September TUSAL and Stitching Library

     

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current projects:

To the left is my Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas project, stitching away on Day 4.

stitched on 32 count grey-blue linen

The other project is Stitchonomy's Cabinet of Curiosities.  We now have 8 motifs.  I am mostly stitching as charted with a few tweaks.  There will be a spider charm in the top right (I rotated the web 180 degrees too).  The Eye of Newt and the Magic Mushrooms have beads and the Apothecary Scales have gold metallic:

stitched on 28 count tan evenweave

I used gold metallic to make a chain-stitched chain for the scales:

What's on my Shelf?

This is a feature I'm going to include on my TUSAL post until I run out of books! I started a Page on my Happy Dance blog for my Stitching Library and realised what a huge task it was so decided to break it down to one book per month. For the next four years...

Title: The Ultimate Cross Stitch Alphabet Book

Author: Kooler Design Studio

Publisher: American School of Needlework
ISBN: 0881954772 (published in 1992 so no 13 digit ISBN!)

This is a great "Does what it says on the tin" book

quite simply, over 100 different alphabets!

from decorative fonts, to quirky lettering

Some large, some small, upper and lower case letters

The final page is rather useful too.  For each colour group there is a suggested list of Anchor, Coats and DMC colours from very light to very dark.  This is obviously useful for designing samplers but also very helpful for making conversions which I do quite often. 

Here is the selection of greens:

Finally, I'll be back later today for a WIPocalypse update.  Let's see how much I can get done on my Bothy Threads this afternoon.

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.

It's been a good weekend for stitching!  I was supposed to be going out for lunch on Friday but my son's school phoned to say he wasn't well and I had to go and fetch him.  My lovely friend still went to the cafe and brought me two large slices of cake back! 

So instead of cake and chat, I did stitching.  The WIPGO Board came up with Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas.  This is the first time I've picked it up all year and at the start of the weekend I had stitched a little of the blue background.

Here's where I am now:

stitched on 32 count grey-blue linen

The other project I have been working on is the Stitchonomy Cabinet of Curiosities.  The frame came out on the 10th September and the first motif on the 17th.  What a nice Birthday present!

I managed to stitch all the blocks and I'm working on the border as I complete each motif.  So far we have a Jar of Eye of Newt (Eyes of Newts?) and a Crystal Ball.

stitched on 28 count tan evenweave

The Facebook group is so much fun at the moment, everyone is posting their progress and their adaptations.  I added beads to my newts' eyes.

My evening project has been the 3D Haunted Mansion from Fiona Baker.  I've finished all four walls and might actually stitch them together rather than work on the roof pieces which are not very exciting!  That will leave evenings free for the Cabinet of Curiosities and give me half a chance to keep up!

I've flipped the photo so you can see both sides the right way up!

stitched on 28 count purple linen

Finally, the next IHSW will be 21st - 23rd 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.

Gifted Gorgeousness September 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 main gifted project is my Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow which is my focus project for the year.  Last GG I had made great progress on Block 8 which was here:

It didn't take much to finish this block

And make a tiny start on the bottom row with Block 9:

Here's the whole piece so far:

stitched over one on 25 count Cassia Rose evenweave from Chromatic Alchemy

I finished my Just Nan Mermaid Heart which was a Birthday gift from my son  a few years back.

stitched on 32 count grey-green linen

(more like the called-for Rue Green than this shows)

I picked up Scream House at the start of this month to replace Mermaid Heart, the chart was a gift:

I stitched that little froggie, added the pumpkin beads and backstitched round all the blocks ready for FFO'ing

This is the latest Stitchonomy SAL - The Cabinet of Curiousities.  The kit was a gift from Alyssa for helping admin the group, which now has over 14,000 members!

stitched on 28 count tan evenweave

The kit came with Milk Chocolate Aida but I prefer evenweave so I gave the Aida to a friend who is also stitching the SAL.

The last piece of GG is my Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas.  I only picked this up today so there is a just a little blue on Day 4 so far:

stitched on 32 count grey-blue linen

Now 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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Finally, it's IHSW coming up this weekend plus we have an extra Bank Holiday so I'm hoping to get more stitching in on both the Stitchonomy and the Bothy Threads.  The first motif for Stitchonomy comes out on Saturday 17th and then daily for the next 31 days.  It's going to be an effort to keep up with all my other projects too but we shall see!

Finally Fully Finishing for September

     

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).

After the excitement of last month and an early appearance of an FFO, we are back to the usual "let's make the 9th FFO Day".

I managed to frame two pieces, one is an older finish which was waiting for the right frame and the other is a fresh finish from the end of August.

Here's Autumn In The Square from Just Nan:

That's a bit blurry but the colours are accurate.

Here's a close-up so you can see the sweet little hedgehog button I used instead of the charm in the centre:

One change I made from the original was to alternate red and grey squirrels around the edge of the design.

The next piece is also a Just Nan, this is Mermaid Heart:

and my ongoing quest to get a decent colour-match to the fabric, this is a skein of DMC 926 which is the same colour as the fabric.   Go and get your 926 and then you will see how inaccurate the photos are!

Here's an update on one from July, this is also a Just Nan!  Tea with Honey which has travelled it's way onto Mary to stitch.  I managed to get a little teaset from a doll's house company and stick the pieces on to some flat-topped pins to hold them in place:

Finally, here's one that will hopefully be an FFO by next month.  Another Just Nan!  This is Scream House.  Here are the four external walls that now have pumpkin beads added to the fences:

I didn't have the special stripy beads Nan used so I just used two slightly different orange beads from my stash:

Here's the piece charted for the base, but I'm going to use it for the inside floor as I'm not making the pumpkin pincushion.

Look at that - a whole post of Just Nan!

The People Chose Sea Creatures

      

This SAL is all about what you want to see on the blog.  I asked for suggestions for themes and then put them up to the members of the IHSW Group on FB to vote for their choice.  Now we are working through the choices.  This is what has been chosen:

September - Sea Creatures

October - Wild Animals

November - Travel

Now some people's minds may be going to mermaids, but we have already had that choice and I showed mine here - The People Chose Mermaids - June 2019

So for me, I will stick with fishes etc.  The first two are my lovely Pisces fish from the Donna Kooler Zodiac:

This is a lovely sampler I get out every Summer.  It's from The Stitcher's Hideaway and is titled Hear the Sea Call:

I love those little mother-of-pearl fishies.

There are tiny seahorse charms on my latest finish - Just Nan's Mermaid Heart:

Bluebeard's Mermaid by Mirabilia has some very fancy seahorses too:

Strangely enough, there are sea creatures in Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow too.  Most unusual to have an underwater scene in a Halloween design!  Several little fish and even an octopus.

My Discworld Mapp had a couple of sea creatures; this spurting fish:

And a rather magnificient Octopus Lady:

And now it's over to you.  All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Sea Creatures, mention The People's Choice SAL (you can copy the picture I used at the top of this post and in my side bar) and my blog. Please link up using the URL of the actual blog post, not the home page of your blog.   I look forward to seeing what you all post.

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Finally, I need your suggestions for the next poll.  Anything, no matter how obscure, weird or random will go into the poll.  Keep the theme suggestions to a single word or two - so you could have Elephants, or Green, or Holidays, or Warmth etc.   Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

August Stitch from Stash and Pie

 It's time for some end of the month Pie!

Continuing to hit my 14 days goal on Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow.  This month I continued with Block 5 which went from here:

to a finish here:

then on to Block 8:

stitched over one on 25 count Cassia Rose evenweave from Chromatic Alchemy

I should get that finished in the first few days of September and then go down to Block 9.

So far the number of days is:

Block 7 - 13 days

Block 6 - 16 days

Block 2 - 19 days

Block 3 - 20 days

Block 4 - 15 days

Block 1 - 19 days

Block 5 - 25 days

Block 8 - 11 days and counting

The WIPGO Board called for Virgo by Nora Corbett which was most serendipitous as we are currently in the star sign of Virgo.  I'm also using a fabric called Virgo for this one!

I did show the finish in my WIPocalypse post but I made a small adjustment since then - I made her earring more dangly:

Here's some more photos:

Here's how she compares to the original on the right:

I started with the dress which is charted for 414 and 415, shades of grey rather than the blue it looks on the cover photo.  I changed those to the lavenders in the new colours - 25 to 30

Her skin is as charted (although it looks paler in the cover photo).

Her hair was the biggest change, I went for the 550 family of purples.

The Caron colours have been changed to two Stef Francis threads, one silk and one cotton.  I used the silk for the butterflies and backstitched in silver metallic.

I also used the silver metallic for the antenna, which I backstitched, then whipstitched to hide the places where it entered the fabric.

The wings are now a purple blending filament with a touch of green satin in the "eyes".  I used a DMC Satin thread for the satin stitch!  Then surrounded them with purple beads.

The larger beads have stayed as charted but all the others have changed.  For the necklaces I stitched over the gaps left in the design for beads and simply strung them on thread and tacked down at intervals so they hung more naturally.

The lowest strand of beads was charted with squares of stitching with a bead in the middle.  I used sequins held in place with a bead.

My final project for the month is Just Nan's Mermaid Heart, which is also a finish!

stitched on 32 count grey-green linen

I am going to try get a better photo of the linen colour!

I've kept my usual bath-time stitching pie as well.  

Most of the month went on the Haunted Mansion by Fiona Baker from World of Cross Stitching magazine.  Warning - this needs two skeins of DMC 333 which is not indicated in the magazine.

stitched on 28 count purple linen

Finally, Stitch from Stash:

Only the usual Shannon Christine 12 Days charts and the continuing Year in the Woods from CGS for this month.