Monday, October 7, 2019

24 Hours of Cross Stitch Recap - October 2019

If you're part of the cross stitching online community, you probably knew there was another round of the 24 Hours of Cross Stitch (24HOCS) marathon challenge taking place. If you aren't familiar with it, I'll share a brief history of how it all began at the end of this post.

The piece I decided to focus on during the weekend marathon was the Deck the Halls Mystery SAL (stitch-a-long) from Caterpillar Cross Stitch (CCS). This SAL started in early September, but I had completely missed it somehow. I only learned about it on October 1 after starting to notice all the cute WIPs people were posting on Instagram of it. I purchased the chart on October 2 and started stitching on it October 3.

CCS does offer kits for this SAL, but since I was already so far behind and they're based in the UK, I opted to just purchase the PDF of the chart and kit it from my stash. Thankfully, I had a piece of 32 count Vintage Stormy Night Lugana that worked perfectly for it since the kit comes with a light gray fabric. The fibers are all just DMC.

Here was my starting point on Friday for the 24HOCS.


Going into the weekend, I set a personal goal to try and stitch at least 18 hours. Sadly, I didn't come anywhere close to that. I got completely sidetracked moving my blog to this new home on Saturday and ended up not putting in a single stitch that day. By the time everything was said and done, I only stitched for about 7-8 hours during the marathon window. Here was my finishing point for this round of 24HOCS.


As I mentioned, this is a mystery stitch-a-long. Only the first three of the six parts have been released thus far, so we still don't know exactly how the finished project will look. Based on the first three parts though, I'm sure I'll love it. The fun retro vibe and colors are right up my alley! Here's a model of what the first three parts will look like when they're all stitched. (Photo credit: Caterpillar Cross Stitch Instagram account)


If you would like the purchase the kit or chart, you can find it here: Deck the Halls Mystery SAL. I have no affiliation with CCS other than as a happy customer.

Brief History of the 24 Hours of Cross Stitch challenge

The idea was originally hatched by Jen of Quirks & Stitches and her mother. They decided to binge watch the first season of the show 24 non-stop and stitch while they were watching. Jen's followers on Instagram were so inthralled by the concept, the official 24 Hours of Cross Stitch event and Facebook group were born. During the first couple of rounds, the event was only 24 hours and the goal was to stitch as many of those hours as possible.

By the time round two of the challenge came around, Lynda Jo of Pretty Southern came up with the whole #teamsleep notion. I was definitely on-board with that idea, so instead of stitching the entire 24 hours, I took a break for about 6-7 hours and got some sleep. Eventually Jen decided to modify the challenge to take place over a 48 hour period with the goal of stitching 24 hours within that 48 hour window. Even with the new format, I've still never been able to complete a full 24 hours. The closest I've ever come is 19 hours.

4 comments:

  1. Hi, Mel! I want to get back to stitching, and this pattern is adorable. Since it has been a long while since I last stitched, I have a question. Would you say this is an easy pattern? Nothing complicated? Thanks, Tammy

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    1. Hey Tammy! Yes, this would be a super easy design to get back into stitching. It's all just full crosses with no backstitching.

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    2. Thanks! Just ordered it!

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