September Stitching Report

First, let me just get this off my chest. I am NOT going to spend every day stitching on Farmhouse Christmas. I just don’t want to do it. I’m going to start over on 40 count linen with Vikki Clayton silks. There are problems that I’ve mentioned before. First, I really dislike using two strands of floss. Second, there are many mistakes – things like instead of stitching over two threads, I stitched over three; between the first square and the second square, I left three threads instead of two so that threw the border off. Third, I do not like the linen – it’s scratchy and rough. I don’t want to leave it unfinished but I don’t want to finish it. So . . that’s where I stand on that one.

I spent the first half of the month working on Summer Schoolhouse. This is what I had done before I started working on it on the first of September.

And this is where I ended on September 15.

That’s pretty good progress. I do not plan to work on this one again in October.

For the second half of September, I scheduled myself to work on Love is the Key. Here is how much I had done before I started working on it.

I only worked on the bottom portion so I didn’t unroll it all the way.

I’m very happy with my progress. I got all those bottom leaves stitched and a few of the centers to the red flower; finished the wavy row under their feet, outlined the right heart, stitched a good bit on the black pot, finished the basket on the right, stitched the letters – Love is the Key.

I’ve been taking Rejoice Evermore to my weekly stitching group and then once a month to another group. The photo below is the last one I see so I’m hoping that’s an accurate depiction of where I was before I started working on it in September. The once a week stitching day usually lasts from about 10 – 4 and we stop maybe an hour for lunch so that’s about 5 hours of stitching that’s fairly uninterrupted – way less interruptions than I have at home. The once a month group is about 5 hours too and we don’t stop for lunch there so I’m getting about 25 hours per month of stitching time away from home.

Here’s the progress I made this month. I can’t be sure I didn’t have the top right bird already stitched or the star blocks along the side stitched but I know I got the house and roof filled in, the two birds on the left stitched and three of the five curtains in the window stitched.

I’m happy with my September progress.