Crafty Monday: WoCroStiMo Pieces

I've wanted to make this post for about 2 weeks, but I've been waiting until I could post both of the pieces to flickr and then share here. This is the official last post for WoCroStiMo (at least for this year). I wrote most of the post on the 30th and have had it saved, so I'm just going to post what I've got along with some new commentary.

Yesterday was the last day of November and for many people it signaled the end of NaNoWriMo. For me, it was the end of WoCroStiMo, World Cross Stitching Month. If you saw my TTMT post yesterday, you’ll know that I was a “winner” (I met my goal) for the month! My goal was 15,000 stitches, and I’m happy to report that I actually had a total of 16,056!! I did two different projects during the month.

The first project was my swap piece for the Phat Quarter Swap. I finished it early Sunday morning and mailed yesterday, so my partner hasn’t received it yet (and probably won’t for another week and a half or more since the package is going overseas). That piece is the one I’m most proud of. I’ve done a lot of other pieces really like but this one I loved and I was sad to part with it. If I had an extra ninety bajillion hours I would actually consider making another one.

The theme of the swap was OMG! The Horror! and I had a chance to combine the awesomeness of a Peeves (from Harry Potter) quote and the iconic movie cover of Poltergeist. I was a bit ambitious, but once I had the idea I couldn't let it go! The completed stitch was 13430 stitches (not including all of the back stitching) and was done on 22ct fabric using 21 different colors.






The next piece came to me as a sort of favor/commission on Wednesday the 24th. The original plan was to work on my giant cross stitch of d00m for the remaining 2k stitches, but this other project fell into my lap at just the right time. I was contacted by Julie Jackson of Subversive Cross Stitch, Jamie Chalmers known in the stitchy community as Mr X Stitch, and the incredibly awesome Bridget aka Beefranck to stitch a "royal wedding memorabilia on the occasion of Prince William’s engagement" (blatantly stolen from the SCS site because my brain sucks right now).

I tried something totally new for this piece, and that was to dye my fabric. I usually stitch on 18 or 22ct fabric and my color options are pretty limited (always white, basically). Rather than try to find royal blue 22ct anywhere, I got some dye and did it myself. It turned out beautifully with only a couple of weird dye spots, and I am definitely going to dye fabric in the future. Of course, I had way too many issues while stitching but I fought through it and was able to do all 2626 stitches in two evenings.



and because I'm insanely proud of the back


The pattern for this stitch can be found on the Subversive Cross Stitch website. It's a pretty big project and I have no idea how I managed to do it all so quickly.

But yes, a very delayed post on something that ended two weeks ago, but I hope you think it was worth the wait!

Talk to me Tuesday: I am the winner

WoCroStiMo ends today and yesterday I reached my goal! I did two different projects during the month, one with 13430 stitches and one with 2626 stitches (not counting backstitching). I surpassed my goal of 15k and got to slightly over 16k!! I'm so happy with myself, and you can see what I made this month!

Crafty Monday: WoCroStiMo Update

I was going to write a long post about multi-tasking, but I'm just too busy right now! I had to work later today and I'm all sorts of behind in everything, so I'm just going to post the update and get on with my evening.

For WoCroStiMo I should be at 7500 today and I am at 7875! YES! I'm still on schedule, so I don't need to worry until tomorrow (which I will be since I have etsy orders and my video to do tomorrow). I would post a photo, but it's actually starting to look like something, and I don't want any pictures floating around that might spoil my partner in this swap. But yes, back to work!

Crafty Monday: WoCroStiMo Day 8

I am now 8 days into WoCroStiMo and going strong! In order to make my goal of 15,000 stitches, I will need to do 500 stitches per day.

Current cross stitch project on Saturday with 2867 stitches done


At the time of writing (Sunday night, since I won't have time on actual Monday), I have 4,419 stitches done. Only 81 stitches until I make my goal for Tuesday (which will be helpful since Talk to me Tuesday videos take time). The best thing though, is that this month includes a lot of time off from work. The 11th is Veterans day, and I get that day off. Thanksgiving is also coming up, so I'll have time off for that. If I keep up the same pace, then I should make the deadline. I just wish it were the weekend already. :P

Crafty Monday: WoCroStiMo

meant to write and post this yesterday, my bad

As many of you know, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) started yesterday and people have been furiously typing away at their computers since (the real procrastination won’t begin for at least another day or so). For the last two years I’ve participated and won NaNo, but I decided not to do it this year. I simply do not have enough time with my new long work schedule, weekly videos, internetting, making music, and of course WoCroStiMo.

WoCroStiMo? No, it isn’t Judoon for something dirty, it’s World Cross Stitching Month! I do like the idea of participating in a big project in November (last year I did NaBloPoMo – National Blog Posting Month) and I have too much stitching to do, I figured I could make it into a fun activity where I don’t have to be alone!

WoCroStiMo is slightly different than NaNo. If you participate in NaNo the main goal is 50k no matter what. That is not the case with WoCroStiMo. While I think we’d all love to be able to stitch 50,000 stitches in a month, we know it is basically impossible (you would need to stitch over 1500 stitches per day, if you can do that, I say go for it!). On my speediest project I only was able to do 1000 stitches a day, and I was stitching constantly.

If you’d like to participate, set a goal. It should be a high number; higher than you think you have time for. If you only stitch about 1000 stitches in a month, go for 1500 or even 2000! With my new work schedule and all of the stuff I need to be doing, I’m setting a goal of 15k stitches. I’m currently participating in the Phat Quarter OMG! The Horror Swap, and the pattern I created is around 13,000 stitches. If you watch my Talk to me Tuesday videos and have seen the progress of my giant DH stitch over the last two months, that is about 17k stitches.

So yes, I may be crazy, but I encourage you to be crazy with me and set your own WoCroStiMo goals! And to everyone that does embroidery, quilting, scrapping, crochet, and knitting – feel free to make your own anagram, crafty goals, and get to it! You know your own work and how long it can take you to do it, so estimate what you think is a formidable goal and start working towards it. Personally, I can’t wait
for my work day to be over so I can start stitching!