friends.  I got a slow start as I was having such a hard time physically focusing on the linen.

 4.0’s and a great light were not helping.  It is  over one on 28 count.   I am trying a little bit each morning.  Some days the eyes cooperate and other days they don’t.    I have had a bit of frogging.  Seems counting to 1 is just as hard as counting to 2.  There are 6 stitch-heavy pages in the chart and prior to starting, I knew no matter how diligent I would not be able to get this one done by July and accepted that.    No need to add pressure.   

Mid-month I attended Camp WannaStitch in Ocean City, MD.   This is the annual EGA event I go to.   Probably been going something like 15 years.   Knowing I needed to have an easy to stitch on piece, I took my French Alphabet Sampler and made good progress.   Still a long way to go but I will get there one stitch at a time.    

She’s a big girl.   411x 411.  Below is what I accomplished over the stitching weekend.   The “N” and part of the “Q”, as well as the border from below the “P” to the corner and across the bottom; and, 16 of the letters in the bottom corner alphabet.    Friends who have already stitched this piece disliked stitching this border but it does not bother me……all I worry about is that it meets!  I am doing this as a FB Leap Year Challenge and I’ve got about 25 months left to finish it up.   I really hope I am done before that.  

Look at our view as we entered the area where we stitched at the Ashore Hotel for Camp WannaStitch.

We pretended we were on a cruise ship.🛳  💦   Below is what I saw over my left shoulder.   Don’t let the view fool you.  It was cold and blustery!🌬  Such a rough life for stitchers.

I promised myself some quilt time and I didn’t break the promise.   I thought I would designate Monday’s as Quilting Day but the calendar is not always agreeing. I was able to get 11 blocks cut and  7 of them sewn.    It felt good to be back at it but it came with a caveat…..cleaning and tidying the craft room before AND after.   I have more than half of the blocks completed. I like to say I am on the downhill side but there is the sashing and corner stones and borders……..I am 7 blocks closer than I was at the start of the year so it is a win.  

So pretty happy with my accomplishments in my stitching corner of the world.  It’s early 2026 but I so far so good on the diligent side.  

The first of February, I am heading back to Tennessee to visit a friend and attend a Knoxville EGA event.   I hope to be able to share more great progress on my French Alphabet Sampler.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by everyone.  Keep on stitching.