Thursday 2 April 2020

#24HoursOfCrossStitch - March Challenges

Hi all,

Here is my monthly posting for the #24HoursOfCrossStitch Challenge, the brainchild of Jen from QuirksandStitches, where we can have fun matching our stitching for the month to various challenges. Let's see what happened in March...



1) Stitch for 24 hours during the month, including a minimum of 24 minutes each day
The beginning of March saw me beginning to slowly return to my usual stitching routine. Then, like a lot of people, I found myself in virtual lock down so was able to take advantage of some of the additional 'free' time when I would usually have been working. My total stitching time for March was therefore a very pleasing 56 hours.


2) Fill in the acrostic MEASURE TIME, explain the connections and pick a 24 minute, 4 hour, 8 hour, (or other) goal for each letter.
At the beginning of the month I set the goals as I usually would, suspecting I wouldn't be able to achieve all them all. And then this madness happened, so this is how much I actually achieved for the 11 projects I'd planned:

M - Kings And Queens by Bothy Threads (WIP)
Connection - my monarch is a month late!
Goal - start and finish (about 4 hours?)
Actual - 4h 45m


E - Polar Bear Cub (new start)
Connection - he's being stitched on evenweave
Goal - start and finish (about 8 hours?)
Actual - 7h 40m


A - Advent Calendar Day 16 (new start)
Connection - the design is an angel
Goal - start and finish (about 2 hours?)
Actual - stitched for 40 minutes, did not finish


S - Advent Calendar Day 6 (new start)
Connection - the design is a snowman
Goal - start and finish (about 2 hours?)
Actual - stitched for 45 minutes, did not finish


U - Daisy Umbrella (2015 WIP)
Connection - the daisy is being used as an umbrella
Goal - at least 4 hours of progress
Actual - 5 hours


R - Hogwarts In A Bottle (2019 WIP)
Connection - still no sign of the red train!
Goal - at least 8 hours of progress
Actual - 10 hours


 E - Snow Globe Tree (2019 WIP)
Connection - I'm using etoile thread for the snow
Goal - at least 4 hours of progress
Actual - finished in 8h 40m


T - The Loneliness Of Autumn (2020 WIP)
Connection - more tree trunks should appear
Goal - at least 8 hours of progress
Actual - 10 hours


I - Advent Calendar Day 7 (new start)
Connection - the design includes ice skates
Goal - start and finish (about 2 hours?)
Actual - stitched for 40 minutes, did not finish


M - Grow Your Own by Bothy Threads (2019 WIP)
Connection - the bunny is munching lettuce
Goal - at least 4 hours of progress
Actual - 4h 15m


E - Christmas Cat With Presents (2019 WIP)
Connection - because opening presents is exciting!
Goal - finish (about 4 hours?)
Actual - finished in 3h 35m


3) Connect 12 or more of the given holidays to your projects and stitch for at least 24 minutes on each. 10 of the 11 projects went on one holiday, the biggest (The Loneliness Of Autumn) went on two. Here are their connections:

Day 2 - Old Stuff Day - Daisy Umbrella - this is an old WIP from way back in 2015.

Day 3 - I Want You To Be Happy Day - Christmas Cat With Present - because giving presents is usually a good way of making someone happy.

Day 5 - World Book Day - Hogwarts In A Bottle - this represents some of the most famous books in the world.

Day 9 - Panic Day - Polar Bear - because if you came face to face with a polar bear, you'd panic!

Day 11 - Napping Day - The Loneliness Of Autumn - the bench looks like a good place to sit and take a nap.

Day 13 - Blame Someone Else Day - Kings and Queens - because monarchs would never admit they were wrong and always find someone else to blame for their errors.

Day 14 - National Pi Day - Snow Globe Tree - Pi is used when calculating things to do with circles, and this snow globe is a circle. Sort of!

Day 16 - Everything You Do Is Right Day - Advent Calendar Day 16 Angel - if you do everything right then you're usually referred to as a little angel.

Day 19 - Let's Laugh Day - Advent Calendar Day 6 Snowman - because building a snowman is usually a lot of fun and causes a lot of laughs.

Day 20 - World Sparrow Day - The Loneliness Of Autumn - there could be quite a few sparrows hiding in the trees.

Day 23 - Near Miss Day - Advent Calendar Day 7 Ice Skates - I had a near miss once when I fell over ice skating and saw the blade of a fast skater pass very close to my fingers!

Day 30 - National I Am In Control Day - Grow Your Own - if you grow your own vegetables then you are in control of eating a healthy diet.


4) Additional 'Just For Fun' Challenge: list 24 reasons to stitch instead of...
For this task I tend to waffle a bit instead of making an actual list, and this month is no exception!

I don't think stitching is my hobby; it's part of my life I can't do without, almost an obsession if I'm honest. Therefore I would try to find any excuse I could to stitch. Given a choice, I would easily choose stitching over things I don't enjoy much such as housework and cooking. However, my work is important to me, as is spending time with my children (although being late teenagers that doesn't happen very often) so those would always take priority. But other than that stitching is preferable to just about anything else.

And that's it for March. Back in April!

Take care,
Rachel x

9 comments:

Clare-Aimetu said...

It's lovely to see each project as it grows, great stitching :-)

Katie said...

It feels weird saying it but I'm glad for the virtual lockdown. You needed it. The extra stitching time made up for your lack of stitching before all this. I hope everyone is doing well. Virtual long distance safe hugs haha.

Quilting Tangent said...

Love seeing your progress in the different projects.

Cathy said...

I'm finding advantages to being in lockdown, too, but more stitching time isn't one of them. i always love your connections and enjoy seeing your progress.

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

Great work on your goals. I love the way you fit each piece to the themes. Even the empty Advent frames! At least you have done the boring part first.

Faith... said...

Looks like it was a very successful month.

Bethan said...

Great work this month! I'm glad there was some stitching silver lining to the madness going on x

Leonore Winterer said...

Great job fitting all your projects in and hitting most of the goals! I'm glad you're back to an (almost) normal amount of stitching. I wonder, did you pick the advent calendar motifs for the month before trying to match the themes, or did you pick the ones that would best fit into the holidays etc for the month?

Astrids dragon said...

Great, 56 hours! You certainly have a lot to show for it. I'm patiently waiting for the train!
I must agree with stitching being high on the priority list.