Longest Day/Week Marathon 2024

 

My annual Longest Day Marathon usually takes place as close as possible to the Longest Day of the Year which was 20th June this year.  I had planned to stitch all day on the 19th June but unfortunately had meetings that day and there was literally no other day when I didn't have something planned.

So I decided to do a Longest Week and stitch 2 of my WIPs each day for 8 days, starting on Sunday 16th June and finishing on Sunday 23rd June.  That way I would get at least an hour on each one, some got even more time!

I started on Sunday with my usual Sunday morning catch-up on The Steady Thread Tree of Life Temperature SAL.

Before:

After - added 7 leaves and some roots

The rest of the day was dedicated to my two oldest projects - first was the Art Nouveau Head from Craft Collective.

Before:

After - added some pink border

Then The Coffee Fairy from Yiotas XStitch - before:

Added some more of the cup - after:

Monday started with Around the World in 80 Stitches from Papillon - before:

Outlined two more shapes - after:

This is the English Transitional Sampler from The Scarlet Letter - before:

More Holbein Stitching in blue - after:

On Tuesday I decided to do some beading on Circle Cross' Zodiac - before:

And completed it all!!

You can just see the sparkle in each constellation

The Faces SAL from Joan Elliott was next up - before:

The Peacock is progressing nicely - after:

On Wednesday I was feeling festive and worked on Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas - before:

I did a lot on this and finished all the red then started the gold metallic - after:

Which didn't leave much time for last year's Temperature SAL from Stitch It Picasso - before:

Just a little bit of brown shelf - after:

On Thursday I took Stitchy Princess' Alice in Wonderland out for coffee - before:

And finished her - after:

When I got home I picked up The Swans from Cottage Garden Samplings' Year in the Woods - before:

Managed quite a bit of cream stitching so not very visible - after:

Friday was a work day so I took Halloween Sampler by Cottage Garden Samplings in with me - before:

And got most of the G done in my lunchbreak - after

On Saturday I had time and space for my Chatelaine Gardens of London - before:

Unfortunately, my PB25 has gone walkabout so I couldn't complete the gold backstitch.
Instead I worked on the border and filled all the current row - after:

I also worked on possible my least favourite project, Mrs Peggotty's Queen of Hearts - before

I think it's all the columns of stitching, so I worked on the leaf and a rose instead - after

We're back to Sunday and the second time around for Steady Thread's Tree of Life Temperature SAL - before:

7 more leaves added:

Saved the best for (almost) last - Mirabilia's Fairy Idyll - before:

Got a piece of flounce stitched - after

This one was stitched every day throughout the marathon as it's been my evening stitch.  
This is where I finished the two sides of the 3D Haunted Mansion from Living on the Rainbow:

What did I think of doing it this way?  I got more progress on most of the WIPs which was good and it was more relaxed rather than constantly clock-watching to change every 30 minutes.  But it's not the same as a proper one day marathon so hopefully I will be able to manage that next year again.

Finally, here's how many projects I worked on for the previous marathons:

2024 - 17 WIPs

2023 - 17 WIPs

2022 - 18 WIPs

2021 - 22 WIPs

2020 - 17 WIPs

2019 - 19 WIPs

2018 - 26 WIPs

2017 - 24 WIPs

2016 - 21 WIPs