Check In for March Wipocalypse

This is the post for the WIPocalypse SAL that takes place at the end of every month. The idea is to stitch though our WIPs before the end of the world. I am not going to post photos of all my WIPS this month as you will see them a lot next month!
Question of the Month:What newer designers and product creators out there have you discovered and recommend?  Well, I have been away from cross stitch for quite a bit as I am more of a needlepoint person, so a lot of designers are new although I have some of their products in my stash...Go figure! Anyway, one person I would recommend is Nancy who makes the most lovely flosses. I have some of her fabric too although I have not stitched on it. The floss is nice and a very subtle variegation for most of it. I would recommend buying one of her packs and trying them. They are in 20 yard packs and some people are splitting them so as to get more colors. The other floss I have purchased, but not used is Silks4u . Again, huge hanks and lovely colors. I have a plan for the ones in my stash.....NO NEW PROJECTS!!!!(Just yelling at myself, sorry.)
 Well, I really liked the challenge Melissa put out to work on one project every day for a month. I missed one day, but that isn't bad.
Here is where I started:

And here is the progress I made!

I think I will continue to work on this piece in April every day.I am at the point where I need to do some back stitching and a length of that every day would get a bunch done.


Tomorrow starts the Blogging A to Z Challenge and I am kind of ready. My goal is to  work on pieces from my stash. I am including things I have stitched but have not fully finished and the huge 2020 crazy quilt challenge. And because I am nuts (Cheryl), I am going to do the 100 Day Project. It starts April 2 but takes place on Instagram. I just got a new phone and I want to learn how to post photos using it. I will figure out my hashtag and put it in the post on April 2 so if you are on Instagram you can follow me. I have a private account so it may take a bit to approve you...

Escher's Reptiles for March

I was able to get my 1200 stitches into this piece. Sometimes I am tempted to not stitch on it and get something else done. But that is what happened last year and hardly any progress was made on this piece. So I hope to do another 1200 stitches next month.
Here is my starting point for March:

And my ending point:

Slow but steady, Right?

Where Did the Week Go?

Well, I know where last week went. My daughter was home from college and I was enjoying her company.
I did manage to get some stitching done.

This is a fun piece to stitch. I am using a Victorian Motto Thread for the dress- Olde Salem Spell-which has a bit of variegation in it. She has a new set of colors up on her page that are Patriotic. So tempted to add it to my stash! Like I need more threads!!!

What I Accomplished This Weekend

So I managed to get a little done this weekend. It is International Hermiting and Stitching Weekend.

Tall Year Squared is moving forward:

I need to whip the pieces together. That will happen this week, hopefully.

First Christmas Stocking is at a place where there is a lot of confetti. 

I didn't work on Here Lie My Needles but hope to soon.
I did get some work done on MH 1656

I really love all these pieces, but spring is coming and my yard work is calling. We did have snow on Sunday which quickly melted, so the ground isn't quite ready yet.

Are You Ready to Hermit?

Today is the start of the third weekend of the month and it has been designated International Hermit and Stitch Weekend. It is a time to try and take a little extra time to stitch. Do you have to stitch all weekend? No. In fact, if you just do a little, post it. Just link up on Jo's Blog or there is a Facebook Group
I hope to do a little stitching on several projects.
First up is Tall Year Squared:

I hope to get some of the lining pieces done.
Next is First Christmas Stocking:

A little each day this month has been my goal so far.
Here Lie My Needles is my carry along project. I have more done than this photo shows, but maybe I can get some lettering in this weekend.

I also need to get started on MH 1656:

And I do have my map class to start stitching......
Will see what I manage to do before Monday. Hope you get some extra stitching time!

WIP Tall Year Squared

I had high hopes that this would be fully finished by now. No such luck. There are tons of little pieces that need to be put together to get this into a box. I am spending time today making the linings but wanted to show where the project stands today.

I was reading Linda's Blog and she was stating how so few people blog anymore. This is so true. I like Flosstube as well as the next person, but reading a blog is way faster and I find it more helpful. I decided to do the Blogging from A to Z Challenge again this year. I really don't have a theme and I haven't figured out all my posts, but who cares? I feel like I need to challenge myself to blog on a daily basis for a month. Since a personal goal is to get some of my WIPs DONE I will be using the challenge to push this along. At least that is the thought currently. Anyway, I hope some more crafters join the challenge. I don't want to be the lone stitcher in the challenge.

Backstitching is NOT My Favorite

I know that is a common complaint for a lot of people, but I also know that backstitching makes a huge difference on a piece. Look at the ox, for example:

 I think he looks so much better with the little backstitching I managed to put in:

I am trying to get Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus in this month, but this is a Cross My Heart design and there are a lot of little color changes and 1/4 and 3/4 stitches. I figure if I stitch a thread length a day as a minimum, I will see quite a bit of progress. But so many other projects are calling my name!

A Slow Project

I am trying to work on this but my mojo is gone for this project. Is it because I am left with mainly white cross stitch and beads? Or was it the mistake I made and I am ready for this project to be done? I need a finish in March, so I will keep plugging away at this.

I Have a Dress!

Well, part of one. I have been taking this piece with me when I go places although stitching on 40 count can be a bit difficult. At one point I had the outline of the dress done but I used a blue/grey and I knew I would not like it. I think with all the pink this piece will have, the dress needs to be dark.

Any opinions? I need to get to work and finish a project for the FFO challenge. Tall Year Square has too much to be finished, but maybe I could get the scissors fob done on it! Or one of my many other projects. Sigh!

March TUSAL

I missed the new moon, but wanted to post any way. What is TUSAL? It is the Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long run by Daffy Cat . Lots of us bloggers take photos of our orts and post them on social media. I love looking at the colors and seeing everyone's little bits and pieces.

Here are my photos:

I have been working on Reptiles along with my Christmas stocking so there are a lot of greys in my jar. Hopefully I will get some pretty colors in there before next month!

March Focus Project

As I posted yesterday, I am doing a 30 day challenge to stitch on one of my WIPS every day. Because I want it finished for Christmas, the obvious choice was First Christmas Stocking.
I began it in January of 2017

 I think this is the last photo I showed of it, but I was able to work on it a lot last week. I went away for a few days to craft with friends and was able to make some serious progress, as you can see.

I need to get some more cross stitch done so I can do some back stitching. And I do have other projects that need some attention!

Mill Hill Monday-Not much Stitching

I only was able to stitch on this a little bit.
Here it is from last week:

And here it is now.  

I have joined the challenge that Measi Musings posted to stitch every day on a project. I hopefully will show that tomorrow.

Is anyone doing the Blogging from A to Z Challenge? I signed up but am having second thoughts.....

First Saturday in March!

It is time for the People's Choice SAL. Jo over at Serendipitous Stitching hosts this where the people get to choose what the theme is for each month. This month it is freebies.

I had great plans to stitch something up for this SAL. I thought it would be fun to make another small like the Valentine ones I stitched last month:

The larger one is from The Scarlett House and the other from Heart in Hand.

But I never took the time to stitch it up. I am sure I have some things that were free charts over the years, but where they are and what they are is another question.

But there is a free chart that I really want to start. It is the Linen and Threads 2017 Mystery Sampler. You can find the information here .I may even have the linen and threads to start this. I am trying to behave, which is very unusual.