Stitch May-nia Plans

Hello to all the afficiandos of Slow Stiching visiting in from Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching link up!

In the cross stitch world it is time for May-nia!  May is the month when cross stitchers challenge themselves to make ambitious plans to cross stitch a bunch of projects over the course of the month.  In the past, many set their goals either to the numerical year (like planning to start 25 projects for 2025) or the days of the month (starting 31 projects, one for each day of the month).  However, these days most people just set their own goals based on their own needs, time available and the depth of their project stash!

I still consider myself a relatively new CSer and this will only be my second Maynia so my plans remain far simpler.  I am still shocked at how I have completely fallen in love with cross stitch --- for me, this was one of those "I'll just try it once" things that has bloomed into a bit of an obsession.  Part of the appeal is that cross stitchers are all about displaying their finishes.  I really enjoy that part of the fun is not just stitching a piece but how creatively you can complete it for display too.  I've always enjoyed the idea of decorating with quilts so cross stitch was a natural fit when it came to the idea of creating things specifically for display.

My goal is the same as the last time I did this:  to work on four projects.  My theme is projects for decorating:  that is, projects I had specifically set out to make to fill decorating spots.  With the four that I hope to tackle this month, that sets my schedule to work on one project a week.  To that end I want to work on these:

1.  Finish "Year of the Snake"

This one is already on its way to being finished.  When I last reported on it at the start of April, I was here:

and now it's here:

I just need to finish stitching in yellow on one of the latern motifs and complete that first border line then finish off the red motifs on the last border.  I've already got the materials gathered for finishing this as well.  So I am hoping that May-nia for this project will include a "fully finish" end too! 

2.  Continue "Lies I Tell Myself"

I had started this one while traveling back in February and have not had a chance to return to it since.  This is another project in my continuing attempts to master stitching on Linen.  It had been going pretty well so I am hoping that some focused May-nia sessions will help both get me in the groove on stitching on this type of fabric and at least get the stitching on this one finished by the end of the month.  "Fully finishing" it would be a bonus!

3.  (Finally) Start "Happy Home"

This is one I've been anticipating working on since the start of the year.  We've recently had to make some repairs in our home which has prompted a lot of additional decluttering and re-organizing.  That has made me want to focus on sprucing up some spaces in the process.  

The plan for this piece has been a spot on the wall at the top of our entry staircase to replace some antique quilt blocks that used to hang there.  I already have plans for the relocation of the quilt blocks so would like to get this done to hang on the nail already in place in their old space.  

I had a piece of fabric for this leftover from another project that I've already prepared for use.  I'll be stitching this as three individual pieces in order to fit into the frame openings and to accomodate the size of the leftover piece of fabric I'm using.  Since this is designed as one horizontal piece, it's been a little hard for me to figure out how to break up and space the words and images out to balance and fit the frame openings.  So May-nia will be the time to start working those details out!  

4.  Start "New York Skyline"

I have a space on one of my dining room walls that I've long wanted to fill with something:

My original plan was to make a quilted piece to fill this space:  Jen Kingwell's "My Small World" which I picked up in the Spring 2015 edition of Quiltmania magazine.

This has been a long simmering desire because the problem is that Jen's piece as designed is too big to fit that space.  Reducing the size of it to make it fit presented an issue because the piecing in it is already pretty small so I've never been sure about how to work out going even smaller.  

Then as I discovered things during the course of my burgeoning interest in cross stitch, I came across this design:

I immediately saw it as a perfect place holder until I can get an opportunity to work out the details of doing the Kingwell piece.  I also loved that it is a one color stitch so figure it will be a fast one to get done.  I already have all the supplies for this so I think May-nia is the perfect time to get a start on it.    

So that's it for my May-nia project list!  I actually do have another decorating piece that I'd like to do but it isn't as much of a priority as the rest of these.  I'm thinking that if I get "Snake" and maybe "Skyline" finished well before the month ends,  I might sneak in the other piece as well.  We shall see how that all pans out in the end.   

My additional goals for the month are that at minimum, I want to try to stitch daily which is something that has been hard to do these last few months.  Unfortunately, I already broke that streak since we were busier yesterday than planned and I pooped out at the end of the day and missed out on stitching.  My usual stitch time is in the evening while listening to news shows.  I also take advantage (as I did this week) of taking my stitching with me to the laundry which gives me focus time while the clothes wash and dry.  

No matter, another goal is to possibly try to stitch twice a day.  On the first day of the month, I was up early and was able to sneak in a morning stitching session.  I enjoyed doing that so if I can stitch twice today,  I'll consider it make up for missing yesterday, LOL!  I look forward to seeing what I can accomplish this May-nia round!  

Oh and for all of you quilting Slow Stitchers and Star Wars fans out there:

Linking Up with "Slow Sunday Stitching" at Kathy's Quilts