Crafty Recap of 2025

I wanted to talk about my crafty finishes in my last post, however it became too long with my life updates. So lets do it now . 

2025 was year I restarted crafting and blogging and I'm quite happy with what I achieved .

First finish of the year was this cross stitch wedding sampler I stitched for an Instagram snailmailing friend whose wedding I couldn't attend due to work . 

The wedding was in Feb 2024, I was able to send her before her 1st wedding anniversary. I love the vintage look of this project and quite happy with the framing too.

Second finish of the year was this Knitted scarf , gifted to Instagram snailmailing friend. I wasn't sure about the color, I thought it was gaudy. To my surprise , everyone on IG has liked the color.

Some more knitting gifts , which I showed here 

These cards were finished in May .

40th Birthday gift for my penpal, I was late only by 1.5 years

My next finish is a freebie from Silvercreek Samplers which was a SAL with a Instagram friend. This one I'm keeping for myself.

Knitted washcloths were my next finish, gift for husband's colleague

Husband asked for gloves, I knitted mitten because they were easy :)

My last finish of the year was this ATC I stitched for ATC swap organised thru Instagram

I entered 2026 with 3 cross stitch WIPs and 1 knitted WIP . The knitted WIP was finished last night. Hoping to finish the other WIPs soon(read in 2026)

I will add details of each finish on my finish pages if anyone is interested in pattern names.

Which one do you like most?

Motif Cards and Washcloths

Hello Friends, 

Hope you are doing well. Where is time going this year.. can't believe we are in mid of the year . 

I wanted to share details of finishes I had last month , the gifts I sent to my colleagues in USA.

I visited my USA office in March and wanted to thank two of my colleagues for their hospitality . As with us crafters, we prefer to make something with hand as thank you gifts rather than store bought items, I thought of making a personalized wash cloth and something of cross stitch for them.

I found perfect yarn in my stash from my time in Kuwait  , and made these wash cloths with initials of their first name.

Alphabet square 
Designer : Heather
Design source :https://daisyandstorm.com/2021/05/10/daisy-storms-knitted-alphabet-squares-pattern-book/

Then I started thinking of which motif to stitch for my colleagues from the SAL. I stitched two motifs from Cliffside stitches Heritage Motifs Stitch-Along . I came to know about this SAL in December and thought of stitching motifs of countries I have visited for myself.

Ms. J shared how much she enjoyed her vacation in Italy with her family while we were chatting during my visit. So ,I picked this blackwork version of a Italian motif  to celebrate that. 

For Ms. K ,I chose cross stitched version of a Indian motif to remind her that she always has a friend in India.

Now the funny part is my initial plan was to finish these motifs in tiny pillows/ornaments. Well, that didn't work out, I couldn't find a perfect backing fabric to use. Also , I realized that stiff aida isn't ideal when using hand sewing to make ornaments. Another thing I learned is its better to use colored fabric to stitch on when making ornaments , buttons and laces look good on colored background instead of white.

Do you any such experiences or advice on this?

After the stitching finished and I had above realization, I got disheartened and almost gave up. Hubby suggested to sleep over it..voila it worked. Next morning I woke up with a new finishing idea , to finish as these cards /postcards . I found perfect material for the Indian motif, an old wedding card. Love upcycling !!!

The Italian Motif is finished using Colorbok designer paper . 

I packed these with some Indian souvenirs and dry snacks .

Happy to say that my colleagues liked the gifts.

How did I do for "Stitch every 'Day' in 'May' " ?

 Hello Friends,

Hope you are doing well.

My personal goal was to Stitch every 'Day' in 'May'. I'm very happy to report that I was able to stitch/craft on 29 days out of 31 days of the month. I'm realizing that setting this personal goal helps me come out of my comfort zone(read laziness) .
My main focus was to finish creating gifts for my colleagues . I had a deadline as I had asked one of colleagues in Mumbai to carry the gifts with him. You see I don't trust the postal system to send handmade stuff by mail.  

Here is what I made for them :

For Ms. J -Blackwork version of  a Italian motif  to celebrate her recent vacation to Italy and a wash cloth with her initial

For Ms. K -Cross stitched version of a Indian motif to remind her that she always has a friend in India and a wash cloth with her initial.

Happy to report I managed to finish a gift for a friend's 40th birthday. The gift is late only by 1 year 5 months 😀

Meanwhile , I was chatting with a fellow Indian cross stitcher on Instagram and we agreed to do a SAL from 1st June...details to follow .

This gave me a chance to pick my oldest WIP, Indian Peacock by Dimensions .I started this piece on 1st January 2017. I last stitched it on 31st May 2020.Here are the progress photos.

Progress as of 31st May 2020

Progress as of 31st May 2025

I will make separate posts for these finishes with details.

I hope you had a productive month, doing what you enjoy.