Cross Stitch Challenges: Ways to Gamify Your Stitching! ⋆ Sirious Stitches

It’s December at the time of publishing this, and that means lots of you are either scrambling to finish up holiday stitches or already planning out your whole next year. Thankfully I’m in the latter camp. Instead, I’m planning next year’s cross stitch challenge. December is when I recap what I actually got done this year and what I didn’t quite have time for. It’s when I sit down and make a list of what I’d actually like to prioritize in the new year. It may or may not happen, of course. But just being mindful of what your priorities are will help you make more time for it going forward.

Most of my personal challenges go from year to year, such as doing at least 3 new finishing techniques each year, or learning a new craft. But this time I wanted to sit down and make a list of possible challenges so I could plan out which ones I wanted to participate in for 2026. So let’s go through the different types of challenges out there together so you too can plan for the next year.

I say this a lot it seems, but this is a loooong article. So use that handy Table of Contents to skip ahead to the ones you’re interested in!

Table of Contents

Challenges Don’t Need to be Completed to be Fun

Before we get too far into things, I just need to say one thing. Challenges don’t need to be completed to be fun. Or successful. If you don’t finish it, it’s not the end of the world.

Yes, I’ve heard it all. You’re a perfectionist and not finishing something you set out to do gives you anxiety. Trying new things fills you with dread because you won’t be good at it immediately. Same, tbh.

Trying new things is painful for a lot of people but then once it’s done it feels SO satisfying. And the more you push yourself to do it, the easier it gets!

But realistically, these challenges are intended to help you further your goals. Whether that be making progress on your WIPs or trying new things. It’s fun to challenge yourself to say, stitch every day for 30 days. But if you’re not feeling it after day 10: You still probably stitched more than you might’ve otherwise. You’re still winning! Doing a WIP challenge but gave in and started a new project? You know what? That’s a WIP now and it totally still counts.

The real challenge here is learning to be kind to yourself during your crafting journey. But you’re the only person who can know your limits. Try to pick a challenge you can realistically achieve. Give yourself cheat days if needed. And if you finish ‘early’, you can always pick a new one! And if you don’t finish it at all, you can try again. Or maybe you simply learned that challenge doesn’t fulfil your crafting goals and you can pick an even better one next year! There’s no losing here.

Why Do A Cross Stitch Challenge?

Before we get into what kind of challenges there are though, let’s talk about WHY you’d want to tackle a cross stitch challenge.

Motivation / Getting out of a Stitchy Rut

Most of the time, you’re already deep into a craft before you start taking on challenges. But that doesn’t mean you’re stitching as often as you want to. Maybe that challenge is what you need to get over a stitchy rut, or to encourage yourself to make more time for it.

Taking on a challenge like stitching every day for a month is a great way to get back into the swing of things and build a habit. Even if after that you go back to only stitching a few times a week. And it might be exactly what you needed to get you excited about working that WIP you’ve been putting off.

Getting through your WIPs / Finishes

One of the most common reasons people take on challenges is in an effort to get through their pile of WIPs. Whether that be partially stitched designs, a pile of unstarted patterns you want to get to soon, or stitched pieces that you’d like to actually fully finish into something.

Most challenge types lend themselves pretty well to tackling your WIPs. With a few exceptions specifically designed around new starts. So if just getting through your current projects is a goal of yours, you’re in the right place!

Minimize Overwhelm / Decision Making / “what’s next?”

I don’t know about you, but that awkward moment between projects is the worst for me. Trying to decide what to work on next, getting all the materials together, picking out fabrics, etc. I hit decision paralysis pretty easily, so having challenges that take some of the choices away is great for me. This could be a way to randomize your WIPs, starting a bunch of new projects so the rest of the year you don’t have to make any pattern decisions, or having someone else pick your next project for you.

Stashbusting / Destashing

Another common reason is Stashbusting. This is similar, or at least adjacent to the WIP pile you’ve already got going. But this time we’re tackling the materials we bought on a whim and haven’t found a good excuse to use.

This could mean finding patterns for some of the fabrics you’ve had on hand for a while. You could look for patterns that include or could easily be swapped for the specialty threads you bough because they were pretty. It could even mean creating your own designs that happen to only use materials you already have on hand. Or perhaps simply limiting oneself to a specific budget and otherwise working from stash. Even trying a whole new craft with what’s already in your stash!

On the other side of this, you might challenge yourself to DE-stash. Whether that’s selling, handing down, or donating a certain amount of your stash. Or simply what you no longer want to keep on mind.

Expanding Your Knowledge / Trying New Things

My personal favorite reason to start a challenge is to learn new things! I like trying new finishing techniques, tackling a complicated pattern with advanced stitches or beads, or just trying out new designers. I also like silly weird challenges, like designing something with a randomly generated color palette. Speed running a design to see how fast you can stitch it. Or trying to stitch a whole pattern while crossing your Xs in the opposite direction you normally do. Really, anything to just add some novelty to the process.

The Social Aspect

Lastly, but certainly not least: Challenges are fun for the social aspect! Having people take on a challenge with you is both motivating and fun. Even if you’re working on completely different projects, it’s nice to know there are others out there stitching right along with you! So if socializing gives you motivation, be sure to talk about your chosen challenges online in whatever spaces you frequent! The more people join the more fun it can be.

Types of Challenges

Alright, so you’ve got a general idea of WHY you want to challenge yourself. Keep those reasons in mind as we go over the different types of challenges out there so you can find whichever ones fit your goals best.

Time Based

A very simple style of challenge to get us started. These are challenges that have a specific time limit or time goal. You can make up your own, like ‘stitch 10 minutes a day on this specific WIP’ and after that you can continue or switch to a different WIP, or be done for the day.

Or you can join a group of people for existing challenges! Here are some examples I came across:

#24HOCs

24 Hours of Cross Stitch – No this doesn’t mean 24 hours in a row. Instead, once every few months you dedicate a weekend (Fri-Sun) to put in 24 total hours stitching (or 8 hours a day.) Whether you meet the goal or not, you’re likely to get in more stitching than usual either way: which is always a win! They also include additional challenges to help you pick what to stitch that weekend if you’d like.

100 Days of Cross Stitching

Hannah Hand Makes has a free PDF for you to print out and fill in as you go. But the general idea is just to cross stitch for 100 days. Even if it’s just 10 minutes that day.

#30for30Crafting

Jess has a challenge she does most years called 30for30. It started as a cross stitch challenge but it has since expanded to just crafting in general. But the general idea is to craft for 30 minutes every day for 30 days. It’s usually round the middle of the year, so just give her follow and keep a look out for when it’ll be happening next year.

AFL Stitching Challenge

I’m not a sports person, but I came across this challenge centered around the Australian Football League. If you’re already sitting in front of a TV watching sports events, why not also get your stitching done? Watch a different sport? Organize a challenge around your chosen sport instead!

# Of Stitches Challenges

Similar to the above, but instead of counting time you’re counting stitches. This can be as simple as “stitch at least x number of stitches a day/week/month” or having a specific Pattern you can ONLY stitch x stitches a day on. Pretty straight forward, and you can either count as you go or use a program like Pattern Keeper to track it for you.

For example, CreativelyCrafting’s Cross Stitch Challenge includes a printable where you can color in a cross each time you stitch 100 stitches, with each month having a new goal.

On the other side of things, limiting yourself can make for interesting WIP photos too. Imagine taking a photo every 50 stitches and then putting them together into a little gif/video. Would be so cool to see what order you decided to stitch in and watching it all come together.

Limiting your stitches is also a good option to keep you from getting burned out on a project. For example, when I used to do big projects if they had a big block of one color that I was dreading stitching… I’d challenge myself to stitch just one length of thread in that block each day. After that I would reward myself by switching to another WIP or stitch a fun part of the pattern, or stop for the day. But it helped me get through that boring bit and keep the pattern going!

WIP Progress Goals

And of course there’s whole challenges surrounding getting through your WIPs, aka those projects you started but haven’t quite finished. Some have been sitting there for years waiting for their turn to be stitched.

WIP goals could be as simple as saying “I’d like to finish at least # of my in-progress projects before starting a new one.” or “I’d like to finish this particular project by the end of the year.” But there are some ways to help you pick which ones get worked on:

WIPGO

Probably the most popular one, which is where you put together a bingo board for yourself of the projects you’d like to make progress on. Each month they draw two numbers and ideally you work on those that were called. You don’t have to finish the project, it could just be goals, like finishing a specific section or color.

Randomization Wheels

One option I see a lot on YouTube, both in the flosstube space and amongst other hobbies is randomizer wheels. Here you input all the different projects you could be working on, and spin the wheel to pick which to work on next. This could just be for 10 minutes before you spin again, or for the day, week, whatever you’d like. It’s just a way to randomize your projects so that projects you’re not as excited about don’t get forgotten.

Spreadsheets & Random Number Generators

Got too many projects or just don’t like wheels? Already have your projects in a spreadsheet or notion database and don’t want to retype them all? Just ask Google, Alexa, or your iPhone to generate a random number for you. Done!

Bonus points if you include projects that need frogging before you can really work on them again, like this angel’s entire wing. That’s progress too!

Fully Finishing Projects

Just like with WIPs, there’s also probably a small pile of project you’ve finished stitching but haven’t fully finished yet. Time to turn those into FFOs, Fully Finished Objects.

As before you could just proclaim your goal to finish everything in your pile, get through x number of FFOs before starting a new project, or choose to randomize them.

But I also challenge you to try new and interesting ways to FFO– I’ve gone a ton of cross stitch finishing tutorials here on this very site to give you ideas beyond just framing or putting them in a hoop and slapping them on your wall.

Stitch-A-Longs

Stitch-A-Longs – There are countless stitch-a-longs out there now. And new ones coming out each day. They can be really fun to stitch on along with your online friends and see the projects come together on different fabrics and with different substitutions. But the reality is that most people do not keep up with regular releases, and that’s okay!

While you could challenge yourself to actually keep up with a SAL release schedule for once, you could also just work on getting caught up on some of the ones that have fallen behind. Chances are others are still working on it too! Share your progress and maybe inspire others to pick their SAL back up as well.

I for one really want to make progress on this Urban Stitches ‘Midnight Whispers SAL‘ I started forever ago…

Buddy Stitching

Similar to stitch-a-longs, except not quite as formal. You and a friend (or several!) all decide to work on the same project. Or even just the same theme of projects. For example, on the BADStitch Discord server, Amanda likes to plan themed community projects each month. Like a Full Moon Party where you work on a moon-themed project around each full moon and share your progress each month..

SuperCraftual

This was a challenge taking place in the Pixel Stitch Discord. Quite a few people for some reason committed to watching (or re-watching) all of Supernatural; one episode a day. And theoretically also getting some stitching done during each episode. I quickly got overwhelmed and muted that channel, but it does give you some ideas of types of challenges you could do! Get that favorite long running show up and get to stitching!

Stitched Trackers

Another fun challenge is tracking charts. You’ve probably seen them around.

Temperature Trackers

The most common trackers are temperature trackers. Where each day you track the temperature for the day. That could be high temperature, the daily low, or both. They come in all sorts of fun layouts like Spool Cabinets, Potion Shelves, or your very own Galaxy. There are SO many to choose from. You could choose to track the year as it happens, or find historical data for a year special to you such as a birth year, your first year in a new home, your first year married, etc.

Books / Media Trackers

Another fun thing to track is your media consumption. Most commonly, that’s books. And there’s tons of book trackers out there, from bookshelves, bookmarks, and even book quilts. Note that you don’t actually have to read that many books in a year — your tracker could span several years. Or maybe you just want to challenge yourself to read 50 classics so you only track those in that category. And it doesn’t have to just be books! Track your Movies, Anime Series, Video Games, etc.

Mood / Habit Trackers

Don’t care about the weather? Track almost anything with all those fun temperature trackers you see just by swapping out what the colors mean. Track your moods, track the steps you take in a day, track how many stitches you stitch each day, how many hours of sleep you got, how much water you drank. Anything you can track in a fancy bujo spread you could also stitch, or crochet, or whatever other craft you do. Seriously, anything. Someone has crocheted a blanket tracking their bowel movements. Do whatever you want with that free will!

New Starts

We’ve covered finishing projects, but what about starting all new projects! This could be a way to get your stitching mojo back by going after those dopamine projects. Or it could be a way for you to get a bunch of work out of the way like picking fabric colors and getting all your threads together. This also means the rest of the year you can just focus on making progress into whichever project is calling you that day. And it’s already started and ready to go!

Stitch Maynia

This is the big one. It started as a Facebook Group but I could not find it for this post, just hundreds of people talking about it in their flosstubes, blogs, instagram posts, etc. The idea though is to start a bunch of new projects! That could look like starting/kitting a new project every day, every other day, every week, or whatever you like. Regardless, the general consensus is to go crazy in May and stitch whatever you want!

Seasonal Stitching

This could be a WIP from last year, sure. But do also feel free to start new projects to match your seasons! Whether that means starting a Christmas project you’ll only work on in December each year, or some spooky stitching for October.

Designer Checklist

Chances are if you’ve been stitching a while that you follow quite a few designers by now. Whether that be on instagram, Flosstube, Facebook, etc. Why not challenge yourself to stitch at least one thing from each of your favorite designers this year? That could a small freebie or just kitting/starting a new project from each of them. You get some nice variety in your stitching while also supporting creators!

Stash Challenges

If destashing is your goal, then a Stash challenge seems an obvious place to start!

Stitch From Stash

The most common variation of the stash challenge is simply a buying ban. Spend a whole period of time (1 year, x months) not buying patterns, fabric, or thread and just stitching those you’ve already got the materials for. That could be WIPs you’ve already started, or patterns you purchased a while ago you just never got around to.

Color Swapping

For those with small stashes, you can still stitch from stash! There’s more than enough free patterns out there even if you don’t have a big pattern collection. This challenge may involve learning to substitute colors if you don’t have the ones the pattern calls for. But it’s not as hard as it seems! You could also take this an extra step and learn to design patterns based on what you have in your stash, but we’ll cover design challenges later.

Specialty Threads

Right along with the color swapping variation, how about challenging yourself to swap in some of those specialty pretty threads you bought but are scared to use? Your metallics, your variegated threads, your fancy silks. You know what I’m referring to. Use them. That’s what they’re for.

Organize Your Stash

Lastly for the stash goals may be to get them organized or catalogued so you know what you actually have on hand. For those of you with larger stashes, you know what I mean. The larger your stash is the easier it is to accidentally buy duplicates or forget what you bought a specific material for to begin with. Whole patterns get forgotten and sit in your stash never to be done. Pretty threads go unused and unusual fabrics never come to mind when kitting up a new project.

So maybe this year your plan is to catalogue what you have. I’ve got a whole category of organization tips for you on this site if you want some ideas of where to start. From thread inventory spreadsheets to a list of ways to track your patterns and fabrics.

This challenge could be digitally organizing your stuff into a Notion board or spreadsheet so you can easily reference it going forward, or physically organizing your stash by bobbinating your threads or sorting your fabrics. Or maybe even just cleaning up your craft area! Whatever it is that needs doing in your stash.

Book/Magazine Goals

In this day and age digital patterns are very common place. It’s not unusual for stitchers to stitch in front of a computer now or even have a tablet dedicated to patterns in your stitch space. But there’s still a lot of designers that are print only and there are tons of amazing pattern books and magazines out there as well.

So maybe your challenge this year could be to stitch from some of these books and magazines.

Magazine Monthly

While researching for this article someone suggested this Facebook group, where the idea is each month they assign a theme and your goal is to pick a pattern from a magazine. I’m not a facebook person, but if you are this seems like a fun group!

Book Stitching

Maybe a goal could be to stitch everything in a book. Or stitch at least one thing from each book you own. Or maybe you and some friends all have the same book and each decide to stitch something from the book at the same time.

Of course this would be the obvious time to advertise my own books. My apologies. But just in case you haven’t seen the Stardew Valley Cross Stitch Guide and the UNDERTALE Cross Stitch Book, they’re available only on Fangamer.

Moving on… some other books I recommend are Witchy Stitching, Cross-Stitch in the Forest, Creepy Cross-Stitch, and Cross Stitch for the Earth.

Personally I’ve pre-ordered Fantasy Cross-Stitch by NeedleLot Designs which comes out in April 2026 and plan to do some stitching from there this year! I’d definitely commit to stitching this whole book if I had the time.

Library Borrows

Don’t forget your library has craft books and magazines as well! From old school patterns to more modern designs. Selection will vary from library to library of course, but a lot of them are even available digitally via Libby if you just can’t stand working from paper. Maybe your challenge could be to stitch a pattern before you have to return your book.

BAPs / Dream Patterns

In case you’re not familiar with the acronym BAP — that’s what you call a Big Ass Project. And the longer you spend in the cross stitch space the more ‘dream patterns’ you accumulate that you’d love to do one day but are just so large/time consuming that it will take years to stitch.

Well it will take even longer to finish if you never start it! So maybe this year is the time you finally tackle one of those dream patterns.

Really Frikkin’ Large Patterns

For some of you this just means a pattern that is larger than you normally stitch. Whether that’s a Dimensions Kit that’s been in your stash for years, or a full on Zelda Tapestry that you need to figure out how to source large enough fabric for.

Full Coverage Patterns

These can also be ‘really frikkin’ large’, but they don’t have to be. I just mean patterns where you’re stitching every single stitch in the pattern area. No fabric visible around the design once frame. You might as well stitch it on plain white aida because it’ll never be seen once finished. Just the stitches. For example, large pieces like the Epic Pokémon Patterns or pretty much anything from Heaven and Earth Designs. But some smaller examples include the Ansitru Cottagecore collection. And they don’t have to be square! Hoops can be full coverage too like these Stardew Hoops, the Nadgavr Dragons, or if you’re an anime fan; anything from CraftyBtchDesigns.

Finally, a good excuse to show off the only HAED I’ve ever finished:

Specialty Threads, Beads, Advanced Stitches

There’s some designers out there that feel really daunting at first. Those that include a lot of specialty stitches, beads, fancy floss, blends, etc. Maybe now is finally the time to give it a go. You don’t have to finish it anytime soon, but perhaps it’s something you slowly chip at whenever you feel like tackling something a little more complicated than plain old crosses. Some of my dream patterns are in this category. But I’ll just list some designers that fit this category in case you haven’t heard of them yet.

Wentzler and Chatelaine are definitely on my to-do list one day. I even have a Wentzler book! I should really get on that.

Skill Challenges

Another fun type of challenge is the skill based challenges. Whether that’s trying new things or challenging yourself to do things in a different way.

New Materials

You could categorize the Specialty/Beaded designs listed above in this category, but they don’t have to be huge. If you’ve never tried beads or perforated paper, maybe pick up a mill hill kit. Haven’t done backstitch or used plastic canvas? Craftigurumi’s Minis are perfect for you. If you’ve never used variegated threads, now would be a great time to try it. A new materials challenge could also be a good excuse to try stitching over 2 on a higher count fabric than you usually use!

SpeedRun Stitching

One of my favorite challenges is speed running. It’s not for everyone, as it can be quite stressful. But how about challenging yourself to see how quickly you can stitch a small design? Or, rather than racing, maybe just find out what your average stitch time is.

Random / Silly Challenges

Another self promo here. I wasn’t sure where to categorize the Pixel Stitch RPG as it ranges a ton of different styles of challenges. Pattern themes, specific designers, or stitching from stash. But also! There’s some fun silly things in there too. Like stitching a pattern but crossing all your stitches in the opposite direction you normally do. There’s all sorts of challenges on the forum for you to tackle. I know it looks dead, but I do check it every day just in case someone posts there. So feel free to jump in and try some challenges!

But also this could be anything. Try cross stitching blindfolded. With your non-dominant hand. Learn to cross stitch with your feet. Maybe stitch on a surface that’s not meant to be cross stitched on such as cross stitching on metal or on your pegboard. Cross stitch without a pattern. In a new location. With dental floss. I don’t know. Be silly. Explore! Try something new!

Or just review this list of challenges and tackle a different type of challenge each month. Mix it up!

Design Challenges

The RPG also has some Design challenges, but that’s a whole category of it’s own!

Learn to Design

If you’ve never designed a cross stitch pattern, your challenge might simply be to start. It could be a simple pixel art piece or a complicated backstitch design from a drawing you did.

Art Prompts

Already a designer but want to stretch your skills a bit? How about taking on an art challenge? You know how in October it seems like every artist ever is doing some sort of 30 day challenge with prompt lists and themes? Well the fun thing is you can just do those at any time of the year. Make your own or pick from one of those art challenge lists you saw in previous years. For a few years there Zinthings and I put together a whole spreadsheet of prompt lists as one huge MetaTober list. Pick whichever inspires you. Combine prompts. Add a theme. Set a color palette. Whatever makes you design outside of your comfort zone.

Maybe pull from the Pixel Dailies theme of the day one day. (Pixel art is basically digital cross stitch anyway)

Draw This In Your Style

Pretty popular in the art spheres, there are DTIYS challenges out there where someone shares an art piece and challenges people to re-draw it in their style. Well, Cross Stitch is a style. Stitching takes too long to actually join some of these contests unless you keep the size small. But doing it as pixel art or mocking it up in a cross stitch program counts too. Either way you’re challenging yourself!

Another good example of this is Artfight, which happens in July every year. Just a big collection of characters to draw. Or cross stitch. (or crochet, embroider, paint, sculpt, or whatever other art you do.) And if you don’t do humanoid characters, that’s okay. There’s plenty of animals, furries, object characters, cryptids, plants, food, and everything in between. These are also a good excuse to play with specialty threads or try things you normally wouldn’t!

Palette Challenges

Similar to art prompts, this is a way to flex your creative muscles by giving you some limitations. You could set a palette limit, such as ‘no more than 2/5/10 colors’, or even a completely monochromatic design. You could find a color palette online to try and design with, just keeping in mind some of those colors may not actually exist in DMC threads so you may have to make some adjustments when stitching. Or you could even randomly generate a color palette and see what you come up with!

If you’re doing a stash challenge too, your stash might be the one dictating your color palette!

Design Size Challenges

Rather than mixing up your palettes or working outside your usual design themes, how about mixing up what size canvas you use? Either something much smaller than you normally do, or even much larger. This could also mean designing with a very specific finish in mind, like a biscornu or a specifically sized bag.

Or maybe try your hand at designing a 3D shape. Those always seem to break my brain.

Crafty Combinations

Combining Cross Stitch and Another Hobby

Finally, let’s branch out from Cross Stitch just a little bit. One thing I’ve been loving pushing myself to do lately is to combine my hobbies in new ways. From tapestry crocheting a cross stitch pattern, to making EPP shapes with cross stitches, to rebinding a book with cross stitch.

This could also just look like cross stitching something from your hobby. Like stitching something from every video game you play/beat this year, or stitching a bookmark themed after your favorite book.

Learning a New Craft With The Same Materials

Another chance to try entirely new things without buying new materials is trying out a new craft that uses a lot of the same materials as cross stitch. Namely, embroidery thread.

I actually put together a whole challenge just for this, where I list off 30+ crafts that can be done with embroidery thread and link to as many tutorials and free patterns as I could find.

So if you’d like to learn a new craft that you probably already have the materials for, why not Choose Your Floss Adventure?

Making your own Challenge

If you’ve made it this far, congrats! This is probably one of my longest articles yet. There’s just so many options. But ultimately these challenges are meant to help you to meet your goals. And only you know what your crafting goals actually are, and how many rules your brain needs to approach a challenge with excitement. So absolutely make up your own challenges! Or combine some of the challenge types above. Or change it up each month to keep things new.

There’s no doubt challenges out there that I’ve missed, so please let me know if you have suggestions for specific challenges to link to or types of challenges I haven’t thought of. I’d love to see what y’all come up with!