…follow the yellow brick road…

Cats and cross stitch, it turns out, are not a good combination. Pre cat, it was so simple to store my projects – slip them on the craft trolley, or, more commonly, leave them on the lounge to deal with in the morning, after staying up far too late crafting. Cats, however, have zero bothers to give about projects, and if something happens to be in the way of 3am zoomies, well, that’s the stupid human’s fault. After one too many mornings of rescuing my cross stitch from the ground where the kitten had knocked it off the trolley or the couch or the side table overnight, I gathered up all my bits and pieces and packed my Wizard of Oz stitch along away and into the cupboard. It wouldn’t be hard to get it out when I wanted it, I told myself. But in the way of these things, once it was out of sight. it was out of mind. There in the cupboard it stayed.for two months, coming out only once in that time for a movie afternoon. With camp at home planned for the weekend, it was the perfect opportunity to get stuck in and start making some serious progress.

With camp in full swing on Saturday, and the children suitably occupied annoying helping Daddy, I grabbed my stitching and settled myself on the couch ready for some power stitching. I popped in the AirPods, chucked Wentworth on the laptop, and made a start. It only took a few episodes and I was making good progress. The light was against me in the end, but Sunday morning I picked it up again. I was at home on nurse duty with a couple of unwell boys, so I made the most of my bonus time, and by 10.30, I had a finished block.

With the mojo now flowing again, I brought it with me to the school table, and made a start on the middle block. With bigger runs of colour, and less changes, it came together quicker than the other blocks. The last stitch went in around lunchtime today – around 48 hours start to finish. The next block and the corners are a bit fiddly, so I’ve instead been working on filling in the borders a bit. I am hoping to continue stitching each day to keep it chugging along, and get it finished sooner rather than later.

I also snuck in a little ninja crafting on Monday night. The little thread tails at the end of each cut of floss had slowly been accumulating on the arm of my lounge all weekend, and by the time I was done on Sunday, it was starting to annoy me. Back in January, I saw some cute little thread catcher mats that Lucy made. using this tutorial, and ever since they have been on my to-make list. I decided it was finally time, and using some hemming tape, scrap batting, and some fabric leftover from my Vintage Modern quilts, I got busy while the children finished their chores. In typical me-fashion, I decided to wing it, thinking I could remember enough of the instructions to get it done. It all worked out in the end, after.a bit of fiddling to get the corners sitting flat. It turns out I had forgotten the batting was supposed to be removable. Aside from that, it has worked a treat, and is helping keep my lounge nice and tidy.

At 4″ finished, it is a neat fit for the arm of the couch, and the batting grips the loose floss nicely. It is also just the right size to pop in my floss box, when I’m packing up. I can see it also being helpful, come December and the opportunity to get out and about again. I can’t count the number of times I’ve lost my cut floss, or had it carried off by the breeze. To have an easily transportable way to keep my floss safe and sound will be very helpful. Of course, with that sorted now, I’ve already started thing about what I can make next to further organise the craft-room-by-proxy that is continually springing up on the couch and the side table, and that provides endless entertainment for the kitten at 2am…