Slow Sunday Stitching: The End of May-nia, the Start of Red, White & June Stitching

Well Hello to June!  And hello to all visiting from another week of hand stitched wonder over at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching!

With the start of this new month,  I have come to the end of my cross stitch "May-nia" period.  As usual not as much got done as hoped but I had a lot of fun stitching and have become more comfortable working with fabrics like Evenweave and Linen during this round.  That will be a big help with projects going forward.  

Progress:  One Fully Finished!

The good news is I got one project "fully finished"!

This is "Year of the Snake" by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and I can now call it D-O-N-E!  And better than last year's  "Year of the Dragon" I can actually get to enjoy it while there is still half of the year left!  This is the third in this series that I have done, the first was 2023's "Year of the Rabbit".  

I had planned the finish for this to look like a gift but ran short of the scraps I had of the fabric I liked for the bands around the sides.  I wound up having to piece a square of another fabric into the center on the back to make the scraps stretch and then used a bias strip of that same fabric for the "bow".   

Dare I plan to do another for 2026?  If so, I'll go back to doing it as a "New Year's Stitch" and try to finish it earlier in the year .

A Little Bit Backwards To Go Forward

It took a restart to get my "Craft Supplies and Other Lies I Tell Myself" May-nia project going!  On the plus side, I have really enjoyed stitching this one more than expected given that it is stitched on Linen and I stitch more often on Aida.  

Since I've had a bunch of stuff sitting in my stitching chair that has the really bright lamp next to it,  the Linen has often been best worked on in bright daylight if I'm sitting on the couch and only able to use my lighted magnifier.  As such, early morning sessions of a half hour to an hour have been frequent during the past month.  

That said, I totally bungled this at first!  I got a whole section done only to realize I hadn't started at the center or at least far enough in to get to the edge of the piece with space to spare for additional motifs and framing allowance.

For some reason I started it here and then realized I was waaay too close to the edge....

...to have room for this next motif!

So I had to restart it.  By now though I was more comfortable with the stitching and got further faster on the second round.

Although I'm not ripping the initial stitching until I absolutely have to, LOL!!!

A Start on a Project, Just Not as Much as I Thought

"New York Skyline" was another long desired start for last month.

The pattern image.....

...and this is as far as I got.

I thought this one would go fast since I don't have to change thread colors.  However,  a lot of counting and direction changes added to continuing to get experience working on an Evenweave fabric meant it went slower than expected.   I am pleased with the progress and love seeing the design unfold so I'll probably keep stitching on this one in dribs and drabs until it's done.

Bonus stitching this month!

We went camping over the Memorial Day weekend with my husband's co-workers again.  My cross stitch project for the last few camping trips has been "Open Your Heart" so I took it with me again.  Before the trip I was here:

At this point I had three more pages of this pattern to stitch to complete the top half of the design.  Between the drive there and back, some stitching around the campfire when the weather held and in the tent when it was raining (which it did on and off unfortunately), I managed to get halfway through one page.

I still have the top of this page to complete.

The new part added is actually the first page of the pattern.  When I started this project back in 2023,  I had chosen to do so on the fifth page (bottom center).  That was because it had both a lot of "filler stitching" which was good for long car drives to campsites.  It also had the most color changes in the piece which at the time I started this was expected to be the biggest challenge and learning curve for me.  

I'm also happy with the progress made on this.  We have another camping trip booked for the July 4th weekend so I'll have another opportunity to pick this up again before the year is out.

Only One Left Behind

I had planned to work on one more thing during this May-nia period but never got to it:   

Oh well.   Maybe I can pick it up for Sheri's (Colorado Cross Stitcher) "Cross Stitch Summer Camp" this year.  If so, this could be my "August - Try Something New" project which would be adapting a pattern for self framing.

Moving On To June  

Now that it's June, I'll once again be stitching with the Fat Quarter Shop during their "Red, White and June SAL".

As always, they have compiled a section of patterns and supplies perfect for the SAL on their webite.  For my projects,  I'll be returning to the patriotic projects I started for 2023's SAL (I missed out on doing it in 2024):

• "Fully Finish" Primrose Cottage's "United We Stand":

This will be a simple pillow finish and I have the backing finishing supplies.  What I don't have is Pom-pom trim but I've long wanted to try the special edge finish pictured here for a quilt so this little project maybe the perfect time to test it out.

• Finish Stitching Primrose Cottage's "Home of the Free"

• Finish Stitching Mani Di Donna's "Right To Vote"

Admittedly, both of the last two should be helped by the progress made on the May-nia stitching.  Working  on "Lies" which is on Linen  just like "Vote" and "Home" which is on Evenweave like "Skyline" as well as a previous "Fudge It" finish  got me way more comfortable working on both types of fabric.  So I am hoping the work on both of these UFOs will go much faster this time around.  Who knows, maybe there'll be more finishes to show at the end of this month!

Another Bonus Project

I had stitched "Patriotic Parade" in 2024 for the Colorado Cross Stitcher's August challenge.  For me, the "Try Something New" prompt was "try cross stitching with wool thread".  

I finished stitching this one up in October that year but I still need to "fully finish" it.  I had purchased this project as a kit which came with the fabric, floss and finishing supplies.  Since it too is a Patriotic-themed piece, it fits right in with "RW&J" so I'm hoping to work on completing it this month right along with finishing "United We Stand".  Looks like it'll be a another busy crafting month and that's just for the cross stitch portion of it!  

What have you got planned for hand stitching in June?  I'm sure if you need inspiration, checking out all the others that are posting over at Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching link-up will give you lots of ideas to pursue!