November IHSW with SALs and Added Turkey

 

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.

I started IHSW on Friday for a change, thanks to being furloughed there was no work!  Leonore and I have been working on a Just Nan band sampler again.  We chose Snowfire Christmas this time and it's rather larger than our previous SAL!  So I decided to spend the afternoon finishing up Band 8.

stitched on 32 count Burgundy Linen

(same colour as DMC 816)

Saturday saw another new start for Rachel and Tiff's Naughty November SAL.  I recently joined the Gift of Stitching Facebook Group and we're having an Ornament SAL there so this was a chance to hit two challenges with one design.  

I chose Red Berries by Rosewood Manor from the December 2006 issue:

 

stitched on 32 count mid green linen

That was a nice quick finish.  I used DMC 4045 for the green and 221 for the red stitches.  I used Mill Hill petite beads in red and gold for the baubles and the stars.

I finished the design on Sunday and even had time to FFO an ornament for yet another SAL - FFO Weekend in the Just Cross Stitch Ornament SAL FB group.  I'll share that in Rachel's FFO Gallery in December.

At bathtime I continued with my Owl Winder Pocket from Just Nan:

stitched on 28 count Tan Jobelan

So that's the SALs, but where does the Turkey come in?  Regular followers of Astrid's Blog will know all about her annual Turkey posts where she shows the artwork from her local Primary School.  Each child is given an outline of a turkey which they personalise with a bid for us not to eat the turkey.  It's my favourite post of the entire year.  Due to Covid Astrid was unsure whether she would be able to get photos of the children's work so she invited us to join in!

Here is my masterpiece:

Do you like him?  My son actually came up with the idea but declined to draw him so I used Paint to render him in all his finery.  A match for any 1st Grader I am sure!

Finally, the next IHSW will be 18th - 20th December 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.

November TUSAL

 

It's TUSAL time!

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current projects:

On the left I have the latest Naughty November New Start for the SAL with Tiff and Rachel.  This week I stitched part of a freebie from the Cross Stitching Guild on Facebook :

stitched over one on 28 count evenweave in Moondust from Crafty Kitten

I have the yellow to fill in the windows and a small hill to add.  There's also a creepy tree.  The idea is to add various small houses and fill the fabric.  

The project on the right is my current bath-time project.  Just Nan's Owl Winder Pocket.  Started for Maynia in 2018.  There is the centre square design which only needs their eyes and some corner stitches.  Then there is a lovely diagonal striped area and a smaller fence design.  The two smaller designs will form the pocket.  I don't have the Owl Winder so I may make it into a pillow finish instead.  Or find something else to fit in there!

stitched on 28 count tan Jobelan

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Finally, it's time to sign up for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop!  For this hop, each participant is allocated a day in December to make their post on.  They will show something they have stitched on a Christmas theme and answer the topic question I set.   I then copy their photo onto my blog post in the style of an Advent Calendar.

So if you'd like to join in, please leave a comment or send me an email.  Let me know if there is a date you would particularly like or one you'd like to avoid.  I will be in touch towards the end of the month!

Here is a link to last year's so you can see how it works:

2019 Online Advent Calendar

November Gifted Gorgeousness Link-up Post

 

Welcome to the November 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.

Back in September I stitched on my Chatelaine a lot and decided to pick it up again in November to complete the fourth Garden.  Here's where I started this month:

stitched on 32 count Cotton Clouds Belfast from Crafty Kitten

And here is where I am now:

This was a gift for my special Birthday in 2016, a lot of my friends sent skeins of threads which I have labelled with their name so I think of them as I stitch.

Because of Dark October, I did not stitch my JBW 12 Days of Christmas last month, so I have two to show this month.  The charts were gifts from friends.

stitched on 40 count white linen

As usual I will add the beads when I finish the set of three.  I am not sure why the Leaping Lord is a stag but I do like him.  He is a Lord of the Forest.

I have decided to continue with my Dark Stitching on the 13th of every month so I spent a day on Scream House.  The chart was a gift from a destashing stitcher and the border thread was a gift from Mouse.  I stitched almost all of the floor:

stitched on 28 count Wood Violet linen from Permin

I am also using a gifted thread on my Just Nan Sampler SAL design; Snowfire Christmas.  The red is a Dinky Dyes silk called Pilbara which was a gift from Stitching Noni:

stitched on 28 count Burgundy Linen
(same colour as DMC 816)

 

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 "November 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 time to sign up for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop!  For this hop, each participant is allocated a day in December to make their post on.  They will show something they have stitched on a Christmas theme and answer the topic question I set.   I then copy their photo onto my blog post in the style of an Advent Calendar.

So if you'd like to join in, please leave a comment or send me an email.  Let me know if there is a date you would particularly like or one you'd like to avoid.  I will be in touch towards the end of the month!

Here is a link to last year's so you can see how it works:

2019 Online Advent Calendar

Finally Fully Finishing Fun for November

  

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).

Suffice to say, it has been a bumper month here for FFO'ing!  I'll start with my scrapbook pages.

Puntini Puntini Spooky Halloween

Jaunty Fox Fence Cat

Val's Stuff Boo

Val's Stuff Boo Moon

Val's Stuff Trick or Treats

SF Vailly Cuore di Hallowe'en

Julia Lucas Trick or Treat

Barefoot Needle Art Framed Fright

Stitchy Fish Designs Happy Halloween

Turquoise Graphics & Design Downdraft

Now a couple you have seen before,  but not for the FFO Gallery - Beware by Just Nan:

Just Nan Autumn Mouse Scissor Roll:

Here's one that I didn't FFO, but Clare did.  She will be adding it to her Christmas Tree in her Church's festival this year.

Moss Creek Designs Amaryllis

And now, the pièce de résistance, my Scary Apothecary trio from Hands On Design:

This is a multi-frame from B&M made of black plastic.  It was pretty much impossible to frame them without the glass which then made it difficult to take the photos!

For the horizontal frames, I have used some scrapbook paper.  The plan is to stitch some poison bottles on perforated paper and add them to the piece.  Next year.

All three were stitched on 28 count Radioactive linen from Chromatic Alchemy

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Finally, it's time to sign up for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop!  For this hop, each participant is allocated a day in December to make their post on.  They will show something they have stitched on a Christmas theme and answer the topic question I set.   I then copy their photo onto my blog post in the style of an Advent Calendar.

So if you'd like to join in, please leave a comment or send me an email.  Let me know if there is a date you would particularly like or one you'd like to avoid.  I will be in touch towards the end of the month!

Here is a link to last year's so you can see how it works:

2019 Online Advent Calendar

Naughty November

Four new starts per weekend in November.

This idea was cooked up by Rachel and Tiff in order to add some excitement to November.  Because who doesn't need some new starts just as we come to the close of the year and are trying to finish projects?

I was so undecided what to stitch to join in with this - four Hallowe'en, four Christmas, four Just Nan, four random freebies??  Four BAPs to get a head start on 21 in '21?

In the end I decided I didn't want to add to my total number of WIPs this year which meant stitching something I could finish in a weekend.  Something small.  Something tiny.  Three tiny things in the end!

stitched over one on 28 count Moondust Murano from Crafty Kitten

I've been helping admin the Stitchonomy Facebook Group this year.  Because apparently it's a rule that if I join a group, at some point I will be asked to help admin it.  

(Side story - when I left work to have my son I decided not to go back at the end of my maternity leave.  One of my colleagues said "I'll give it six months and you'll be running something".  Sure enough - I was running the Toddler Group we went to!)

Anyway, Stitchonomy have just finished the Halloween SAL and I was planning to stitch my favourite motifs for my scrapbook.  Alyssa had designed a cute little haunted house and one or two others had done their own versions.  Which was when I had my plan - a tiny haunted village!  The top left design is the original by Alyssa and the other two can be found in the group on Facebook.  We are taking sign-ups for the Winter SAL, why not join us?

So that is three new starts and finishes for the first weekend.  Is it a bit naughty to count three minis as separate projects?  Well, that is the name of the SAL!

Next weekend I intend to stitch some more freebies I have been collecting and build my village up.

I actually had a new start the previous weekend, a new SAL with Leonore and some of the Just Nan FB group.  Yes, there has to be a Just Nan in my rotation at all times.

stitched on 28 count Burgundy linen

(think DMC 816 for a colour match)

The design is Snowfire Christmas and we choose this one because Leonore had it, she does not yet have such an extensive collection of JN samplers as I do.  I've set up a schedule of 2-3 bands per week to finish by Christmas.  The original is charted on white linen so this is a bold choice.

The other project I've been working on is my Alice in Wonderland SAL.  I didn't stitch the October block because it was Dark October so the plan was to do two blocks this month.  But last month the design was The Frog and Fish Footmen and this month is The Knave of Hearts.  With only one month to go, there is still no sign of The Queen of Hearts or the Caterpillar.  Both essential characters for me.

So I stitched the Knave of Hearts in his block.  If next month is the Queen, she will go in the bottom left block and I will chart a Caterpillar for the bottom right.  If next month is the Caterpillar, I will chart the Queen.  If next month is neither than I will just have to chart them both!!

Knave of Hearts before backstitch

Knave of Hearts with backstitch

The whole project so far:

stitched on 32 count Yellow Belfast linen

It's an absolutely gorgeous design and I've loved stitching it.  It's a little disappointing that she randomly chose not to use the Tenniel illustration for the White Rabbit and used The Tweedles from Looking Glass but no other characters from that book.

The Knave has some gold thread and lots of beads to add.  I'll be doing those at the end.

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎅🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Finally, it's time to sign up for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop!  For this hop, each participant is allocated a day in December to make their post on.  They will show something they have stitched on a Christmas theme and answer the topic question I set.   I then copy their photo onto my blog post in the style of an Advent Calendar.

So if you'd like to join in, please leave a comment or send me an email.  Let me know if there is a date you would particularly like or one you'd like to avoid.  I will be in touch towards the end of the month!

Here is a link to last year's so you can see how it works:

2019 Online Advent Calendar

The People Choose Magic

 

 

This SAL is all about what you want to see on the blog.  Each month I ask for suggestions for themes and then put them up to the members of the IHSW Group on FB to vote for their choice.  This is what they have chosen:

November - Magic

December - Stitching Disasters

January - Designer of the Year

Last month was Wizards and now we have Magic, so there is some overlap there!  We turn once again to the great Sir Terry Pratchet for a quote or two:

“What is magic?
There is the wizard's explanation... wizards talk about candles, circles, planets, stars, bananas, chants, runes and the importance of having at least four good meals every day.”

Then there is the witches' explanation, which comes in two forms, depending on the age of the witch. Older witches hardly put words to it at all, but may suspect in their hearts that the universe really doesn't know what the hell is going on and consists of a zillion trillion billion possibilities, and could become any one of them if a trained mind rigid with quantum certainty was inserted into the crack and twisted; that, if you really had to make someone's hat explode, all you needed to do was twist into that universe where a large number of hat molecules all decide at the same time to bounce off in different directions.

Younger witches, on the other hand, talk about it all the time and believe it involves crystals, mystic forces, and dancing about without yer drawers on.

Everyone may be right, all at the same time. That's the thing about quantum.”

― Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

First, I'll share a wizard I forgot to include last month, sorry Gandalf!

Gandalf by Pixel Power,

Runes charted by me

Joan Elliott did a diary in 2013 which was later released as A Year of Magical Stitching.  Here are some of the designs I have stitched from that:

Quite a variety of magical creatures and people there.  The October design is a witch and I will stitch her one day.  In the mean time, we have a lovely Nora Corbett Bewitching Pixie, Raven:

And Brooke's Books' Trixie the Halloween Witch:

And what do witches do?  They put a hex on you!

Witchy Brew by Witchy Stitches

They would need to get the ingredients from the Potions, Brews and Spells Shop:

Potions, Brews and Spells by Cherished Stitches

And then there is the magic of friendship found through a mutual love of blogging and stitching!  Here's where I hand over to my blogging friends.

All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Magic, 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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A note for next month - Kerry in Stitches did a FlossTube tag on this theme.  If you want to use some of her questions to help with December's post, please do.  I will be!

Kerry in Stitches

Finally, thank you to everyone who took part in my annual Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop this year, whether by posting a letter or by hopping round and visiting.  There were some new commenters this year which was nice.  Most of you were "no-reply" so I couldn't respond but I did read the comments and appreciate them.  The phrase was:

"Come, sit for a spell"

Nice and simple this year!  Now the Hallowe'en Hop is done, it's time to sign up for the Christmas Advent Calendar again.  You all know how this works but I'll include a link to last year's for a reminder.  Just leave a comment if you'd like to join in this year.

2019 Online Advent Calendar

October Stitch From Stash and Pie

 Anyone want a slice of pumpkin pie?

Only my focus pieces show on my pie, not my daily stitch or my bathtime stitching, that's just too complicated!

So the first 4 days were spent stitching and making my little Autumn Mouse from Just Nan and then I spent 14 days making the Scissor Roll to go with it.

Then I moved on to Just Nan's Scream House.  I knew I would not be able to finish this one.  There are 4 internal walls, 4 external walls, 8 roof pieces and 2 floor pieces.  But I was aiming for at least 3 walls.  I managed to stitch all 4 internal walls which I was very pleased with:

stitched on 28 count Wild Violet linen

Next to Netty, we have Boolah and Foolah who will have a little scissor pouch between them, made from wool felt.

The left hand wall will have a wool felt triangle added to make a witch's hat to hold needles.  On the right we have Bootiful the ghost with a lovely garland ready to decorate the house.

Every wall was a delight to stitch and I really enjoyed them.  I am thinking of making this a Dark 13 Project and stitching on it for the 13th of every month from now on.  I don't want to wait until next October to pick it up again.

Stitch from Stash was a bit of a bust this month!  I had ordered the new Just Nan Owls of October II and Pansy Mix to spend the remainder of my Birthday money on and decided to pay a personal visit to the shop to collect it.  Bad idea for the wallet LOL.  

As soon as we got there, she said "I've got your Just Nan charts but I also got an extra copy of this.  No pressure to buy it though".

"This" was Halloween Days Sewing Basket by Mani di Donna:

Because that is just what I need for my spooky displays!  The chartpack comes with the handle  and the bat charm so it just fell into my basket.

October
JN Owls of October     £21.99
JN Pansy Mix                £ 8.99
Mani di Donna chart     £21.99
Wild Violet Linen         £ 8.47
Kreinik 027                   £ 4.99
JN 2 charts                    £ 3.98
JN Spooky Spirits         £23.10
Total                             £93.51

The linen I needed for Scream House and the Kreinik for Beware.  The 2 Just Nan charts were eBay bargains and the Spooky Spirits?  An older chart I happened to find in an online Needlework shop, Create Nostalgia.

Luckily I have almost enough credit from previous no-spend months so I am only minus £6 at the moment with two months to go.

Finally, here are some photos of my Spooky Stitching for Halloween.  I have a few larger samplers on the walls but this is the main area, a corner of my living room: