2026: September update

Where did September go? I think many people are asking this. It started off ok, then just whooshed by. Even so, I was able to get my one card made due to it being my mother-in-laws birthday month and managed to stitch more than expected at the end of the month.

This month I don’t have update photos to accompany the stitch counts. It’s been too much mentally with other things going on to also take photos and edit them. Hopefully next month will be better. But know, progress has been made and you can see official updates on my Instagram and live stitching happens twice a week on my Twitch channel.

Thanks for your understanding and continuing to read the blog when you can. 🙂 It’s appreciated!

The big 5 update

If you would like to read the origin stories, you can find that here. Follow my Instagram to see official progress photos when they are released.

Cats Library, Heaven and Earth Designs.

+1,478

Disintegration, Heaven and Earth Designs

+1,387

Universal Monsters, Witchy Stitcher’s SAL from 2019

+1,371

McGonagall, Cross Stitch Studio

+1,524

Super Mario World Map, Box Cat Shop (Etsy)

+1,270

Monopoly update + new game in October

My first roll of September landed me on Safari. I don’t remember the last time I picked that one up, but it now has over 800 stitches completed.

After that Monopoly was pretty slow. There was a community stitch that required 200 stitches and I happened to have McGonagall’s Library on the frame, so that’s the pattern I worked for it.

Baby Bear is started and I’m on the moon. After that it’s backstitching and I guess turning it into a finish! I’m not sure there’s enough left if I do land on it for Monopoly, which I should have a turn again come October.

I also signed up for new Discord stitching game called “Stitch Manor.” It’s a murder mystery where you earn Investigation Points by submitting stitching each week. There was a pre-game period the last week of September to get the hang of everything. It only runs for the month of October and there is a limit to how many points you can obtain each week.

How did September go?

My total stitching in September went better than I expected. I reached over 7,000 stitches on the Big 5 for the second month in a row. Which should put me at finishing all 7 projects (even though I say 9 – I don’t know what those extra two are…) within the next 25 years.

I also briefly tried Markup, which didn’t solve the problem of partial stitches as promised by the internet so I decided not to persue that as a paid thing at this time.

I also downloaded something called StitchWIP, without paying I could add 3 projects. While I haven’t uninstalled it, I’m not actively using it since I have my spreadsheet set up for all the game tracking and when I’ll finish guestimates. StitchWIP also offers an estimated completion date when you log stitches/time against a project, but I’m not sure how accurate it is. I have mine set based on overall elapsed time since starting the project. Mine is showing about 20 more years needed than the app. In the end, I’ll finish when I finish.

Another small update, I was accepted as a vendor on Fybe. I haven’t started anything yet, but I may be switching the shop over to there since there are search features and may result in some card sales.

Here’s how I did in September for chipping away at these: 7,030 stitches across the five. This didn’t quite match August, but I came much closer than expected.

The Big 5 have a combined stitch count of 1,295,620. I’m 6.68% complete with all five.

It’s an FFO

No new finishes besides the one card. I have started Baby Bear which could result in a finish at some point.

Happy crafting!


See project updates and finishes on Instagram @craftyk.3

and watch live on Twitch CraftyK3

2026: August update

The beginning of August was the opposite of July. By the 6th I already had over 1,000 stitches in on my Big 5. By the 10th I was over 3k in and needed to put in something on Cats Library again.

I’ve been taking some marketing classes that will expire soon and figured out a way to watch the classes and cross stitch. Extra motivation to get both done. I’ve also been able to keep just ahead of Chat with my stitch count for the first time since implementing that incentive. (in case you missed it, I won!)

The big 5 update

If you would like to read the origin stories, you can find that here. Follow my Instagram to see official progress photos when they are released.

Cats Library, Heaven and Earth Designs.

+1,309

Disintegration, Heaven and Earth Designs

+1,562

Universal Monsters, Witchy Stitcher’s SAL from 2019

+1,105

McGonagall, Cross Stitch Studio

+1,646

Super Mario World Map, Box Cat Shop (Etsy)

+1,902

Monopoly update

I started August off by rolling my first doubles. I owed 500 stitches on a full coverage and chose McGonagall’s Library for that one. My second roll resulted in a property trade.

I also landed on Luxury Tax and had to relinquish a property. Not much stitching for the game. I did start Baby Bear on my own though.

How did August go?

August brought about more stitching than I thought possible. While my card making is still lacking in volume, I made some good progress on my Big 5. Including a finish on page two of McGonagall and the first island finish on Mario.

Here’s how I did in August for chipping away at these: 7,524 stitches across the five. This was my highest monthly total for the year so far, beating out last month’s record.

The Big 5 have a combined stitch count of 1,295,620. I’m 6.11% complete with all five.

It’s an FFO

Does making my one card a month count, again?

Happy crafting!


See project updates and finishes on Instagram @craftyk.3

and watch live on Twitch CraftyK3

2026: July update

July got off to a rough start. No stitching happened until the 4th. But then it was three days of power stitching. Going from zero to almost 1,400 stitches on the Big 5 in that time.

I managed to make one card in July. I haven’t been feeling card making lately. But I’m trying to stay committed to my one card a month goal.

In later July I unexpectedly inherited more puzzles. Those have taken a huge backseat to cross stitching. But I decided for the sake of my shelving to pull one out to work on. Which then puts cross stitch farther behind.

I see similarities between puzzles and cross stitch. You have the final image for both, but it’s been chopped up and needs to be pieced together. Cross stitch is the ultimate in tiny pieces though. And thankfully comes with a “map.”

The big 5 update

If you would like to read the origin stories, you can find that here. Follow my Instagram to see official progress photos when they are released.

With two raid trains and two Monopoly boards, I kept busy putting stitches in this month. Cats Library saw the most progress. Everything except McGonagall reached 1,000 stitches this month. I stitched just a bit more than I did in May. There’s hope for me finishing these yet!

There is a discrepancy between the stitch count and the image for Mario. I worked on Mario on August 1 before taking the end of month update photo. I finished a row of blue that was only a few squares in when I started.

Cats Library, Heaven and Earth Designs.

+1,734

Disintegration, Heaven and Earth Designs

+1,042

Universal Monsters, Witchy Stitcher’s SAL from 2019

+1,161

McGonagall, Cross Stitch Studio

+971

Super Mario World Map, Box Cat Shop (Etsy)

+1,308

Monopoly update

You may have noticed Cats Library had quite the jump in stitching. I happened to get that project on both boards.

Some of it overlapped, but essentially I had to complete 1,100 stitches in on Cats between the two boards. It actually took about a year off my predicted end date.

How did July go?

My tracker has been motivating. I am trying to cut time off the estimated finishes every month. I now have math showing how many stitches I need each day/month to finish in 5-25 years. As of right now I’m tracking to finish between 25 and 30 years with all seven of the large projects.

Here’s how I did in July for chipping away at these: 6,216 stitches across the five. This was my highest monthly total for the year so far.

The Big 5 have a combined stitch count of 1,295,620. I’m 5.53% complete with all five.

It’s an FFO

Does making my one card a month count?

Happy crafting!


See project updates and finishes on Instagram @craftyk.3

and watch live on Twitch CraftyK3

2026: June update

June just poofed by. I’ll spoil it now, there was not as much progress in June as there was in May.

If you’re still reading after that news, thank you! The biggest thing that made progress take a hit was a work trip. It ended up being longer than expected and I got sick for a bit after.

While it’s not an experience I want to have again anytime soon (or ever), I was able to finish my smallest project. I didn’t trust taking any of the Big 5 with me or my personal laptop.

Below is my completed card for the month. I did use the Cricut to cut out the inside so my lines would be clean.

The big 5 update

If you would like to read the origin stories, you can find that here. Follow my Instagram to see official progress photos when they are released.

I lost about 2 weeks worth of stitching in June, so the progress won’t be as noticeable across everything. But stitches have been added to each project. With a big push the last few days of June.

This is my first year really tracking all of this. My best guess for last year was a little under 30k stitches completed across four of the large projects (Mario started in 2026). As of right now I’m nearly 20k in. I am on track to complete more than last year!

Cats Library, Heaven and Earth Designs.

+959

The Crafter’s Stash

Disintegration, Heaven and Earth Designs

+933

Universal Monsters, Witchy Stitcher’s SAL from 2019

+618

McGonagall, Cross Stitch Studio

+693

Super Mario World Map, Box Cat Shop (Etsy)

+1,064

Monopoly update

Due to the real life stuff, I skipped two turns this round and put in my extra 200 stitches on Big 5 projects. When it was my turn again I landed on 500 stitches on something with an animal. I chose Disintegration as that one needed some attention and I’m not a fan of Dolphin Family.

As more life happened, I didn’t get to it for several days. And there was a community chest that required stitches from another project (my choice not to do Disintegration).

I did put myself on the waitlist for a second Monopoly board. We’ll see how that goes. I won’t be including a small piece or Dolphin Family for the WIPs on a second board to give more attention to the Big 5.

How did June go?

My estimated completion date tracker has been interesting. Sometimes one day can remove several months from the projected finish. Other times it doesn’t seem to affect things at all.

Here’s how I did in June for chipping away at these: 4,267 stitches across the five.

The Big 5 have a combined stitch count of 1,295,620. I’m 5.05% complete with all five, which isn’t bad considering how many days I had to work overall.

It’s an FFO

I did it again! Please don’t expect this to be a regular announcement. Because I finished Turtle Tower, I also made sure it became a finished object. This time a card. (See the top of this post, it’s the only card I made this month.)

Happy crafting!


See finished projects on Instagram @craftyk.3

and watch live on Twitch CraftyK3

2026: May update

This month I took two days off work to extend my Memorial Day weekend. It was also so I could start and finish cards I thought had a home, but it didn’t work out, so maybe new cards for the shop? I spent one day getting the bases assembled and a second day picking sentiments and finishing the card designs. The page I chose for these cards managed to produce 10 cards.

I am struggling to create sets, but I see it as a way I’m stretching myself into new ways of working. I hope these look like a set with a mixed set of sentiments. Ready for most occasions.

It took less than a week and I had to challenge myself again with attempting a second card set. This time holiday themed. I’m not sure if they’ll be accepted for their intended purpose, if not, I guess those will show up on the shop as well.

The big 5 update

If you would like to read the origin stories, you can find that here. Follow my Instagram to see official progress photos when they are released.

This was the month of official progress updates! And over 1,000 stitches on each. I worked a little extra on Cats Library to bring that one up to 1,000 before the end of the month. The updates below are as of the end of the month. You get to see the latest progress before the next official IG updates!

Cats Library, Heaven and Earth Designs.

+1,019

Disintegration, Heaven and Earth Designs

+1,205

Universal Monsters, Witchy Stitcher’s SAL from 2019

+1,457

McGonagall, Cross Stitch Studio

+1,394

Super Mario World Map, Box Cat Shop (Etsy)

+1,132

Monopoly update

I landed on an unowned property and the WIP number corresponded to Nativity. All projects are officially started. Since I passed Go and wanted to purchase the property (only because Nativity has blocks of color) I owed 600 stitches.

+607

How did May go?

I only longer-term track my stitch counts on the ‘Big 5‘. I added more math to my tracker to attempt at an estimated completion date based on my current rate of work. Based on my higher-than-average stitching this month, I should finish my current 5 in 25 years and the additional 2 large projects within 30 or so years.

Here’s how I did in May for chipping away at these: 6,207 stitches across the five.

The Big 5 have a combined stitch count of 1,295,620. I’m 4.72% complete with all five, which isn’t bad considering I have limited time to work on them.

It’s an FFO

I did it! Took a day off work and made sure I got Red Panda turned into a fully finished object. Seriously, it is complete. You can read more about this project and see the photos on the Red Panda post here.

Happy crafting!


See finished projects on Instagram @craftyk.3

and watch live on Twitch CraftyK3

2026: April update

I took a day off work and managed to make a few cards. I’m easily distracted so it did take the majority of the day. I also recorded myself making them, so be sure to check out my Instagram for that. The base paper I used is from a wallpaper piece featuring sunflowers. The initial card was a commission for a 70th Scrabble card.

To work through my stash more efficiently I am trying to use a sheet to its fullest before moving on. I have the rest of this sheet plus a couple others I’m trying to finish up to use up as much of the pages as possible. It is a challenge, but I am hoping to get through some scraps and be able to start fresh soon.

The big 5 update

If you would like to read the origin stories, you can find that here. Follow my Instagram to see official progress photos when they are released.

Cats Library, Heaven and Earth Designs.

+598

Disintegration, Heaven and Earth Designs

+635

Universal Monsters, Witchy Stitcher’s SAL from 2019

+677 and a room finish!

McGonagall, Cross Stitch Studio

+411

Super Mario World Map, Box Cat Shop (Etsy)

+510

Monopoly update

I landed on an unowned property and the WIP number corresponded to Dolphin Family. That means only one pattern isn’t started yet. It got off to a bumpy start. This pattern has several nuances to it with floss amounts. Hopefully as I work on it, I’ll get more comfortable with it.

+558

How did April go?

I only longer-term track my stitch counts on the ‘Big 5‘. I added more math to my tracker to attempt at an estimated completion date based on my current rate of work. McGonagall came in at being finished sometime in 2100…

Here’s how I did in April for chipping away at these: 2,831 stitches across the five.

The Big 5 have a combined stitch count of 1,295,620. I’m 4.24% complete with all five, which isn’t bad considering I have limited time to work on them.

Need to make it an FFO

There is one project, Red Panda, that has been sitting fully stitched since October. I entered it as an auction item in the St. Jude fundraiser MocoMade hosts. It’s an application process, and I don’t have this finished yet to show them what it will be. But the board is cut so I can get started now.

Happy crafting!


See finished projects on Instagram @craftyk.3

and watch live on Twitch CraftyK3

2026: March update

One of my cousins had a milestone birthday in March, so one card was made! I was really struggling that day. The card was supposed to be horizontal, but ended up vertical because I stamped happy upside down. Whoops. Cursive font threw me off. Here it is:

I do like the purple paper as a cutout versus a background as I have been using it. I set out the last (I hope) of the purple paper for another card, but working multiple jobs has left me with little time for card making or stitching.

The big 5 update

If you would like to read the origin stories, you can find that here. So far the progress on these has not resulted in an official update photo, but there should be progress photos coming in April. Follow my Instagram to see them when they are released.

Cats Library, Heaven and Earth Designs.

+587

Disintegration, Heaven and Earth Designs

+339

Universal Monsters, Witchy Stitcher’s SAL from 2019

+626

McGonagall, Cross Stitch Studio

+1,013

Super Mario World Map, Box Cat Shop (Etsy)

+968

Monopoly update

So far only Safari has come up for Monopoly and was a new start. McGonagall is also coming up and getting more stitches completed on that one as well.

Turtle Tower from DailyCrossStitch.com, Dolphin Family, and Nativity remain unchanged.

How did March go?

I only longer-term track my stitch counts on the ‘Big 5‘. All five are now in progress. I put in a total of 3,533 stitches on those in the month of March. Which is more than February with a total of 1,515.

The Big 5 have a combined stitch count of 1,295,620. I’m 4.03% complete with all five, which isn’t bad considering I have limited time to work on them.

Need to make it an FFO

There is one project, Red Panda, that has been sitting fully stitched since October. I’ve decided to turn it into an ornament, but that’s as far as it’s gotten. Once that gets finished up, there will be a blog post for it. (Yay bonus post!) < This is the same update from February, no progress has been made.

Happy crafting!


See finished projects on Instagram @craftyk.3

and watch live on Twitch CraftyK3

2026: February update

I barely squeaked out my card of the month for February. On the last day I managed to make two cards. I was determined not to fall short in the second month of the year, so here you go, two cards made from leftover pieces of other cards.

The blue paper seems to last forever. So far the paper has made it onto 10 cards with more to come. Someday I’ll run it out and that will be it. That’s the goal. Go through the stash and start using it. Use up the materials I have on hand before looking into new stuff.

I do accept donations when people have stuff they want to offload, keeping it out of the trashcan a little while longer. I know not all of my cards will be kept forever, but at least the materials were used to their fullest before being discarded.

Something I am adding to my monthly updates are my cross-stitch projects. I have 5 large, 3 medium, and 1 rotating small cross-stitch projects. I started the first of the 5 back in April 2023, it’s clearly going to be a while before there’s a blog post on that one. Which is why I’ll add smaller updates here. This month will be an intro of what else I have going on.

The big 5

It all started with my first full coverage piece Cats Library from Heaven and Earth Designs. It was the second pattern I downloaded, but first to start. I didn’t know cross-stitch like this existed until I started using my Instagram more. The second pattern I started was Disintegration, again, Heaven and Earth Designs.

In 2025 I discovered Twitch. This is when the additional projects started. Many of the streamers I follow have 50+ WIPs going on, and for some it’s all cross-stitch. This is how I came across the Witchy Stitcher’s Universal Monsters SAL from 2019. I saw the tarot project, found her website and ended up with Universal Monsters. Starting this was inspired by the Secret Snowflake activity I participated in 2024.

Note: I chose to work the black and white version of the pattern.

This one was started September 2, 2025.

After that, I was watching a streamer Blueeyedkat81, and saw Trelawney’s Library. This introduced me to the Cross Stitch Studio. There are five Harry Potter characters that have library cross-stitch patterns. Now these are HUGE. No joke, stitching on 32 count fabric 1:1, the finished stitched size will be 25 inches x 25 inches.

My niece really loves Harry Potter so I sent her all the names and asked which character she liked best, it was between McGonagall and Dumbledore. I sent her the images of the libraries and she went with McGonagall.

In the end that was a good choice as about 42% of the overall piece is 310 and 3371. I felt that made it manageable. Not sure just yet as I recently crossed .5% complete (yes, a half percent) and am not quite done with the first page.

The last pattern I had on my mind for a while. Not sure when that started or when I first saw it, but in late 2025 I decided to stop thinking about it and actually purchase it. That pattern is Super Mario World Map. I have all the parts and pieces to get started and as luck would have it, my Twitch chat chose it March 1 before this blog post was published. The pattern is from an Etsy store called Box Cat Shop.

These five projects are what I track for the game Wanderlust which I start last September or October as part of the beta. If you catch me on Twitch, my country stamps show up on the right side of the screen. As of this writing I am in Uruguay. I decided to play the game by going through the countries as if I’m actually traveling.

Then came Monopoly

Monopoly is a game that is popular among many Twitch makers & crafting streamers. I joined the Discord and was an observer for a long time. After trying out Wanderlust, I had confidence that I could start another game. This game is more complex as it involves other players and isn’t completely “at your own pace.”

Thankfully my first roll didn’t land on one of my three new projects. I spent many hours charting all three of them into WinStitch so they could be imported into Pattern Keeper. I didn’t chart out the backstitching or the complexities of the dolphin pattern, but at least I will have digital stitch counting.

You may be counting and notice one pattern is missing. That is Turtle Tower from DailyCrossStitch.com. This is a site I subscribe to, however the individual patterns are inexpensive if you have under $5 USD to spare per pattern. There’s no picture of it anywhere and I’m using all stash floss for it, meaning the colors on the pattern are inspiration for what mine looks like. This one may or may not be finished with Monopoly as I have the next small pattern picked out, I just need to digitize it.

As of right now, these projects are exclusive to the Monopoly game and will only be worked when I land on the correlating WIP number. The exception being Turtle Tower since that is mostly done and I have a recipient for it.

How did February go?

I only longer-term track my stitch counts on the ‘Big 5’. Of those only four have actually been started (as of the end of February). I put in a total of 1,515 stitches on those in the month of February. Which is more than January with a total of 1,410. The big 5 have a combined stitch count of 1,295,620. I’m 3.75% complete with all 5, which isn’t bad considering only four are started.

Need to make it an FFO

There is one project, Red Panda, that has been sitting fully stitched since October. I’ve decided to turn it into an ornament, but that’s as far as it’s gotten. Once that gets finished up, there will be a blog post for it. (Yay bonus post!)

Happy crafting!


See finished projects on Instagram @craftyk.3

and watch live on Twitch CraftyK3

Secret Snowflake

The company I work for decided to take a twist on Secret Santa and offered a Secret Snowflake. On a bit of a dare, I decided to take part.

The total limit was $20 and gifts are to be dispersed across 8 work days. It wasn’t specific if you are supposed to do multiple things, but I decided to get something for each day.

I did stick with the spend limit with three days of handmade using materials already on hand. I’m not sure how many people at work know I do crafting on the side, but I think many more know now.

To learn more about our Snowflake, everyone filled out a form answering questions about favorites, likes, dislikes, that kind of thing. My person likes Universal Monsters, crows, and Pokémon. The other things were related to food and drinks, which was where my $20 went.

I made a journal/sketchbook (the last time I attempted this was 2013), this attempt went much better. I created it with two covers so my Snowflake wouldn’t have to pick where to start. I also figure they could make a second book if desired. For the covers I used the Universal Monsters and a crow. Because of the general theme, the parts that pull off worked out great.

The next thing I made was a window cling cut out of a crow. This I packaged up and did not photograph before delivery. I happened to have black window cling since I got my Cricut in 2017. It was never opened, so I took this opportunity to give it a try. I hope it’s clingy!

The last handmade was for the Pokémon theme. I did use Co-Pilot to help me figure out which Pokémon would be pink, purple, or green (favorite colors) and small enough to fit in the mini keychain I have. I found a site with lots of free individual characters and pokeballs. Something I learned was there are multiple pokeballs, which took me back to Co-Pilot to ask what you catch a Ditto with. Which is how I landed on stitching an Ultra Ball. Turns out the Ditto is pretty cool.

All the gifts were a hit. I’m glad I chose to participate. It was the highlight of my week for sure. All the planning and plotting to keep my secret and deliver above expectations.

Stitching

Ditto started: December 8, 2024

Ditto finished: December 11, 2023

Ditto stitching time: 5.5 hours


Ultra ball started: December 12, 2024

Ultra ball finished: December 13, 2023

Ultra ball stitching time: 1.75 hours

Follow current projects on Instagram @craftyk.3
Also on Snapchat

Class of 2024

My nephew is graduating high school this year. I designed this pattern based on the other two I made for his older siblings (Class of 2018, Class of 2021). This pattern is 1,118 stitches in total, no backstitching. I used his favorite color for the text and school colors for the triangles.

I did some correcting to the triangles. This time they are all the same pattern. Rotating the ones on the end was a challenge. I am not very adept at WinStitch. I thought it was supposed to be easy to use, but it was a lot harder than I thought to select, rotate, and place the triangles.

I’m working on a couple of full coverage pieces and using Pattern Keeper to track progress. I exported this pattern for Pattern Keeper since I am now used to being able to zoom way in on a pattern and have the current color selected throughout the project.

While the design was supposed to be 5×7, somewhere along the way it ended up narrower than that. Of course I was being lazy about trimming it up and ended up cutting too much off the left side and to even things out, cut the same amount on the right, leaving a small gap on each side.

My nephew loves Star Wars and I have been using a page at a time from a daily calendar I received several years ago and didn’t open. So on the edges, you can see just a little hint of that.

I also made my signature graduation card using adhesive foil and thread from the cross stitch project.

Stitching

Started: April 4, 2024

Finished: April 23, 2023

Stitching time: 9.25 hours

Follow current projects on Instagram @craftyk.3
Also on Snapchat