July Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather from Stitching Lotus

This year I have two Small Challenges:

1. The Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog

2. The Christmas Ornie SAL Blog

For the Hallowe'en Blog I have done something a little different this year, I've chosen a band sampler by Just Nan called Counting Bats and each band corresponds to the monthly themes on the blog.  July was Witches' Accessories and I stitched this band which has The Amazing Candy Corn Producing Cauldron:

And here is the whole piece:

stitched on 32 count lilac linen

The dancing skeleton will be attached when I finish the piece.

For the Christmas Ornie Blog SAL I returned to my Christmas Cubes by The Primitive Hare and stitched A which was for the Free Choice in July:

And the whole set so far:

Stitched on 35 count Country Mocha from Willow Fabrics

I completed the third Just Nan Small; Big Bee, Little Bee and found some bee charms in my stash.  To be fair, it should be called Two Big Bees because they are the same size!

Then I got the scrapbook papers out and mounted it on a page from a Monet Waterlilies Calendar along with Beehive Violets:

Remember the sampler I showed you from Just Cross Stitch Hallowe'en Special?  Christine suggested that the top part would make a great ornie on it's own.  So I started it!  Partly to test some WDW that Tiffany sent me.  I like it!  The corner is WDW and the rest is 3799 to contrast.

stitched on 28 count Moondust evenweave from Crafty Kitten

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That's it for Smalls this month, now for some Bigs!

First up is Gathering Honey, continued progress on this design where the confetti leaves are preferable to the backstitch in the plants!

Loads of fractionals in those leaves

And you can see where I got bored with backstitch and stopped:

Don't worry, I will complete it at some point, it does make a difference.

And here is the full piece: 

stitched on 30 count linen

Finally, the continued progress on Ghostly Mandala by Ink Circles.  I have been stitching this one for 22 days, doing approximately 1/2 an hour each evening:

Stitched on 32 count Autumnal Woodland from Crafty Kitten

June Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather from Stitching Lotus

This year I have two Small Challenges:

1. The Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog

2. The Christmas Ornie SAL Blog

For the Hallowe'en Blog I have done something a little different this year, I've chosen a band sampler by Just Nan called Counting Bats and each band corresponds to the monthly themes on the blog.  June was a Free Choice and I stitched this band which has a variety of spooky motifs:

Here is the whole piece so far:

The theme on the Christmas Ornie SAL blog was Animals and Pets and I decided to stitch three more of Daffycat's cute little reindeer freebies.

Stocking Reindeer

Ribbon Reindeer

Star Reindeer

Here are all six together:

And here's what I made them into:

I mounted each square on some thin card and then whipstitched them into a cube.  I threaded some beads onto a piece of cotton thread to make a hanger and then the other ends of the thread to make some beaded tassels at the bottom of the cube.

Regular readers will know there has been a lot of Just Nan recently.  In fact, since the last Smalls post I have started three of her freebies and complete two of them:

My Fair Ladybug

Beehive Violets

Big Bee, Little Bee

not quite finished yet!

You Were Hatched by Teresa Wenztler is a little bit big for a true "small" but it's not too big.  I have stitched all the blue and all the green now:

stitched on 28 count lilac evenweave.

which never looks lilac in any photo!

I also did do more spending in June!  Where has my willpower gone?  I don't know but it's a good thing I'm not doing Stitch from Stash this year.

Crafty Kitten Fabric	£19.20
JN October's Eve	£6.98
JN 2 Mice	£21.52
Beads	£1.27
JN Charms	£1.52
Chatelaine	£22.75
CSC Subs	£8.72
Monthly Spend	£81.96

The fabric was an impulse buy, she was having one of her One-Off Pieces Auctions and I bid on a few but said "only let me win one, draw again if I get more than one".  I got a nice piece of 32 count Belfast called Nebula:

Here are the three Just Nan charts I bought:

And here is the image of the Chatelaine Gardens of London:

Which I got for 20% off

Time for some pie:

June was dedicated to Dragons and Just Nan!

Finally and unbelievably we are half way through the year already so here's how the Pie looks so far:

It is the year of Nora Corbett so far with Just Nan and Brooke's Books some way behind her.

Not Much to Show for a Busy Weekend

Mostly because I've been concentrating on my Brooke's Book's letter for next Saturday's Alphabet Club post.  Here's a sneak peek:

You can really see the weave of the afghan in that photo.  The natural blocks are actually over three threads but I'm stitching over two.  Which makes counting fun!

I did some more of my Teresa Wentzler dragons, You Were Hatched:

stitched on 28 count lilac evenweave.

I've completed all the blue now and the green is next, four shades of pistachio.

I've also been buzzing on my Just Nan for the evenings, Big Bee, Little Bee:

stitched on 28 count evenwweave

One beehive done, three to go!  You may remember that Kim sent me a bee-themed parcel as part of her Big Birthday RAKs.  Well, since then I have noticed so many bee charts and designs!  Including this new one from La Comtesse, based on a poem by Emily Dickinson:

Murmur of a Bee

Talking of freebies, Passione Ricamo always releases a Fairy Silhouette for Fairy Day on 24th June.  This year Laura has put together a celebratory e-book with all the previous designs and the new one for this year.  I've only stitched one of them but I'm itching to stitch another!

I also discovered that Rainbow Gallery have reorganised their freebies into a single document for each year.  You can find them all here.  They do needlepoint freebies too.  Alot of the cross stitch designs are a monthly series.  Christine had another of her brilliant ideas inspired by my Reindeer Cube.  She suggested I do a monthly series and make a dodecahendron out of them.  She truly is an evil genius!  She's even started on her desert lair.

I do need a recommendation from you all.  I want to stitch an alphabet in black and heard someone talk about Weeks Dye Works' Peacoat being a nice variegated black.  It looks more blue in the photo but I know it's hard to take good pictures of colours.  Can anyone recommend a subtle variegated black or confirm that the WDW is a good one?  Thank you!

Pea Coat

Finally, the Small Boy is proving his worth and providing for his family already.  These are potatoes grown at school.  Planted, watered and dug up with his own fair hands.  And his t-shirt from the looks of it!  We had them for tea with some chicken (not provided by the school, they don't do animal husbandry until college!) and they were delicious.

Recovering from the Marathon!

Thanks to everyone who commented on my Marathon Post.  It was such a fun day and so much easier and less stressful than trying to do a Start A Day like the DUCJC.  I will definitely be doing it again next year.  It was worth taking the time in advance to sort out the projects, making sure the charts, threads and fabric were all in one place.   And didn't they look great all laid out on the bed?

Thanks for the feedback on Bande de Dragons too.  I think I will be taking Christine's advice and cutting down what I have already done and completing the segment of the border as a stand alone piece.  Then restarting the design on a higher count over one.  It's not just the scratchiness of the fabric it's the large scale.  I am used to 32 count or 28 count hand-dyed which shrinks.  14 just seems enormous and it's a big design to start with.  25 count over 1 will bring it to a more manageable size.

At least three other bloggers joined me for the day:

Brigitte at Brigitte's Place

Melinda at Family Business

Kerry at Ramblings of a Biscornu Addict

edit to add

Carrie at Crafting Paws

Why not pop over and see how they got on?

Prior to my Marathon we had IHSW hosted by Joysze of Random Ramblings and I made some fantastic progress on my Elizabeth Shephard sampler which has been my designated IHSW project for the last two years.  Here's where she was before the weekend:

And here she is now:

I stitched the rest of the swan motif, all the one to the left and some brown border!  There really is just one weekend of stitching left in her and then I get to choose another long term IHSW project.

Prior to that I continued with the Daffycat Reindeer series.  I completed six of the designs and made them into a cube finish.

Stocking Reindeer

Ribbon Reindeer

Star Reindeer

Here are all six together:

And here's what I made them into:

I mounted each square on some thin card and then whipstitched them into a cube.  I threaded some beads onto a piece of cotton thread to make a hanger and then the other ends of the thread to make some beaded tassels at the bottom of the cube.  Now all we need is Christmas!

I also completed another one of my Just Nan smalls, Beehive Violets:

stitched on 28 count evenweave

Which meant a new start on Big Bee, Little Bee, also by Just Nan:

stitched on 28 count evenweave

There are four of those beehives to stitch and some corner border too.  This is quite a stitch-dense design compared to the previous one and is taking a little longer.

The day after the Marathon I had quite a lot of household things to do which were held over from Monday.  And trying to decide what to stitch first out of all the choices!  When I completed my 30 minutes on Teresa Wentzler's You Were Hatched I noticed that the dark blue did not meet up with the lighter blue I'd stitched for the DUCJC.  I thought the best thing to do was find the error and fix it right away than put it away and not want to face the frog.

So here is where I left off after the Marathon:

and here is where I was after the frogging session:

All of that top blue was out by one row.

And here's where I am now:

stitched on 28 count lilac evenweave

I've stitched all of three of the blues and most of the lightest blue, you can really see the design taking shape now.  Of course, those four colours are actually eight because it's a Teresa Wentzler which means Blended Threads!  This was intended as a Birth Sampler for the Small Boy, he's only seven after all!

Finally, I'm still really behind on blog reading but intend to try and catch up over the next week.  So sorry, if I haven't been to visit recently.  Also, if you took part in The Longest Day Marathon, let me know and I'll add you to this post with Brigitte, Melinda and Kerry.