Mystery Garden BOM, cross stitch ponderings and how things change in 2 years

The penultimate block in the Mystery Garden quilt was released on Monday and I made it the same day.

I was able to start sewing some of the blocks together.

Looking forward to next months release and being able to finish it.

I've had a few changed with my cross stitch project.  After starting Mini Minerva's Melody I was worrying the mini version would lose too much detail, plus the confetti in a mini is greater than a normal version and constantly changing colours isn't something I particularly enjoy.
So I decided to switch.  Heaven and Earth Designs had another sale for 4th July so I bought another 3 charts.

QS Old Friends 275x368 = 101,200 stitches

At the steps 450x544=244,800 stitches

QS the magic of books

250x262=65,500 stitches

I've made  (a few) starts on Old Friends.  I had thought I'd try tent stitch on 25 count.  I've never done tent stitch before but a lot of people on the HeavenandEarth Facebook are doing this and it stitches up quicker.  I also decided to try extreme cross-country stitching.  This is something new to me, after an absence of just 2 years I'm finding a lot has changed.  I've always been a cross country stitcher - which is stitching with one thread until it runs out or there is too much space to cross, then starting another colour.  However extreme cross country involves stitching with just one colour until all of that colour has been used on the page or indeed the entire project.  I will do it per page.  So you start with the colour that has the highest count which Heaven and Earth helpfully provide with their charts.  The advantage of this is you aren't constantly changing colour and don't have to go searching for which colour matches which symbol.

So first of all I tried tent stitch on 25 count fabric.  I didn't like it.  After 30 plus years of cross stitching it just felt wrong and I found it harder to count.  Plus the 25 count was just too hard to see.  So I switched to 22 count and still found it too hard to see.

So I have restarted Old Friends again, this time on 16count Aida full cross, 2 over 1 and extreme cross country.  So far this seems to be the best for me and I'm enjoying doing the extreme cross country.

I've also made a grime guard (another thing that is new to me) and bought some 11"x17" q snaps.  I'm finding these easier to hold than a hoop and the grime guard keeps the fabric out of the way (and clean).

I'm also stitching using my tablet and a programme called EZPDF reader ( again new to me).  This allows me to search for the symbol I am stitching and then highlight completed stitches.  It tells me how many stitches are highlighted so I can keep track of my progress.

And another new thing, is to pre-grid my fabric.  I gridded up a page before starting.  Previously I've gridded as I've gone, but I'm finding having it already gridded makes for faster stitching time.

Of course I'll be sure to post future updates on Old Friends here.