Thursday 2 January 2020

#24HoursOfCrossStitch - December Challenges

Hi all,

Here is my monthly posting for the #24HoursOfCrossStitch Challenge, the brainchild of Jen from QuirksandStitches.


Have I really been taking part in this SAL for 6 months now? Doesn't time fly (pun intended!) By the way, I now have one of these clocks and absolutely love it. It goes well beside my backwards clock!

You know the format of these posts by now, so let's see what I achieved during December:

1) Stitch for 24 hours during the month, including a minimum of 24 minutes each day

Not a problem! I stitched for a total of 54.5 hours during December, a tad above average.


2) Fill in the acrostic 12 DAYS OF XS, explain the connections and pick a 24 minute, 4 hour or 8 hour goal for each letter.

Ten letters/numbers meant 10 projects to chose to work on. Here are my projects, my goals and my achievements:

 1 - Christmas Cat With Present (WIP)
Connection - this is number 1 out of the set of 4
Goal - at least 24 minutes of progress (finish the rug)
Actual - 2h 55m

2 - Kings And Queens by Bothy Threads (WIP)
Connection - my monarch this month was Richard II
Goal - at least 4 hours from start to finish
Actual - 4h 5m

 D - A Little Wizard Of The Night (WIP)
Connection - the fabric is dusky sky
Goal - at least 24 minutes of progress working on the owl
Actual - 1h 15m

 A - A Little Witch Of The Night (WIP)
Connection - she looks astonished
Goal - at least 24 minutes of progress working on the pumpkin
Actual - 1h 10m

Y - December In Turquoise (new start)
Connection - it is the last of the year long birthstone projects
Goal - at least 4 hours from start to finish
Actual - 5h 15m

 S - Haunted Library by Mill Hill (WIP)
Connection - if it's haunted then it's spooky!
Goal - at least 24 minutes of progress
Actual - 1h 20m

 O - Hogwarts In A Bottle by CutePatternsbyMaria (WIP)
Connection - I'm currently listening to The Order Of The Phoenix whilst stitching on it
Goal - at least 8 hours of progress
Actual - 10 hours

F - Grow Your Own by Bothy Threads (new start)
Connection - the bunny is eating one of her five a day
Goal - at least 8 hours
Actual - 15 hours

X - Ho, Ho, Ho by Durene Jones (new start)
Connection - it's an xmas (yuk!) themed piece
Goal - at least 4 hours from start to finish
Actual - 9h 30m

 S - Hocus Pocus by Sue Hillis Designs (WIP)
Connection - it was the sixth start and finish from this set
Goal - at least 4 hours to finish
Actual - 4 hours


3) Connect 12 or more of the given holidays to your projects and stitch for at least 24 minutes on each. Eight of the ten projects went on one holiday, the other two (Hogwarts and Grow Your Own) went on two. See above for time spent on each one. Thankfully, this was much easier than previous months have been!

1st - Eat A Red Apple Day - A Little Witch Of The Night - it was a witch who gave a red apple to Snow White.

7th - Letter Writing Day - Hogwarts In A Bottle - despite being magical people, most still communicate via letter at Hogwarts.

8th - Pretend To Be A Time Traveller Day - Kings And Queens - as I stitch the monarchs and write up their histories I sometimes feel like I'm actually there with them.

11th - Kaleidoscope Day - December In Turquoise - all of the birthstones have produced a kaleidoscope of colours.

15th - Cat Herder's Day - Hocus Pocus - witches have cats but even they can't control how they act or when they come and go.

16th - National Chocolate Covered Anything Day - Grow Your Own - I know I love chocolate (a lot!) but I wouldn't go so far as taking some of this bunny's vegetables, covering them in chocolate and eating them. Chocolate onion anyone?!!

17th - National Maple Syrup Day - Grow Your Own - following on from the 16th, you can keep your Maple Syrup to use on pancakes etc... keep it away from this bunny's vegetables!

19th - Look Out For An Evergreen Day - A Little Wizard Of The Night - there may not be an evergreen tree, but the wizard has an evergreen owl!

22nd - Be A Lover Of Science Day - Haunted Library - in a library you can research scientific information (at least you would before the internet came along!)

25th - No 'L' Day - Ho, Ho, Ho - Santa always arrives with his belly-deep ho-ho-ho at Noel.

29th - Still Need To Do Day - Christmas Cat With Present - because, ironically, I still need to do (stitch) the cat herself!

30th - Bacon Day - Hogwarts In A Bottle - bacon comes from pigs, and pigs are hogs, right?


You may have seen or read that Jen has pre-released the complete challenges for 2020 in one big booklet. There are even more fun challenges in there too, although I probably won't take part in all of the additional ones as some are not 'me'. You'll know why when I mention them each month. Here's looking forward to a fun year of #24HOCS challenges!

Take care,
Rachel x

8 comments:

Linda said...

I love the reasons you come up with on these challenges.

Happy New Year Rachel.


Linda

Cathy said...

More creative reasons for your choices, especially for the holidays. You have a much better imagination than I do (which is why I'm not doing this challenge.

Katie said...

Love all your connections! Plus it's motivation and that's all that matters!! Keep up that gorgeous stitching.

Bethan said...

Such great connections. It's lucky you have so many designs to chose from for these challenges! x

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

Great work on getting the projects to fit the challenges! Looking forward to seeing how you get on with them this year.

Faith... said...

Awesome job squeezing everything in!

Tiffstitch said...

I love how you manage to squeeze everything in. I don't know if I'm ready yet for all of the aspects of this challenge, I'm working on getting myself organized for the rest, so maybe. Well done and nice work on the finishes!

Leonore Winterer said...

Another great round of this SAL!
You know, I wouldn't go and chocolate-coat vegetables either, but I did try crisps with chocolate in Japan, and that was pretty delicious, and I think little bunny does have some potatoes there...