Sunday Stitches & Stuff – My 2017 Stitching Rotation & Project Life

Two weeks into the year, and I have already been so busy I’ve barely spent any time with my needle and thread. The good news is that I am completely set up now for a steady rotation of stitching projects, including some “if I get that far” patterns. There is also a large list of things I hope to accomplish in the house, but those projects I will tackle on a month by month basis, as the budget will allow. Additionally, this year I am determined to keep up with my digital scrapbooking. Towards the fall of last year, I developed some very good habits for scrapbooking using the Project Life app and my goal is to stay current with monthly & special event pages, as well as retrospectively get caught up on previous years. At the end of the month I will share the pages I’ve made, but for now here’s a look at the pages I finished last year:

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The first few days of 2017, we were snowed in by winter storm Helena for about 6 days. That time was put to good use as I finished setting up my rotation of projects for this year, and got started on my first new start of the year. With no further ado, here is my 2017 Stitching rotation:

The first pattern of this year long stitch along was released yesterday, and I can not wait to get started! For Christmas, I recieved the kit for the SAL which included hand dyed fabric from Picture This Plus and it is so beautiful! This will be my first time doing a stitch along and my first time working on hand dyed fabric.

When I first saw this pattern, I fell in love with it, and I knew I wanted to stitch up the whole series as an interchangeable home decor item. However, I never felt motivated enough to kit it up and get started. Until now. When I saw the hand dyed fabric that came with the Happily Ever After SAL kit, I was inspired, leading to the decision to stitch each season of quilts on a different hand dyed fabric that coordinates or compliments the season. To find the fabric I went straight to Picture This Plus, since I loved the other fabric so much, and selected a fabric for my first season, which is Spring.

I decided to go with this 28 count Cashel fabric in Bashful, which is a light pinkish color, and reminded me of spring time. This will be only my second time stitching over 2 on linen, so hopefully I won’t have to frog (rip out stitches) too much.

For the entirety of 2014 & 2015, I was obsessed with collecting each magazine issue for this series, to have the entire year of mini motifs. Unfortunately, once I got them, I hit a barrier, because the threads listed are not DMC, which is all I really use. Finally, I gave myself a kick in the butt, because I really want to have these adorable 4″x4” monthly motifs to add to my seasonal decor, so I decided to customize the pattern in order to encourage myself to stitch it. Truly, a pattern changed and stitched is better than a pattern never stitched. So I changed from the recommended linen fabric to basic 14 count Aida and converted the threads to DMC. February is the motif I am starting with and I have not decided if I am going to use the solid color conversions, or substitute in variegated floss, which could make for a gorgeous motif.

One of my Facebook cross stitching groups, is hosting a year long mystery stitch along. Throughout the year we are posting pictures of our progress, but we are not sharing what the pattern is until we are finished. Since it is a mystery, let me just say that this project is a Dimensions kit, stitched on 14 count black Aida.

Some of you may know about my little kit I keep in my purse, in case you don’t here is a post modified from my old blog about it: Purse Pouch. These projects can go quickly or slow depending on how much unplanned free time I have and the complexity of the project. For the most part, I use mini kits and the first one I have chosen this year is the Mouse from the Busy Bees series by Needlemagic, Inc.

Unfortunately, I did not finish my Geisha or my Thai Elephant in 2016, so I have carried them over into this year’s rotation. Hopefully they will finish quickly and I can move on to a few other projects I would like to start this year.

In my “to be kitted’ project bag, I have a few patterns I would love to get started on this year, including: Cloudsfactory’s Famous Woman in History SAL, Mirabilia Designs’ The Raven Queen by Nora Corbett, Nancy Spruance Designs’ Roseland Cottage & Fulton Mansion, and A Cross-Stitcher’s Quit Block Collection for future purse projects.

I have also decided that I am going to include my loom knitting in my weekly project rotation, otherwise I will never finish this scarf, nor get to do any of the other projects that I have pinned. If you want you can check my Loom Knitting Ideas board.

It feels like this is a pretty good rotation to start off with, although I am new to the rotation technique, I think it will definitely help me get some more finishes this year!

Thanks for reading and happy stitching!