Smalls SAL July Update

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

I chose three different monthly themes to follow this year:

Hallowe'en Ornie SAL - 12 different themes
Little Stitcher Fairy Tale 12 Days of Christmas - one per month
Primitive Hare Spooky Countdown - one per week starting 31st January

The theme for the Hallowe'en SAL this month was Pumpkins and I chose a Just Nan design called Moon Riders, three different spooky characters sitting on a moon each.  This one is called Jack:

Stitched on 32 count lavender evenweave using recommended DMC

I realised that I never showed the completed small for last month's theme which was freebie charts.  Here is another one of  Carand88's Spooky Kitties; the Bride of Frankenstein's Kitty:

Stitched on 32 count lavender evenweave using recommended DMC

Don't they make a lovely pair?

And here's another lovely pair, of little woodland squirrels as part of Day 7 of the 12 Days of Christmas by The Little Stitcher:

Stitched on 32count Vintage Grain linen

The final small for this month is the continuing progress on Spooky Countdown by Primitive Hare.  I am still one week behind Giovanna in our SAL but we've got lots of time built in to complete it by 31st October so who's counting?

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog is well underway.  If you have signed up and not sent your photo to me yet, I will do a little reminder soon.  Here are the links to the postcards sent so far.  Why not hop over and say Hello:

First postcard from Marcy goes to Gracie at Needles, Pins and Dragonflies

Second postcard from Krista goes to Jocondine at Jocondine

Third postcard from Michelle goes to Sharon at Shebafudge

Fourth postcard from Mouse goes to Vickie at A Stitcher's Story

Fifth postcard from Christine goes to Marcy at Stitching Plus

Sixth postcard from Astrid goes to Krista at Just Stitching Along

Smalls SAL June Update

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

I chose three different monthly themes to follow this year:

Hallowe'en Ornie SAL - 12 different themes
Little Stitcher Fairy Tale 12 Days of Christmas - one per month
Primitive Hare Spooky Countdown - one per week starting 31st January

The theme for June's Hallowe'en stitch is "Any Freebie Chart".  I thought it would be nice for everyone to have a nice open choice for one month.  And a chance to share some of the great freebies the designers give us.  There is a whole page of links to freebie charts on the blog so if you love your Spooky Stitching, why not pop over and look up a few?

I haven't quite finished this month's design.  Can you guess what it is?  Is that steam coming out of her head? Maybe not LOL.

The Twelve Days of Christmas will be shown on TUSAL day, so that leaves the Spooky Countdown:

Blocks 19 - 21

Those of you familiar with the Spooky Countdown may have noticed that I have changed Block 21 completely.  The charted block is a decorative border for the word “OR” as in “Trick or Treat”.  If you stitch the piece as a sampler then it fits vertically between the blocks that say “Trick” and “Treat”.  But as I am using the blocks for my Countdown Calendar this would not have the same effect. 

Block 4 commemorated the famous Salem Witch Trials of 1692.  I am sure that most of my followers will be aware of these trials and the innocent women put to death as witches.  But how many of you have heard of the Witch Trials which set the legal precedent for those in Salem?  How many of you know the names Rose Cullender and Amy Denny?  In 1660, those two elderly widows were living in Lowestoft in Suffolk, England, a mere mile or so from where I was born, bred and am still living.  They were accused of witchcraft by a number of local residents, tried by the eminent Sir Matthew Hale and sentenced to death by hanging in 1662.

Some twenty years later a pamphlet was produced “A Tryal of Witches”, it was the evidence given in this pamphlet that persuaded the courts in Salem that “spectral evidence” was valid in a court of law and the Salem Witches began.

A well-know local historian Ivan Bunn has written an excellent academic book on the subject of the Lowestoft Witches and a rather more accessible website full of information about Amy, Rose and the other main characters in the trial.  http://www.lowestoftwitches.com/

There are links to the various people, photos of their homes and their gravestones.  One of the most interesting links for me is that of Samuel Pacy http://www.lowestoftwitches.com/samuel%20pacy.htm there is a great photo of his house today on this page.  It is very well-known to me as it is now a wool shop which also sells DMC to me!

Samuel Pacy’s daughter Elizabeth was one of the “victims” of the witches and an important witness in the trial.  He also had an older brother Nicholas, who had recently emigrated.  To the town of Salem, Massachusetts.

If you are at all interested in history and witches, particularly the witch trials I can really recommend spending some time on the website following the various links.

Here are two more smalls I finished last month but couldn't show.  The full story will follow soon,  there is still one gift making slow progress across the ocean!

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop has started!  The first postcard went to Gracie of  Needles, Pins and Dragonflies.  Follow the link to see her card, message and who sent it to her.  There is still time to join in with the Blog Hop, just click on the garden picture on the right hand side bar to find out more details.

A Monster Mash-up

Remember this little outline?

Here is the finished piece:

Stitched on 32 count lavender evenweave using recommended DMC

I love the bright green - 907 for information.

Christine made a great guess, she said Mummy Kitty which is one I designed last year based on the outline of this one.  I love these little Spooky Kitties and have stitched five different ones so far.  Here's my collage:

Frankenstein's Kitty is one of a series of spooky kitties designed by Carand88 based on the microkitties animations designed by Hyraea.

This weekend's stitching will include the Round Robin piece I have and also the next instalment in the Spooky Countdown.

While we're on the subject of Spooky things, have you seen the new Nora Corbett Pixies?

Wichelt

Aren't they totally lush?  And best of all, because they are Nora's Pixies there should be six of them altogether!!  My favourite is the blue one, Gigi.

Finally, I have opened up the sign-ups for the Summer Postcard Blog Hop.  All you have to do is send me a photo of something you have stitched on this year's theme which is Gardens.  I will then send you a photo from another participant which you must display on your blog.  Please include a message with your photo, about why your garden is important to you, or what you love about your garden, or why you don't have one but what you would like in your ideal garden.  Anything with the word "garden" in it really!

The first photo is in, the sender sent me a photo of a beautiful design I really want to stitch now and a photo of her own garden.  So if you want to do the same, please do.  The garden photo is optional though, the stitched picture is not!!

May WIPocalypse Stitching Wishlist

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi of Measi's Musings.

The main focus of my WIPocalypse this year is my "14 in '14" a list of 14 projects I wanted to complete in 2014.  In the last month I have worked on five of the list.  Here is the current stitching status of each one:

Friends' Wedding Sampler - finished!

Primitive Hare - Spooky Countdown

The Little Stitcher - 12 Days of Christmas

Just Nan - Winter Typography

(added a lot of white in the bottom half)

A Mon Ami Pierre - Noel Blanc

(stitched more of the border below the reindeer's derriere.

I also made a new start today which is part of the Monthly Challenges, this is for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog.  Can you tell what it is going to be?

Carand88 - ?????

Measi is also setting us a topic to discuss each month.

May 14      
What designs or themes do you really wish you could find?  What do you think is missing among stitching designs?

I am going to be very interested in the answers to this one.  I imagine alot of our designer friends are too.  Don't be surprised if one of your suggestions suddenly appears on the New Releases page of your favourite designer!

Most of the things I like to stitch are readily available online; fantasy and samplers.  There are fantasy designs from dragons to fairies via various spooky topics too.  I have my favourite designers who produce the kind of traditional designs I could stitch forever and there are the newer, quirkier designers producing things I would never have thought of stitching before (Ink Circles Little Alien Schoolgirl Sampler being just one example).

So this is a tricky one for me.  I think if I had to choose just one thing it would be one of the computer generated pictures charted as a traditional chart.  You know the sort of thing, there are several different companies turning gorgeous fantasy artwork into cross stitch charts but because they are computer generated they are full of random confetti stitching over 96 pages!!  I would love to see someone with the skill level of Joan Elliott or Nora Corbett chart one of these pictures so I could enjoy stitching it.  The thing I really love about Joan and Nora's work is the flow of the colours in the fabrics they chart for their designs.  I don't want 50 needles loaded with 50 different colours picking out two stitches at a time to make a skirt!  I want the feeling of "flow" that you get when the fabric drapes come alive under your needle.

I am so curious as to what everyone else will choose for this question!

Incidentally, my current Wishlist is on a page tabbed at the top in case you are wondering what I would buy if I wasn't Stitching from Stash this year.

Finally, I have opened up the sign-ups for the Summer Postcard Blog Hop.  All you have to do is send me a photo of something you have stitched on this year's theme which is Gardens.  I will then send you a photo from another participant which you must display on your blog.  Please include a message with your photo, about why your garden is important to you, or what you love about your garden, or why you don't have one but what you would like in your ideal garden.  Anything with the word "garden" in it really!

The first photo is in, the sender sent me a photo of a beautiful design I really want to stitch now and a photo of her own garden.  So if you want to do the same, please do.  The garden photo is optional though, the stitched picture is not!!

Ornament SAL June Update

This is the Ornament SAL hosted by Stitching Lotus

I have three different ornament challenges running this year, the JBW Alphabet Cat stitched in a different colour scheme each month, the Dragon Dreams 12 Dragonlets of Christmas, a FB exclusive and the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog.

This month's Alphabet Kitty is a patriotic Union Jack kitty stitched on pale blue evenweave which will be backed with some Union Jack Ribbon and a nice Union Jack button as the charm.

Now the Thread Pickerz Heartz SAL is over I get my Sundays back for ornie finishing.  For some reason Sunday feels like a finishing day.

The Sixth Dragonlet is next up, featuring a rather startled goose who has somehow hatched a dragonlet as well as her little gosling:

This is stitched on the same green evenweave as the rest of the series, I used some DMC Light Effects thread for the eggshells.

For the Hallowe'en Ornie Sal, the theme was Mummies and Tombs so I adapted one of Carand88's kitties into Mummy Kitty:

Now, because you've seen all of those before I'd better show you something you haven't seen completed.  This is another FB exclusive, the Heartz SAL from Threadpickerz.  They released two hearts every Sunday for eight weeks.  I stitched them on 32 count plain white evenweave using a rainbow artificial silk from De Havilland threads which has been in my stash for over 15 years!  Just waiting for the perfect design.  I've framed the hearts in a simple raw wood box frame:

The first heart was charted as a solid heart to show off the variegated threads people were using.  I changed it to show our initials, mine, hubby's and the boys'.

Finally, the photos are coming in for my Summer Blog Hop.  All I need is a photo of something you've stitched on a Home theme.  Click on the "There's No Place Like Home" picture to the right of the blog for more details.  Once we get into July I will start sending the photos out to the participants.  The Blog Hop will run all Summer so don't worry if you've not signed up yet, there's plenty of time.

If I said I'd stitched a Mummy Kitty what would you think of?

would it be anything like this?

This is for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog June choice, mummies or tombs.  I couldnt find a design that really appealed to me so I adapted one of the kitties from Carand88 into Mummified Kitty.

I stitched him on 28 count black evenweave using threads from my scraps bag so I'm sorry I don't have DMC numbers for them.  I stitched the outline exactly as charted for Frankenkitty then stitched the grey lines in an elongated stitch one thread high, two threads wide then just filled in with two shades of cream.  I used two because I didn't have enough of either to stitch the whole kitty!

He'll be framed along with these two I stitched last year and probably Zombie Kitty in the other space:

Evening stitching has been focused on my mermaid for the Large Mira Round Robin.  I have very nearly finished all the plain stitching.  The metallic is next, then the backstitch and finally the bling:

I can't decide what the pale piece in the centre is, it looks like a wing but she's a mermaid!  Looking at this picture it seems more like a big bow.  You can see how much bling there is going to be by the amount of blank areas.

Finally, don't forget the Summer Blog Hop on the theme of "There's No Place Like Home".  Just click on the picture on the top right of the blog for more details of how to join in.

Meet Isaiah the Witchy Kitty

This is another of the Spooky Kitties series designed by Carand88 from original animations by Hygaea.  Stitched on 28count Burnt Orange Jobelan, my favourite fabric for Hallowe'en stitching.  

I changed the main colour from cream to a nice silver grey (DMC 415) because it looks better on the orange fabric.  I also changed the eyes to metallic green DMC.  

Framed as part of a quartet of Spooky Kitties.  Two done, two to go.

The frame is a just a cheapy from Wilkinsons.

What's that I hear you ask, why is he called Isaiah?  Well, I started stitching him last week and only managed a few stitches.  When I picked him up to carry on I reached the other side of his head and his left eye and said to myself "I've made a mistake in counting, one Isaiah than the other"  hahahahah I crack myself up sometimes.

You know how you catch yourself sometimes and think "I'm turning into my Mother" well I seem to be turning into my Dad!  My Mother never tells really bad jokes like that.  My Dad also has this habit of making anyone's name into a joke.  Never ever tell my Dad (or me!) what you're intending to name your child before it's born.  I was so glad my best friend has a boy because she liked Lydia for a girl and Dad said "Lydia Dustbin" and I sang "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" all throughout her pregnancy.  She also liked Delilah but I can't do a Tom Jones impression.

Talking of names, here a nice trick to play on someone.  Bet them that you can think of a song with any name they like to mention in it.  They'll try really hard to come up with something strange.  See if you can think of an actual song if possible so they have a couple of goes.  If they stump you then simply sing "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear ....."

Okay, enough jokes, here's some stitching progress.  The centrepiece for my Large Mirabilia RR starting next year.  Yet another Serendipitous event occurred this weekend.  I wanted a nice scrolling border for the blocks and had fiddle around with pencil and paper and come up with a nice enough look.  Then I popped over to the Needlecraft Haven Yuku Board, looked at the freebies page and found this from Reflets de Soie blog.  Isn't it just perfect?

The fabric is the August Ltd Edition from Crafty Kitten and the design is a freebie from Papillon.

I've gained a few more followers (probably from IHSW) so I'll wave and say Hi to them!  First of all, if you're a newbie then remember to include your blog in your profile so people can find you and return the following.  While you're in Settings then add an email so people can reply to comments you leave.  And a word about "word verifiers" these are to try stop robot spammers leaving comments.  A much easier way (for your followers!) is to disable "anonymous" posting.  I did that right at the beginning and haven't been troubled by spam.  If you absolutely insist on having a verifier (maybe down to a bad experience in the past) then please be nice and have it on the first page so we know it's there and don't waste a load of time typing a lovely long complimentary comment only to find we can't post it because the verifier pops up AFTER we've pressed publish and is playing up (yet again!!) and won't accept whatever I type.

Finally another mention for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop.  I have over half the people needed but there are still 10 doors to allocate.  If you'd like to take part then just email me.  I will give you a date in December when you must post a seasonal stitched picture and a comment about your Christmas Traditions.  I'll copy the picture to my blog and a link to your's so everyone can come visit.  It's a lovely free way to share a special time of year, find some new blogs and gain some new followers too.

This is a door.  There'll be 24 soon!

Totally TUSAL Tuesday and Two new starts

Have been wracking my brains trying to think of how to say "new starts" using T words!!

Here's the latest TUSAL, the jar is nice and full now.  I'll have to squish it down a little to fit November and December's ORTS in.

Here's one of the new starts:

It's for the Large Mirabilia SAL starting in January 2013.  My theme is the Calendar Fairies and we've chosen June, July, August and September to stitch.  This is the centrepiece, a Papillon freebie design using my own choice of colours.  Actually they are Nora Corbett's choice of colours as she used them for July's Fairy so I knew they'd co-ordinate well with the whole piece.

The second new start is another of the Hallowe'en Kitties by Carand88.  I bought a four aperture frame for the Ghostie Kittie so I need to stitch three more to fill the other spaces!

Finally, the Advent Calendar Blog Hop is open for sign ups.  If you want to take part, email me and I will allocate you a date to post your picture.  This must be a seasonal stitched picture.  So either Christmas or winter or some other festival you celebrate in December, Christians, Pagans, Jedis, any other religion welcome as well as atheists and agnostics!!  We are a multi-denominational blog here!

On the 1st December I will post 24 numbered doors and a link to each of the participating blogs.  Each day I will copy the relevant picture onto my page so we can all see the lovely calendar grow.  You can also visit the posting blog to read about the poster's seasonal celebrations.

October WIPocalypse and early Theme-a-licious Looking Backward and Forward X

Here's the round-up for the progress since the last Full Moon.

Part 1 - My 12 in '12

12. Prairie Moon, Thine is the Trick and the Treat:

Great progress on this one.

I've reached the top right hand corner, there's a big old Jack O'Lantern next and I've nearly done two pages.  There are 6 pages in total.  I'm going to stitch until the 31st then put it into my New Year rotation.

Part 2 - Just Nan-a-thon

Yay, I stitched another Just Nan design at last.  This is my progress on Frightful:

I have a neat trick for the black coverage.  Stitch the lines of crosses as usual.  If you can see too much fabric between them then run a thread underneath the whole line just coming up at one end and going down at the other.  If you enlarge the photo you'll see the bottom left box is just crosses (and some half crosses I'm about to complete) and the top two boxes have the extra thread under the black crosses.  The bat and pumpkin details are stitched with three strands which I'll use for the rest of the motifs

Part 3 - Theme-a-licious

October is Obligation October.  I stitched a number of cards and two Round Robins for this theme.  You've seen them all before but here they are again:

Stephanie's Joan Elliott Round Robin

 Autumn for Cat's Seasons Round Robin

Chiara's Birthday card

Shirlee's Birthday card

Zombie Kitty 1 made into a card

Zombie Kitty 2 made into a card

November's Theme is Nail It November - What's lying around that's so close to being finished you can't stand it anymore? Get to it and finish it!

This is a not such a good one for me!  I'm not going to finish any of my four main WIPS as I have Round Robins which must take precedence over all other projects.  I also have my own project to start for the Large Mira RR starting in 2013.  I could always do some "finishing" finishing and sew up an ornie or two I suppose.  I could also "nail" my list for my "13 in '13".

Finally, the emails have been sent to the participants of the Hallowe'en Blog Hop, if you signed up and haven't got one then let me know.  Everyone else can enter the Mystery Phrase Competition starting the 31st October.  I'm putting a little prize together, it will feature a skein of Glow-in-the-Dark thread and other stuff!

      

IHSW

That's International Hermit and Stitch Weekend or as Kate calls it, NDSW - Numb Derriere Syndrome Weekend

Here's what gave me a numb bum this weekend.  First of all Cat's lovely Four Seasons Round Robin.  She stitched four boxes with a central diagonal band across each then we could choose a section to complete.  I chose Autumn because I'm an Autumn baby and I loved the colours.

What I did not love is the frog that hid under the leaves!  I really like satin stitch as a rule but this was a PITA.  First of all I stitched one segment using the charted 3 strands.  That was lumpy, bumpy and not smooth.  So I frogged it.  Then I used 2 strands which was smooth and lovely to behold.  Until I'd stitched all five segments and found they didn't reach the top.  When I looked again and counted and double checked I realised that  you need seven stitches to cover six threads on the fabric, the seventh stitch being the outside edge of the block (make sense?).  So out it all came again!  I re-stitched and now it looks lovely again.

The frog has been unceremoniously dumped outside the back door before I mailed the parcel to Sophia a day early.  This is worth noting as this RR has been dogged by delays, both postal and personal to the contributors!

Next up was my day time project, the cutest little thing you ever saw:

Yes, it's Glow-in-the-Dark Ghostie Kitty!  Stitched with Kreinik Glow-in-the-Dark thread.  I tried to get the much cheaper DMC version but it was sold out.  What a surprise, why didn't I think of buying it not in October?  ps do you know how hard it is to photograph in darkness?  Answer - very, then you have to photoshop to see the pic at all!

Here is Kitty in the light:

I stitched Ghostie Kitty for my son because I'd already stitched these two for someone else and didn't want to stitch a third one.

Aren't they just amazing?  They have glow-in-the-dark eyes too.

Carolyn has charted them from another person's little animation thingies and she's done a great job.  Here's a link to her blog, the previous Freaky Freebie post gave the link to her Deviant Art page where you can also find the charts.

Finally, there's still time to sign up for the Hallowe'en Blog Hop.  Click on the tab at the top that says "Hallowe'en Blog Hop" not surprisingly!  Sign-ups close this Friday.