Stitch Maynia 2019 Wrap Up

All of the stitching in these pictures was done between May 1, 2019 and May 25, 2019. We spent a few days in Sisters last week so I cut my Maynia a few days short, but I still can't believe how much I got done and how much fun I had. Of my twenty-one new starts, there are only a couple that I'm not excited to keep working on. 

 A Caledonian Sky 

Riolis Cat With Gramophone 

Debbie Mumm I Love Stitching Pillow (a discontinued Dimensions kit)

Riolis Ripe Apples 

Mr Rabbit (free download from Maria Brovko's Facebook Page)  

Peaceful Countryside by Charles Wysocki 

The Goblins (Cross Stitch & Country Crafts September/October 1995)

Not all of these projects got blog posts over the course of the month because I was spending so much time either stitching or keeping up with the rest of my life. They will get posts as I make more progress on them, and I've listed information about the patterns or kits below the pictures. 

 Riolis Furry Friends  

Riolis Crosuses on the Windowsill

Riolis Russian Cuckoo Clock

Southwest Mesa (a discontinued Dimensions kit) 

Cozy Cove, Dimensions Gold Collection  

Some of these are big kits that I don't expect to finish anytime soon. I hate to even guess at how many hours of stitching that would take...and at the same time I'm kind of excited to see how much of this I can have finished before Maynia 2020.

 Pyramid of Skulls

Morning Lake 

Splashing Fun Bookmark from All Our Yesterdays Cross Stitch Collection 

Grand Resorts on the Lakes (Cross Stitch Plus August/September 1991)

Camp Crystal Lake Sign by The Witchy Stitcher  

 

Universal Monsters SAL by The Witchy Stitcher

Emerald City SAL by Owl Forest Embroidery (find it under free designs) 

Because I didn't sort through my stash and pre-plan my Maynia like so many other stitchers do, I was just grabbing whatever caught my eye each morning. Some projects that I'd hoped to start didn't make the list because I ran out of time and I still plan on starting those when I get a chance.

Tonight, I think I'm going to pull out my sewing machine or cast on a new shawl.

{Stitch Maynia} The Monsters and the Wizard

I don't think I've tackled this kind of stitch along before, where the pattern is revealed a section at a time. There have been a couple of quilt alongs that I didn't manage to keep up with, but I've never tried something quite like this.

Now I'm hooked.

Patterns: Universal Monster Sal by the Witchy Stitcher and Emerald City SAL by Owl Forest Embroidery

Just look at the Phantom of the Opera with his pipe organ! Room number two, The Mummy, is even cuter. If it wasn't for Stitch Maynia and all of the other things I want to stitch on, I might actually have had them done before the third room comes out. It's the Universal Monster SAL and we've still got the Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, Frankenstein and his bride, the Wolfman, Dracula to look forward to -- and a haunted mansion to stitch around the outside of the whole thing. 

It's like a wonderfully creepy dollhouse.  

The house is the first bit of the Emerald City SAL, a free download from Owl Forest Embroidery.  There would already be a cyclone if I'd been able to remember which project that shade of grey floss was hiding in. There are three sections available so far, all depicting scenes from the story. I'm a little less likely to keep up with this one, but I can definitely see myself stitching the whole thing. 

Now that I've started these two, I'm sure I'll be susceptible to other SALs in the future. 

Between writing this post and publishing it, the third Universal Monsters room was released and I had to drop everything to start stitching the Gill Man because he is the cutest thing ever and these colors have me imaging the smell of musty old tropical fish stores...

{Stitch Maynia} Splashing and Shading

Maynia start #19 -- Splashing Fun bookmark from All Our Yesterdays Cross Stitch Collection.

I was hoping I'd have time to put in a few stitches but the rest of the family was busy with other things and I got a lot done. I love how that shading of her dress looks!

Drama at the Laundromat (and Some Stitching)

One of the things that's surprised me about Stitch Maynia is how frequently I'm looping back to my earlier starts. A Caledonian Sky is the long kitted up project that I started on the first of the month and since then I've found myself putting more and more stitches into it. 

I tucked it into my purse on our last laundry day because I'm filling in blocks of solid color and  the lighting at the laundromat is surprisingly good.  I'd get in some stitching while the dirty clothes sloshed around and got clean.

Maybe I'll stitch at the laundromat next week....

This time, I put up my stitching halfway through the load because my oldest son had run across the parking lot to Walmart to pick up a couple of things and came back to tell me they were evacuating the store because of a chemical fire.

A chemical fire? How bad was that? There's a large expanse of parking lot between the laundromat and Walmart. I had eight minutes left before the machine unlocked and no one else in the building seemed worried.  If it was a big fire, they'd also evacuate the strip mall, right? I was watching the timer on the washing machine tick down while also watching more emergency vehicles arrive and wondering at what point I should abandon all of my husband's and sons' clothing. As soon as that lock clicked open, we got everything together and joined the line of cars waiting to leave the parking lot.

On the drive home, we passed fire trucks headed from our small town to Lebanon. That didn't seem like a good sign at all.

I love that social media lets us find out what really happened. There was a fire on the shelves of pool chemicals.  Several streets and businesses around the store were closed because of the smoke (I'm guessing that included the laundromat and so glad our timing wasn't worse and that we didn't lose our clothes!) On Friday, a local man was arrested for arson.

After we got home, I did some more stitching.

{Stitch Maynia} Goblins, Resorts, and Cats

Start #7 -- The Goblins (Cross Stitch & Country Crafts September/October 1995)

I've had this one kitted up for years. The original choice was some greenish linen but there wasn't enough contrast between the color of the goblins and the fabric. Or that's what I told myself, because these days I'm more comfortable stitching on aida.

Start #8 -- Grand Resorts on the Lakes (Cross Stitch Plus August/September 1991)

This is another one that I've had in my stash forever. I love the way the chart looks but I would never ever have decided to stitch it based on that photo. Hopefully I succeed in changing the colors to something I'm happier with. (There will be much less dusty pink and blue!)

Start #9 -- Riolis Furry Friends 

This start involved a couple of hours of gridding fabric. I got a little stitching done before I put it up at the end of the evening but my progress isn't much to look at. I can't wait to work my way down to the pile of books and the other fun details.

And there are four more starts, but I'm breaking this up into separate posts so the individual projects don't get buried in the wonderful chaos. I've also got progress pictures of the earlier starts.

Did I mention that this is fun?

{Stitch Maynia} The Next Two Starts

I've been doing more stitching than blogging about stitching. I think I told you that in my last post about Stitch Maynia.

Start #5 is Mr. Rabbit, a free download from Maria Brovko's Facebook page.

This adorable little guy may be my undoing.  There's not a lot of stitching but that outlining -- the whole reason the rabbit is so stinkin cute -- is hard to figure out. And made harder by the fact that I'm using aida and have to pierce the fabric to get it in what I hope is the right position.



Start #6 is Peaceful Countryside, an old Dimensions kit by Charles Wysocki 

I do not know where this one came from. I must have either traded another stitcher for it or picked it up in a thrift shop. The previous owner had started stitching it in the middle and after fifteen or twenty minutes of trying to pick out her work, I grabbed the fabric from another thrifted kit and started using that. It's an odd size, longer and skinner than most of the pieces I already own.

After an hour or so of stitching, I'm almost wishing I'd left the fabric where it belonged because that kit is also one I want to start...

I can cut another piece down from my stash. It's just aida and aida is relatively cheap. This is the only one of my ten new starts that I'm not excited to pick back up, so if it goes back into the stash with only a few stitches I can live with that.

{Stitch Maynia} Cats, Apples, and My Love of Stitching

Over the past few days, I've been doing a lot of stitching and not much blogging. As I type this it's day six of Stitch Maynia and I've started five new projects. There's a sixth one sitting next to me that I plan to start this evening.

Start #2 is a Riolis Kit, Cat With Gramophone. 

Remember how happily obsessed I was about Cat With Clock a few months ago? It's that all over again.

Start #3 is a Dimensions Kit that I bought when I first started cross stitching and a local independently owned craft store was closing and had everything on clearance.

It's been fun to play with so far. I think I'll incorporate it into a project bag once I'm done.

Start #4 is Ripe Apples, one of the Riolis kits I bought when Hobby Lobby had that huge clearance sale last yet.

I had my doubts about the 10 count fabric, which makes the stitches almost twice as large as when I'm working on 18 count, but I think it's going to look just fine. The wool is heavier than cotton floss and I'm going to trust the manufacturer and do it the way they packaged the kit.

{Stitch Maynia} Start #1 -- A Caledonian Sky

In Monday's post, I explained a bit about how Stitch Maynia works. After lots of debating with myself, I actually waited until the first of May to start my first project.

This is A Caledonian Sky. Mostly the floss and first few stitches of A Caledonian Sky. It's been kitted up in my stash for almost twenty years. I was going to stitch it. Someday.

I printed off the pattern in December of 2001, probably a year or so after I started stitching, and somehow I didn't forget it. At one point, I'd converted the Anchor colors to DMC. Those notes are written on the pattern. Some time after that, I apparently got my hands on the Anchor floss the pattern actually calls for.

The picture on my printout isn't great. But the Internet Wayback Machine is a thing and after some fiddling around to remember how the site works, I found the actual picture and the chart. It looks so much better there!