SAL Update

When I was a teenager I loved the work of Paula Vaughn and my grandma very kindly bought me the Paula Vaughn cross stitch book “A Quilt for All Seasons”. I immediately started on the January one. I’m not sure when exactly this was, but the project then languished on a shelf in my spare room for twelve years after I moved into my condo. Last year I heard about this SAL and decided it may help me actually get this project finished.

It was great that the last update was at the start of my Spring Break. I had the goal of finishing the first page of the pattern, and……

I did!

Here is where I was three weeks ago:

And here is where I am now:

It doesn’t look as impressive as I thought it would, but it feels great! It didn’t realize until my mom pointed it out that this means I am 50% complete!

I have to admit that I was inspired by watching the flosstuber of xstitchmd. I have been loving her podcast as I both knit and stitch. I would recommend giving her a try, though her plethora of projects does stress me out. Lol I’d have a plan for how to finish them all🤣🤣🤣

It feels great to be on the second page, to hopefully have a clean start with no mistakes in it yet, and to really feel like I have made progress:)

Happy stitching! Make sure you check out the stitchers linked below as there are some amazing projects being worked on! There is also a ton of variety and it is very inspiring:)

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

Done One!

It was a great day, even though I ended up having to go out.

I have binge watched all the podcast episodes of The Crazy Sock Lady and one thing she mentioned was doing her household chores first thing in the morning so this morning I got the dishwasher going and the microwave cleaned while I was in the kitchen making my oatmeal breakfast and tea. I felt pretty accomplished all day because of this🤣

By the way, I preferred the sock lady before this year. She is still fine, but it seems like the focus has definitely moved to commercialism. She seems to now knit mostly just her own patterns and to hype the products of her friends. I’ll still watch her and enjoy seeing products and patterns, but it’s not a love anymore:(

I had to run to the store as I was out of milk so I took the garbage and recycling out and tried to make the trip as short as possible. Of course I also came home with crackers and cookies. I wonder what’s with all the carbs? The cookies weren’t even that good:(

I spent the morning working on my crochet blanket and got to the point where I have to decide if I’m going to switch to white again so that the two yellow sections are the same size or just work until I run out of yellow. I could put a white stripe in but it would probably use up my white so I’d end up ending on a larger yellow anyways. Any ideas?

After recess of banana slices with pb&j I worked on my stitching. It looked like I had very little left to do, but I told myself just to work on it until lunchtime. I had crab on cucumber.

However, I have been binge watching the XStitchMD since finishing the Crazy Sock Lady podcast and she inspired me to keep going. Oh by the way, I really like this podcast so far:) At 2pm a miraculous thing happened- I finished the first page of the cross stitch pattern. I was so excited, especially when my mom pointed out the pattern is only two pages so technically I’m halfway done. I thought about making myself do the backstitching on the first page before moving on, but I think I’ll take advantage of whatever Monentum I have and just keep moving forward with the stitching.

After my afternoon snack of a rice cake with pb&j and tea cookies ( I know, too much pb&j and unhealthy cookies), I moved onto working on my Bentley cardigan. I messed up the ribbing at first but did manage to get it done and get the body bound off. I will move onto the button bands next so that I will do the sleeves last and be able to make them as long as possible!

I did make myself put down the cardigan long enough to do my FitOn workout this evening. It was an upper body toner which is always a good thing:)

Well that is my day. Have fun!

AJ

SAL Update

I am so glad this update landed at the start of my holiday so that I will have a clear picture of how much stitching I get done over the holiday:)

When I was a teenager I loved the work of Paula Vaughn and my grandma very kindly bought me the Paula Vaughn cross stitch book “A Quilt for All Seasons”. I immediately started on the January one. I’m not sure when exactly this was, but the project then languished on a shelf in my spare room for twelve years after I moved into my condo. Last year I heard about this SAL and decided it may help me actually get this project finished.

Here is where I was three weeks ago:

Here is where I am now:

I know it doesn’t look like much but with getting all the white at the bottom filled in, it felt like a lot. I think it’s because it finished off a whole area, but unfortunately not the whole first page

My goal is to finish the first page before the next update. I have holidays, I have an OTT light now and I have motivation because I am quite close. Let’s hope all goes according to plan!

Make sure you check out everyone’s projects as there are some truly outstanding projects being done and a very wide variety!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

SAL Update

When I was a teenager I loved the work of Paula Vaughn and my grandma very kindly bought me the Paula Vaughn cross stitch book “A Quilt for All Seasons”. I immediately started on the January one. I’m not sure when exactly this was, but the project then languished on a shelf in my spare room for twelve years after I moved into my condo. Last year I heard about this SAL and decided it may help me actually get this project finished.

Here is where I was last update:

Here is where I am now:

I really had plans to finish the first page by this update, but unfortunately I’ve had quite the three weeks! I’ve had Covid, three of my appliances broke, and then to top it off I’ve had problems with my visa due to the appliances. I am really ready for life to go back to quiet and boring so I can spend more time stitching!

Make sure you check out all the other members of this SAL as the projects are truly spectacular!!!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

SAL Update

When I was a teenager I loved the work of Paula Vaughn and my grandma very kindly bought me the Paula Vaughn cross stitch book “A Quilt for All Seasons”. I immediately started on the January one. I’m not sure when exactly this was, but the project then languished on a shelf in my spare room for twelve years after I moved into my condo. Last year I heard about this SAL and decided it may help me actually get this project finished.

I don’t ever feel like I’ve gotten much done, but in December I posted all the pictures from the year and could actually see that I have made progress this year. I’m a firm believer that every stitch is a step towards completion.

Last month, I had gotten to here:

This month it has still been difficult to get enough light to stitch by, but I managed to work a solid two hours on it. It’s also tough to find time along with teaching, running, reading and knitting, though every nice day, I tried to grab at least a few minutes!

This month, the project looks like this:

I’m still off by a couple of stitches here and there, but hopefully I’ll keep that edge perfect and the next page will go better. I have definitely learned not to hop around so I don’t have to change colours. It’s better to change colours!!!

Make sure you check out all the other members of this SAL as the projects are truly spectacular!!!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen

SAL Update

For the past twelve plus years, this cross stitch project sat on a shelf in my spare room. This year I was determined to make progress and this SAL is definitely helping!

Here is where I was three weeks ago:.

Here is where I am now:

I am just trying to slowly make my way through this section where it appears I am out on every row:(. I finally realized my mistake. Instead of trying to do as many stitches as possible at one time in one colour, I need to go row by row and just do the one or two stitches of each colour at a time. It is a pain, but I think I’ll make less mistakes.

I had a request from a reader that I share all my progress pictures from this year, so here goes:

Wow this actually did make me feel better about this project as I can actually see a difference between the first and last picture. I hope I get to keep doing this next year!

Make sure you check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects in this SAL!

check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects!

Jenny

Avis

Claire

Gun

Carole

Sue

Constanze

Christina

Kathy

Margaret

Cindy

Heidi

Jackie

Sunny

Hayley

Megan

Deborah

Mary Margaret

Renée

Carmela

Sharon

Daisy

Anne

Cathie

Laura

Sherrie

SAL Update

For the past twelve plus years, this cross stitch project sat on a shelf in my spare room. This year I was determined to make progress and this SAL is definitely helping!

Here is where I was three weeks ago:.

Here is where I am now:

I haven’t made much progress this time as it has been exceptionally gray here. I am having a tough time working on this project when it isn’t nice and bright out. I really need to find a good light! If anyone has a good suggestion, I would love to hear any suggestions of good lamps!

Make sure you check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects in this SAL!

check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects!

Jenny

Avis

Claire

Gun

Carole

Sue

Constanze

Christina

Kathy

Margaret

Cindy

Heidi

Jackie

Sunny

Hayley

Megan

Deborah

Mary Margaret

Renée

Carmela

Sharon

Daisy

Anne

Cathie

Laura

Sherrie

SAL Update

For the past twelve plus years, this cross stitch project sat on a shelf in my spare room. This year I was determined to make progress and this SAL is definitely helping!

When I got the email reminding me to post, I realized I needed to get some time in on this project. Here is where I was three weeks ago:.

And here is where I am now.

I am very thankful that you all can’t see the pattern as I have so many mistakes in this project, but at least it is getting done.

Make sure you check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects in this SAL!

check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects!

Jenny

Avis

Claire

Gun

Carole

Sue

Constanze

Christina

Kathy

Margaret

Cindy

Heidi

Jackie

Sunny

Hayley

Megan

Deborah

Mary Margaret

Renée

Carmela

Sharon

Daisy

Anne

Cathie

Laura

Sherrie

SAL Update

Stitching:

This year I am determined to make progress on the project that sat on the shelf in my spare room for eleven years. It at least sits on my coffee table now. This is where I was at three weeks ago.

Here is where I am now:

I have to admit that I chickened out and avoided the bottom area where I had screwed up and instead worked on the curtain. I know that it’s very difficult to see the progress, but I have hit the end of the first page in the curtain. 🎉🎊

I like that I have a straight row to check progress on and am looking forward to being able to get the whole thing to that column so that I start the next page at a “clean” row.

Be sure to check out everyone else’s progress as there are some amazing projects!

Jenny

Avis

Claire

Gun

Carole

Sue

Constanze

Christina

Kathy

Margaret

Cindy

Heidi

Jackie

Sunny

Hayley

Megan

Deborah

Mary Margaret

Renée

Carmela

Sharon

Daisy

Anne

Cathie

Laura

Sherrie

My Weekend

It hasn’t been super exciting so I thought I would just gather it all together in one post.

Friday:

Dennis cancelled our bike ride so I did my usual 5km to the mill and back.

I then spent the afternoon looking through a long street of furniture stores with my friend who just moved into a new place. This is the cutest thing I saw:

Saturday:

Saturday started with another mill 5k and then laundry and chores all day. I am also reading a good book which I will hopefully get to tell you about soon. Shocker: it’s not a trashy romance!

There was also some stitching and knitting.

Sunday:

Today started with a walk and tea with Brenda and Dennis. It was great to be able to catch up with them and it turned into a nice morning as we went.

I then did a lot of knitting and am done the body of my current sweater. I am hoping to get the neck done tonight too, but that might be too ambitious.

Well now you know my entire weekend. Thank goodness my week should be more interesting!

Oh and if you know about these cards against humanity- knitter version, can you please comment with where to get them, as I couldn’t find them online today. Thanks.

Have fun!

AJ