Love to Stitch Challenge 2023

Welcome to our 5th annual motivational Love to Stitch Challenge. This challenge is designed to inspire and motivate you to take the time to stitch everyday.

Five years ago I was trying to figure out a way to motivate myself to stitch. And just like that the Love to Stitch Challenge popped into my head. I thought if I am having motivational issues I bet others out there are having the same issue. During the first year I thought maybe 50 stitcher's would sign up but how wrong I was. There was over 200 it was so exciting. Since then we have created the Summer Stitching Challenge and the Witchy Stitchy Challenge each more successful then the last.

You know my goal for these challenges is to motivate stitcher's to take some "me" time to sit, stitch and relax. I know we often take our stitching and the mental health benefits that it gives us for granted. We all need the peace and quiet that stitching brings us.

Love to Stitch Challenge 2023 starts February 1st and goes through February 28th.

How to enter

• Login to your Embroidery.com account. If you don't have an Embroidery.com account is is easy to create one.

• Select the “Participate” button here on our Love to Stitch Challenge 2023 page.   Participating X Participate Participate

• Once clicked it will change to “Participating” and now you are entered into our Love to Stitch Challenge 2023.

Requirements

• You must stitch at least 30 minutes EVERY DAY. This does not have to be a consecutive 30 minutes, you can break it up however you need to as long as you get in a full 30 minutes everyday.

• To stay accountable, Everyday you will post a before and after picture of your WIP to our Embroidery.com Cross Stitch & Hand Embroidery Facebook Group. If you are not on Facebook, you will need to email the pictures to [email protected].

• In your accountability post please include the day, name of designer, design and #lovetostitch2023.

• You can work on any hand embroidery project you want to. It can be the same one each day or several different projects. As long as the project includes fabric, floss and a needle it qualifies.

• We want you to stitch & post every day, however we know that life can happen. So you can miss four days of accountability posts and still qualify for the Love to Stitch Challenge Trophy. So you must stitch 24 of the 28 days in February.

• The last Sunday of February is the 26th and this will be a Mandatory stitch day

Last year we introduced Love Notes. This year we are going to keep going with the motivation but with a bit of spice.

Introducing Stitching Angels and Stitching Devils.

Stitching Angels are stitcher's who Motivate and inspires others to stitch. Weather it's a comment on a fellow stitcher's post by leaving a small motivational & encouraging comment. This can be as simple as “I love your work', “Amazing Stitching” or even a small encouraging saying. The goal with our Stitching Angels is to spread the motivation & kindness all around our group. You can create as many Stitching Angels as you would like but I would like a minimum of at least one a week for the duration of the Love to Stitch Challenge.

I think by encouraging others you will motivate yourself to take the time and stitch. I am always amazed by the community of stitcher's we've created in our Embroidery.com Cross Stitch & Hand Embroidery Facebook Group. It is such a strong, positive and encouraging group of amazing and talented stitcher's!

Stitching Devils are those who still encourage others but in just a bit of a different way. Stitching Devils encourage by showing off new patterns that they want to purchase or have just purchased. Or raving about a new gadget they they just got. How about showing off a new piece of fabric or floss box or even a new sewing basket.

It's totally up to you what type of stitcher you are going to be each day. When posting use #StitchingAngel or #Stitching Devil.

For all of those who have participated in our challenges in the past you know how much can be accomplished. We've had stitcher's who have not only stitched every day but many have finished projects that they had been working on for years. I love seeing how not only do we get motivated to stitch but we actually make huge advancement on our own projects. It becomes this great big circle of motivation seeing everyone's daily posts and the progress that can be made in just 30 minutes a day.

Lets spread the motivation around! I would love to double the LOVE for this years challenge by doubling the participates. So invite all of your stitching friends to join our challenge. You can share our Love to Stitch Challenge link with #LovetoStich2023 to your personal Facebook Page. You can also invite your stitching friends to join our Embroidery.com Cross Stitch & Hand Embroidery Group on Facebook. We have such a strong, positive and encouraging group why not spread the love.

At the completion of the challenge, not only will you have made amazing progress on your own we all will have our stitching bug all revved up for the year. For all the stitcher's who stitch & post at least 24 of the 28 days, you’ll be awarded the “Love to Stitch 2023” merit. This merit will be displayed next to your name in the forums and your personal profile on Embroidery.com. You will also qualify for a free “Love to Stitch 2023” needle minder that we’ll hold on layaway (for up to 1 year) until you place your next Embroidery.com order. At that time the needle minder will be packaged with your purchase, and you’ll receive free shipping on your entire order (US destinations only). This exclusive trophy will remind you of your accomplishment and motivate you as you continue to stitch.

Of course you will have won our exclusive Love to Stitch 2023 Needleminder Trophy. I think seeing your very own exclusive trophy on your stitching everyday is a great reminder that “You Love to Stitch!” So go shout to the world "I Love to Stitch" and let's all get our stitching motivation all pumped up for 2023!!

Don't forget to join me every Thursday at 7pm MST for our LIVE Sit N Stitch & Show N Tell on our Embroidery.com Cross Stitch & Hand Embroidery Facebook Page & YouTube Channel. We talk about whatever is on my mind, along with some Tip or Technique or a Product Demo. Then, of course, is the Show N Tell part, where I show off what all of our amazing stitcher's have been working on by touring our Facebook Group and checking out all of their WIP pics that have been posted during that week.

Now, go shout to the world "I Love to Stitch” and get our stitching mojo all pumped up for the rest of 2023!!

As always, I love to hear your comments & suggestions so leave those for me below.

Happy Stitching Donnett