December and End of 2025 Wrap-Up

Here it is, the start of 2026 and time to wrap up 2025! I definitely got some finishes and a few new starts, so let's see how the year finished up. 

I'll try and make it obvious which are finishes, what got work, etc. 

1. Amazing Animal Kingdom by Aimee Stewart/HAED - 35802/374500 (9.56%)

2. Canadian Hero by Stitching Jules Designs - 401/53850 (0.74%)

3. Kathleen and Summer by Hannah Lynn/HAED - 550/200000 

4. Universal Monsters B&W by Witchy Stitcher

5. Stocking #3 by Jane Henderson - completed

6. Snowball Fight by Gitta - stitches added

7. Samurai by Fire Wing Designs - completed

8. Believe in the Magic of Christmas by Durene Jones

9. Christmas Birdhouse #1 by Durene Jones - completed

10. Christmas Birdhouse #2 by Durene Jones - completed

11. Stormlight Archive Quotes by Taylor and Cromwell - 8853/13532 (65.42%)

12. Holiday Quaker by Lila's Studio

13. Noel by Bent Creek - completed

14. Normal is Just a Setting on the Washer by Lizzie Kate - completed

15. Pumpkin Patch by Lois Winston

16. Winter Feast by Mill Hill - completed

17. Zelda Cross Stitch 

18. Warm Winter Wishes by Waxing Moon Designs - stitches added

19. Thistle Stop by Crossed Wing Collection - stitches added

20. Hummingbird Garden by Crossed Wing Collection - stitches added

21. Happy Christmas by Prairie Schooler

22. Motherhood by Selena French/HAED - 1955/58013 (3.37%)

23. Skating Snowman by Mill Hill 16-2133 - stitches added

24. Trick or Treat by Anne Stokes/Paine Free Crafts - 4531/126400 (3.58%)

25. Cryptid SAL by Witchy Stitcher

26. Vermont Zentangle by crossstitch4everyone - 3109/23502 (13.23%)

27. Halloween Kitty with Pumpkin by Paine Free Crafts - new start 392/100800 (0.39%)

28. Loon Lake by Crossed Wing Collection - new start

29. Dragonfly in Flowers stamp by Sweet Annet - completed

30.The Little Prince stamp by Sweet Annet - completed

31. Journey by Urban Stitches - complete

32. Mr. Grinch by The Cross Stitch Studio - new start 514/9071 (5.67%)

33. Animal Parade by Lanarte - completed

34. 2009 Santa by Prairie Schooler - completed

35. Snow Guide by Lizzie Kate - completed

36. Honest Santa... I Didn't Do It - by The Sweetheart Tree - stitches added

37. Moon and Back by Heart and Hand - completed

38. Happy Halloween by Satsuma Street 

39. Everyone Brings Joy by Waxing Moon Designs

40. Peacock Infinity Feather by CrossStitch4Everyone - completed

41. Witch's Gate by Whispered by the Wind - stitches added

42. Butterfly Quote by Jodyri Designs - completed

43. In Harmony by Dimensions

44. Letter G - by Nora Corbett 

45. Bailey Basset by HAED 

46. Dragon Under Glass by HAED

47. Warbreaker by skitzzzz 

48. Mini Winter Magic by HAED

49. Under the Sea SAL by Lakeside 

50. McLaren Hamilton 

51. Raven Pixie by Nora Corbett

52. Visit Mordor

53. Magical Arrival by HAED 

54. Tiger Stare by Charting Creations

55. Tiger by Paine Free Crafts

56. Triumphant Ride by Charting Creations 8143/50370 (16.17%)

57. Spooky SAL 2021 by The Steady Thread

58. Lo and Behold by Long Dog Samplers

59. Starry Night SAL by Urban Stitches

60. Stroll in the Snow by Asleep at the Stitch

61. Magical Castle Stamp by Sweet Annet - completed

62. Frost by Seba Designs

This leaves me with 45 WIPS that I'm currently working on, so I did manage to meet my initial goal to start the 100 new projects this year! I'll put that all in a separate post. I know it will add a lot to my pile, but it's a big birthday, so it will be a big year of starts as well. 

I hope you all had a good holiday season and here are my last 2 finishes for 2025!

Animal Parade by Lanarte

stitched 1 over 1 with kit threads and fabric

Butterfly Quote by Jodyri Designs

stitched 2 over 1 on 14ct Aida with Jodyri threads

Happy 2026 to everyone!

Tiffstitch

WIP Wranglers Wrap-Up (Photo Heavy)

 And here we are to wrap up the last challenge of 2020, WIP Wranglers. This was a fun one, and I enjoyed getting some stitches into so many projects, even if I didn't get any finished. I did get a lot of them much closer to a finish, so that's something. 

We were at Loved You Yesterday at the end of the last post, so here was 1000 stitches added:

Loved You Yesterday by Cherry Hill Stitchery

stitched with stash threads

on 18ct damask aida by Silkweaver

There's an elephant on the other side of the quote, and some words at the bottom, but again, this should only take a few days to finish. 

Spooky Halloween was up next. A lot of the house from part 5 added for the 400 stitches needed:

Spooky Halloween by Durene Jones through Lakeside Needlecraft

stitched 2 over 2 with DMC 310, Jodyri Purple Planets and GITD Kreinik

on 28ct Icarus by Chromatic Alchemy

This one will show up again later!

Another project I've already stitched on showed up again, Butterfly Quote, for another 600!

Butterfly Quote by Jodyri 

stitched 2 over 1 with mostly Jodyri threads, Sunshine State currently

on 14 ct fabric 

This won't be a quick finish, probably a couple weeks, so this won't be on the quick-finish list for next year. It's a fun one though, and I'm looking forward to completing it. 

Finally rolled another new one, this is Blackwork Poppy that had 200 added to it:

Blackwork Poppy by Jodyri

stitched with DMC 310 over 1 on 1

on 18ct Galaxy by Jodyri

I feel like a couple days of good stitching could finish this one off as well. It's charted in red for the poppy, but I thought the fabric had enough reds that I'd stitch it all in black. The center is supposed to have green, so maybe a dark green would work, like DMC 890? Or WDW Okefenokee?

And here's Spooky Halloween for another 300:

Part 5 is almost complete now. The funny part about this one I stitched this while we introduced DD to The Princess Bride. Here's one of my favourite photos of her experience:

Note the blanket's proximity to her eyes so she can hide under it :)

Another WIP I hadn't stitched on yet was rolled next, Do Not Meddle for 200:

Do Not Meddle by Dragon Fire Designs

stitched as charted 1 over 1

on 28ct Monaco

This one shows up in a bit again as well. :)

My very first WIP that was rolled got rolled again, and Frosty Friends 1 came out for another 500 stitches!

Frosty Friends 1 by Dimensions

stitched as charted over 1

on 16ct kit fabric

That wasn't quite enough stitching to finish this one, but it's really close now. Probably 2 days knowing how much backstitch there is, not just 1 to get this one finished. 

One of the larger WIPs I'd chosen was rolled next, Magical Arrival for 400

Magical Arrival by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross as charted

on 25ct magic guide evenweave

This is a longer term project, definitely not a finish any time soon, especially if I'm going to spend a lot of time on Animal Kingdom. 

Another fun one was rolled next, Evening in the Shire for 600!

Evening in the Shire by Cute Patterns by Maria

stitched as charted with full cross and half cross and backstitch

on 28ct Moonrise by Jodyri

So much backstitch! And this one shows up again in a bit. ;)

At this point I think there were 3 projects that still hadn't been rolled, fortunately I did roll another new one next, Full Moon for 400:

Full Moon by Cute Patterns by Maria

stitched as charted over 2 

on 28ct Lazurite by Chromatic Alchemy

I think this one might still need a week. A lot of these projects have blends, backstitch, etc. and they're a little longer than they seem. Fortunately they do work in PK, so I know I have about 1700 cross stitches left, plus backstitch after that. 

Another untouched one came next, and this has been untouched for a while, Snow Guide for 200:

Snow Guide by Lizzie Kate

stitched 2 over 1 with stash threads

on 14ct aida

This one will show up again soon!

And I think the last untouched one was rolled next, Frosty Friends 2 for 200:

Frosty Friends 2 by Dimensions

stitched 2 over 1 as charted 

on 16ct kit aida

Still a long way to go on this one, and I think Katie warned me these aren't as quick as they look. :)

I had touched all 20 WIPs by now, so I'm not sure if you could stop here, but I thought I'd see if I could roll them all a second time before the end of the year. If you looked at the top list, you'll note I didn't quite manage it. 

Animal Parade was rolled next for 600 stitches:

Animal Parade by Lanarte

stitched 1 or 2 over 1 with kit threads on kit fabric

There's a long, long way to go on this one. A giraffe is to the right of the elephant and I think there's a lion and an ostrich to the left of the rhino, plus most of the rhino to stitch, so this won't be done any time soon. It was nice to get it out to work on a bit though. 

Do Not Meddle was rolled again next for 100 stitches:

If anyone remembers, I am stunt stitching this for someone else. I would really love to get this one finished this year and get it mailed out. I definitely made some good progress last year and getting the first dragon complete, and the words are definitely reachable for this year, and a stretch goal would be to finish the whole project. 

Only 2 left!!

Snow Guide was rolled again for 100:

I may or may not put the bottom motifs in. I had chosen this fabric way back before I had such a large stash, and it's a little tight on the margins if I include those. I'll likely finish off the top and see what I'm willing to try before attempting the bottom. This is another one that should only take a few days to finish. 

And last, but not least, Evening in the Shire was rolled again for 300 stitches!

It's not exactly a mirror, but the right side is similar to the left, with another bit of the house and a lot of backstitch. I think this will be more than a week to finish as well. 

And that's it! Lots of WIPs worked on and lots that are really close to finishing. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can finish in 2021 and hope to work on at least one a week. 

I hope you're all staying safe and have a successful 2021!

Tiffstitch

Another Monthly Challenge - WIP Wranglers

This month the Semi-Sane Facebook group is hosting WIP Wranglers. It's mostly a chance to work on a lot of different WIPs, although they have a Christmas theme to it by calling each WIP a "naughty elf" that keeps running away instead of working in the workshop. You don't have to have a bunch of WIPs, but can use up to 20. No problem there! 

As I mentioned before I was hoping to try and finish some more WIPs before the end of the year, and I think that might be possible. I chose 20 that didn't have a ton of work left on them and a couple I'd just like to get more progress on before the end of the year. There are 3 levels to the challenge, easy, regular and hard. You need 20 WIPs because you use a 20 sided die (or an app) to roll to choose which one to work on. You also use a regular 6 sided die and multiply by 100 to find out how much to stitch on each project. 

For the easy level, you halve your stitches, therefore, rolling a 1 becomes 50 stitches, regular means you stitch the whole 100, and hard means you double it. So you stitch 200 stitches if you roll 1. Any guesses what I chose? :) Also, if you roll a WIP you've already worked on once, you halve the required stitches, and it's "wrangled" then, so you don't stitch on anything more than twice.

My list of 20 WIPs is here:

I have the hockey stick marking the ones I've stitched already, because if I have the choice to use any emoji, I'll always pick the hockey stick. :)

My first roll was 16 and 2, so I worked on Frosty Friends #1 for 200x2 (400) stitches. It looks like this now:

Frosty Friends by Dimensions

kit stitched 2 over 2 as charted with kit fabric

I'm not going to add the before pics on most of these because I have a fair amount of photos to show already. Mostly I just had the outline and a little of the half stitch done before starting on this one. 

Next roll was Butterfly Quote for 1200! That was a lot, I'm so used to Pattern Keeper for these larger projects that I struggle with the multi-paper charts a bit now. But it looks good!

Butterfly Quote by Jodyri

stitched 2 over 2 on 14ct fabric with Jodyri threads

Sparkling Citrine, Pink Laydee, Sunshine State, City of Oz, and 2 others, plus WDW Purple Iris?

I definitely need to get more Sunshine State to finish the "butterfly" part, it's nice to get it moving a bit though and some of the difficult cross page stitching is complete. 

I rolled In the Gloaming for roll 3 and 5, and it had 800 total stitches added:

In the Gloaming by WBTW

stitched 2 over 2 with DMC 167, 422, 3823 and 3866

on 28 ct Mirage evenweave by PTP 

I had planned to make my life easier by adding a bunch more of the gate in DMC C3799, the Etoile, but I've misplaced the bobbin, so I did the slightly harder work around where the fence will go. The last row is almost the bottom of the mausoleum, so it's quite far along. 

In between the two rolls for In the Gloaming was Winter by Bent Creek. I had a very small start on this previously, which I'll show since this hasn't shown up on my blog for a long time:

and I rolled a 5, so needed to add 1000 stitches:

Winter by Bent Creek

stitched 2 over 2 with stash threads besides white and 310

on 28ct Feldspar by Chromatic Alchemy

One more roll might finish this one, it's really just the snowman on top and a few details on the penguins at the bottom. 

Happy Halloween was rolled next and it didn't have a lot done either, but with the addition of 1200 stitches, it now looks like this:

Happy Halloween by Satsuma Street

stitched 2 over 1 as charted

on 18ct Fiddler cloth/aida

This is my first and so far only Satsuma Street, although I do enjoy many of her designs. I have a few others in stash, so hopefully will get them stitched up soon too. 

Next up was another one that hasn't been touched in a long time, since the New Year New Start of 2019 I think:

Animal Parade by Lanarte

stitched 2 over 1 and 1 over 1 with black

on 25ct included kit painted fabric

I had only worked on the rhino before, and it's sort of across a page, so I started on the next animal this time. Can you tell what it is yet? It will be easy as I get farther down. I realized after I'd stitched most of the 400 stitches this one needed that I was stitching 1 over 1 instead of 2 over 1 like the rhino. I feel like that's okay though, because I could stitch the next animal to the right 2 over 1, and alternate, or I could leave the rhino 2 over 1 for a little more emphasis on the animal most likely to be extinct first. Suggestions are always welcome!

An old favourite came out next to get another 1000 stitched into it. 

Princess and the Dragon by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 with DMC 310

on 28ct Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy

This only needs about 7000 stitches to be finished! Kind of incredible. I don't think it will be a finish this year, but definitely next year. And you never know, if I get this WIP Wrangling task finished early, maybe I'll pull this out for the end of the year. 

Letters from Nora was rolled next and G is the last one that needs any cross stitch done. The rest only need beads. I rolled a 2, so added 400 to this one:

Letter G from Letters from Nora by Nora Corbett

stitched 2 over 2 as charted

on 28ct Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy

This is the last one in the series of 3 I'm stitching for DD. I need more CC Smoke because I'm out, so hopefully the colour will match what I've stitched already. 

Another one that doesn't come out often, even though it's fairly small, is Twilight LeMans, and it had 600 stitches added to it this time:

Twilight LeMans by Heritage Stitchcraft

stitched 2 over 2 as charted

on 28ct linen, unknown dyer

You can kind of tell these are headlights on a wet road I think now. The far right and left blue are the bottom corners, so a little more in the middle and the bottom is complete. This is probably half done or so.

I don't know if you'll remember this last one, it was started a long time ago and has mostly lingered in the pile of WIPs, not really moving along very far. I rolled my first 1 for this project and added 200 stitches:

Dragon silhouette by Lisbei (ludinthemist.com)

stitched 2 over 1 with Caron Waterlilies Holiday?

on 14ct gold sparkle Aida

I found this one while browsing for dragons and really liked the look of it. It will circle around so the tail almost meets the jaw. It probably needs another 600 or so stitches for a finish. 

And that's all for now! I know that was a long post. I may try and get another one up after just a few rolls if I can. I hope you're all staying healthy and enjoying some good weather. We've had snow enough to build a snowman, but tomorrow will be 8C/47F! So the snow will melt, then we drop down to -14C/7F in a few days. Winter in Vermont isn't consistent anymore. 

Happy Stitching and stay well!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness - March 2020 Edition

Here we are, halfway through March already and it's that time again to show off the projects we've been given or are giving away to someone.

Check out Jo's blog for all the fun and I hope you've all been staying safe and healthy! Also, thank you so much for your kind words. I am glad that I caught the flu well before COVID-19 showed up in the US and didn't have that worry as well. I do work in health care, so being extra cautious is the current norm. Stay safe everyone!

On to the fun stuff, stitching! All of these are likely for DD. :)

Mini Winter Magic got a fair bit of progress while I was recovering. I thought it would be good to work on some confetti since my stitching speed was fairly slow anyway and enjoy the process.

 Mini Winter Magic by HAED stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct white Monaco

Princess and the Dragon - it's over halfway complete! 55% according to Pattern Keeper, and that app makes stitching this so much easier! I still feel a finish this year is out of the question, especially as the conference I usually stitch at is being reschedule for who-knows-when, but you never know. I'm very much enjoying it. 

 Princess and the Dragon by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy

Letters from Nora (H) - look what finally came back out! I do think it's possible to get both this one and the G complete this year, so I think they may stay out for a while. 

 Letters from Nora H

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on 28ct Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy

Butterfly Quote - this has come out recently for the Jodyri/KLT/Circus competition this month. It's on Facebook if you're interested, although we're well underway at this point. At certain times you have to stitch with hand-dyed thread, or on a Jodyri/KLT/Circus design, so this is a Jodyri design with Jodyri thread mostly. It may get a little more work this month as well. 

 Butterfly Quote by Jodyri Designs

stitched 2 over 2 on 14ct aida with mostly Jodyri and one WDW thread

Look for Rainbows - this is a new start for the competition and I liked the concept of this one, even though it's quite simple. 

 Look for Rainbows by Circus Stitches

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct Jodyri Pink Elephants on Parade with Soie Cristal Mer and as charted for the rainbow letters

Mini Waterhole Master - I hope to get another 2K or so into this one this month and then pick up Faery Tales again. I'm trying to work in 4K blocks to see decent progress on each one before switching. 

Mini Waterhole Master by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Crafty Kitten Sunrise fabric

And I'm back full in the swing of stitching, plus the current level of stress has me stitching more to help my anxiety, so look for more progress coming up. 

Fingers crossed we can get ahead of this globally. 

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Blog Clean-up, Leftovers From Crazy Challenges, and a Plan

I hope today is treating you well! I've been going through and trying to tidy up things with my blog. For example, I had kind of forgotten I had a DUCJFC progress tracker for both the 2015 and 2016 events I participated in. I updated the progress to show where I'm at currently, and it's not too bad really. I'm almost 3/4 of the way through 2015 and over halfway through 2016. Some of the projects are on both as I used it not just for starts, but also to make sure I kept working on some WIPs.

From the 2015 Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge, I have these WIPs left:

1) Otto

self charted, 2 over 1 tent stitch 

Realistically, unless I can get the pdf into Pattern Keeper, this won't get much work done on it. 

2) Ladyfee Xmas SAL

This was a free online SAL and I just haven't gotten back to it. I'm not in love with it at this point, so not sure if I'll continue on. It's a UFO right now. 

3) Sleigh Ride stocking - Dimensions

Same story here, not really in love with this one, so haven't gotten back to it. 

4) Warbreaker

I do like this one, and it's from my favourite book. Again, if I could get this in PK, it would go faster. 

5) Twilight LeMans

I still like this one, and I did pull it out last year to get some more done. 

6) Skittzzzz Fractal

Again, PK would make this so much easier, so I'll have to see if I can import it. 

7) AAN Christmas Mystery SAL - I hated this one, so will repurpose the project. I didn't even finish the first part. 

From the 2016 Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January February Challenge, I have these WIPs left:

1) Letter S

This still needs beads because I have all 3 letters on one piece of fabric. 

2) Letter H

I'd like to get these finished this year maybe. 

3) Letter G

We'll see how it goes. :)

4) Princess and the Dragon

It would be amazing to finish this one, but I don't think it will happen this year. It did get a lot of progress last year, so we'll see. I have the conference coming up that I usually get a lot done, so if I get some outlining done, that will help. 

5) Monochrome Link (new start)

This is another one that would be more fun if I could add it to PK, I'll have to give it a try. It's got a long way to go. 

6) Fleur de Lys (new start)

I'm enjoying my restart of this one, but I will have to try and figure out what thread I'm using because I don't know if I have enough to finish the whole project. It is Caron Waterlilies I think, but it's a big project. 

7) December Mini Cat

Realistically, I just need to find this one and finish it, it's practically complete. 

8) Kiss for a Snowman (new start)

I've recently misplaced this one as well, so will have to do a search to figure out what I've done with it during one of my organizing binges. 

9) Butterfly Quote (new start)

I also managed a fair bit on this one last year. There's still a fairly big chunk with the word "butterfly"and the smaller word "over", but then it will be complete. 

10) Land of the Dinosaurs (new start)

I had somewhat ignored this one because of so many other projects going on, although I did manage some stitching last year. I think it will be handy for chunks of colour if that comes up in any of the challenges. 

11) Twilight LeMans (also in 2015) - see above

12) Day 4 Dragonlet

I don't love afghan fabric, and that's how I started these. I'll get back to it at some point. 

13) Frosty Friends

There's 6 of these and I haven't managed to finish a single one yet. Again there are chunks of colour, so they might work for some challenges. 

14) Frosty Friends

15) Frosty Friends

16) Frosty Friends

17) Frosty Friends

18) Frosty Friends

19) Sleigh Ride Stocking (also in 2015) - see above

20) Do Not Meddle (new start)

I would love to finish this one this year since I was given it years ago to finish for a friend that can't stitch any more. It's more difficult working 1 over 1 on 28ct than it was when I started, but still, I can do this! 

21) Savannah Birth Record (new start)

This project also suffers from dislike of the fabric. I like hardanger, but 2 over 2 is not working for me. Too clumpy and messy. So I can restart or give up and pass this one on. DD doesn't really need another birth sampler at this point, and soon she'll be too told for this one. 

22) HAED Basset (new start)

With PK I hope to either get more done this year, or possibly finish up one of the smaller ones, then get back to this one. 

23) See Ya Later Alligator (new start)

This needs maybe a week of work? So I think it's my next focus for a finish project. 

24) Ladyfee Xmas SAL (also in 2015) - see above

25) Vermont (new start)

I think this would be fun to finish, however I keep putting it off for more interesting projects. I haven't given up on it, but don't know if it will come out this year unless I get a lot of other things finished. 

26) Snow Guide

This should be a quick finish as well if I just sit down to work on it. For whatever reason, LK letters always seem to stitch up so quickly. 

27) Otto (also in 2015) - see above

As you can see, a lot of my current WIPs are leftover from these 2015/2016 challenges. There are quite a few that are small enough to finish this year if I make the choice to stitch on them. My top ten I'd like to finish this year are:

1) See Ya Later Alligator
2) Do Not Meddle
3) Snow Guide
4) Butterfly Quote
5) Letter S
6) Letter H
7) Letter G
8) Frosty Friend - 1 of them
9) Dragonlet #4
10) December Mini Cat

Wish me luck!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch