Over the past year, I’ve mostly been unwell, and my stitchy mojo had gone into hiding—so I haven’t felt up to posting much. Earlier this year, though, I started a new medication, and thankfully, my stitching spark returned!
I was really looking forward to a Halloween stitchy retreat at the end of October, but it was cancelled last month, and that hit my mojo hard. Still, I’ve decided not to dwell on it too much and to keep moving forward—because that’s what we do.
Sometime earlier this year (I think it was around the start of the year—Tiffstitches can correct me if I’m wrong!), I was chatting with Tiff about stitching. She mentioned she was thinking of doing a stitching challenge to celebrate turning 50 next year (we both hit that milestone in 2026!). She’d seen people on Flosstube doing “50 new starts for 50,” and even someone doing 100!
I loved the idea of new starts. At first, I thought 100 was way too many… but then I went through my stash of fabric and charts and—yep, you guessed it—I have way too much stash. So I’ve decided to kick off a Birthday Challenge on my 49th birthday this year (15th October). Over the coming year, I’ll be starting up to 100 projects!
Right now, I’ve got about 75 projects ready to go in terms of charts and fabric. Floss will be more ad hoc. I even asked ChatGPT to help me spread the new starts across the year, and they’re now scheduled in my calendar to help keep me on track.
I haven’t set any strict goals—just to start and see how it goes. I’ll stitch on them between new starts if I feel like it, or not. Who knows, I might even finish a few! I may include some existing WIPs and switch things around depending on my mood. If I get too rigid, I tend to lose interest.
I’ve tried to pick a mix of smalls, mediums, larges, and kits—just to keep things interesting. Below are some photos of what I’ve selected so far, and you might see progress pics popping up on my Instagram.
Here we go...
Some of these I don't know the designer or magazine issue off the top of my head, but when it comes up as a new start all details will be provided, if you want to start it with me then let me know and I will find all the info out for you :)
1
Magazine, details to follow
Etsy - Awesome Pattern Studio
From a calendar that came from a magazine:
Freebie Barbara Ana - The Key
I also have some Halloween Freebies lined up which may be the first ones I start, or else it may be 'Witch's Kitchen' or 'Christmas UFO' as both have been calling my name.
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