Slow Sunday Stitching - September 7, 2025 AND Rotation #5, Slot #3 (Not Counted Thread) Changeover

Opps!  I almost forgot to post the month end updates for August.   I took the pictures last Monday though, so here's the Daily Temperature Stitch Log project.   August was a new stitch to me - Diamond Framed French Knots.

Here's a close up and you can see the little one strand French Knots in the center of each diamond.   We have had a cooler summer than usual.  We never got over 99 degrees F / 37.2 degrees C.   Usually, we have at least one or two days into the triple digits!  So I didn't get to use the 'hottest' two colors for this project.

And here's the entire thing so far.   September is Scotch Stitch worked with the edges touching.  This is one of my favorite filling stitches for both counted thread and needlepoint.   It makes lovely little square pillow shapes and it's pretty quick to do.   You just have to be careful on the tension; look forward to seeing that next month.

color is a little washed out - it was very sunny in my sewing room

And the dragon is coming along.  See the month end status report post for all the numbers and details.

And I got the embroidery done on the floral tote.  When this comes up again in the rotation, I will do the lining and zipper.  Overall, I'm pleased with how the stitching on this came out.   

I do want to get better at the satin stitch.  I went with a casual take on it for the large flowers since the petals were rather random in size and shape.  But I really admire those tight, precise rounded shapes in the Victorian/Edwardian linens.  I want to be able to reproduce that look at some point. 

What's up next?   Confession time.  I have not been keeping up on my WIPGO finishing board.   In January when I set my board up, I marked on my tracking spreadsheet to 'work on this slot every weekend' and that hasn't been happening.  I think if I treat it like a regular rotation slot and require at least 5 to 10 hours before I can move on, I won't skip it.   I don't mind finishing, but if I wait until I'm 'in the mood', there's huge time stretches where nothing gets to FFO status (Fully Finished/Framed Object).  So the Just Nan pin cube needs to come out of hibernation and get its top and trim!  Here's the starting point:

Not worked on since May!

Oh, and I finished the fall colors charity hat this week.   I need to cast on another hat sometime this

coming week.   I am on the last ball of the white fluffy yarn; I hope I can squeeze out one more hat because this yarn is vintage and no longer made.

Linking up with the SSS crew (current roundup).

Full Coverage Month End Report - August 2025

August was not as good as some months on the Full Coverage piece, but I still met my personal goal of 100 stitches per day on average.   Mead Dragon got 3,304 stitches this month, which brings the yearly total to 33,374 and the project total to 69,467.   I am at 73.51% and am working on Row 247.

I did sketch in the bottom of the drinking horn to see how much confetti insanity is left.  Answer:  A LOT.  Patience and persistence will win the day though!

Where I started the month for comparison:

Pattern:  Mead Dragon

Art:  Stanley Morrison

Charting: Paine Free Crafts

Fabric: 28 count EZ grid Lugana by Zweigart

Stitch: One over one full cross

Full Coverage Month End Report - July 2025

 

Stitches in July = 4,449, which brings me to a yearly total of 30,094 and an overall total of 66,187 or 70.04%.   Quite a bit of progress in the confetti of the drinking horn and you can see the tail starts to curve around under the edge of the wing.   I'm on Row 234

Where I started the month for comparison.

I have had to drop out of the #WIPintoshape challenge due to moving house.   It was just getting very stressful to have a daily deadline on this project, especially since the mileage was starting to get into the higher numbers.  So, I have had to drop back to just my previous goal of "just" 100 stitches a day.

Full Coverage Milestone (2/3 done) AND 2025 Rotation #4, Slot #4 (Pictorial)

Before we get to pretty pictures of Mead Dragon, a quick explanation.   I hit a major milestone on the project only a week after I did the June monthly update.   And I was also not THAT far out from the end of the rotation.   So, I decided to post both updates together when I hit the second marker.  Therefore, in chronological order:

Monday, July 7

 62,995 of 94,500 stitches = 66.66%.   Mead Dragon is 2/3 done.  When I started this project on 1/31/2024, I estimated it would take three years to complete.    I'm ahead of schedule by a bit more than six months!

And at the end of rotation #4, I was at 65,354 of 94,500 or 69.16%.   On row 231, so no matter if you look at stitch count or row count, I am on the final third of this project! 

Tuesday, July 22

I'll do the usual end of month update with monthly stats and a comparison picture from the end of the prior month.  Lots of Dragon content this month 🐲🐉👍

Slow Sunday Stitching - July 6, 2025

Happy First Sunday of the month to everybody, and that means a look at the two daily projects.

June's Temperature Log specialty stitch of the month was a 'triple rice' stitch.  Ordinary rice stitch is a standard cross stitch over two threads with over one tacking stitches across each leg.  This triple rice stitch is a 6x6 cross with three tacking stitches on each leg - 3x3, 2x2, 1x1.   (For the record, you can also do double rice, which starts out with a 4x4 cross, with the tacking stitches 2x2 and 1x1.)   This was a nice, easy to memorize stitch and was placed in a very regular grid.  So, this month was very easy to do.

The overall piece to date - it's filling in nicely!   The July stitch is another Rhodes variation like May was.  But you'll see that next month.

The full coverage dragon is also making good progress.   See the changeover post (link) for all the stats and a comparison pic for the June stitching.   But if you don't want to click over, here's where she was at the end of the month.  Yes, I had to move up the fabric and you can (just barely) see the basting where the bottom of the piece will be.  

The time this week that wasn't spent boxing up the kitchen and dining room plus shopping for kitchen appliances (yeah for Independence Day sales) was spent on the Just Nan class piece "Butterflies, Blossoms and Bees".   The butterflies are taking over an hour apiece, and that's NOT including the backstitch and beads.   There are ten colors in each butterfly, not counting the beads.   And to help with the bulk of starting and stopping that many threads and also to help the silk lay perfectly, I'm actually using just one strand of the silk thread for the cross stitches and going over each stitch leg twice to give the effect of two over two.   I would rather stitch each leg two times than mess with railroading, but it does slow me down.

I'll be doing the beading at the end, since silk has a tendency to snag on everything without the complication of actual things that can catch ahold of it.   It's a long way until that point; for being as small as this piece is, there's a fair bit of complex stitching in it!  This section's specialty stitch is the Smyrna Cross - found in the butterflies' bodies.

Checking in with the SSS crew (link to current round up).

Full Coverage Month End Report - June 2025

 Good month again on the Mead Dragon full coverage piece.  I'm managing to still keep up with #WIPintoshape with Andrew @theRunnerStitcher.   I am adding his marathon training numbers to my own 100 stitches a day goal.  And I met those goals every day this month, though I did have to net my numbers once when church and family obligations happened to synch up with a high-count day.

I stitched 4,515 stitches on this piece this month.  That brings me to 25,645 stitches year to date and 61,738 on the piece in total = 65.33%.  I'm now working on row 217 and I moved the fabric up.  There's the very tiny hint of where her tail will wrap around the drinking horn.

It's a good thing that I'm motivated by the challenges, because I am in confetti city.   The background isn't so bad, even though there are lot of random stitches, there are only three or four colors in any one ten by ten square - they just swap out as you move across the row.   But that drinking horn is an entirely different kettle of fish!  There are very few patches of color or swaths like in the wing.  It's "stitch one, mark off one, find next stitch.  It's more than 5 stitches away, so flip over qsnap to run thread under surrounding stitches, flip qsnap back, find the next stitch again."  Rinse and repeat.   But at least it's only about a third of each row at this point.  

And for comparison, here's the start of the month:

Full Coverage Month End Report - May 2025 AND Rotation #3, Slot #3 (Pictorial)

Very good month on the Mead Dragon full coverage project.  Art by Stanley Morrison, charting by Paine Free Crafts.  Stitched with DMC on 28 count EZ Grid by Zweigart, one over one with full cross.

I put in 4,410 stitches in May which brings me to 21,130 this year and 57,223 / 94,500 or 60.55% overall.  I am working on Row 200, which feels like it should be a milestone, but really isn't LOL.

The #WIPintoshape challenge hosted by Andrew @TheRunnerStitcher has been great motivation.   Still in just the first few weeks, so the max mileage each day is under 13 miles (or 130 extra stitches) at the most.   I'm not sure I can keep up the pace as we get into the higher mileage and stitch counts.  But I'm going to give it my best shot. 

Here's where I was last month for comparison.

ETA:  This rotation ended on 6/7, so there wasn't a lot more than this progress on the Mead Dragon this round.  Not enough to take another picture and make another post.   So I'll call this the start point for Rotation #4 as well as the June 2025 start point.

Full Coverage Month End Report - April 2025 AND 2025 Rotation #2, Slot #3 (Pictorial)

A decent month on the Mead Dragon for April.   I put in 3,843 stitches on it this month.  My daily goal is 100 stitches, and I met that goal every day. (A couple of days I just barely made it, but 104 stitches is still over the finish line for the day, right?)   Since I'm also close to the end of rotation #2 (ends May 3), I'm counting this post as my starting point for rotation #3 as well as for the month of May.

This month of stitching brings me to 52,813 of 94,500 or 55.89%.  I'm working on row 183; the halfway row was 175.  So by both row count and % in Pattern Keeper, I am well over the halfway point!

And here's where I was at the start of April for comparison:

The back leg is now all there except for the nails (looking forward to seeing those fill in, I love the way they look on the front paw hands) and I got the drinking horn better established.  I'm starting into a rather 'slog' section where there's not a lot to talk about.  More background, more drinking horn, more wing......   It will be like that until the tail shows up.  But at least I can see the stitch count go up every day.  

Full Coverage Month End Report - March 2025

 

A really good month for my Mead Dragon (art by Stanley Morrison, charting by Paine Free Crafts).  One over one on 28 count EZ Grid Lugana fabric by Zweigart.

I stitched 4,117 stitches in March.  That brings my totals to 48,970 / 94,500 or 51.82%.  I stitched on her every day, and only three days were less than 100 stitches with NO days less than 70 stitches.   I am completely done down to row 165.

Where I was at the start of the month for comparison:

As you can see, I got into the drinking horn - you can really see the handle and the rim starting to take shape.  And the front wing is shading into the honey colors now.

The mock up of what she should look like when finished:

Milestone on "Mead Dragon" - hit the halfway point!

I have hit 50%!!! 47,250 of 94,500 stitches.   She's looking beautiful!!  I have been filling in all the gaps that I left in February.  While Full Coverage February was going on, I focused on sections where there were a fair number of stitches of the same color close(ish) together; I wanted to make a lot of visual progress as quickly as practical.  Now I'm putting in the smaller numbers around those bigger areas.  Everything is done down to Row 160.

Full Coverage Month End Report - February 2025 / Full Coverage February wrap up ALSO 2025 Rotation #1, Slot #3 (Pictorial) changeover

 This last month I participated in my version of the "Full Coverage February" Stitch A Long. Since I only have one full coverage piece, I doubled my daily goal to 200 stitches per day or more.   I did stitch every day on the project, though I didn't meet my goal on several of the days.   I did get 5,536 stitches this month, which brings me to 44,854 / 94,500 stitches or 47.46%.

  here's where I started the month for comparison:

As you can see, I got pretty much all her front leg and hand paws done (there are a few ninja stitches here and there that I'll fill in when the typewriter method gets to them).   I also did quite a bit on the back leg and the wings are starting to shade into the yellows, tans and gold that will make the edge of the wings look 'honey dipped'.  The background and fill in is down to row 150.  

"Mead Dragon" art by Stanley Morrison, charting by Paine Free Crafts.  One over one on 28 count Zweigart EZ Grid, DMC as charted.  The mockup from the pattern:

While I really enjoyed the progress I made this month, I didn't get much else accomplished.  I did manage to keep up on my 'Stitch A Day' Temperature Stitches piece, but I barely touched the crewel project.   Thirteen months in on the dragon and I'm still not even to the halfway point.  The bottom part looks to be simpler than the top half by far.  And hopefully it will be one of the projects that is an enthusiastic race for the finish and not a slog to the finish 😳.

Slow Sunday Stitching - February 2, 2025

Another short update this week - today is both a 'bells play' and a 'read the lessons' week.  I did NOT plan that out well at all!

I did finish and FFO the Douglas Fir Santa (link to the finish post) and got a start on the next one - the Norway Spruce Santa.  This is the third and final Tiimberline Santa from Mill Hill.   I basically just got the floss sorted and the center of the paper set up, so I'll share a picture of it next week when there is something to look at!

And the first month of the "Temperature Stitches" by Sarah, Stitching Mommy is done.  January's specialty stitch was Queen Stitch, which is one of my favorite stitches.  It's very impressive either as a solid filling stitch or as individual stitches like this:

And what the entire project looks like to date:

In addition to keeping up with the one temperature stitch each day and whatever "travel and TV" stitching I manage; my main focus this month will be on Full Coverage February.  I won't post every day like I did last year.  With all the confetti stitches in the background of the Mead Dragon, it's rather slow going and you can't really see the difference a couple hundred stitches even makes!  But I am planning to report each week.  And here is where I'm starting (stats in the January month end post here).

Linking up with the SSS crew (weekly roundup).

Full Coverage Month End Report - January 2025 and Full Coverage February plans

 My Full Coverage pattern is Mead Dragon - art by Stanley Morrison, charting by Paine Free Crafts.

As of the end of January, I have been working on this pattern for exactly one year.  I am 41.61% complete, with 39,322 / 94,500 stitches completed.   The chart down to Row 130 is totally completed.  The green basting is the halfway point at Row 175.

I am stitching this one over one (full cross) on 28 count EZ grid evenweave using the charted DMC colors.

Where I was at the end of December to compare.   I worked on background and wing fill in, plus there's a bit of the back hip starting to make an appearance.  I added 3,230 stitches this month.

Next month is the start of what is usually Full Coverage February.   Collette is having some health issues that impact her stitching, so she won't be doing the full-on event that she's hosted the last few years.   Since I only have one full coverage piece, I wasn't able to do the acrostic or other multi-project challenges, so I'm OK with that.  Like last year, I'm going to concentrate on putting in as many stitches on this project as I can during the month.

I will commit to continuing my "Temperature Stitches" with one specialty stitch each day.  (I'll show it on Sunday since January will be done then.  Each day logs the prior days official high temp.)  I'd also like to put in enough time on the crewel eagle project that I can finish ten hours during the month to complete the first round of my rotation.  But the dragon will be worked on every day for as much time as I can possibly find.

Slow Sunday Stitching - December 8, 2024

 

Got the final hat for donation finished this week and took all the donation hats to their drop off locations.  I still have enough of this cotton acrylic in the stash to do two more hats, but there's no rush now to finish another one.

All my needlework time this week has been put in on my full coverage piece.   Over 1,000 stitches so far this week!   I'm up to row 116 on the fill in and at 37.69% overall.  You can just see the hint of where her front paws/hands are gripping the handle of the drinking horn.   The green basting line is the halfway point at row 175.

Linking up with the SSS crew.

Full Coverage - November 2024 Month End Report

Decent progress on the Mead Dragon.  2,916 stitches this month.   That brings the project to a total of 34,593 stitches or 36.61%.  Background (and wing fill in) is down to row 111.   I'm going to need to move the qsnap soon.

And where I was last month for comparison.  The articulation of the front wing has appeared (plus more of the webbing) and a little more of the back and the collar.

Full Coverage - October 2024 Month End Report

 Hope everyone had a fun Halloween with lots of little ghosties and giblins (baby goblins).  My neighborhood is right between the local 'historic house museum' on the east and the 'big Victorian houses with a major light display" that's known for good treats on the west.   Plus, we have decent sidewalks and no through traffic, so lots of people from other areas of the city come around.   My dad always used to keep a tally, and we have had as many as 300 kids when Halloween fell on a weekend and there was nice weather.  Probably fewer than that today with it being a school night, but I bought three jumbo bags of treats and ran out of candy before I ran out of kids!

But enough Halloween stuff.   How about a dragon instead?

Mead Dragon, my full coverage piece, is coming right along!  I hit a milestone this month - she is now over 1/3 done!  I finished 2,809 stitches this month and that brings me to 31,679 stitches out of 94,500 or 33.52% complete.  And I also met my 2024 goal of 30K stitches on this piece since it was started.   I'm working on row 100 to complete the background using the 'typewriter method' of choosing what symbol to stitch next, which also feels like a bit of a landmark.

Here's where I was at the beginning of October.

You can really see her back wing now and the area under her chin is filling in nicely, you can see where the 'fuzzy' part of her body is and the beginning of the fancy jeweled collar she is adorned with.  

 

Slow Sunday Stitching - October 20, 2024

I'm still going strong with the knitting.   I'm really enjoying the Musselburgh Hat.   It's about halfway down the straight section and is the perfect TV/reading/watching flosstube project.  The color in this photo is a little dark, but closer than the earlier ones taken on a dark background.

I got to the end of the rotation time on the Vintage Crewel Eagle this week (see the changeover post for feather closeups).  The eagle is done and "just" the foliage left to stitch.  I say "JUST", because there are six greens to go - using long stitch, and pueblo stitch galore plus bullion knots.

With the eagle at a good stopping spot, I turned my attention to the Mead Dragon.   My monthly goal on this project is 2500 stitches and I usually work on it in the background and only show it at the end of the month.   It's front and center right now, and I reached a big goal on it, so here's a mid-month photo.

Back when I started this at the end of January, I set myself a goal of finishing 30,000 stitches on full coverage for this year.   Mead Dragon is now at 31,000 per the Pattern Keeper app, and 31.85%.   New goal is to get to the 1/3 mark.  That confetti background is such a pain, but so effective.  It's hard to see, but the front wing is worked down to where the background is.  (Blogger should let you click for a larger format.)

Well, I'm off to church and then Home Depot, so I'll catch up with the SSS crew later today. (Link to current round up). 

Full Coverage - September 2024 Month End Report

Another adequate, but not impressive month on my full coverage piece.  "Mead Dragon" - art by Stanley Morrison, charting by Paine Free Crafts.  

2600 stitches exactly in September.   That brings my total stitches to 28,872 of 94,500.   30.55%   I'm just starting on Row 91 of the background.    Got a little more of the dragon's neck put in; you can start to make out where she's wrapping around the top of the drinking horn.  And the bottom of the back wing has appeared, and there are more of the opal colors in the front wing (plus a hint of the webbing in the membrane on that wing, too).  

And where I was at the start of the month for comparison