#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

2020 plans

Good morning everybody, and Happy New Year!!

It's time for me to reveal my stitching plans for 2020... and they're numerous and complicated. I'll do a summary first, then go into a lot more detail, so if you're planning on reading this post rather than just skimming over it, go grab a cuppa as it's very long, picture heavy and (of course) waffle heavy. You have been warned!

Here we go then.

In 2020 I would like to:

Finish:
6 WIPs from 2015
7 WIPs from 2019

Start and finish:
one monarch each month
one Smalls SAL piece each month
a 24 piece advent calendar

Start:
Magical Bookshelf
17 projects for the Tokyo Olympic Stitching Challenge (more about that later)
The Loneliness of Autumn
something on Christmas Day
another 3 projects which are currently on standby if I'm feeling very very very naughty

Join in with:
#24HOCS SALs (monthly)
#24HOCS (ad-hoc)
People's Choice SAL (monthly)
Fully-Finished Gallery SAL (monthly)
Smalls SAL (monthly)
Tokyo Olympic Stitching Challenge (July/August)
Dark October (October!)

FFO
as much as possible


Now, all of that might seem like a lot... and that's because it is! But it's not actually that complicated as most of the stitching and SALs overlap. Anyway, the devil's on my shoulder this year and is convincing me that variety is the spice of life, and who am I to argue with the devil?!


Now, if you're interested, here's everything in more detail:


STITCHING

1) Finish 6 WIPs from DUSDCJFC 2015
I have 24 pieces left to finish from this Challenge and would like to finish 6 each year for the next 4 years. This year's 6 pieces are all by Margaret Sherry and all feature mice. Some haven't been touched since the day they were started *hangs head in shame*:

All Aboard the Walnut Shells

Daisy Hugs

Daisy Umbrella

Dandelion Time

I Love Butter

Love Me ... Loves Me Not

2) Finish 7 WIPs from 2019

Excluding the long-term Kings and Queens, these are the projects I started but didn't finish in 2019. I would really like to finish them all this year if possible:

 Hogwarts in a Bottle

A Little Witch of the Night

A Little Wizard of the Night

Christmas Cat With Presents

 Snow Globe Tree

 Haunted Library

Grow Your Own

3) Start and finish 12 monarchs of the month

I shall continue to stitch one monarch each month on Kings and Queens by Bothy Threads, and post alongside a summary of their history. 2020 will take me from Henry IV through the Wars Of The Roses and the Tudors to Elizabeth I and the completion of the third row. Here's my progress to date:

4) Start and finish 12 Smalls SAL pieces
I have selected 12 small projects especially for the Smalls SAL. As usual, most are cuties. Here they are, ready and waiting:

5) Start and finish 24 (very small) advent calendar pieces by JBW Designs

I would like all 24 pieces to be stitched and ready in time for Christmas. I may stitch them evenly throughout the year or, as they're so small, just pick them up when I feel like a quick stitch:

6) Start and about half finish Magical Bookshelf by PatternNadGavr on etsy

This is another Harry Potter themed project which I fell in love with at first sight and just had to stitch. However, I promised myself I'd only start it once Hogwarts was finished, so it'll probably be around July when the first stitch goes in. Reaching the half way mark is my quite ambitious end of year goal:

7) The biggie... start 17 new projects for the Tokyo Olympic Stitching Challenge
The Tokyo Summer Olympics is on between 24th July and 9th August - that's 17 days inclusive. My plan is to start one new project every day for each of those 17 days. I've already chosen the projects. Some are small-ish and continue sets I've already started, some are a bit bigger and by new-to-me companies. Here's a sneaky peek at their folders:

8) Last minute completely wacky I must be insane addition - The Loneliness Of Autumn
I love this chart. I want to stitch this chart. But I know the confetti will drive me mad. However, when I posted a picture of it in the Autumnal Colours People's Choice SAL, Leonore said she had it and also wanted to stitch it. With huge tongue-in-cheek I mentioned that we could SAL it together and, although we both knew I was only joking, one thing led to another and we ended up agreeing! For some reason, once the idea had been planted, neither of us could talk ourselves out of it; it was obviously meant to be!
We're both going to stitch extreme cross country one colour at a time (at least for the first few colours) working in descending order of quantity of stitches, and we're both aiming for an average of one thread length, or about 20 minutes per day, adding up to 10 hours per month.
Progress will not be comparable, not only because Leonore has the HAED version which is about twice the size of my crosstitch.com version but because we'll also be starting with different colours and working on hugely different count fabrics - I'll be starting with black on 18ct, Leonore with dark blue on 28ct!
There are 83 colours in mine - 25% of the total project is made up of just the first five colours (so that'll be easy) the second 25% by seven colours (not too bad) and the third 25% by 17 colours (also not that bad) which means it will only get really complicated and frustrating during the final 25% which uses 54 of the 83 colours!
Here's the project; I really must be very mad indeed!

9) Christmas Day new start
For the last couple of years I have started a new project on Christmas Day. I don't know yet which one it will be but at the moment I'm guided towards this one:

10) Other projects?
I have three other projects I may make a start on this year. Wanda's Wands and Wanda's Witchery would be suitable for Dark October, if I need any more Halloween stitching, whilst I have yet to decide if I am going to stitch the Pretty Little Produce guys (if I get round to them) as a full piece or individually. I'm guided towards individually, but that means 36 little guys to FFO!

And that's it for the stitching! Still with me? Now for the SALs.

SALs

1) #24HoursOfCrossStitch
Hosted by Jen of QuirksandStitches, I joined this last July and haven't looked back! The monthly challenges usually consist of stitching for a minimum of 24 minutes per day and 24 hours during the month, connecting projects worked on to an acrostic, and filling in an optional calendar of holidays. I say 'usually', because Jen has surpassed all expectations and, to help with planning, has already released the whole year's worth of usual challenges for 2020, along with additional 'just for fun' monthly challenges, a year-long A-Z (see below) and a bunch of other stuff! I know this isn't to everyone's taste but I'm definitely going to enjoy stitching along with these!

2) #24HOCS 2020 ABC Challenge - ad hoc
The idea of this challenge is to connect 12 or 24 projects to letters of the alphabet and push to finish them by the end of the year. Not to be outdone, and using all of the projects I'm hoping to finish anyway, I've actually filled in all 26 letters! I think I should be able to finish 24.

3) People's Choice SAL - first Saturday of each month
Hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching, this SAL has a different theme each month as chosen by a vote. I will not be stitching anything specific but hope to make an interesting post around each chosen theme.

4) Fully-Finished Gallery SAL 2020 - 10th of each month
Hosted by me, this definitely-needed SAL produced really successful results last year. I shall continue to run this SAL to encourage you all (and me!) to turn UFOs into FFOs.

5) Smalls SAL - last Friday of each month

Host by Mary's Thread, I will continue to stitch one project each month specifically for this SAL (and show other small pieces I stitch during the month which will also qualify as smalls).

6) Tokyo Olympics Stitching Challenge - July/August
There are bound to be loads and loads of Olympic stitching challenges and SALs appearing all over the internet come June/July but this is one I came up with for me to satiate that occasional need for a new start binge! I mentioned it above, but here it is in a bit more detail. It started with part one, but then I added parts two and three, 'just for fun'!
* start one new project each day for the 17 days of the Olympics
* aim to finish all 17 pieces before the start of the Paris Summer Olympics on 26th July 2024
* aim to FFO all 17 pieces by the same date

Given the size of the projects (and everything else I want to stitch) I don't honestly think parts 2 and 3 will be achievable, but it'll definitely be a challenge trying!!

I'll mention this SAL again closer to the time, but if anyone fancies joining me you're more than welcome! Don't panic though - the challenge isn't limited to 17 new starts - you could modify it for yourself so choose 17 WIPs or a combination of WIPs and new starts. If you are more of a OAAT stitcher, I'm sure this challenge could be modified for you too, maybe something like a different colour each day, or just stitch on it for 17 days in a row?

7) Dark October
I will ensure that the whole month will be dedicated to just Halloween projects. Most will be WIPs but there are a couple of projects waiting in the sidelines if I fancy a new start.


And if all of that's not enough, I still need to tackle some of the older projects in my Box Of Shame, whilst keeping on top of all the new finishes!

Of course, although I would like to follow the above plans as closely as possible, none of them are actually set in stone, so if any ad-hoc challenges and SALs appear during the year which I fancy joining in with I may well do those too although, to be honest, I think my year is overflowing, as it is! It definitely seems my stitching goal in life is to make things as complicated as possible!

Time to make a start then... I've an awful lot to get through in the next 366 days (I'm sure the extra day will make so much difference!)

Wishing you all a very happy, healthy and stitchy 2020,
Rachel x