When the Eras Tour first started back in 2023, I watched in awe as makers took to TikTok showing off their knitting skills and tracking the surprise songs in the form of blankets and scarves. I wished I was that crafty, but also knew I had no business picking up a new hobby at that point.

Fast forward to early 2024 when I had a failed attempt at making a surprise song quilt. If mashups had never entered the picture it would have been a heck of a lot easier. (Also I would have missed the mash ups terribly.) I struggled to find a template that worked for quilt squares when there was anywhere between 2 and 6 songs every night. It was too much. I got overwhelmed quickly and just stopped working on it.

In late 2024 as the Eras Tour was concluding, I still hadn’t come up with a way to honor the tour — and especially the surprise songs. I fiddled with the idea of designing something and having it printed and framed, but I couldn’t ever settle on a design. Then, as I was packing my car for my final craft show of the year, I sprained my ankle. I didn’t want to sew, I didn’t want to just sit around and watch TV, especially since I was going home for a couple of weeks for the holidays. On a total whim, I decided my next “granny hobby” would be cross stitching. I had a brief flirtation with cross stitch as a kid, but hadn’t touched a needle or hoop since. I quickly picked it up and had a great time working on patterns I purchased on Etsy.

In early 2025, I decided I would try my hand at creating my own patterns. Some day I’ll post about those. All of this to say, inspiration finally struck (kinda) — I should commemorate my beloved Eras Tour and surprise songs in cross stitch. I tried a couple different things, but nothing stuck at first. I was making it too complicated, too much. I saw a temperature cross stitch pattern with hearts and thought that’s the one! I can make this work. Fortunately I’d already tracked the surprise songs and colors, so I just needed to work them up into the pattern. I found thread colors that closely matched the Eras colors as shown in the tour poster. And then I got to stitching.

The tour has been over for more than 100 days now (*sob*, I miss it every day) and I’ve only finished shows through June 2023. It’s an easy pattern, but it’s also one of maybe 5 works in progress I have going on at the moment. My goal is to have it finished well before the anniversary of the final show in December. I’ll keep you posted.