December Gifted Gorgeousness Link-Up Post

Welcome to the December Gifted Gorgeousness link-up.  The link-up date will continue to be the 15th and I will keep the link-up open until the end of each month so you have plenty of time if you are late posting.

The format remains exactly the same, there is a list of rules on the main sign-up page if you want to check what is required but basically anything connected to the word "gift" is allowed, whether it was a gift TO you or is a gift FROM you.

In the past month I have only stitched two gifted pieces but did get a finish from one of them!

First, the finish - 12 Days of Christmas by Just Nan:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain

Close-ups of the blocks:

I started this piece for the 12 Days of Stitchmas in 2017.  On the 1st day you stitch on block 1.  On the 2nd day you stitch on blocks 2 and 1.  On the 3rd day you stitch on blocks 3, 2 and 1.  And so on.  Then I completed one block per month.

It's a lovely design and because the same colours are used in the borders it lends itself well to the 12 Days SAL.  This year I am planning to start 12 Ornaments from JCS for the Christmas Ornament SAL organised by Kaye.

Once I finished this design, my thoughts turned to next year's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.  Yes, there will be a GG in 2019 and in every year after for as long as I have gifted projects to stitch!  I read a blogpost recently by someone who said she often gave charts and giveaways and wondered how many of the recipients actually stitched them.  I feel she needs to follow GG and she would find out!

Which made me think about the logo for next year.  Each year so far the logo has been a gifted stitched piece but so far this year I did not have a small to use.  Then I remembered, Heather sent me a lovely Lizzie*Kate chart which I said at the time would be perfect!  So here's my start:

I didn't even have to choose fabric as Heather had included that too.  It wasn't labelled but I think it's the called-for Lambswool Linen by Wichelt.  It's certainly stiff enough for a Wichelt fabric, even after a wash.  But that's OK for stitching in hand.  I'm stitching it over one because we all adore tiny stitching!

In case anyone is interested, here are the three previous GG logos:

Now it is your turn to show us your Gifted Gorgeousness for the month. Please use your name or your blog name in the field and NOT the words "December Update" so I can easily see who has linked up this month. And link to the actual post, not just your blog. It is easier if you copy and paste the link, rather than typing freehand.

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Finally, the Advent Calendar Blog Hop is well underway. We've seen some beautiful stitching and heard some lovely songs too.  Today is a Double Door Day so twice the fun!  Don't forget to  visit and leave comments on the posts of the day.

Becoming a OAAT Stitcher!

Sort of anyway if you don't count the Ten-a-Day, the Temperature SAL and the Bath Time stitching!

The Focus on a Finish project is currently Just Nan's 12 Days of Christmas.  I had been doing one a month throughout the year and have just two left to complete in November and December.  It made sense to work on both together to save changing colours so much.

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

Getting close to a finish, just some black, some gold, the numbers and some backstitch.  Easily finished in time for Christmas this year.

The Temperature SAL is now firmly in the Green colours (7 to 14 degrees C)

One more column on the left and then the final four days of December have an entire side each.  Hetti has suggested that we had the words Temperature SAL and our location in the top and bottom borders which is a great idea.

I'm on Day 42 of my Ten-a-Day project which is currently Summer Typography:

stitched on 32 count Pink linen
(which looks nothing like that photo!)

It's really nice to be stitching something Summery even though I had to double check that was a yellow sun and not a white snowflake!

My rock painting has turned to Winter though.  Our group is hosting an Advent Calendar.  The chief Admin came up with 25 themes and we add a rock each day.  Here's a random selection of Christmas rocks I have done (not in any order, just added randomly).

Some will be hidden in the shop, some are off to Dover with a friend and some will be hidden near the local Primary School.  Too cold and muddy for the woods right now!

Finally, the Advent Calendar Blog Hop is now up and running.  We've seen some beautiful stitching and heard some lovely songs too.  I'm off to find out what today's choice is and update the post.  Don't forget to leave a comment on the post of the day.

October Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I have been showing my Just Nan 12 Days of Christmas blocks for the Smalls SAL and also my 30-a-day projects.  All smalls also by Just Nan.  It's a Nan-a-thon year!

October was a little bit different though.  I managed to get all of Day 10 done except the number itself in September so I could clear the decks for Dark October stitching.

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

From the 1st October I used the Tiny Decisions app to choose my project each day.  This was very successful and I got two more Small finishes out of that plus one larger one which I will save for the WIPocalypse post.

The first finish is by Plum Street Samplers, the freebie called Brew Ha Ha (click for the link to the design).

stitched over 1 on 32 count Platinum linen

The second finish is a cute JBW design called Smiling Jack-O-Lanterns.  All I had to do on this one today was the very fiddly plaits.

stitched on 32 count Platinum linen

Finally, I have everyone signed up for the Hallowe'en Blog Hop so I will be choosing the Mystery Phrase over the weekend and emailing everyone with their letter and further instructions.  If you signed up and don't get an email, please do contact me.  I'd hate to miss anyone out.

September Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I am showing my Just Nan 12 Days of Christmas blocks for the Smalls SAL and also my 30-a-day projects.  All smalls also by Just Nan.  It's a Nan-a-thon year!

Here is Block 9 of the 12 Days of Christmas:

And here is the full piece.  You can see that I have stitched a good chunk of Block 10 too.  I want to complete 10 in September so I can dedicate October to Hallowe'en stitching.

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

I finished Happy Bluebird at the beginning of the month, just need to get a charm and scrapbook it:

stitched on 32 count White evenweave

The next Small in line is Jump For Joy, which is now nearly finished too:

stitched on 32 count Antique White linen

The Donna Kooler Tinies have all been FFO'd and once my friend gives me permission I can show them on here.  Should be viewable for next month's Smalls Post.

My final Small is my new app - Tiny Decisons.  This is a free app where you type in a question and then give a selection of answers.  The app creates a wheel which you can spin to help you decide on a option.  For Dark October this year I am also doing Arbitary October where the wheel makes a random selection from your WIPs.  I have 5 Hallowe'en WIPs so I put each one in six times and then added Enchanted Alphabet once.  Each time a project comes up I will stitch on it for the day and then remove the option so they each get stitched on during the month.  If I complete a WIP then I remove all the remaining entries for it to give something else a chance.  Here's the wheel all set up ready to go:

Finally, Blogger has a new glitsch to delight and entertain us all.  Specially selected commenters can no longer comment on blogs where the comment field is embedded.  They can only comment on blogs where the comment field is a pop-up.

So if you like to get comments - go into your Dashboard and change your comment field to a Pop-up.  Chatter is restored!  Thanks to Brigitte for alerting me to this latest vagary of Blogger.

September IHSW

I don't know where this last week has gone but I meant to blog mid-week with a post-Birthday update and then suddenly it's IHSW and it's over and time to blog about what I did then!

Came down with a stinking cold mostly.

But there was some FFO'ing and some stitching too so it wasn't a totally lost weekend.

I have spent a lot of time stitching the Donna Kooler Tinies for a project a friend is organising.  Here's what one of the finished ones looks like:

Once she has decided what she is doing with them and reveals her plan, I will be able to show the fronts to you!

Once they were all completed I was able to return to my 12 Days of Christmas by Just Nan.  I'm hoping to complete Blocks 9 and 10 this month so I don't have to do one in October and can focus fully on Dark October stitching!

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

I've also been pottering along on Alice & the Flamingo by Mrs Peggotty, a little bit each evening.  Here's where she was last IHSW:

And here's where she is now:

stitched on over 1 on 25 count blue evenweave

A few people have said that they don't do Facebook and asked if I could host a link-up for them, so here it is!  Just add your name and the link to your actual IHSW post, not just your blog home page.

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Finally, the next IHSW will be 19th - 22nd October so make sure you note the date in your diary or come and join us in the Facebook Group - IHSW on Facebook.  If you don't do Facebook then you can check in here.

August Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I am showing my Just Nan 12 Days of Christmas blocks for the Smalls SAL and also my 30-a-day projects.  All smalls also by Just Nan.  It's a Nan-a-thon year!

Here is Block 8 on the 12 Days of Christmas:

I know I still have a couple of white stitches to do in the 8 but it didn't seem worth threading a needle for them, I'll add them when I do block 9.

Here's the whole piece so far.

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

My current Just Nan small is almost finished, this is Happy Bluebird although it may get a rename depending on which charm I attach in the centre:

stitched on 32 count white evenweave

The Large Boy is in favour of me finding a chicken charm and calling it Happy Mrs Chicken (Peppa Pig in-joke there).

Here is the previous finish, Just Nan's Butterfly Bouquet:

stitched on 32 count Pink linen

I also stitched 2 more tinies from the Donna Kooler 365 Tiny Cross Stitch Designs book:

stitched on 22 count hardanger

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop is well underway.  Five cards have gone out, and will be shown on the recipient's blogs soon:

Ariadne from Greece

Butterfly Wings

Jeremiah's Mom

Mein Allerlei Hobby

The Alchymyst's Study

Hop over and leave a nice comment.  Stay tuned for the rest of the cards!

Gifted Gorgeousness August Link-up Post

Welcome to the August Gifted Gorgeousness link-up.  The link-up date will continue to be the 15th and I will keep the link-up open until the end of each month so you have plenty of time if you are late posting.

The format remains exactly the same, there is a list of rules on the main sign-up page if you want to check what is required but basically anything connected to the word "gift" is allowed, whether it was a gift TO you or is a gift FROM you.

In the past month I have only stitched three gifted pieces:-

Just Nan's 12 Days of Christmas - chart was a Christmas present:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

Lyndifarne's Discworld Mappe which will be a gift for my son:

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

These are two little tinies for a friend of mine, from the Donna Kooler 365 Tiny Cross Stitch Designs book the Zodiac SAL comes from.

Now it is your turn to show us your Gifted Gorgeousness for the month. Please use your name or your blog name in the field and NOT the words "August Update" so I can easily see who has linked up this month. And link to the actual post, not just your blog. It is easier if you copy and paste the link, rather than typing freehand.

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Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop has started!  Three cards have gone out, been received and shown on the recipient's blogs:

Ariadne from Greece

Butterfly Wings

Jeremiah's Mom,

If you want to take part, just email me a photo of something you have stitched which is suitable as a postcard to a fellow stitcher along with a short message of the kind you write on a postcard.  I will forward the photo to another participant who shows it on their blog.  The photo can be anything Summer themed, beach themed, holiday themed, you get the idea!   It can be a new piece or something from your archives.  You have until the end of August to join in.

6 Days Work on 12 Days of Christmas

What a small amount of progress to show for six days work too!

The problem was being tired on Sunday after 3 early morning starts courtesy of the Small Boy and needing a nap in the afternoon.  Followed by 3 days of work getting some overtime in covering my colleagues' holidays.

Some days I barely managed 20 stitches on this design so I'm not counting them in my Pie Chart at the end of the month.

Here is the whole piece so far:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

This one is the next one of my Just Nan smalls - Floral Sunshine:

stitched on 32 count Antique White linen

I started that one for March Madness in 2017 and restarted it on 25th June, 2018

I have been making steady progress in the evenings on Alice and Flamingo by Mrs Peggotty:

stitched over 1 on 25 count blue evenweave

I have nearly finished her face, her eyes look so much less creepy now!

Finally, there will be a Summer Blog Hop this year.  I will be returning to the Postcard theme.

Each person emails me a photo of something they have stitched which is suitable as a postcard to a fellow stitcher along with a short message of the kind you write on a postcard.  I will forward the photo to another participant who shows it on their blog.  The photo can be anything Summer themed, beach themed, holiday themed, you get the idea!   It can be a new piece or something from your archives.  The Hop will run over the whole of the Summer with a few cards going out each week.  Final deadline will be the end of August, just in time for Back to School!  If you'd like to take part then leave a comment or send me an email.

I have received some cards already but haven't responded to those people yet because of the reasons at the beginning of the post!  But I will.  This weekend is for emails.

June Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I am showing my Just Nan 12 Days of Christmas blocks for the Smalls SAL and also my 30-a-day projects.  All smalls also by Just Nan.  It's a Nan-a-thon year!

Here is Block 6 on the 12 Days of Christmas:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

Following on from the excitement of the 31 starts for Maynia, I completed 2 Just Nan smalls this month.

First was Honeysuckle Rose which hasn't got its charm yet:

stitched on 32 count Antique White linen

 Then a nice quick stitch; Dragonfly Summer renamed Butterfly Summer as that was the charm I had:

stitched on 32 count White evenweave

A Just Nan Small finish means a new one is started - Floral Sunshine:

stitched on 32 count Antique White linen

I am hoping to do some scrapbooking this weekend and get some of the older ones mounted and fully finished.  We shall see!

Finally, there will be a Summer Blog Hop this year.  I will be returning to the Postcard theme.

• Each person emails me a photo of something they have stitched which is suitable as a postcard to a fellow stitcher along with a short message of the kind you write on a postcard. 
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• I will forward the photo to another participant who shows it on their blog.  
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• The photo can be anything Summer themed, beach themed, holiday themed, you get the idea!   
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• It can be a new piece or something from your archives.  
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• The Hop will run over the whole of the Summer with a few cards going out each week.  
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• Final deadline will be the end of August, just in time for Back to School!  
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• If you'd like to take part then leave a comment or send me an email.