2026 Year of 100 Starts: Start #43 - Basset Hound Night by Unconventional XStitch (Mega-Maynia)

Here it is, my first Mega-Maynia project. My goal was about 3500 stitches, and I got close. I ended up with 3450, and since that was a nice round number, I stopped there. Again, eventually, it will look like this:

And this is some of the top left corner:

Basset Hound Night by Unconventional XStitch

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 25ct easy guide

with DMC as charted

This is my first Unconventional XStitch project and so far it's been great. Easy to get into Pattern Keeper and the colours seem to flow well. That could be how the design is, or their charting, not sure. It seems easier than the HAED SAL project, but again, could be I'm comparing different things. 

Anyone else notice differences between full coverage designers? I don't think I've stitched enough of them to know much difference at this point. 

Hope you've all had good stitching days!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

What is Mega-Maynia?

Like many other stitchers, I often participated in Stitch Maynia, and I think a lot of stitchers have carried on some kind of tradition even after the FB group closed. There's lots of ideas on FlossTube, and I decided to keep it part of my new starts for this year and do "Mega-Maynia". 

I dubbed it that since I'm going to spend one week on 4 large projects, be it full coverage, or just really large stitch counts. 

First up is a new designer to me, Unconventional XStitch! I found this amazing project on their page and started it this week:

I have some easy guide 25 count that will work well, and will use my DMC master set for the week. I'm interested to try a different full coverage company. I've stitched HAED, Cross Stitch 4 Everyone, and Cross Stitch Collection. 

My loose plan is to stitch 500 stitches a day for 1 week, or a total of 3500 stitches, and try and keep that up on each big project. Wish me luck!

Happy Stitching,

Tiffstitch

January 2026 Stitching Update

Lots of stitching this month, a lot of which will be in the separate "new start" posts, but I did some other stitching as well, including one finish, and it deserves a post of its own as well. 

First some updates!

There was a new start in late December, the HAED SAL which I decided to try this year. I'm not sure if I'll get the whole 6 pages needed for all the charts, but there are a couple I'd like, so I might be able to do it. I think it's about 45K stitches to meet that goal, and I've done close to 3K so far. I chose Whisper of Wishes, which will look like this eventually:

This is about 10 pages total, so 6 pages would be the left 2/3. It might be possible. This is where I'm at so far:

Whisper of Wishes by HAED

stitched 1 over 1 full cross on 28ct Easy Count

with charted DMC

My very loose plan is to try and get 3-5K stitches done on this within the first 2 weeks of the month, then spend the rest on WIPs, new starts, etc. It's not very confetti heavy so far, so it's been enjoyable. It was nice to have a break for a couple weeks though. 

After I put this away, I picked up an old WIP that's been hanging around for a while. It's a small project, but it's Sweetheart Tree, so there's a lot of detail to it. This is where it was when I last picked it up in July 2024:

and now it's a finish! 

Honest Santa - I Didn't Do It! by The Sweetheart Tree

stitched as charted, 2 over 2 on last scrap of Tempest by Chromatic Alchemy

There was so much backstitch and the words are 1 over 1, which is so much harder now than it was 10 years ago. Even with my stronger magnification in my glasses! But it's done and I'm very glad. 

Another project I picked up, and hope to pick up every couple weeks is Stormlight Quotes by Taylor and Cromwell. I have quite a bit done, and it just needs time to get a finish. Last time I worked on it was in April 2024:

and now I've reached the top! 

Stormlight Archive quotes by Taylor and Cromwell

stitched 2 over 2 on 28ct black Monaco

with DMC as charted

I picked up a smaller Qsnap so I could concentrate on getting all the way to the top of this one. It feels like it's closer now that all 4 sides are at least started. I have about 5K stitches until it's complete, and the plan is to work on it every couple weeks when DH has a meeting. It's usually for about 3 hours, which was enough for 450 stitches last time. There's lots of one colour to stitch with, so that will help it go more quickly as well. I think I can get it completed in time to have it framed for DH's birthday at the end of the year. 

The last project I worked on is a Mill Hill that I had kind of lost. I found it in a bag while I was looking for something else, so I pulled it out and got a few threadlengths into it. It hasn't changed much since you last saw it (April 2021), so I don't think a before photo is necessary. 

It's a Wonderful Life by Mill Hill

stitched as charted on 14ct perforated paper

And there you have it! All the other stitching I've done this month. There hasn't been much knitting since I'm trying to get all the starts in, we'll see how that goes next month. 

I hope it's been a good month for everyone,

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

School of Magical Stitches and Literature Catch-up Post

This will probably be a long one, so hope you're up to a good read. :) When I last posted, May 31 (yikes!) we were on Week 4 of Year 4. For that week we had to stitch on something that applied to each letter of SPEW.

I chose See Ya Later Alligator for S:

See Ya Later Alligator by Jodyri Designs

2 over 2 on 28ct Nuriel's Forest by Chromatic Alchemy with stash threads

Princess and the Dragon for P:

Princess and the Dragon by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy with DMC 310

Evening in the Shire for E:

Evening in the Shire by Cute Patterns by Maria

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on 28ct Moonscapes by Jodyri

and Universal Monsters SAL by Witchy Stitcher for W:

Universal Monsters SAL by Witchy Stitcher

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on 28ct Al's Dark Magic by Chromatic Alchemy

Year 4, Week 5: Dragons

The first task in the Triwizard Tournament involves getting an egg away from a nesting dragon mother. We had to explain how our stitching would relate to accomplishing this task and stitch 1000 stitches on a project. 

I decided to pick up my Basset Hound since Cedric transfigured a rock into a dog during his attempt, and I thought 1000 stitches might get me a finish. Turns out I only needed 545!

Basset Hound by Brenda Frankline

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on 14ct navy aida

This was also my oldest WIP, going back at least 15 years I think. Definitely over 10 anyway. I'm so happy to have this complete!!

Since I had more stitching to do I said that the Princess would attack and try and get the Dragon to leave her nest for long enough to grab an egg. I only managed 413 stitches though, so I didn't quite hit 1000 this week. 

Princess and the Dragon by Charting Creations

stitched 1 over 1 on 28ct Amarinthine by Chromatic Alchemy with DMC 310

Year 4, Week 6: The Black Lake

The second task of the TriWizard Tournament is to get back something the merpeople took. For the champions, it meant a person, for us, it means our most loved stitching piece has disappeared! The merpeople have taken our projects into the Black Lake! Fortunately they cast Impervious spells first, so nothing gets ruined. To get our projects back from the merpeople, we must stitch 1000 stitches on whatever project we love the most. 

For me, right now, that means the Universal Monsters SAL and gives me a good chance to catch up. I started here at the beginning of the week:

and stitched 1026 stitches:

Universal Monsters SAL by Witchy Stitcher

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on 28ct Al's Dark Magic by Chromatic Alchemy

Room 1 is complete and Room 2 is well on its way! This is still so much fun to stitch on. I love seeing how they all turn out. A lot of people have made changes in the rooms, like stitching the sarcophagus in gold, etc. The only change I've made so far is the Mummy is charted with blood dripping out of its mouth. I took that part out. 

Year 4, Week 7

Some students were sneaking books about love potions out of the library. The school has decided we can make one love potion for the Yule Ball, if we stitch 200 stitches on each element of the earth (air, water, fire, earth and wood). 4 of the elements also align with the school houses, so you can stitch with the corresponding colour too. 

These will be out of numerical order of how the project is progressing, but all the photos are there :) I stitch each task as I think of how to fit in the project, so I don't necessarily finish the first part first, etc. 

1) Air - Hufflepuff (Patience, nature-loving, flexibility, co-operation) Yellow

I plan to use another stitcher's (Sherley Escribano) version of the painting in the Invisible Man's room, this one:

and since that is showing sky/air/clouds as a version of Starry, Starry Night, I worked more on the Universal Monsters SAL:

Universal Monsters SAL by Witchy Stitcher

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on 28ct Al's Dark Magic by Chromatic Alchemy

2) Water - Ravenclaw (wisdom, creativity, community, distance) Blue

There is water in the creature's room, so I stitched 211 stitches on Monsters again:

and finished room 2 #fancybandageman as well as a small start on Room 4. 

3) Earth - Slytherin (ambition, cunning, waiting for right moment to strike) Green

I moved over to Room 3 in Monsters to work on the Creature, there's tons of green there! It was about as it looked in the upper photo, and 217 stitches got it to here:

4) Fire - Gryffindor (bravery, honour, stubbornness) Red

I didn't have enough red on Monsters, so I did a bit of a search of my projects until I remembered Kiss for a Snowman has a lot of red in the little girl's coat. It was here a couple months ago:

and after 200+ stitches, all red:

Kiss for a Snowman by Dimensions

stitched as charted on 16ct white aida

5) Wood (warmth, generosity, cooperation and idealism) Brown

The organ in Room 1 of Monsters is made of wood, so another 200+ stitches on Monsters:

Universal Monsters SAL by Witchy Stitcher

stitched 2 over 2 as charted on 28ct Al's Dark Magic by Chromatic Alchemy

Check out those eyebrows!! ;)

And these are all the past events. Week 8 is still happening, so I'll add that in a separate post as this is long enough already. Hope you enjoyed the catch up! 

Btw, I've decided to only add the info under photos when I show a different project, so above when it's Monsters over and over, I only showed the info at the top photo. If you'd like it on all of them, please let me know. I thought it was getting too wordy with me repeating the same thing over and over. 

Thanks, and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

WIPocalypse May 2018

It's WIPocalypse time again and check out everyone's progress over at Measi's blog! This month's question is:

Where do you love to shop for stash?

When I can, I order either by email or in person from my LNS, The Wooden Needle in Stowe, VT. It's not very close, so I don't get there as often as I'd like. For gifts lately I've been asking for GC to 123stitch and I've come across a new-to-me site called Half Moon Stitchery. 

Also, please check out how Jo is doing with her 18 in '18 and how a few of us are joining her this year. :)

I posted about my 18 in '18 last month and what has been finished, in progress and what I hadn't touched yet. For part of May I did a WIP Maynia and pulled out a lot of the projects that hadn't been out of their expandable file yet this year. There are quite a few and I think there are progress photos in my other posts, so in this post I'll try and find a photo of what the finished object will look like eventually.


AAN Spider Banner

 Getting there! Only a few more days and I should have a finish here too.

 Mini Winter Magic

Basset Hound

I posted the photo of the cover page here, and I think a solid week or so will finish this one off as well. 

 Frosty Friends

This is the top left one.


Letters from Nora - L

 Again, a week or less should finish this one off too.

And that's where I'm at so far with my 18 in '18. Once I finish off the obligations, which right now are Fishing, the Optician and a shawl for my Mom, all due mid-June, then hopefully I'll get back to these and get a few finishes!

Hope you all had a good weekend and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Stitch Maynia Continues!

Thank you for all of your encouraging comments on my last post. It is really nice to get these older WIPs out again and very hard to put them down again. It definitely enforces my desire to get some of these into finishes. 

Since last Tuesday I've worked on 5 more projects. I'll give the older photo first, then the update. 

Boo House was here:

and now:

 Basset Hound was here:

and now:

Land of the Dinosaurs from WOXS October 2015 was here:

and now:

Mini Winter Magic was here

and now:

If you're eagle-eyed, you may notice there's less stitching on the left side than there was. That's because I had forgotten I had started this as tent stitch way back when and did the right side full crosses. So I'm slowly removing the tent stitch as I add more to the right side. Most of what I added is on the bottom if it's difficult to tell. 

Let's see what the next few days will bring in the UFO/WIP piles. :)

Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch