May Stitch From Stash and Pie

The end of May means the end of Maynia and I successfully stitched on one of my Just Nan Smalls every single day in May.  I started 32 last year (I had one double-day) and stitched each one on the anniversary of the day it was started in 2018.

Here are all 32 from this year:

Of course, the first one is finished now and I have done much more on Days 2 and 3.  They will be my focus smalls for June and July.

My Maynia plans for next year are to stitch on each of the designs which don't get finished over the course of the next 12 months and then find some more smalls to start, maybe Just Nan, maybe Christmas Ornaments.  We shall see.

Here's how my Pie looked for May:

I managed my full 2 weeks on the Discworld Mappe.  Here's where it was at the start of the month:

And here's where I am now:



We have a turtle flipper and a small island!

Once I had completed my 2 weeks on Discworld I turned to an old WIP - My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez.  This was originally released in 6 parts in the digital magazine The Gift of Stitching.  Here's where I abandoned it in 2012:

And here's where I am now:

stitched on 40 count white linen

Close-up of the portion I stitched this month.

The lace is so pretty.  Based on the amount stitched in 8 days I estimate I have another 3 weeks worth of stitching for this one.  So, the question is - do I continue to work on it for a week each in June, July and August or do I work on some of my other "19 in '19" projects for this year?

Finally, Stitch From Stash:

Nothing	£0.00
Total	£0.00

Yes, a big fat nothing!  Not so much as one skein of DMC.

May Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

For this SAL I am showing the monthly project for the Christmas Ornie Blog. I am choosing from the back issues of the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Specials. This month we could chose any ornament from the 2001 issue.  Owing to a slight mishap with the years last month, I stitched the 2001 Dragon Dreams design in April, so I'm stitched the 2002 in May instead.  No-one will notice if you don't tell them!

stitched on 32 count green linen

The words originally read "Peace on Earth" but when I was stitching I kept singing "Peace and Harmony" which all parents of young children will know is a song sung by Madame Gazelle in Peppa Pig!

My Hallowe'en "small" is to add some small details to my spooky conversion of Lavender & Lace's Enchanted Alphabet.  This month I added pumpkins:

stitched on 32 count Murano in Tiger Lily by Sparklies

I had one finish for my Just Nan-a-thon, this one took a lot longer than most of them but it is done now, ready to be scrapbooked:

Just Nan -Butterfly Lace

stitched on 32 count Lavender Evenweave

Once this one was finished I moved on to the next one in line; Butterfly Needlebook.  I decided to stitch the whole turquoise border on both parts of the design first:

stitched on 28 count hand-dyed pink linen

And each day I stitched one length on one of the 32 designs started for Stitch Maynia last year.  Here are the last 7 designs:

Finally, I'll be back later with my Pie and Stitch from Stash post!!

May WIPocalypse Shopping for Stash

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 "19 in '19" for this year.  You can find the full list here.

This month I stitched on five of my list:

1. Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace

 stitched on 32 count Murano in Tiger Lily from Sparklies

2. Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

3. Gathering Eggs by Nora Corbett

stitched on 35 count Vintage Country Mocha Linen

4. Summer Typography by Just Nan - Day 200 = 2,000 stitches!

stitched on 32 count Pink Linen

5. My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez

stitched on 40 count White linen

Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too.

May – Where do you love to shop for stash?

What I'd like to say is - a little shop run by a woman and her mother, who stock a wide range of charts, fabrics and threads.  Who offer advice and have models on the walls and an exhibition space upstairs.  Unfortunately Hobbycraft opened up less than a mile away and stole all her trade.

Now I use a mixture of online stores trying to use places run by enthusiasts.  Lakeside Needlecraft is one of the first places I look, Kate is very helpful.  If she hasn't got what I need then SewandSo is the next port of call.  For hand-dyed fabrics, it's Crafty Kitten or Sparklies.  There is a small needlework shop about 10 miles away who supplies me with the latest Just Nan designs.

Two places I will never shop - Hobbycraft and Amazon.

At the moment I'm not really doing a lot of shopping anyway, thanks to Stitch From Stash and my lack of personal budget!  But when my Birthday rolls around I will be looking to buy a couple of charts.

Finally, here's a couple more photos from the Art Exhibition I went to.  Hope you like them.

Stitch Maynia Continues

As the title says, I am continuing with Stitch Maynia.  Some people stop at Day 15, some at Day 19 (for 2019) and others keep going all month.  Last year I started 32 Just Nan Smalls, one per day and two on one day.  This year I am adding one length of thread on the same day as I started the design last year.

Here are days 21 to 25:

I completed my 14 days on the Discworld Mappe on Wednesday with a nameless island and some backstitch:

bit blurry!

Here's the whole piece for the month:

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

That left me 9 days this month to stitch on one project.  I had a look at my "19 in '19" list and decided that it would be good to make some progress on the oldest project on the list - My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez.  Started in November 2011, this was a partwork in the digital magazine Gift of Stitches.  I stitched quite a lot in 2011 and 2012 and then ground to a halt in 2012.  This is where it was the last time I blogged about it:

For each of The Longest Day Marathons I added a little bit of border but that was it.  So far I have been focusing on the left hand side trying to complete a page of the chart.  Here's where I am now:

stitched on 40 count white linen

Here's the portion I've been working on this week:

This is stitched on 40 count linen, which was the recommended fabric.  I'm using a DMC conversion from the charted Valdani, a mixture of one strand and two.  If you look closely you can see there is some over one stitching too.  The bolt of linen next to the T is over one, as is the little thimble.  But the most challenging part was the heart to the left of the photo.  That is all over one!  The thread on the spools is all satin stitch and the little pinheads are tiny smyrna stitches.

There is a still quite a bit more to do, this is only 2/3 of the design, it will be square when it's done.  I hope to get the bottom left corner done this month.

Finally, I went along to a small art exhibition in an empty shop unit near in the town centre.  A group of local artists have hired it for six weeks.  Here are some of my favourite pieces:

Gorgeous colours!

Love this little ship

had a great chat with this artist

The "silver darlings" are the herring our town was famous for back its heyday.

The artist has used little bits of jewellery chain to make the scales.

May 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.  Links at the bottom of this post.

Once again I was working on my Discworld Mappe.  I am determined to get 2 weeks every month on this project.

Here's where I was on the 15th:

Here's the part I worked on this weekend:

And here's the piece right now:

The little banner says "Circumfence"

The Circumfence is a sturdy wood-stakes-and-ropes barrier running almost a third of the Rim of the Disc, constructed by the island nation Krull.  Hapless ships and vessels continually get washed toward the Edge, and by means of the Circumfence, Krullians are able to salvage many useful things; for example, many houses are constructed from parts of ships.  In the old days, people who ran into the Circumfence would get captured by the Krullian navies and serve as slaves or even sacrificial victims (see The Colour of Magic).  Nowadays, Krullians rescue these people and charge them heavy salvage rates, a much more peaceful but just as profitable use of the barrier.

Source: L-space - Circumfence

I'm also making steady progress on my evening piece.  This is the project I stitch while The Small Boy is in the bath.  The current project is The Queen of Hearts by Mrs Peggotty.  Here's where she was last IHSW:

And here is where she is now:

stitched on 22 count white hardanger

The idea is to do as much of the background as I can before starting on the more interesting part of the Queen.  Some evenings I get a lot done, others not so much. Last night all I got done was that scrap of pale pink with the thread attached.  The previous night I managed those three dark stripes down the right hand side which was much more productive.

A few people have said that they don't do Facebook and asked if I could host a link-up for them, so here it is! Just add your name and the link to your actual IHSW post, not just your blog home page.

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The next IHSW will be 21st - 23rd June 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.


Finally, Stitch Maynia!   For Maynia this year I am stitching on the same projects I started last May.   I started one Just Nan small per day so this year I am stitching one strand on each project on their relevant day.  Here are the projects for Days 16 to 20:

Isn't it weird how different all the fabrics look from last year to this?

May Gifted Gorgeousness Link-up Post

Welcome to the May 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 project for Gifted Gorgeousness has been my Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs, which will be a gift for my son.  This is where I left off last GG post:

This is where it was at the end of April:

Here is the portion I have been working on this week:

The turtle flipper is huge, it starts on page 2 and continues through page 3 and into page 4.   I decided to get all the dark green on pages 2 and 3 done plus the little banner.   When I came to fill in the medium green I realised I had made an error.  There is a two line overlap on the charts but I had stitched those two lines twice!

You can possibly see the two lines where the brown thread comes out of the backstitch?  I was not going to frog and restitch all that banner again so I decided to stitch the backstitch of the edge of the Disc in one strand to see how bad the problem was.  I stitched the backstitch accurately as it follows the curve of the Disc.  This means the banner is two rows lower than charted and the flipper pattern is two rows lower.  But with very little tweaking it works.  I removed two rows from the flipper before the bottom of page 3 which is where the backstitch line stops and it's all good for page 4 now.

Now I have done more of the fill-in medium green I am stitching the second strand of backstitch.  I decided to make the perimeter of the Disc two strands to make it bolder than the one strand used everywhere else.

Here's where I am today:

I managed a few days on Gathering Eggs by Nora Corbett.   This was a gift from Carol:

stitched on 35 count Vintage Country Mocha linen

I fully finished two Easter themed designs.  Nest Egg by Satsuma Street was stitched on gifted fabric from Tiffany and the Daffodil Egg chart was a gift from Riona:

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 "May 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, Stitch Maynia!   For Maynia this year I am stitching on the same projects I started last May.   I started one Just Nan small per day so this year I am stitching one strand on each project on their relevant day.  Here are the projects for Days 11 to 15: