Tour de Stitches wrap up

 First I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who joined us in this event.  In total, we had 66 stitchers who participated on the 8 teams.  I would also like to thank the Team Captains for all of their help!  The goal of this years event was not only to count stitches but also to make new friends. I hope that everyone enjoyed the event and from the looks of it everyone got a lot of stitching done! Now the counts are in and have been tallied!

Team scores:
1st Place : Team Aphrodite  with 206,442 stitches.
2nd Place: Team Apollo with 166,769 stitches.
3rd Place: Team Demeter with 130,573 stitches
4th Place: Team Zeus with 120,728 stitches
5th Place: Team Ares with 105,613 stitches
6th Place: Team Dionysus with 89,143 stitches
7th Place: Team Hephaestus with 84,284 stitches
8th Place: Team  Hera with 75,547 stitches

Individual scores:
1st Place : Susanna Rosencrantz with 89,773 stitches
2nd Place: Fatema Yahya with 74,633 stitches
3rd Place: Cori Jodoin with 65,285 stitches
4th Place: Christine Hennesey with 38,073 stitches
5th Place: Carol Eckert Strawn with 33,221 stitches
6th Place: Virpi Rantakangas with 30,920 stitches
7th Place: Amy Lafferty with 29,318 stitches
8th Place: Mary Perry with 28,832 stitches
9th Place: Tiffany Peterson with 28,764 stitches
10th Place: Charity Mannix 22,692 stitches


Over the entire event, 979,099  stitches were stitched!  That is approximately 815 skeins of floss! That is almost 3.7 miles of stitches!  Togeather we stitched enough stitches for complete 11 mini HAEDs or 2 full size HAEDs!

Weekly Newsletter for the week of July 26th

Good Morning Everyone,

Today is the last day of Tour de Stitches.  I hope everyone has enjoyed this event as much as I have.  It is pretty amazing the amount of progress that can be seen on everyone's WIPS.  I would like to thank everyone who participated in the event.  I would also like to give a special thank you to the Team Captains for this event; Monique, Amy, Kathy, Christine, Heather, Brenda, and Susanna.  Thank you very much  your help made this event that much better!

This Weeks news

• The weekly challenge is to see how close you can get to 1000 stitches in yellow. 
• Monday, July 25 we have Christmas in July, so break out that Christmas project you have waiting in the wings.
• Wednesday, July 27 starts Sweet Summer Escape.   The idea is to celebrate the end of summer and the last few days of vacation.  Start some new projects and/or work on all those WIPS.  On my blog Wonderfully Hopeless, I have put up my plans for Sweet Summer Escape.  

On the Horizon

• On Sunday, July 31 we have Book Club. The book this month Crewel World by Monica Ferris.  This book features Cross Stitch, so is the perfect book for a book club in a cross Stitch group.
• Monday, August 1 we have the Nature SAL as well.
• We have two weeks before the Stitchylympics so everyone can take much-needed break before that kicks off. 

Stitchlympics

What is a champion stitcher to do?  The Stitchlympics are for the brave stitcher, who wishes to challenge themselves in an effort to be considered truly a master stitcher! Come and test your stitchy metal along with other stitchers!  Stitchers will join teams to compete in the games!  Below is a list of events teams will compete in.  We hope that you will join us for this exciting event.  The event will run from August 5th through August 21.  You must be in the facebook group Cross Stitch, It's fun!  You must also join the event on that group Stitchlympics no later than July 31, 2016.    From there you will be assigned a team.   We hope to see you soon!

Day One: Opening Ceremony

•  Stitch for an hour, count your stitches and send it to your team Captain. 

Day Two: 15-minute Sprint

• Ready, Set, Stitch for 15 minutes and then count your stitches. Send your Stitch Count to your team Captain. 

Day Three : 3 hour Marathon

• Stitch for 3 hours and count your stitches. Send your Stitch Count to your team Captain. 

Day Four: 30 Minute Sprint Relay

• Stitch For 30 minutes and then count your stitches. Send your Stitch Count to your team captain. The team Totals will be combined for this event.

Day Five: Javelin Stitch

• Stitch with your opposite hand for as long as you can and then count your stitches and send them to your team lead.

Day Six : New Start Marathon

• See how many new projects you can start in one day. To count as a new start you must put in 50 stitches in each project. (pictures will need to be posted of each new start) 

Day Seven: Specialty Stitches

• How many different Specialty Stitches can you do?  Points will be awarded for each different Type of specialty stitch.

Day Eight: Bobbinating

• Wind bobbins for 10 minutes (no electric power) Count how many bobbins you finished and report to your team lead.

Day Nine: Go For Gold

• Stitch with something Sparkly (krinik, blending filament or metallic) for 2 hours. Count your stitches and report them to your team captain.

Day Ten: Beading

• Stitch with beads for 2 hours. Count your beads and report how many you completed to your team captain.

Day Eleven: Blind Stitching

• Wear a blindfold and stitch for 5 minutes. Count your Stitches and post a pic. (we recommend using a scrap of fabric)

Day Twelve: Stitching Marathon

• Stitch till you drop time. This will be both a team and personal event. Stitch as long as you can. Posting a before and after picture. Send your stitching time to your team captain.

Day Thirteen: Stitching Gymnastics

• Stitch on as many wips as you can. 50 stitches each wip. Send your count to your team captain. This will be both a team and personal event.

Day Fourteen: Stitching Triathlon

• Must stitch with three from the following list (Silks, satins, hand dyed threads, Pearl cotton, Krinik, metallic, blending filament, beads, or whisper threads) Count your stitches at the end of the day and report to your team captain.

Day fifteen: Blackwork

• Stitch on a Blackwork project. Count your stitches at the end of the day and report to your team captain.

Day Sixteen: Rings

• Stitch a Circle in a full coverage project with 10 x 10 blocks. This one should be started on day one. Post pictures of your completed circle.

Day Seventeen: Closing Ceremony

• Stitch on what you like for one hour. At the end of the event count your stitches and send it to your team Captain. We will Post a Total count of how many stitches were accomplished as a group.
• Write Post
• Add Photo / Video
• Create Poll

Tip Tuesday: How we get it all done.

Hi all! It's time once again for Tip Tuesday!!

As you have seen Charity, myself and the rest of the MOD Squad have been deep in the planning trenches getting ready for 2017. There are a lot of SALs and events planned for next year; I bet you are all wondering how do we keep it all straight?

Not an actual picture of mine but pretty close to what it looked like,

Well for me in the beginning it wasn't easy. I did the post it method. My desk, computer, and work area (I even started to encroach on my husbands desk area) was covered in post it notes.

When I got more involved with helping Charity plan for the group my post it note ode to Andy Warhol got bigger and more confusing. I started missing SALs, and let's not mention how many appointments were all of a sudden "spur of the moment" because that post it had been covered by another.

Charity's Happy Planner and desk calendar 

One morning I was hanging out with Charity and she told me about this new planner she was now using to help keep organized with everything she had to do for school. And lo and behold the Happy Planner entered my life. I did have to wait to get one from when she told me about them until the new 2016/2017 were in stores.

  

Front of my Happy Planner with an owl cover made by Charity

  Isn't it just the cutest?! This lovely, amazing, super customizable little jem has made all the differnce. Gone are the days of missing anything. The best part is it is 18 months so not only do I use it for the group but also for life in general. No more "Hey mom today is the field trip" morning greetings for me!

Example of a layout, yes this makes sense to me

 Most of the layouts that we use are freebies and if they are not freebies Charity makes them. She has even created stickers that we use to keep daily group things on schedule, like Tip Tuesday, WIP Wednesday and the like. They come in very handy for the Daily Topic.

 And that explains the mystery of how we do it all!!!!! Ooooohhhhh what's this? A bit of future planning for 2017?!

And so it begins!!!!!

Weekly Newsletter ( July 17 - July 23)

Good Morning everyone,

This is going to be a busy stitching week in CSIF.  With the Monthly Challenge, and weekly challenges running. We also have Tour de Stitches going on.  Teams have flying needles!  The progress being made on many projects is amazing.  The Grand Total is 567,830 stitches made by all the teams so far.  To think we aren't even done yet!  This week we will also be introducing another weekly hangout, on Wednesday's  during the day which should be a better time for our European stitchers. This timeframe will be on a trial basis for a few weeks, we may have to tweak.  We will, of course, be continuing the Stitch N' Bitch hangouts on Thursday nights.  All needle craft is welcome!  This week we have the Penguin Sal in honor of Cori's Birthday.

• July’s Monthly Challenge:https://www.facebook.com/events/1720396804865453/
• Weekly Challenge Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/158224067921203/
• Tour De Stitches: https://www.facebook.com/events/1018848331483649/
• Wednesday Stitch Club: https://www.facebook.com/events/657302964424486/
• Thursday Night Stitch N' Bitch: https://www.facebook.com/events/1800994080112981/
• Penguin SAL: https://www.facebook.com/events/1310092375685658/

On the Horizon!
    We have several things on the Horizon that everyone should check out!  Next week we have Christmas in July, this is a SAL to start or work on a Christmas project.  We also will see the start of Sweet Summer Escape, this event marks the end of summer.  We also have Book Club next week, the book that is going to be discussed features Cross Stitch so I encourage you to check it out.  As you can tell there will be plenty going on next week in the group.

• Christmas in July: https://www.facebook.com/events/571583473002954/
• Sweet Summer Escape:https://www.facebook.com/events/275123006167092/
• Book Club: https://www.facebook.com/events/1738750896383326/

   A little further out, we have the Stitchylympics!  This event will be in August, primarily there are various events to count stitches and some fun silly events to go with.  The same teams that are competing in Tour will be in the Stitchylympics.  We encourage people to check it out and if you are interested we will make additions to teams after Tour.

• Stitchylympics: https://www.facebook.com/events/992861674082345/

Last week we announced a special SAL for Veterans day.  This event will start on August 11 and will run until November 11.  The Idea is to stitch something for a veteran or a veteran's group, charity, or home.  This event has been inspired the veterans who we love and respect in our lives.

• Veteran's Day : https://www.facebook.com/events/606125122895689/

Not a member of CSIF (Cross Stitch It's Fun)?  We are found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1374497246174282/ )  and always happy to have new members!

2017 CSIF Sals!

This is the list of sals for 2017 so far!  Yes, there will be more.  Stitch as many or as few as you like and wips do count!  

1. Do you want to Stitch a Snowman? - Stitch something with a snowman in it
2. I Wish I was on a Beach right now? - Stitch something with a beach theme
3. Stitch your HEART out - Stitch something to show your love
4. Love Bites - Subversive valentines Sal
5. The Birds! - Stitch something with Birds in it or something Alfred Hitchcock inspired.
6. Pretty in Pink - Stitch with Pink
7. Ravishing in Red - Stitch with red
8. Meliciously Hopeless - 7 new starts in 7 days
9. All Glitters is not gold - Pull out that project with metallics or krinik (glitter shit)
10. Green with Stitches - Stitch in green or stitch something for St. patties day
11. The Hangover - Time to finish that project you started last week.
12. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy - Stitch what makes you happy
13. Mary had a little Lamb - Stitch a lamb (sheep)
14. Attack of Frogs! - Time to ward off those pesky frogs.  Stitch a cute little frog.
15. Stitch a Chick - Stitch a baby bird...  easter them maybe?
16. Chip'n Dale - Stitch something a risqué or stitch the Disney characters. 
17. Meet you at the Maypole - Stitch a maypole... or something that makes you think of may
18. The Cali lily's are in Bloom again - if you get the quote you will know what to stitch... (look it up)
19. No more wire hangers! - if you don't know google it :)  
20. Kitty! - if you have every been around a 2-year-old you know everything is a Kitty!
21. Tomorrow hopes we have learned something from yesterday. (John Wayne) - Put meaning to the words for you.
22. Good Morning Starshine the earth says hello - Put meaning to the words for you.
23. Take me out to the ball game - Baseball theme
24. You know Ward, you were a bit hard on Beaver last night? - look it up (father's day)
25. Ode to the Bard - Stitch something Shakespeare-inspired.
26. The Eagles are coming! - Stitch an eagle or stitch something Hobit inspired.
27. Keep your HAED's about you - Pull out that HAED or start a new one!
28. Teddy Bear Picnic - Teddy Bears, picnics.. what's not to love
29. the Unseen - Put meaning to the words for you. (what do you want to unsee)
30. Bow down before me! - Stitch something that makes you feel like a King or Queen... Everyone should feel like royalty once in a while.
31. Dog Days of Summer - Dogs or summer or long dog sampler...
32. To the Lake! - Lake view?  something you do at the lake?
33. Horsey! - another homage to our inner child stitch something with a horse or do what the two-year-old is and call your project a horsey for a week :)
34. Back to School Again! - Stitch something that makes you think of school... or get an early start on teacher appreciation gifts...
35. Ode to the Working Man - Stitch something in honor of Labor day.  pick a pattern about your profession or the profession of someone you wish to honor.
36. Harvest of Stitches - Harvest theme!
37. I've got a lovely bunch of Pumpkins  - Pumpkins!
38. It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown! - pumpkins or Halloween, or even Charlie Brown
39. And I Jack the Pumpkin King! - Halloween!
40. The lovely corpse Bride - Halloween!
41. Coraline Jones - Halloween
42. Zombie Stitchplypse - Time to break out the scary stuff... or hurry to finish that Halloween project
43. This is Halloween! - What the heck!  start another Halloween project or just finish up the ones you already have going.
44. Land of the Free because of the Brave - Stitch something for those that have served the military.  Family, Friends, or something for a veterans charity.
45. I'll See you in December (Fractal) - Fractal
46. Gobble, Gobble - Turkey time
47. Baby, its cold outside - Christmas!
48. Winter wonderland - Winter
49. Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel - Hanukkah
50. I'll be home for Christmas - Christmas
51. Merry Christmas? Who needs sleep. - let's finish up those Christmas presents!
52. Do unto Others (Charity SAL) - Pick a Charity to stitch something for.