June 1st saw the first day of summer and that means long
afternoons, enjoying the sun and sitting in the garden cross stitching –
hopefully!
Now, I know I keep banging on about Flosstube, but since it’s
discovery I have found a whole load of ‘stitchey’ activities that have pushed
me to try things I probably never would have in the past, like joining in with Stitch Maynia, and an
on-line community (Facebook and Instagram) of lovely, generous and likeminded
people who share my passion for stitching and other crafty pursuits.
One of the many flosstubs that I watch regularly is that of the
Colorado Cross Stitcher, also known as Sheri Truax Berger.
Sheri owns
a wool shop called the Loopy Ewe and every year she runs a virtual knitting
summer camp over the months of June, July and August, where she sets monthly challenges.
Not so much here in the UK, but 'Summer Camp' is a big thing in the
USA, as are Cross Stitch Retreats and conventions and because all of that has
been on hold for the last 18 months due to Covid-19, people I’m sure were
getting withdrawal symptoms.
Anyway, what I
discovered whilst watching Sherie’s latest Flosstube, was that she was
planning to start the first virtual ‘Cross
Stitch’ Summer Camp’, so I was there immediately to book my place!
It will run over three months with challenges set for each
one. You have to post pictures on
Instagram of your starts on the first of each month and have to finish and post
a picture of your completed work on or before the last day of the month. Then, there will be prize draws for all those
that complete the task, and a grand draw for all those that complete all three
months. Fun or what?
The task for June was to stitch something that has been inspired
by someone else, so I chose to do ‘Blue Bird’, designed by Yulia Do, on Etsy.
I found Yulia, thanks to another Flosstuber that I follow, Jan
Hicks of Jan Hicks Creates. She does a segment she calls ‘Let’s Go
Shopping’ where she reviews various Etsy shops and web sites and she shared the
beautiful charts from Yulia……..needless to say I went shopping straight after
and landed myself a few of her charts, Blue Bird being one of them.
So on the 1st June I duly took a photo of my project,
fabric and floss, posted it on Instagram (#CrossStitchCamp) and made a start.
I'm stitching on White, 32ct Murano Evenweave, using Anchor threads and I’m now seven days in and just have the backstitching and French
knots to do to finish it.
The chatter on the Facebook group has been fun too as you can imagine,
with more than 800 of us joining in.
We’ve had questions asked, so we can get to know everyone.
Where do you live and where would you move to if they had the chance? (The majority are in the US, with a some from
the UK, Australia and other places)
Do
you have furry stitching companions?
And what is your favourite family ‘go to’
recipe?
There's been lots of chatter 'around the campfire' and it's been very amusing to read Felicity’s 'Letters Home’ every
day!
The challenges continue through the summer, with July’s being to stitch a designer that you have never
stitched before, so I’m planning on doing one of the designs from the Blackbird
‘Loose Feathers’ series. And the final challenge for August is to use fabric or floss
that you’ve never used before. I’m going to attempt to stitch on 40 count
fabric, if my eyes allow me to, although I haven’t decided what I’m going to
stitch yet, so watch this space!
So now dear friends,
I’m off to the virtual lake (my back garden with miniature water fall feature)
to stitch the afternoon away before the forecast rain arrives around 4pm.
I hope you all enjoy your afternoon too.
Happy Crafting!
(Whatever you passion may be)
Sue
X
