Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse – February 2025

Anne S

The start of February was a busy time for me stitching my little heart out. It tailed off, though, and I moved into sewing mode for a while. I’m embracing being out of work for a while and ‘doing all the things’, ie working through all those WIPs and kitted up sewing projects that have been gathering dust for years. It really helps having a dedicated sewing space, something I’ve never had before.

Stitching WIP updates

Here’s my progress from February, including the starting point as at 1 February and their current status.

“Mini Sunflowers” by Heaven and Earth Designs – fully finished!

“All you need is love” by Design Works – fully finished!

“Creepy pin cushion” cushion by Shepherd’s Bush, before and after:

“Almost Halloween” by The Drawn Thread, before and after:

“Three Kings” by Mill Hill, before and after:

“Egyptian Garden Mandala” by Chatelaine, before and after:

“2024 Mirabilia Retreat Mermaid” by Nora Corbett, before and after:

“Supernatural” by PixelStitches, before and after:

“Seafoam” (canvaswork) by Needle Delights Originals, before and after:

New starts

Stitching

I continued adding a few smaller projects to my WIP list with some more new starts this month. Some Facebook group stitching challenges gave me the excuse to start them. I was aiming to have a bigger new start for my birthday but I totally forgot my birthday and everything that went with it and then lost my stitching mojo temporarily. Oh well, it’ll get started soon and will likely become my focus piece after I finish Three Kings..

  1. Cabana beach by Mill Hill
  2. The boys are back in town by JABC
  3. Girls night out by JABC

Sewing

  • Cali & Co mystery block of the month by Coriander Quilts – Block 2 (started and finished)
  • Tilda Club Jan 2023 – The Makers Tactical Tool Belt by Arabesque Scissors (started and finished)
  • Thimble pip (started and finished)
  • Bee Grateful journal cover kit by Gum Valley Patchwork (started, and just needs the leather catch to be hand-sewn on before it can be fully finished)
  • Slumbermouse Pourch by Kitty Rose Cottage (started, but put to one side now while I work on some cardmaking classes)
  • Tilda Club issue 36 notebook cover by Lilabelle Lane Creations (started earlier in the year and finished)
Slumbermouse pouch by Kitty Rose Cottage

Question of the month:

“What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?“

I originally signed up for the HAED SAL for Jellyworld, but I decided I’d have to dedicate pretty much all my stitching time to that project to meet the deadlines, and after only just returning to stitching after a 4-year hiatus I wanted to focus my energies finishing some older WIPs instead. I did join the WIP Warriors Facebook group at the end of 2024, and they have regular monthly challenges that are really varied – adding the gamification to the stitching has really been motivating to me, and I’ve been stitching regularly every day because of it. Continuing those challenges throughout 2025 will be my only type of SAL I think, because I can work on whatever projects I want to focus on while meeting the challenge commitments.

The only other SAL is a sew-along rather than a stitch-along – I’ve started making the monthly mystery scrappy quilt blocks designed for Cali & Co fabrics by Coriander Quilts. Instead of using the Cali & Co fabrics, I’ve been pulling my Tilda fabrics out that are in cool-tone colours, and loving it so far.

2025 goal achievements

Because I kept my craft goals small this year, and having all that extra spare time to focus on my mental health, I’ve managed to achieve a small number of my goals already, which I’m thrilled with.

  • *DONE* Hit the 80% completion mark for HAED’s Mini Sunflowers – I fully finished this one
  • *1/3 DONE* Finish three stitching projects (at least one should be a current WIP):
    1. All you need is love by Design Works
    2. TBC
    3. TBC
  • *DONE* Make progress on one canvaswork project (new start) (I started Seafoam by Needle Delights Originals)
  • *DONE* Make progress on at least three class/kit sewing projects:
    1. Sewing Day Project Bag by Fee Fee & Me (fully finished)
    2. Windy Walk Bag from Kitty Rose Cottage (fully finished)
    3. KJ’s Ruler Bag from Kitty Rose Cottage (in progress)
  • *DONE* Start a bed quilt (mystery BOM by Coriander Quilts)

Quilting

Coriander Quilts QAL

Anne S

Here’s my February/second block for the quilt-along by Coriander Quilts. I’ve realised I’m going to need to create 3-4 of each month’s blocks to have a quilt big enough for a queen-sized bed, so I may have trouble having enough of the Tilda fabrics … I guess time will tell. I have plenty of the teal ones that can be used, but some of the purples and greens etc I only have a fat quarter of each fabric, and I’m likely to need 1/2 yards. I might just have to get a bit creative down the track …

These blocks continue to make me supremely happy – you can’t help but feel that way when you’re with fabric colours that you adore 🙂 I can’t wait for each new block to arrive each month!

I was very unexpectedly given a $50 gift voucher to a quilting shop by a dear friend for my birthday, so I decided to use it towards a Sue Daley rotating cutting mat. It seems I have hundreds of half square triangles in my future with this quilt, and having a rotating mat will hopefully make it a lot quicker to trim down all those blocks! I know I shouldn’t be spending money right now, but I haven’t a small moment of self-indulgence for my birthday month 😉

Friday Night Sew In, Quilting & Sewing, Sewing

Friday Night Sew In – Feb 2025

Anne S

Yay it was Friday yesterday, which meant my sewing/stitching pals were busy creating and working on sewing and other craft projects.

In my case my first task was to put together this book cover, which was from Tilda Club issue 36 by Lilabelle Lane Creations. I managed to attach the embroidered panel on Thursday night, and put it all together yesterday (Friday) … however the notebook that it was based on didn’t end up fitting! I grabbed an alternative hard-backed notebook instead, which fits perfectly, but now the embroidered panel is off-centre and kinda annoying. I must say, though, the project itself is really pretty – and it was a great one to use this very colourful and busy Tilda fabric collection.

I’ll be truthfully honest that I found the instructions a bit lacking for this pattern. There seems to be one clear error where it says for both lining pieces “along one of the short ends on each piece…” to fold over and top stitch the edge. On the smaller piece of lining, though, the actual edge that needs the foldover and topstitching is the longer side and not the short one – the instructions contradict the diagram in the instructions.

There’s also no adjustment made to ensure your notebook fits other than for the height (ie it doesn’t take into account the width of the notebook), so the notebook I’d originally intended using for this didn’t fit thanks to the coiled wire spine – I had another hard-backed notebook I could use instead, so that was no drama though. When adding the embroidery panel it states to ‘take into consideration the 1/4″ seam allowance and the width of your A5 notebook’. What would’ve been super duper helpful (especially to this less experienced sewist who takes every instruction literally) is to also add a note to “take into account the 1″ back flap that holds the notebook in place”, and not just the 1/4″ seam allowance. Anyhoo, that’s just my lack of experience not thinking about that, so regardless of which notebook I ended up using the embroidered panel was never going to be aligned in the centre … my bad, and something I’ve learnt from for future projects! One day in the future I’ll do something to fix it – either by removing and reattaching the hexagon panel or adding a stamped fabric tag/label with a positive saying on it. For now I’ll just glare at it with a filthy look every now and then haha.

Last night I also started working on another project – another notebook cover, must be the week for it – but old fluffy bum (aka Smudge) decided she needed attention so it got put to one side. And while trying to finish it this morning she decided to join in the fun but this time kept swishing her tail by the needle, so I had to down tools for a while today too … at some point either today or tomorrow it’ll get finished and another kit can be ticked off the sewing list.

Cross Stitch, Finishes

Design Works All you need is love

Anne S

After finishing HAED’s Mini Sunflowers this week, I decided to keep momentum going, and after doing the required 100-200 stitches on this project for another challenge, I just kept plugging away at it until it was finished. This is now my second finish for the year.

This was a kit by Design Works – the black aida fabric was like cardboard and they only provided half the amount of floss needed, so I wasn’t overly impressed. Thankfully DMC white was a close enough match that you can’t tell where I used my own stash to be able to complete it (thank heavens for a monochrome design). I really do love the end result, though, and it’ll eventually get framed to hang in my kitchen area.

“All you need is love” kit by Design Works
Stitched on 14ct black Aida (kit fabric) with a mix of kit thread and DMC
Started 13 May 2020
Finished 6 February 2025

Cross Stitch, Finishes, HAED

HAED Mini Sunflowers

Anne S

I have a significant finish today – after 31,600 small cross stitches, it’s now in the ‘to be washed and framed’ pile. I started this during Covid lockdowns, then it was put on hold for a few years while my mojo had disappeared. Thanks to a bunch of stitching challenges this year it gave me the urge to focus on this project and get it finished. It will eventually get sent to a very very dear friend in New Zealand, someone that I’ve known my entire life and is part of my family by choice. My goal this year was to get this to 80% finished, so I’m thrilled to have exceeded that.

“Mini Sunflowers” by Heaven and Earth Designs / Marianne Broome
Stitched on 16ct antique white Aida with DMC floss as charted
Started 6 June 2020
Finished 5 February 2025

Quilting

Coriander Quilts QAL

Anne S

I’ve wanted to try quilting for many years – I’ve been amassing quilt fabrics to support that dream in readiness for having the motivation to start. Finally yesterday was the day where I started bringing my dream to life. Truthfully I actually have about four quilts planned right now, along with the fabrics, but this quilt-along by Coriander Quilts is the one that gave me the push to make a start. It’s a mystery quilt where a new block is released every month and for a beginner like me it’s perfect because Corey also provides a video tutorial for every block as well so it gives a confidence boost to give it a try. It’s actually designed around a fat 1/8 bundle of fabric by Cali & Co which has 40 fabrics, but I couldn’t justify the extra $200-$300 to source it locally, and let’s face it, with my ridiculous fabric stash it made sense to use what I have.

I was originally going to choose similar fabric colours to the Cali & Co bundle from my Tilda stash, but in the end my heart decided for me and I went with my favourite cool toned Tilda fabrics. It’s an overall scrappy quilt, so it was a great excuse to start using all of those fat 1/4s in my Tilda stash … including some very very precious vintage Tilda pieces. I also figure if I make the quilt in my favourite colours maybe I’ll be more inspired to actually finish it. Honestly I don’t think I could be any more proud and thrilled with the end result of my first block … it truly makes my heart sing, and I just know I’m going to love this quilt at the end of the year!

I think the 12 blocks will only end up being big enough for a single bed, so I’m going to have to make multiple blocks to increase it to fit a queen sized bed, but I’ll work that out at some point. I think it makes sense to make the additional blocks at the same time each month, so hopefully I’ll find out over the next month or two. But right now I can’t stop looking at this block – it makes me so freaking happy!! 😀

Challenges & SALs, WIPocalypse

WIPocalypse – January 2025

Anne S

WIP updates

Here’s my progress from January, including the starting point as at 1 January and their current status – I managed quite a bit, which I’m super happy about. I think I’ve finally got my mojo back again, thanks to more free time available to craft after being made redundant, along with joining the WIP Warriors Facebook group and joining their WIP challenges, plus actively doing WIPGO this year. Now it’s just a case of finding a balance between my multiple crafts of cardmaking, sewing/quilting and cardmaking – yikes.

These are the stitching projects that managed to get some love so far in January:

“Mini Sunflowers” by Heaven and Earth Designs, before and after. Only about 3% left to go now, woohoo!

“Aroha” cushion by The Stitchsmith, before and after:

“Almost Halloween” by The Drawn Thread, before and after:

“Three Kings” by Mill Hill, before and after:

“Egyptian Garden Mandala” by Chatelaine, before and after – hard to see the changes as there was minimal stitching done, but at least it’s starting to get some love

Egyptian Garden Mandala 24Nov2018

“All you need is love and coffee” by Designworks, before and after:

“2024 Mirabilia Retreat Mermaid” by Nora Corbett, before and after:

New starts

Stitching

I’ve been looking at the same WIPs for so many years now, I decided that I also need to have some new starts this year to help with my motivation to keep stitching, and early in the year I pulled together a huge pile of potential new starts into a tub, and started a couple of small ones to fit with some of the challenges I’m working on each month. January saw me have two new starts:

  1. Supernatural by PixelStitches, and
  2. Creepy Pincushion by Shepherd’s Bush
  3. Seafoam (canvaswork) by Needle Delights Originals

Sewing

Question of the month:

“Tell us about the oldest WIP you have in your stash.”

I think my oldest is also one of my most unloved – and I’m considering adding backstitch to it and calling it a day. It’s the first project I ever started on evenweave, and there are so many mistakes in it it’s not funny. There’s way too much to rip out to fix it, and it’s more difficult to fix anyway because it uses older dye lots of DMC for some colours which are totally different these days. I’m thinking I should just cut my losses, hack into the fabric and turn the image into a something else such as an inset for a tote bag or book cover.

Nature’s Resting Place by Stoney Creek

2025 goal achievements

Because I kept my craft goals small this year, and having all that extra spare time to focus on my mental health, I’ve managed to achieve a small number of my goals already, which I’m thrilled with.

  • *DONE* Hit the 80% completion mark for HAED’s Mini Sunflowers (currently sitting at 97% completion)
  • *DONE* Make progress on one canvaswork project (new start) (I started Seafoam by Needle Delights Originals)
  • *DONE* Make progress on at least three class/kit sewing projects:
    1. Sewing Day Project Bag by Fee Fee & Me
    2. Windy Walk Bag from Kitty Rose Cottage
    3. KJ’s Ruler Bag from Kitty Rose Cottage

Sewing, Tilda

Windy Walk Project Bag

Anne S

I’m excited that I’ve managed to start and finish another old kit project from Kitty Rose Cottage. These Little Boxes of Creativity offer a great variety of projects in Tilda fabrics, and really worthwhile – the only reason I cancelled is because I was amassing too many kits during a time I wasn’t sewing anymore. It’s great that I’m finally finding the time and motivation to work through them.

This was the “Windy Walk project bag” kit, and my first attempt at doing hand quilting – my goodness, I have so much empathy for those who hand stitch full quilts, it’s very time consuming, although rewarding at the end. It was great to try this technique out on a smaller scale before committing to a quilt.

I’m not a huge fan of pink fabrics, and I loved that Dawn sent enough squares in the kit that I could leave out the squares that were predominantly pink. I’ve always loved the red fabric with teal flowers in this range, and I think the teal and red colours help to offset the pink so it’s less prominent (also really happy that the lining in the kit was teal, so that helped me to embrace it haha). I’m super thrilled overall with this finish – and super chuffed with myself that I’m getting back into sewing again!

Friday Night Sew In

Friday Night Sew In – Jan 2025

Anne S

I’ve been invited to the Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) for a long time, but haven’t joined in because my stitching and sewing bugs were off having a holiday together. The time has finally come that I can actually join the group and put needle to fabric, woohoo!!!

I started this project last week, and it just needed to have the binding and button to be attached before it’s finished. Hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll be able to share the finished project!

Tilda, WIPGO

Sewing WIPGO number 20

Anne S

Now my stitching mojo has returned a bit, I’m attempting to join the WIPGO Challenge again this year. So far so good, I’m managing to give some love to each of the projects called – both in my Stitching and Sewing WIPGO boards.

I’m also trying to keep track in a digital planner this year to help keep me motivated, and it’s great to be able to quickly jot down notes into the planner on my iPad … I just have to remember to go into the planner in the first place LOL.

#20 on my sewing board was to complete the Sewing Day Tote Bag that was a Tilda Lovers Group sew-along project in 2020 which I was unable to complete. I loved being able to tick this one off of the list of those backlog classes, and I look forward to doing some more as the months go on this year. Here’s my finished project – I changed it slightly by changing the fabric choices to cool tones (all Tilda fabrics), and I didn’t add the stitchery panel that’s supposed to go on the front of the bag, but added another two columns of squares instead.

The next project that was called is the “Be my valentine hanging scrappy heart” project from the same sew-along. Hopefully I’ll manage to get that one completed by the end of January as well – I’m loving getting my sewing machine out again after a 4-year hiatus!