July Pie, Stitch From Stash and TUSAL

A Three-For-The-Price-Of-One today!

Let's start with Pie:

As you can see I got another two full weeks on the Discworld Mappe which went from here:

to here:

I made some great progress on Marie Suarez's My Lovely Sewing Tools.  From here:

to here:

stitched on 40 count white linen

I finished all the centre block and stitched most of the right hand block, the final one.  Next month I have to complete that and the border then add the embellishments.  Should be on course for a finish next month!

Now on to the TUSAL.  July is a Two-TUSAL month, the Totally Useless SAL created by Daffycat where we all show our ORTS.  Here are mine with three current projects:

You've seen My Lovely Sewing Tools above.  The one on the top left is my current Just Nan small; Butterfly Welcome and the one on the bottom left is the replacement for my 10-a-Day project which I finished last week.

Butterfly Welcome stitched on 28 count Colonial Blue evenweave

stitched on 28 count Jobelan in Dragon Shades from Polstitches

When I completed Summer Typography, the next project should have been Winter in the Square.  I even got the chart and linen out and put it in the project bag.  But then I looked at my WIPocalypse projects and thought it might be better to start one of those instead.  This is a Just Nan sampler called Summer Night.  At approximately 90 x 50 I thought I could average one row of 500 stitches every 5 days.  So I wrote a schedule out and this is the first six day's work, almost all the top 15 rows.  The plan is to complete it in the 42 days of the Summer Holiday.

Finally, let's finish with Stitch from Stash.  We start a new accounting period in the Facebook Group so everything resets to zero again.

July
JCS Hallowe'en mag	£9.50
Total	£9.50

Probably due to the fact I had to pay for my new glasses so very little spare money this month!

July WIPocalypse Stitching Drought - What's One of Those?

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. Summer Typography by Just Nan - Day 260

stitched on 32 count Pink Linen

4. My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez

stitched on 40 count White linen

5. Summer Night by Just Nan 

stitched on 28 count Jobelan in Dragon Shades from Polstitches

Did you spot the Finish?  More details on that in my end of month Pie post!  See if you can spot the subtle personalistion too.

Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too.

July – How do you get yourself out of a stitching drought?

Apparently some people have periods of time when they don't stitch.  I don't mean a few hours when they are asleep or at work, but sometimes days or even months on end.  My younger son is 10 years and 5 months old.  When he was a newborn was the last time I didn't stitch every day.  I joined some stitching forums when he was a baby and started this blog just over 8 years ago.  Since I started blogging I have definitely stitched every day and probably for several months prior to that.  No-one starts a blog in a drought!

What would I do if the worst happened and my stitching bug was captured by aliens?  I think in the short term I would reorganise my stash and have a good look at my WIPs and unstarted projects.  If that didn't work then I would go for the 10-a-Day project.  For some time now I have had a Just Nan project on which my goal was to stitch just 10 stitches per day.  I have completed four designs in this way.  Even someone who has zero desire to stitch would be able to manage 10 small stitches a day.  And that might be enough to kick-start the bug again.

I just did a Google and it's 3,033 days since I started my blog.  So just for fun, let's say I have been stitching every day since 12th June, 2010 which makes three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three days of an unbroken run!

Finally:

The first postcard in the Summer Postcard Blog Hop has been sent out to:

Aimetu's Stitching

so make sure you follow her blog and see who the card came from.

July 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 the issue was from 2006 and I chose The Sweetheart Tree Christmas Joy Bellpull which is the companion to the 2007 design I stitched for March's choice.

stitched on 32 count linen

It was a quick stitch so I fully finished it straight away:

The next item for my "smalls" SAL is always my spooky conversion of Lavendar & Lace's Enchanted Alphabet.  This month I added a trio of froggies taken from a Just Nan design.

stitched on 32 count Murano Tiger Lily from Sparklies

Staying with Just Nan I had a number of successes this month.  First I finished the second side of the Butterfly Needlebook:

Then I added the beads and my initials to the first side:

And now I have them both finished.  Question is - do I make a needlebook which won't get used or do I scrapbook?

stitched on hand-dyed 28 count evenweave

Having finished those two I moved on to the next one in line, Spring Fantasy.  Very small and quickly finished!

stitched on 28 count pink evenweave

This one will be scrapbooked with some more of the butterfly stickers I used last time.

I did start another one (Butterfly Welcome) but haven't photographed it yet!

Finally, haven't shown any rocks for a while so here are two I made as End-of-Year gifts for the Small Boy's teachers:

  

July 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.

Here's where I was on Friday morning:

Here's the part I worked on this weekend:

And here's the piece right now:

Cori Celesti

The central mountain at the Disc's hub. It is a spire of grey stone and green ice and is roughly 10 miles high. Suffice it to say, from the very top you can see right to the rim, but due to the flatness of the disc, this can also be achieved from the tops of fairly tall hills.

Atop it sits Dunmanifestin, the home of the Discworld's Gods. The vast magical field earths itself constantly on this mountain, and at night it glows with cold fire, known as the Aurora Coriolis. This phenomenon is also attributed to the phoenix dancing. Both are true.

Dunmanifestin is the good address of the gods of the Discworld. Many gods are tied down to the very small locations where they are worshipped, or have so few worshippers that they do not have enough intelligence to even be sentient (i.e. none). The gods with worshippers, the gods who can scheme against other gods or at least appreciate the conflicts between other gods, the gods who can smite people, live in Dunmanifestin on top of Cori Celesti, at the Hub of the world. Dunmanifestin is a gated community with buildings of many styles. The hall in which the gods play with the fates of men is located in Dunmanifestin.

Dunmanifestin is a parody of the common British house name "Dunroamin", as in "Done Roaming - from now on I'll stay here at home". Now obviously it would mean "Done Manifesting", i.e. "I have finished appearing to humans".

In classic Pratchett style, the pun works on another level: Dun-, meaning Hill of- or Castle of- is a common prefix in Scottish and Irish placenames, ie Dundee, Dun Laoghaire, Dundalk, Donegal (Dun na nGall).

Thus we have "Hill-" or "Castle of Manifestations"

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

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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Finally, the next IHSW will be 16th - 18th August 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.

July Gifted Gorgeousness Link-up Post

Welcome to the July 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 June:

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

Here's where I am today:

I am currently filling in swathes of cream which make up the Hubland Steppes, home to the Horse People:-

A nomadic barbarian tribe who live up near the Hublands. As their name suggests they are very fond of horses. They fight on them, ride them, and it is said are ‘born in the saddle’ though few women would appreciate this as a birthing position.

In their tents, made from horse hide, they eat horse sausages, and drink what is hopefully beer, and burn horse dung on their fires as fuel. Rincewind remarked that they ‘had a lot to learn about ventilation, starting with what the word meant’.

They are friends with Cohen the Barbarian and give him and his companions shelter in The Colour of Magic.

They had a necromancer as their wise woman and spiritual leader, who appeared surprisingly adept at her craft. She used the Caroc Cards to determine where Twoflower had gone, and then sent Rincewind to the house of Death to bring back his soul.

Source: L-Space


Other gifted projects include my Butterfly Needlebook by Just Nan which is stitched on gifted fabric:

stitched on 28 count hand-dyed pink evenweave

stitched on hand-dyed 28 count pink evenweave

The plan is to photocopy the finished piece to make a notebook cover for a friend and then stitch my initials in the space and scrapbook it.

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 "July 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, I took part in a Craftivist Training Day ready for a workshop in September as part of the Heritage Open Days.  This year the theme is Dare to Dream and there is lots more information here:

Heritage Open Days - Dare to Dream

Sarah Corbett of the Craftivist Collective has designed a kit to make a hand embroidered Dream Cloud with the message of your choice.  The workshop today had a wide variety of people from activists with Extinction Rebellion to representatives from the Heritage Open Days; crafters and textile artists to people who had barely threaded a needle before.  We will be helping out or organising the workshops in September, so stay tuned for more posts about this.

This is the kit we all got:

This is the lovely Sarah with the ribbon she gifted to us all:

And this is my craftivism on the go - the train home!

DUCJC 2015 Revisited

The CJC was a challenge invented by Debbie The SoCal Stitcher several years ago.  There were various levels of challenge:

CJC = Crazy January Challenge, one new start for the first 15 days of January

UCJC = Ultimate Crazy January Challenge, one new start for all 31 days of January

DUCJC = Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge, stitch 31 projects one per day for January

SDUCJC = Super Duper Ultimate Crazy January Challenge, 60 starts throughout January and February

I didn't really get involved with the challenge but did enjoy seeing all the starts on everyone's blog.  Debbie passed away very suddenly in 2014 and left a massive hole in the blogging community.  So the following year I decided to support her close friend and stitching accomplice Linda by taking part in the DUCJC - 31 projects.  So that way I could use WIPs and not have a tonne of new starts.

Rachel reminded me of the challenge recently which got me thinking - how many did I actually finish?  So, as today is Debbie's Birthday I thought it was a good opportunity to do a recap and see what happened to the 31 in the last 4.5 years.

They are listed in the order I stitched them in January 2015:

Day 1 - Kustom Krafts - Little Snapdragon

Current Status - WIP

Day 2 - JBW - Hobby Horse

Current Status - Fully Finished August 2015

 

Day 3 - CCN - Poinsettia Place

Current Status - Fully Finished January 2016

Day 4 - Lizzie*Kate - Friends are like Angels

Current Status - Fully Finished March 2015

Day 5 - Beehive Needleworks - Sunflower & Acorns

Current Status - Fully Finished December 2015

Day 6 - Joan Elliott - February Cherub

Current Status - Fully Finished April 2015

Day 7 - The Sampler House - Strawberry Sampler

Current Status - Fully Finished February 2016

Day 8 - Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery - Hallowe'en Town

Current Status - Fully Finished October 2016

Day 9 - The Nutmeg Company - Gingerbread House

Current Status - Fully Finished September 2015

Day 10 - Goode Huswif - Book of Spells

Current Status - Fully Finished January 2016

Day 11 - Brooke's Books Trixie The Hallowe'en Witch

Current Status - Fully Finished November 2015

Day 12 - With Thy Needle & Thread - January Wordplay

Current Status - Fully Finished June 2015

Day 13 - Lizzie*Kate - Autumn Sampler

Current Status - Fully Finished April 2015

Day 14 - The Scarlet Letter - Elizabeth Shephard

Current Status - Fully Finished July 2016

Day 15 - Just Nan Haunted Pumpkins Tree

Current Status - Finished May 2015 not yet framed

Day 16 - Joan Elliott - Believe

Current Status - Fully Finished June 2015

Day 17 - Primitive Hare - Hallowe'en Cubes

Current Status - Fully Finished October 2015

Day 18 - Teresa Wentzler - You Were Hatched

Current Status - Finished July 2016 not yet framed

Day 19 - Nora Corbett - Little Snowy Gray Cottage

Current Status - Fully Finished May 2016

Day 20 - Jannlynn Designs - Gathering Honey

Current Status - Fully Finished May 2017

Day 21 - Joan Elliott - Faces SAL

Current Status - WIP

Day 22 - Just Nan - Winter Typography

Current Status - Fully Finished April 2015

Day 23 - Stitchers Anon - Marley was Dead

Current Status - Fully Finished April 2015

Day 24 - Shepherd's Bush - She Tends

Current Status - Two finished, two unstarted

Day 25 - Shepherd's Bush - Mulberry

Current Status - Fully Finished March 2016

Day 26 - Dragon Dreams - Dragon of the Winter Moon

Current Status - Fully Finished November 2017

Day 27 - Prairie Moon - Thine is the Trick and the Treat

Current Status - Fully Finished April 2015

Day 28 - Anchor - Kingfisher

Current Status - Fully Finished April 2015

Day 29 - The Sweetheart Tree - Tudor Rose

Current Status - Fully Finished April 2015

Day 30 - Nora Corbett - Letter J Fairy

Current Status - Fully Finished April 2016

Day 31 - Madame Chantilly - On the Beach

Current Status - Fully Finished March 2015

So have you been keeping count?  How many did I finish?

A massive 17 were finished in 2015

Another 9 in 2016 and 2 more in 2017.

All except 2 of those have been fully finished.

So that just leaves 2 which are WIPs (Little Snapdragon and Joan Elliott's Face) and 1 which is a UFO.  I started the Shepherd's Bush designs for She Tends without thinking that the charts calls for very specific charms which are an integral part of the design.  I can't get the charms!  So it is on hiatus until I decide what to do instead.

It was a good challenge and one I enjoyed.  I have done multiple projects months since then for Stitch Maynia but now I stick to smalls like my series of Just Nan ornaments.

Finally, the Summer Postcard Challenge is starting very soon, keep your eyes peeled for the first card on it's way.