October Smalls

         

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Rachel

For my Smalls stitching this year, I have chosen 12 smaller designs and numbered them for my WIPGO Board.  Each month one Small will be stitched in the evening timeslot and hopefully finished within the month. 


Last month I was stitching [never.more] from Hands on Designs and finished it all except adding a charm:

stitched on 32 count Khaki linen

This month, WIPGO called for Drawn Thread's Spot of Summer but I decided to ignore that and work on my Halloween Blackwork from Steady Thread instead.  Definitely not a Small but there are a number of motifs which could be stitched as stand alone pieces and be ornaments.

Like this lovely mini sampler:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

I finished my main focus piece for Dark October (dedicated post to follow!) so decided to start a small from the current Just Cross Stitch Halloween Special.  

This is stitched on the same 40 count linen as my main focus, there was enough left to stitch two smaller designs.  This one is Nevermore by Quaternion Creations

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

The white does show up better in person, this is a difficult fabric to photograph, it comes out paler than in real life.

 

Finally, I gave the [never.more] chart to my friend and she stitched it on RED!!  How stunning does this look?  She's got an amazing charm to go in the centre of the piece too.

October IHSW

 

IHSW or International Hermit and Stitch Weekend always starts on the third Friday of the month.  It's a chance to lock yourself away and focus on your stitching for the weekend.  You can take part on your blog or via the Facebook page - IHSW on Facebook.

This year I am trying something different for IHSW - an A-Z Challenge!  These usually take place in April and people stitch one letter every day except Sunday.  I don't want to swap projects daily so thought I could do 2 or 3 letters per IHSW instead.

The letters R and S were designated for October.  I don't have an R project so I went with three S projects which were actually the three projects I have been stitching all month!

First up was Cottage Garden SAMPLINGS and Halloween SAMPLER.

I had finished all the words and now have the motifs to work on.  It started here:

And finished here:

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

Next up was the Halloween Blackwork from The STEADY Thread, from here:

To here, completed the Home Sweet Home sampler, added some colour and a little bit of the lacy border, then almost all of the Witch picture:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

The third project is my Temperature Tree, again from The STEADY Thread.  That went from here:

To here, with a lot more of the border done:

and back down to green leaves again:

stitched on 28 count Meadow Mist linen from Silkweavers

Next month will be T, U and V.  Except I don't have anything for U or V so it will just be T projects.  I do have plenty of those!

Finally the next IHSW will be 15th - 17th November 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 by leaving a comment on my post.

October Gifted Gorgeousness Link-up Post

         

Welcome to the September Gifted Gorgeousness link-up. The link-up date continues 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.

My focus pieces for last month were both gifted charts and both finished.  During the day I stitched on Couer de Sorciere by TraLaLa:

stitched on 32 count Taupe evenweave

In the evening it was this little repeating design from Hands on Design, [never.more]

stitched on 32 count Khaki linen

Continuing progress on this one as we cool down to Lime again:

Steady Thread - Tree of Life Temperature SAL

stitched on 28 count Meadow Mist linen from Silkweavers

I record the temperature each day and then stitch the leaves on the Sunday morning.

My Dark 13 design is stitched on gifted fabric, a beautiful 40 count linen called Witch's Brew from Zweigart.  This is my current focus piece and I am stitching one word per day, then I will complete the motifs around the words.

stitched on 40 count linen called Witch's Brew from Zweigart

Finally, 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 "October 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 Fully Finished Fun for October

   

Hosted by Rachel the Ten Hour Stitcher

This SAL is designed to motivate us all to do something with that box of Finished pieces instead of just storing them under the bed.  We will all be linking up on Rachel's blog on or after the 10th of each month (10 Hour Stitcher - 10th of the month).

I'm on a roll, I finished more things!  Well, technically my framer FFO'd some things for me!

I took Capricorn in for her to work her magic once again.

The frame is a lovely reddish-brown which goes perfectly with her browns and reds.

Here she is on the wall:

And with Taurus.  I need another nail to be able to hang Virgo with them.

Virgo is in my bedroom with J for Joanne at the moment.

I also took this smaller piece with me and told the framer to do what she wanted with it as it was a gift for her.  It took her quite a few minutes to realise I was serious!  The story is - when I took Taurus in last year she joked that it was a gift for her as she is a Taurus and how I might not get her back.  So when Circle Cross finished her Lunar Calendar series with The Hare Moon for Taurus, I just had to stitch her as gift.  She's been framing my work for 20 years now, an average of 1 piece per year and I trust her 100% with the frame choices and my precious stitching.

Here's the frame she chose for herself:

I did FFO something myself.  Having shown the 3D Haunted House last month, that inspired me to finally FFO the 3D Haunted Mansion from 2022!  I'd done it all except for the base.  So here it is completely FFO'd in time for Halloween:

Here they are together:

And here are my 3D shelves:

The castle tower to the left is a bought piece made from felt.

Finally, if you want to see all the pieces framed by Thistles, check out the label on my Happy Dance Blog - Thistles Framing

I notice I need to add both Taurus and Capricorn to the blog!

October Plans

At the start of the year I made a list of 24 projects I want to stitch this year for my "24 in '24".  The order I stitch them in is going to be determined by the WIPGO Board.  Jessie-Marie calls two numbers each month and those will be the two projects I stitch that month.  One small and one medium.

In September, the numbers were 4 and 11.  These related to TraLaLa Couer de Sorciere and Hands on Design [never.more].  I have completed both of them now.

stitched on 32 count Taupe evenweave

stitched on 32 count Khaki linen

It would be nice to get these both FFO'd before the 10th, wouldn't it?

In October, the numbers are 8 and 17.  These relate to Cottage Garden Samplings' Halloween Sampler and Drawn Thread's Spot of Summer.

The Halloween sampler was always going to be my Dark October project regardless of when it was called so I allocated that as number 8.  I started this in January for Dark 13 and stitched one word per month. Here's where I was before the start of October:

Here's where I am now - 5 days and 5 new words added

stitched on 40 count Witches Brew linen from Zweigart

My evening piece is supposed to be Spot of Summer from Drawn Thread but I haven't started it yet.  I am thinking of rolling this one and Spot of Autumn over to next year.

Instead I have been stitching the Steady Thread Halloween SAL:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

I'm not keeping up with the releases, this is still only Part 1 but it's a lovely stitch and I'm really enjoying it so I'll keep going with it.

Finally, I have got behind on my blog posting again so don't be surprised if an older post pops up in your Reader!

October TUSAL

   

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current projects:

At the back, we have Cottage Garden Sampling's Halloween Sampler.  This has been my Dark Thirteen piece all year and now my focus piece for October.

stitched on 40 count Witches Brew linen from Zweigart

The smaller piece has been my evening project throughout September and is close to a finish now.  Hands on Design [never.more]

stitched on 32 count Khaki linen

Finally, I am behind in blogging again thanks to a bug that made me very tired and sleepy so expect to see some back-filled blog posts over the next few days!

September Smalls

        

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Rachel

For my Smalls stitching this year, I have chosen 12 smaller designs and numbered them for my WIPGO Board.  Each month one Small will be stitched in the evening timeslot and hopefully finished within the month.  

August's choice was Shepherd's Bush Halloween Trifles and I had finished two of them for last month's post.  Here's the 3rd:

stitched on 32 count Tigerlily Murano from Sparklies

For September, the draw called for [never.more] by Hands On Design and here's where I am with this one:

stitched on 32 count Khaki linen

Finally, I'm a long way behind in posting again!  This post has totally missed the deadline to link up.  Sorry Rachel!

 

September IHSW

 

IHSW or International Hermit and Stitch Weekend always starts on the third Friday of the month.  It's a chance to lock yourself away and focus on your stitching for the weekend.  You can take part on your blog or via the Facebook page - IHSW on Facebook.

This year I am trying something different for IHSW - an A-Z Challenge!  These usually take place in April and people stitch one letter every day except Sunday.  I don't want to swap projects daily so thought I could do 2 or 3 letters per IHSW instead.  

August was P and Q but I totally forgot to swap out my projects so I decided to roll them over to September.

I had a few choices for P but decided to focus on just one rather unloved project which covered both P and Q.  Mrs Peggotty's Queen of Hearts.

I started this one back in 2019 after loving her Alice design.  Unfortunately I got bogged down in the endless stripes on this one and haven't really enjoyed stitching her.  

So this month I decided to fill in the roses and then move across and try complete all of Page 2 which included some of her face.

This is where I stopped on The Longest Day:

Here's where I am now!

stitched over 1 on 25 count white evenweave

I'm really pleased with that progress so while it's never going to be my favourite project I can see I will finish it one day.  I also noticed that Mrs Peggotty has tweaked the design since I bought the chart.  Look at how different the frame is and how there are a lot less long straight lines of stitching to do.  Clearly I am not the only one who wasn't enjoying that aspect.

Here's what else I worked on over the weekend, two projects from Steady Thread.

The first is the Halloween SAL which I am doing in a Victorian Motto Sampler Shop thread called Violet Grey and some dark toned Anchor threads for the accents.

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

We're approaching the end of summer but we still have some lovely oranges and yellows for the Temperature Tree

stitched on 28 count Cashel Linen in Meadow Mist from Silkweavers

 

Next month will be R and S.  I don't have an R project at the moment but S is covered by a number of projects so I will be spoiled for choice!

Finally the next IHSW will be 18th - 20th 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 by leaving a comment on my post.

September Gifted Gorgeousness Link-up Post

        

Welcome to the September Gifted Gorgeousness link-up. The link-up date continues 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.

Last month, my evening piece was a chart I gave to a friend as a Birthday present and then she gave it back to me to stitch for myself!  I'm using the offcut of Sparklies' Tigerlily Murano for these.

Shepherd's Bush - Halloween Trifles

stitched on 32 count Tigerlily Murano from Sparklies

My focus piece for last month was Joan Elliott's Faces SAL, stitched on gifted fabric:

stitched on 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten

This month, both my focus pieces are also gifts!  The charts were sent to me by a lovely friend who was clearing some of her older stash.  During the day I am stitching on Couer de Sorciere by TraLaLa:

stitched on 32 count Taupe evenweave

In the evening it's this little repeating design from Hands on Design, [never.more]

stitched on 32 count Khaki linen

Continuing progress on this one as we cool down to Lime again:

Steady Thread - Tree of Life Temperature SAL

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stitched on 28 count Meadow Mist linen from Silkweavers

I record the temperature each day and then stitch the leaves on the Sunday morning.

I've caught up at last!

My Dark 13 design is stitched on gifted fabric, a beautiful 40 count linen called Witch's Brew from Zweigart.  My plan is to stitch one letter per month until we reach October and then complete it during Dark October.

stitched on 40 count linen called Witch's Brew from Zweigart

Finally, 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 "September 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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