Theme-a-licious Looking Backward and Forward IX

Theme-a-licious is hosted by Heather of It's Geek to Me

Each month Heather thinks up a theme for us to stitch to, or in my case, a theme to somehow shoe-horn my existing stitching into, no matter how tenuous the link!

This was the theme for September:

Sampler September

Whether you're stitching the alphabet over and over (and over), starting your own band (sampler), or marking some spots, this is your month!

This most definitely was my month!  I love samplers.  First of all I stitched the September Alphabet Kitty in autumnal colours:

Then I spent the majority of the month stitching a new start, Just Nan's Autumn Typography:

This is stitched on 32 count Tobacco linen using a DMC conversion from the charted GAST.  I also changed the squirrels to red squirrels and stitched them over 1 to match the crows.  And I substituted the word Awesome for one of the Autumns, just because Autumn is Awesome!  The picture below is actually a better representation of the fabric colour but the threads are better on the top photo!

I then felt in the mood for Trick and Treat by Prairie Moon.  I only intended to stitch for a couple of evenings while I waited for the Mirabilia chart to arrive.  But I ended up doing a full fortnight I just loved it so much!  here is how it looked prior to this month:

And here it is now:

See what you can achieve when you OAAT?  I have stitched the whole height of the piece now.

During the day I have been stitching two challenge pieces; one is a secret for Anna the Stitch Bitch and the other is for the Needlecraft Haven.  I hope to have them both finished soon.

And onto the next month which is

Opulent October

It's time to don your tiaras and bring the bling! Stitch on projects with sparkly fibers, beads or charms.

The Mirabilia RR definitely comes into that category.  Not really sure what else does though.  Neither of the challenge pieces have bling, or any of the ornies I have lined up.  So maybe it will just be Mirabilia Month!

Finally I'm starting to think about next year's targets and challenges.  My "14 in '14" mainly.  Should I add the monthly challenges into that?  I chose smaller projects this year hoping to finish a few more but once again Round Robins and other obligation stitching took up more time than I'd allowed for.  Oh well, most of the fun is in making the list not working through it LOL.