Sunday 1 September 2019

#24HoursOfCrossStitch - August 2019

Hi all,

So I'm back again for the #24HoursOfCrossStitch Challenge for August. Another month where some parts were easy whilst others were challenging and frustrating. Hello shoe-horning!



For August the three challenges were similar to July. For challenges one and two I was determined to include each project at least once, for challenge three each project was included twice.


1) Stitch for 24 hours during the month

I stitched for a total of 57 hours 15 minutes during August, which is w-a-y above the required 24, thanks to the school summer holiday. Because of quite a few new starts the time was split between ten projects this month. Here's a recap of most of my stitching this month:

August in Peridot - 3h 40m - finished
(stitched bottom decoration and border)

Autumn Twirls - 6h 35m - started and finished

Kings and Queens (Henry III) - 6h 10m - started and finished

Green Halloween Banner - 9h 10m - finished
(stitched bottom left tree and black behind it)

Hogwarts In A Bottle - 4h 15m - progress
(not really enough progress to make it worth showing; you'll see it in the next 10 hour update)

Autumn Bird - 7h 45m - started and finished

Scaredy Cats - 9h 40m - started and finished

A Little Witch of the Night - 2h 35m - new start

A Little Wizard of the Night - 5h - new start

Christmas Cat with Present - 2h 25m - new start
(you'll be seeing this as a new start tomorrow so I'll save the photo for then)


2) Fill in the acrostic XSTITCH DAY (each project was used once)

X - Green Halloween Banner - because it's now been x'd (crossed) off my WIP list.
S - Scaredy Cats - S is for scaredy in the chart name.
T - August In Peridot - because it was mostly stitched on trains.
I - A Little Witch Of The Night - I think she's out looking for ingredients for her potions.
T - Autumn Twirls - T is for twirls in the chart name.
C - Autumn Bird - the bird has a very curly tail.
H - Henry III - H is for Henry's initial.
D - Hogwarts In A Bottle - I continued stitching the turrets which house the dormitories.
A - A Little Wizard Of The Night - because wizards are associated with the word 'abracadabra'.
Y - Christmas Cat With Present - because Christmas just about marks the end of the year.


3) Connect 12 or more of the given holidays to your projects and stitch for at least 24 minutes on each. (each project went on two holidays, so 20 in total)

This was really hard, but that was half the fun!

1st - National Mountain Climbing Day - Hogwarts In A Bottle - because Hogwarts is on the top of a mountain (well, more of a hill I suppose but we'll call it a mountain!)

2nd - National Colouring Book Day - August In Peridot - because peridot is a colour.

3rd - National Watermelon Day - August in Peridot - watermelon skins are green, like peridot. Just!

6th - Wiggle Your Toes Day - A Little Wizard Of The Night - he's riding his broomstick barefoot and your can see his cute little toes.

7th - National Lighthouse Day - Christmas Cat With Presents - in recognition of The Lighthouse Keeper series of books, one of which is called The Lighthouse Keeper's Cat.

8th - World Cat Day - Scaredy Cats - I think 11 cats in this design is a good enough contribution to World Cat Day.

10th - Lazy Day - Autumn Twirls - as the leaves lazily fall to the ground in the gentle autumn breeze.

11th - Son And Daughter Day - Henry III who was the first English monarch to actually really love and care about his children.

12th - World Elephant Day - Henry III because he kept a menagerie at the Tower of London, which included an elephant gifted to him in 1255 by the King of France.

13th - Left Hander's Day - A Little Witch Of The Night - she's holding her broomstick with her left hand.

14th - National Creamsicle Day - Autumn Bird - the colours of the bird look like vanilla, butterscotch and toffee ice cream.

15th - Relaxation Day - Christmas Cat With Present - because Christmas Day is a time for relaxing.

18th - Serendipity Day - Scaredy Cats - because black cats are a symbol of good luck.

21st - Poet's Day - A Little Witch Of The Night - in recognition of the ditty always associated with witches, 'Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble.'

22nd - Be An Angel Day - Green Halloween Banner - because I feel like an angel for having finished it!

23rd - Ride The Wind Day - Autumn Twirls - because leaves ride the wind as they float to the ground.

29th - More Herbs, Less Salt Day - A Little Wizard Of The Night - I don't think wizards would put salt in their potions, but they definitely would put herbs.

30th - Frankenstein Day - Green Halloween Banner - Frankenstein's Monster is usually portrayed as being green, and certainly appears regularly in Halloween pictures.

31st - International Bacon Day - Hogwarts In A Bottle - because another name for a pig is a hog!


Phew! So that's August finally completed. I'm interested to see what others have done for August and now can't wait to get started on September!

Take care,
Rachel x

9 comments:

Linda said...

Congrats on getting all of the challenges done Rachel. Wonderful progress on all of them. That's my problem on joining challenges, my poor old brain can't think up reasons for using the pieces.

Linda

Renee said...

You made fantastic progress this month! I particularly love your Halloween finishes. Congratulations!

Cathy said...

Nice progress on all your projects! I had to laugh at that shoehorn of yours--it really stretched for some of them, but they all work!

Faith... said...

Great stitching for the month.

Some of those acrostics and connections are a real stretch there! LOL

Leonore Winterer said...

I love your shoehorning. All those crazy holidays are fun!

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

Nice work on the challenges and the shoehorns too!

I fell off the wagon and didn't get back on this month.

Astrids dragon said...

My head is spinning, I don't know how you do it and keep it all straight! Everything looks amazing of course!

Katie said...

Love your shoe-horning and how it all plugs in. Perfect! Fantastic progress!! Good luck in September!

Tiffstitch said...

Well done! I keep wanting to join, but the other tasks have been making it difficult. I'm tempted to give them the chuck this month though, could be just some stress talking however. :)