Stitching Along With Those SALs

At the beginning of the year, like many other bloggers, I make plans for which projects I will stitch in the coming year.  I always start off well, staying on target, the WIPocalypse helps with this.

Then as the year progresses, things crop up, Weddings, Babies and of course, the SAL.  Now there are two types of SAL (Stitch a long for the newbies).  The first is where two or more people decide to stitch the same design together.  Like The Spooky Countdown which Giovanna and I are both stitching.  It is easy to say Yes or No to one of these, you already have the design and it fits into your schedule.  Or people suggest it and you think "No, not really me, I'll pass on this one".

Then there is the second type - The Mystery SAL.  Cue Scooby Doo music.

You know the designer, you like the designer, you like the subject matter from the title.  But you don't know what the design will be like.  And everyone is getting excited about it.  And excitement is contagious.  And you know you won't catch up if you start later, and what if it is discontinued and you kick yourself for evermore for missing out.  And all the other girls are doing it, Mum, I'll be the only one not, what will we talk about at school now?

Yes, you are transported back to school and the dread fear of missing out on the latest craze.  So you dutifully sign up and somehow juggle the other projects you already have.  This is what happened with the Joan Elliott SAL.  She announced it via her FB fan page and everyone jumped in.  The border was released this month with one face due to be released for the next eight months.  Here is my progress so far:

There are three more boxes to be stitched at the bottom.  I have got bored stitching those fiddly flowers in the side panels so moved onto the centre.  The centre box has been charted with a title and more flowers but I wanted something different so I chose some of Joan's butterflies from the Butterfly Fairy chart.  They are an absolute pleasure to stitch and look lovely too.

The fabric is a piece of Jazlyn evenweave from the Crafty Kitten called Snapdragon.

So I figured that I could fit this in OK with all my other stitching committments as long as I didn't take on any other projects.  I'm only doing the one Round Robin this year so this kind of takes its place.  So I'm feeling quite smug as I resist not one, but two Hallowe'en Mystery SALs.  Even though Hallowe'en is my favourite and my best (as Lola would say).  And then I get an email entitled "A Gift from Sharon", that darned woman has signed me up for another Mystery SAL!

The Frosted Pumpkin Mysterious Hallowe'en Town

Looks good, doesn't it?

I do have a nice little extra finish to show you today.  While deciding on which fabric to use for the JE SAL I toyed with the idea of stitching it all over 1 for an extra delicate look.  As an experiment I chose one of Joan's seasonal fairies and stitched just her face:

I stitched her on 28 count tan evenweave and changed the metallics to bright shades of DMC.  I also substituted french knots for the beads and used a sewing cotton for the backstitch.  I mounted her on another calendar page:

This is a lovely calendar called Light & Landscape by a photographer named Fran Halsall.  This page shows Scott's View in the Scottish borders and the caption says "named after the famous author, look across a tight bend in the River Tweed to the Eildon Hills, under which there is said to be a doorway to the kingdom of an Elvish Queen."  So maybe my Autumn Fairy is really an Elvish Queen?  She does look rather regal.

BTW I decided to go with stitching over 2 with an option for over 1 on the skin for the whole project.  In case you were wondering.

Finally, don't forget the Summer Postcard Blog Hop.  This year's theme is Gardens, click on the picture of the garden to the top right of the blog for more details.  I have received a few pictures so far and I think I will start sending them round to people very soon!  If you have already signed up then send me your photo as soon as it's done.  If you haven't signed up then what are you waiting for?  Get clicking!

All Frogs Have Been Banished from the Kingdom!

What a relief!  After the massive frogging session on Noel Blanc I decided to spend all of Sunday re-stitching it so I was back where I started from.  Here is the latest progress picture:

See, I have completely finished the bad border and reached the far end of it too.  Now I have to stitch the outer border and then I can reward myself with the lovely alphabet.  The frogging was a pain but it was worth doing because there was no easy way to fudge this as it is a double border, it just threw the outer border and the symmetry totally off kilter.

Usually at the beginning of a month I start with my obligation stitching and my monthly challenges to make a good start.  This month I have signed up for a Joan Elliott SAL on FB.  The border was released this week and there will be eight further parts over the next eight months.  The layout is very much like a round robin with four larger blocks and four smaller blocks, there will be eight faces to go in the blocks.

As usual there has been lots of chat about fabrics and colour schemes etc.  Many of Joan's fans are English because she regularly features in the UK magazines and like many English stitchers some of them are surprisingly inexperienced with evenweave and higher counts.  I find the English obsession with 14 count aida hard to fathom!!  I do appreciate the ease with which you can stitch on it, the fact it is clear to see the holes and easy to count spacing out.  But compared to the feel and look of evenweave - no contest!!  Personally I blame the magazines, they rarely feature anything other than plain aida and considering we have three* of the finest hand-dyers in England this seems strange to me.

Anyway I am hoping this SAL will open up the beautiful world of hand-dyed fabrics of all counts to my countrywomen.  Which brings me on to my dilemma.  The stitch count is 139 x 139 so 10 inches on 28 count.  I looked in my stash bag and found some nice 28 count Crafty Kitten hand-dyed and started stitching the border.  While thinking "this is big, it's not 32, is it going to look too chunky?"  I don't have any suitable 32, most of it is either bright solid colours or neutral linens for samplers. Then I thought "what about over 1?"  I checked with Sharon Shebafudge to see what she thought, she damned me to hell and back because she has a lovely piece of fabric which the SAL will fit on over 1 and now she can't shake the idea!  

But I was concerned about the faces and whether they would lose the definition.  Joan does not use so many fractionals as a Mirabilia but they are there in her faces.  So the only way to tell (other than wait a month for the first one!) was to stitch one.  Luckily I have alot of Joan's charts and I chose Autumn Fairy for my sample.  Here she is, nearly finished:

I had to change the metallics to plain DMC, I rather like the bright yellow and there's an orange to come.  The beads will be French Knots.  The only issue now is the backstitch, the charted colour is way too heavy so I'm thinking of using a sewing cotton instead in paler colour.  Most of the design doesn't need bs anyway, just the outline of her face.

But I'm still in two minds!  I know the designs look lovely over 1, really delicate, but do I want to lose the metallics and beads?  I don't know!!  I used to be indecisive but now I'm not so sure...

Finally....

* wondering who the three are?

Crafty Kitten

Sparklies

Polstitches Designs