…there’s no place like a new project…

Old habits die hard, it seems. When the suggestion of a new stitchalong popped up, I resisted, because I have too many on the go…and then I remembered 2020 broke me and I actually started finishing stuff, including beating the resident speed stitcher to the finish of Alice. With no active stitcheries, I decided to take the plunge, and signed up for the Satsuma St Wizard of Oz stitchalong.

I didn’t buy the kit this time, like I did with Alice – I had about half the number of required floss colours, and I didn’t totally love the suggested fabric, so I tracked down and ordered the same linen that Alice was stitched on, and grabbed the last few colours I needed.

Over the long weekend, we headed to the coast to escape the cold, and when my floss arrived the day before we left, I took it as a sign that it was time for me to hook in. When I did Alice, I started from the centre, worked out from there to stitch the blocks, and wrapped up with the frames at the end. It was at this point I nearly came unstuck, when one of the corner blocks was out by a stitch. I had a similar problem with my Once Upon A Time sampler, with a whole row out by a stitch. Borders are quite possibly my least favourite part of a stitching project. Normally, I leave them for the end, at which point I decide finishing is overrated and procrastinate on the borders for far too long. This time however, I decided to start with borders first…clearly 2020 broke me even more than I realised.

It’s fun to be back into stitching, and I’m making decent progress on the first block. It’s addictive, really, now I’m in the swing of it, and it’s just the perfect size for working on at the school table. I’m hoping I can keep up the pace to get a block done a week and have it done almost on time. Now wouldn’t that be something, finishing a mystery sampler straight after the final block release…could I be THAT broken? I guess we’ll see soon enough!