August Stitch From Stash and Pie

 It's the end of the month and time for some pie!

As I mentioned before, I have set a goal of three block of the 12 Days of Christmas by Bothy Threads and had only stitched one.  So I needed to get going on Day 2, I set a goal to stitch all the background this month and succeeded.

stitched on 32 count grey-blue linen

I love how you can clearly see the number and the two turtle doves already.  I'll be focusing on this piece in September to get the Day completed.

Fairy Idyll was another success with a week's stitching seeing a large part of the dress completed:

stitched on 32 count Vineyard Murano from Crafty Kitten

The next design is a surprise new entry to the charts!  When I got my subs copy of Cross Stitcher magazine I was instantly drawn to the cover picture of a 3D Greenhouse and had to start it immediately!  I stitched for three days at the start of the month and another three at the end.  My goal is to complete the white frame and then fill in colour by colour for the plants.

stitched on 28 count grey-blue evenweave

I am stitching the two sides as one piece to save having to whip stitch along the roof edge.

You've seen all the rest of the projects.  I had hoped to get both Follow the Needle and Gathering Eggs ticked off this month but it's impossible to bead with my son at home so I am going to wait until he's back at school and have a couple of days dedicating to beading.

This means only one number (number 8) was completed on my WIPGO Board for August but I did make good progress on some projects and September is looking good too.

Finally, Stitch from Stash.  I bought nothing except the two special Just Cross Stitch magazines which I ordered from Sparklies.

I haven't got the Halloween one yet as I also ordered some fabric for my Birthday in September but I hear it is a good issue so I am looking forward to receiving it soon.

August WIPocalypse Proud and Relieved

        

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 "21 in '21" for this year.  This month I stitched on 6 of them and met 1 WIPGO Goal.  

5. Nora Corbett Gathering Eggs

stitched on 35 count Vintage Country Mocha Linen

10. Stoney Creek 12 Days of Christmas

stitched on 32 count Lime Green Linen

12. Mirabilia Fairy Idyll

stitched on 32 count Vineyard Murano from Crafty Kitten

13. Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas

stitched on 32 count grey-blue linen

16. Hands on Design Scary Apothecary Coffin Paint

stitched on 28 count Radioactive Linen from Chromatic Alchemy

17. Just Nan Follow the Needle

stitched on 28 count Lilac Brittney evenweave

The full list can be seen here - WIPocalypse and 21 in 21

Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too:

August – Which of your project finishes made you the most proud? The most relieved?

This is a really difficult one to answer!  I am proud of a lot of my work.  I do try to challenge myself, changing colours or fabrics, adding personal touches and so on.  

One piece that I am particularly proud of is my Hallowe'en conversion of Lavender & Lace's Enchanted Alphabet.  I loved the actual alphabet as soon as I saw the design but wasn't so keen on the child and bunny.  One day it came to me - stitch it in black on orange fabric and make a Hallowe'en special!

stitched on 32 count Murano in Tigerlily by Sparklies

There is a full post on this on my Happy Dance Blog - Lavender & Lace - Enchanted Alphabet

I don't often stitch things which are a relief to finish because I try to choose projects I know I will enjoy working on.  But this old project definitely fits into that category!  I loved the design and started it way back when I still used aida.  This was a horrible scratchy aida that actually gave me a friction burn on my wrist from rubbing when I stitched.  In the end I decided to stitch just one portion of the border and call it done.

The fully finishing plan is to fix the border around a circular box and make something nice for the lid.  Then use the letters to make cards for people whose names beging with those letters!

It was definitely a relief to mark this one off the WIP list.

Finally, there's a new SAL in town!

Clare from Aimetu's Stitching has created this SAL where we stitch un-seasonal things!  The full list is as follows:

September - a design to celebrate New Year

October - any design for Valentine's 

November and December - springtime designs

January - Easter stitching 

February and March - summer designs

April - a little treat for myself, any small design I fancy

May and June - autumnal designs

July - a design for Halloween

August - Christmas stitching 

And you can find more details on her blog here - Aimetu's Stitching

August Smalls

      

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

This year my Smalls will be the Stoney Creek 12 Days of Christmas 2019 Ornament series which I started on Boxing Day 2020 for the 12 Days of Stitchmas.

August was Eight Maids A'Milking, well only one maid and no cows:

stitched on 32 count Lime Green evenweave

I added August to my Tiny Modernist Calendar:

stitched on 32 count Summer Sky Belfast linen from Silkweavers

I continued with The Primitive Hare Celebrations series, catching up with Beltane from May:

stitched on 35 count Cream Linen

Finally, I got some photos of the Chinese Thread Box I made for my friend's Birthday in July.  This is made entirely by folding paper, no glue or tape and there are 31 boxes.  I had hoped to put some skeins of DMC in the boxes but it made them too bulky to close so I popped in stickers and charms instead.

The whole box:

There are 16 boxes this size:

8 boxes this size:

4 boxes this size:

2 boxes this size:

and 1 large box which forms the base of the piece:

This is the tutorial I followed to make it:

My paper was a little thicker than they used, so I didn't make the fancy flower shapes on the top 16 boxes!

August 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.

I had Friday off work this week so I decided to complete my 7 day rotation on Mirabilia's Fairy Idyll and get her to here:

stitched on 32 count Vineyard Murano from Crafty Kitten

This is such an enjoyable piece to stitch, you can see the material of the dress forming as you stitch.  Someone did a conversion and said there are 9 shades of cream/yellow in the dress!  I haven't used the darkest shades yet.

On Saturday I moved on to my Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas design.  My goal is 3 blocks on this for the year and there's only 4 months to stitch (not stitching Christmas in Dark October!) so I need to get cracking.

I decided to stitch all the Olive Green background for Day 2 first and here is where I finished:

stitched on 32 count grey-blue linen

You can see the number 2 and the first Turtle Dove appearing already.  There is a minor counting error in the top right corner so the backstitch round those leaves will have to be fudged when I get there.

Our Summer SAL is coming along nicely, only one band and the beads to go.  This is Follow the Needle by Just Nan:

Stitched on 28 count Lilac Brittney evenweave

Finally the next IHSW will be 17th - 19th September (my Birthday weekend) 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 August Link-up Post

     

Welcome to the August 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.

Deb sent me the charts for the Stoney Creek 2019 Ornaments which were my Stitchmas project this year. I started all 12, one per day and will be completing one per month.  August is for Maids a'Milking:

stitched on 32 count Lime Green evenweave

The WIPGO Board chose Fairy Idyll for this month.  The chart (and extras) was a gift from a friend.  I am continuing with the expanse of her yellow/cream dress:

stitched on 32 count Vineyard Murano from Crafty Kitten

My current evening piece is Gathering Eggs by Nora Corbett, the chart was a gift from a friend.  This is where she is now:

stitched on 35 count Vintage Country Mocha Linen

I just have to go all the way around with the turquoise, fill in the corner squares and add beads!

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 "August 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, some more Gifted Gorgeousness but of the papercraft variety.  I had two friends with Birthdays recently so I made them Exploding Cards!  These fold flat to fit into an envelope but pop-up into a box shape when you take them out.

I added some charms to the first one:

This is the second one:

The supplies all came from this website - Craft Box UK

Finally Fully Finishing Fun for August

 

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).

Even less FFO'ing this month than last, just one small framed piece!  This is another freebie from The Primitive Hare for Lammas, the First Harvest celebrated on 1st August.  Framed the same as Ostara and Litha in the same multi-frame.  The goal is to have all eight done by the end of this year.

My regular followers will know that I love to make plans and lists for my stitching.  And that I do a pretty good job of sticking to them.  The Primitive Hare Celebrations were an addition to my original plans and here's another one:

I subscribe to Cross Stitcher magazine because I was migrated over when Cross Stitch Collection ceased publication and frankly, I am never going to get a better price for it!  As soon as this month's issue arrived I knew I had to stitch the miniature greenhouse from the front cover.  Who doesn't love a little 3D greenhouse?

I found some random grey/blue 28 count evenweave in my stash and made a start this afternoon.  I plan to stitch all the white and then go colour by colour for the rest of the design.  It's a Cheryl McKinnon (of Tiny Modernist) design so that makes two of her designs I am stitching now.  The Calender is also one of her designs.

stitched on 32 count Summer Sky Belfast linen from Silkweavers

Finally, we have been given permission to hide painted rocks in the shop where I work again.  So I've been painting a batch of book-themed rocks each week.  It's lovely to see how happy the children are when they find one.  To see my rocks, check out my Serendipity Rocks Blog

August TUSAL and my Stitching Library

  

It's TUSAL time!

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current project:

This is the sixth Scary Apothecary from Hands on Design.  This one is Coffin Paint and is stitched on the same 28 count Radioactive linen from Chromatic Alchemy as the rest of the series.  The plan is to stitch half this month and finish it next month to  tick another box off on my WIPGO Board.

What's on my Shelf?

This is a new 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...

I chose this month's book to go with The People's Choice of Books.

Title: Embroidered Books
Author: Isobel Hall
Publisher: Batsford
ISBN: 9781906388133

This book is a little different to the previous ones I've shown because it's not cross stitch!  Instead it includes a wide variety of techniques and instructions to make embroidered books.  You could easily use any of these to mount and display your stitched small pieces.

There are only two sections to the book.  The first is Book Construction:

This section includes detailed instructions about how to make a small book, how to stitch the sections together and how to bind it.   As well as suggestions for the different papers and fabrics to use.

These two styles of book could be very easily used to display cross stitch pieces:

Concertina Book

Carousel Book

The second section is Techniques and Materials:

This section talks about the different ways to decorate and embellish your book and the cover.

There are instructions for using different paints, wax, marbling effects, inks and crackle paint.

This is one of those books that is a pleasure to sit down and read even if you never intend to make anything from it!

Finally, the website on the back of the book redirects you to Pavilion Books who do a great range of craft books.  They also have a free download for knitting lightsaber socks!  I know I have some keen knitters among my followers, so here it is:

Lightsaber Socks