So...

Hello!  Long time, no see! I hope everyone is doing well.

So (as the title says), at the start of the year, I started a new rotation. Now, I'm sure that someone, somewhere has done this before, but I don't know who. I decided that I would have a 25 in 25 rotation. I didn't start off filling all 25 slots at first as I wanted to be able to add a few new starts in as I went through the year.

Also, this year is my 5th in WIP Warriors (formerly No New Starts) and I am having another SWEEWEE year.  I have done 3 years of no new starts and this is my second SWEEWEE.

Anyway, back to the rotation. I started off with 3 in each category - BAPs, large, medium and small projects. I then added in anything that I felt was 'screaming' at me to make some progress and asked the kids - who are now 23 and 26 - if there was anything they would like to add in. 

Now to the rotation...
for the first rotation, I stitched 100 stitches on each project,
for the second rotation, 200 stitches per project, 
for the third rotation, 300 stitches per project...and so on...

I'm sure you can see where this is going.

I chose a mix of really old projects and some that have been started much more recently.

I must admit, I cheated and did round 1 and 2 together as I didn't want to waste all that time changing the Q Snap every 30 minutes or so.

Snow Days
by Mirabilia

Snow Days
by Mirabilia
Progress at 1.1.2025

Ye Old Craft Room Kitten
by HaED

Ye Olde Craft Room Kitten
by HaED
Progress at 1.1.2025

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow
by Carriage House Samplings

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow
by Carriage House Samplings
Progress at 1.1.2025

Maggie the Messmaker
by Dimensions Gold Collection

Maggie the Messmaker
by Dimensions Gold Collection
Progress at 1.1.2025

Nature's Patchwork
by Bucilla

Nature's Patchwork
by Bucilla
Progress at 1.1.2025

JCS ornament - I only have a pattern printed so can't show that!
Progress at 1.1.2025

Snowy Days (aka Christmas Houses)
Historical Sampler Company

Snowy Days (aka Christmas Houses)
Historical Sampler Company

Progress at 1.1.2025

Starburst Flag of Great Britain
by Cherry Lane Designs

Starburst Flag of Great Britain
by Cherry Lane Designs
Progress at 1.1.2025
(but decided to restart so it was bigger)

Rose of Sharon
by Mirabilia

Rose of Sharon
by Mirabilia

Progress at 1.1.2025

Temperature Tree (2022)
by Stitchin' Mommy

Temperature Tree (2022)
by Stitchin' Mommy
Progress at 1.1.2025

A design from the Facebook Group Pumpkin Seed Stitchers
Progress at 1.1.2025

Mini Vaccinated
by HaED
This is being used my Leap Year SAL 2024 to 2028

Mini Vaccinated
by HaED
Progress at 1.1.2025

Everyone Brings Joy
Waxing Moon Designs

Everyone Brings Joy
Waxing Moon Designs
Progress at 1.1.2025

Cat's Alphabet
by Janlynn

Cat's Alphabet
by Janlynn
Progress at 1.1.2025

Lizzie Kate Flip It's (2002?)

Lizzie Kate Flip It's (2002?)
Progress at 1.1.2025

Cut Thru Haberdasher's
by Bothy Threads

Cut Thru Haberdasher's
by Bothy Threads
Progress at 1.1.2025

Letters from Mom
Jeannette Douglas Designs

Letters from Mom
Jeannette Douglas Designs
Progress at 1.1.2025

Garden's of London
by Chatelaine Designs
Progress at 1.1.2025

One new start I have pencilled in for the year is Kingdom of Books, which I treated myself to earlier this year.  I have thought about starting it after this current rotation which is round 5 (500 stitches per project)

Kingdom of Books
by Andriana

I have also started Summon the Reaper by HaED, which Luke really liked. I only have about 400 stitched in it so it's not worth a picture really.

Summon the Reaper
by HaED

And that's it so far for the projects I'm focusing on.  I will show progress and 

<DRUM ROLL> 

FINISHES 🤯 

next time.

One of my New Year's resolutions was to get back into blogging about my cross stitch.  I thought I would start with a review of what I finished last year.

This was the year of knocking out some long standing WIPs for a finish, even if they were small.

I'm not sure about order of things or dates but this year I completed:

1. The Way to Happiness
2. Hallowe'en SAL 2020
3. She Sells Seashells
4. Witchful Thinking
5. Happy Hallowe'en
6. 5 of the 6 Fat Men designs
7. Christmas SAL 2015
8. ...and I can't remember what the last one was but I know there were 12 altogether!!

I can't find the Advent SAL 2015 to take a photo of.

So let's see how long this resolution thing lasts for!!

Why am I posting half a page of Poppy Dance?

So...why am I posting a photo of half a page 'finish' of Pappy Dance?

Poppy Dance - charted by HaED
Artwork - Mariaane Broome
28ct white jobelan

The answer is...

I am officially at 50%

Wooooooooooohooooooooooo

Considering that I haven't finished half a page of any of my other HaED designs, I am amazed at this one.

Poppy Dance latest and a new start

Helllllllooooo peeps!

How are you all this fine (and it actually is which makes a change for Manchester) day?

I joined Full Coverage Fanatics on Facebook recently and was just in time to be able to join in with the Tour de France challenge where you have to stitch the same number of stitches each day as the number of kilometres the riders are racing that day.  For once I kept up with it all the way through with there being quite a few days I was actually ahead of the pack.  I made brilliant progress on Poppy Dance and decided to keep going on it once the race was over.  Today, I finished off 2 pages of it (I was waiting for a colour for the end of one of them), which means there are now 10 pages completed.  In terms of stitches, I am 47.43% completed.  There are 72709 stitches completed, with 80591 left to go.

Poppy Dance charted by HaED
Marianne Broome

Although despite amazing progress on Poppy Dance, I also started Halloween by JBW Designs.  It is all Rachel's fault.  She is having some new starts this month and asked us to guess what they were.  I recognised this one immediately as I have had it in my stash for a while.  As you will know, I can always can never resist a new start and so found some Sparklies Thalia lurking in my stash and a nice Hallowe'en pumpkiny colour (Anchor 966 I think). Hallowe'en cats have GOT to be black in my opinion and so I changed them.

The fabric is looking really washed out in the photo, it is much richer in real life.  I think it is looking gorgeous.

French Country Scaredy Cats - JBW Designs
Sparklies Thalia 16ct aida

I have also been doing LOADS of finishing too. I have actually FFOed 7 things - that's right - 7!  I'm saving those to show you on the 10th for Rachel's FFOing challenge.

So what stitching got done...

Well, quite a bit actually.

I'm going to go right back to where I left off with photos.

I've been stitching along on Poppy Dance by Marianne Broome, charted by HaED.  I was working across 2 pages at one point but it felt unwieldy.  I have part of page 11 done and have nearly finished page 12.  I am using this one for the Full Coverage Fanatics facebook group's Tour de France Challenge and for the Q3 90 days Stitching Challenge.  Of course, it will soon be the summer holidays too so this one can get loads of attention. I am at about 42% finished with it.  The lines are due to QSnaps rather than stitching.

Poppy Dance (Marianne Broome, charted by HaED)
28ct jobelan - white

A good friend/work colleague was married last October and I stitched a ring cushion for her.  The design I chose for her was the same one that I did a few years ago (should have kept the chart!) but this time instead of white on white it was royal blue on white - not my taste but she was happy and it matched the bridesmaids dresses almost perfectly.

Col's Creations - 28ct Cashel linen

They had a lovely day.  The initials were a nightmare as I wanted to use the font that was on the invites but had to chart it myself.  I now remember why I am a stitcher, not a designer!  The best news is that she is due her first child any day now.  

I finished a Patricia Ann bauble for the JCS ornie group on facebook.  It is so pretty and delicate looking - I must make it up properly! Here it is, hot out of the hoop.

Patricia Ann
Just Cross Stitch ornie issue 2017

Then I finally finished this little one. Prairie Schooler's JCS ornie 2015?  It's on black - that is my only excuse. I did FFO it but the repositionable glue I used was rubbish and it all fell apart :(

I'm going to do it properly in the summer holiday.

Prairie Schooler
Just Cross Stitch 2015?

Now...finishing this next one nearly made me cry with happiness. It is smaller than I imagined but it is SO adorable.  Summer in Sussex was a Nutmeg Company kit that I started about a million years ago.  I just had the urge to pick it up and finish it one day.  The stitching that was left probably took about 2 evenings and then another evening to make it up into the little house. I didn't have a photo apparently and as I am currently phoneless (which is great!) I can't take one.  I will for the next post though.

Finally, the weekend before I finished off Summer in Sussex, I had a FFOing weekend.  I was up to 26 Christmas ornies that needed FFOing and so made a start on them.  I tried to make one up to look like a Christmas tree and am thinking of sticking a twig or something in it to look like the trunk.  What do you think?  Is that a silly idea?  All the ones I have seen that are made to look tree-ish are very pretty and primped.  I was thinking a bit more rustic looking. So, in no particular order, here they all are.

I know I said finally...I lied. After I finished Summer in Sussex, I was inspired to pull out Cut Thru Stable for a bit.  Linda and I started this as a SAL many, many moons ago.  Linda's has been finished so long that the girl in the picture has great-grandkids! Mine has grown a bit, well actually, I nearly managed a page finish.  I did the back stitching as I went too - Cut Thrus have SO much!

Before

After
Bothy Threads - Cut Thru Stable

And now, that really is it.  Give yourself a pat on the back if you have made your way to the bottom.  That's impressive!