#24HoursOfCrossStitch

 

This is a Facebook group and is for people that really enjoy cross stitching. I am going to try and explain a bit about the group and some of the fun activities that this group also does. One thing I can say is great about this group is you get to see what other cross-stitchers are working on. It’s a great place to get ideas of new projects that you might want to do.

Monthly events

This group has a monthly acrostic that you can work on. An acrostic is, you take a phrase and then using each letter in the phrase or word, you try and match a project to it and then set a goal for each of the letters. The monthly acrostic is something that you can work on, and you don’t have to share what you are working on with anyone if you don’t want to. You are also the one that determines your goal, and those again don’t need to be shared.

Here is an example of an acrostic “KIT UP YOUR JOY” or “SILK OR COTTON”. You now get to determine how your projects can fit into the acrostic, and you then determine the goal for each of the projects. Here are some ideas of what you can use to determine a project fitting into an acrostic. The ideas could be:

• Name of pattern
• Designer’s name
• A feature in the project

How for your goal here are some of the ideas that I have heard within the group

• Kit up the project
• Stitch “X” number of stitches
• Stitch “X” number of hours
• A page finish
• Finish the project

The purpose of the acrostic is too just to help you move your project or projects forward. You don’t have to show anyone your acrostic or your progress if you don’t want to. This is just a fun way to try and touch a bunch of projects and make some progress on them.

#24HOCS Marathon

Now, this is a quarterly event that happens, and it is a lot of fun. The goal of the weekend is to try and stitch as much as you can within the three days. Yes, the overall goal is to try and stitch for 24 hours, but every bit of time you spend stitching is good, and it moves your stitching forward.

The weekend is all about having fun and setting aside time to work on your stitching. Yes, it says 24 hours of cross stitch, but a lot of people just do as much as they can within the three days. Some people can only do one or two days and there aren’t any rules, so you do what you want to do. There are some people that book a hotel room or a cabin where they can go so that they can focus on stitching and not have to worry about family or other responsibilities. This might sound a bit overboard to some people but when you are a wife, mother, and work full time making that bit of time for yourself can be very important.

I have tried to achieve the 24 hours of stitching over three days, but so far I haven’t achieved it. Each quarter, I will keep trying to see if I can eventually achieve those 24 hours. I do know that there are weekends where I have been to get 15 hours of stitching done over the three days, so that is good.

Overall

This Facebook group is a lot of fun to belong to, as there isn’t any pressure to achieve the 24 hours of stitching each quarter. We do cheer each other on, no matter how many hours of stitching we achieved. It is a lot of fun to sit back and say it’s the 24-hour marathon weekend, and I am going to see what I can get done. I haven’t done any of the acrostics yet, but maybe one month I will look at the acrostic and give it a try.

For me, this is a group that I enjoy belonging to because I get to see the different projects people are working on, and it helps motivate me to stitch.