November 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 October, the numbers were 8 and 17.  These related to Cottage Garden Samplings' Halloween Sampler and Drawn Thread's Spot of Summer.

I finished the Halloween Sampler and didn't even start the Spot of Summer.  That can roll over to 2025 along with Spot of Autumn.

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

In the evenings I stitched the Steady Thread Halloween SAL:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

In November, the numbers are 14 and 16.  These relate to Maria Brovko Life in the Shire and Full Circle Designs Moonshadow Mini "A Child's Dream".

A while back I bought a batch of charts from Ukrainian designers to support them and this is one of them:

I haven't decided what fabric to stitch it on, I want to make sure the black backstitch shows up well on the blue.

The other chart is an old one I picked up in a needlework shop just because it was sweet.  I like a mini sampler and it came with the moon button. 

Here's a close-up of the design:

I'll stitch the sampler rather than the needleroll.

Finally, I am making plans for 2025!  After a year of small/medium designs I have two larger pieces I want to focus on and then keep up with some of the series I started the last couple of years.  Designs such as the Zodiac Girls, the 12 Days of Christmas, The Year in the Woods.  I'll publish my finished list next month as it's very much a WIP at the moment.

November TUSAL

    

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current projects:

The main project is the Halloween Blackwork from The Steady Thread:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

This one is a cute little extra for the month.  The lovely Jocondine sent me a beautiful gift package for my Birthday which included a kit for Miguel le Cameleon.  Apparently Miguel is an icon who comes in a variety of designs, this one is the Skeleton, perfect for Halloween.

stitched on 36 count dark green linen

Finally, a big Thank You to everyone who linked up for my Spooky Link-up, I'm going to be hopping around and visiting everyone this weekend.

October Stitch from Stash and Pie

 It's time for pie!

Most of the month was spent on my Halloween Sampler from Cottage Garden Samplings which I managed to finish:

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

Once I finished the main sampler, I cut off the bottom of the fabric and stitched this little small from the JCS Halloween Special 2024.  This is from Quaternion Creations and is called Nevermore.  I left off the words from the bottom of the design.

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

I have enough fabric to stitch one or two more smalls.

I added some more of the border to my Blackwork Temperature Tree:

I also started this cute little Skeleton Chameleon from Fil'anthrope:

stitched on 36 count Dark Green linen

The evenings were dedicated to my Steady Thread Halloween Blackwork and my pie looks like this:

It now looks like this:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

Finally, Stitch from Stash and my spending was higher that expected:

The local wool shop is closing down and were selling off everything at a discount including DMC at 60p a skein.  Yes, my US friends, that is very cheap for us!  So I grabbed the colours I needed plus some of the variegated threads I wanted.

I also went over to the needlework shop in the next town to collect my JCS Christmas magazine and while I was there picked up two of the Cottage Garden Samplings Year of Houses charts.  I won't get all of them, just the ones I particularly like.

I bought these two.

I also like the Hobbit House, the Tree House and the Haunted House.

Halloween Spooky Link-up 2024

   

This is the time of year when I'd usually do my Trick or Treat Blog Hop but due to circumstances beyond my control, I just haven't had time to organise it this year.

Instead, we will have a Spooky Link-up party all week!  Just make a post on anything spooky; stitching, decorating, crafting etc and link up below.  Make sure you come back and visit some of the other bloggers too.  We've all noticed visits and comments dropping this year so it would be nice to show some spooky love to our fellow bloggers.

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Here's what I have to share with you all.  This year I have been stitching for Dark 13 each month.  I chose the Halloween Sampler from Cottage Garden Samplings and stitched on word per month

At the start of the month I had completed up to I:

And now we have a finish!

Here's the whole piece:

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

I just need to find a square black frame that is big enough for this design.

I did manage to FFO the three Halloween Trifles from Shepherd's Bush, using a wooden pumpkin board from The Works.  I mixed up some orange acrylic paint with a splash of black and diluted it with water to make a paint wash which turned out really well.  Then I mounted each of the three pieces to card and stuck them to the board with double sided tape.

I didn't have the right charms so I just chose some from my stash

I realised I had used all my spider charms so used this bigger web instead:

Very pleased with the final result:

Here are some more photos of my Spooky Stitching on display this year:

Finally, enjoy the Spooky Link-ups!

        

all from Hyraea

October WIPocalypse Stash Storage

         

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings

Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World. Since 2011 I have chosen a number of projects to focus on that year, starting with my "11 in '11" and increasing to "24 in '24" for this year. This month I stitched on just 2 of them but did get both finished.

11. Hands on Designs [never.more]

24. Cottage Garden Samplings Halloween Sampler

Finally, Measi always gives us a topic to discuss:

October – How do you organize your WIPs and stash?

I have managed to get all my WIPs into 2 places.  The projects bags with the charts and any special threads all live in this bag:

If the design is small enough to fit into an A4 plastic wallet or rolled up inside a kitchen roll tube then it's in the project bag.

If not, then it's rolled up inside an old wrapping paper tube and stored on top of this cupboard:

Each of the tubes has the name of the project written on the outside of the tube so I can find the right one quickly.

My DMC all live in Floss Away bags on rings inside this large bag.  It holds the entire set of DMC in one easy to carry bag:

My speciality threads and metallics are in another similar bag.  Kreinik and beads are in boxes near my stitching spot.  Fabrics are in the cupboard where I store my charts and FFO'd pieces when not on display.

Unfortunately, all these places are in different rooms of the house!  I'd love to have just one craft room and keep everything in one place but that's not possible right now.  So the stuff I use every day is in the kitchen, stuff I use regularly is in the living room or the bedroom and stuff I need less frequently is in my utility room where I have a large cupboard to store all those things you only want once every few months.

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.