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Saturday 31 December 2022

December Stitch from Stash and Pie

It's Old Year's Night and time for a look back at the past 365 days of stitching.


First of all, here is the Pie for December:


I spent most of this month working on the 7th shop for my CCN Main Street Halloween conversion.  Here is A la Robe where the fashionable witch will be getting her dresses and robes for the Old Year's Night celebrations:



You saw Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow in my WIPocalypse post so here is my Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas.  I didn't quite manage to finish Day 4, all those leaves need the couched backstitch in green added.

stitched on 32 count grey linen





I did finish my 3D Haunted Mansion by attaching all the roof pieces to the walls.  Which was time consuming and fiddly.  I still need to stuff it and attach a base to finally FFO it.  But I have until 10th January for that!


Ignore the hanging threads, they will be sewn in to secure them.




Here's the Evening Pie:


The Stitchonomy Christmas Banner is growing nicely, you saw that on my Smalls post, along with the Amanda Butler Edinburgh House.



In my WIPocalypse post I showed you my 12 finishes from my "22 in '22" list and now here are the rest of my finishes for the year:


Look at that - six 3D finishes!


Let's have a look at the Annual Pie Chart now:

The top three individual projects were:

Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow - 133 days, more than a third of the year
CCN Main Street - 34 days for 3 shops
Nora Corbett Virgo - 27 days

and various Just Nan projects - 30 days

Everything else got 1-3 weeks on it.



I came into the year with 18 WIPs and started 18 projects over the course of the year of which only 3 are still WIPs.  I also completed 6 projects started prior to 2022.  My current WIPs are:


Prior 20209
2020
2021
Total
3
3
15



How did the spending go last month?  My magazine subscription came out and I spent my Christmas money on a blackwork series from Circle Cross which I am very excited about.  You'll see more of that in 2023.




I also tallied up the spend for the whole year:



Magazines are up because I got the digital subscription to JCS and the sub for Cross Stitcher leapt from £8.72 a quarter to £12.99 a quarter!  I had a legacy price from when I subscribed to Cross Stitch Collection which hasn't increased for years.  They finally noticed LOL.  It's still only £4 per issue.

Charts are way up, among others I bought the rest of the Nora Corbett Zodiac Girls, Shannon Christine's 12 Days of Christmas and 11 of the CGS Year in the Woods, some Ukrainian designers to support them and the blackwork from Circle Cross which was half price off but still expensive.  Wait until you see what you get though.   A lot of my chart spend was Christmas or Birthday money.

Fortunately, fabric, threads and "other" were down on last year.  I bought one single piece of fabric the whole year!


Finally,

Have a very Happy Old Year's Night

and a very Peaceful New Year's Day




Friday 30 December 2022

December Smalls

           

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

My Small series for the year was Jardin Prive's 12 Days of Christmas.  After stalling on them, I finished the lot in November but have yet to FFO them all.




I didn't really stitch a lot of smalls in 2022, it was the year of the Large Project.  Looking back I included these projects throughout the year:

May - Just Nan-athon


October - Just Nan Miss Stitchy Witchy Mouse


November - Mani di Donna Halloween Sewing Basket



As well as some others which will feature in my End of Year Round-Up tomorrow.


For this month I have my finished Edinburgh House by Amanda Butler from Cross Stitcher magazine:

stitched on 28 count grey evenweave


I'm also stitching the Stitchonomy Christmas Banner to be super-small.   The piece of fabric I had in my stash wasn't cut straight so the margins would have been too tight.  I thought I'd try stitching over one so it will be a quarter of the size of the original design!

stitched over 1 on 32 count grey linen


Finally, here are some photos of my Ornament garland this year:













Sunday 25 December 2022

December WIPocalypse Annual Review

   WIPocalypse

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 "22 in '22" for this year.

  1. Joan Elliott Faces SAL (1 block) - Goal Met
  2. Kustom Krafts Little Snapdragon  - WIP
  3. Chatelaine Gardens of London  - WIP
  4. Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas  - WIP
  5. Carriage House Samplings Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow - WIP
  6. Mirabilia Fairy Idyll - WIP
  7. Amanda Butler Alice in Wonderland  Finish
  8. Just Nan Christmas Elegance Finish
  9. Just Nan Mermaid Heart  Finish
  10. Stitchonomy Cabinet of Curiosities   Finish
  11. Hands on Designs Scary Apothecary Skeleton Polish Finish
  12. Hands on Designs Scary Apothecary Snail Slime - Finish
  13. Hands on Designs Scary Apothecary 9
  14. CCN Halloween Village Post Office  Finish
  15. CCN Halloween Village Grocery   Finish
  16. CCN Halloween Village Dress Shop  Finish
  17. Jardin Prive 12 Days of Christmas  Finish
  18. Nora Corbett Virgo   Finish
  19. Stitch It Picasso Dragon #2  Finish
  20. Stitch It Picasso Dragon
  21. Stitch It Picasso Dragon
  22. Stitch It Picasso Dragon

Only 12 finishes again this year plus one Goal Met, but that was because I spent nearly half the year focused on my Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow project.  Which went from here:


to here:

stitched over 1 on 25 count Cassia Rose evenweave from Chromatic Alchemy

The plan now is to focus on this for two weeks of each month until it is completed and then focus on Fairy Idyll.



Here are the other BAPs:

Chatelaine Gardens of London

from here:


to here:

stitched on 32 count Cotton Clouds from Crafty Kitten

I'm thinking it would be nice to finish this one on it's 10th Anniversary in 2027.


Mirabilia Fairy Idyll

from here:


to here:

stitched on 32 count Vinyard Murano from Crafty Kitten

This will become my focus after Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow is complete.


Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas

from here:


to here:

(still working on this one!  Final photo to be shown in the last post of the year)


Kustom Krafts Little Snapdragon

from here:



to here:

stitched on 32 count Evening Sky Murano from Crafty Kitten

He's on the WIPGO Board twice next year so I'm really hoping to finish him in 2023



I achieved my goal of another blockson the Joan Elliott Faces SAL.   The 2023 goal is to add a large block:

stitched on 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten


There were four projects that didn't get touched.  The final Scary Apothecary will roll over to next year.  The three Stitch It Picasso Dragons lost out to my passion for 3D buildings!  Which rather took over my evening stitching.

Here are the 12 WIPocalypse Finishes - I did have more finishes this year, these are just the ones from my "22 in '22"





I've been putting together my "23 in '23" for next year and also my WIPGO Board which is a FB group where you make a Bingo Board for 25 of your projects.  The Admin calls 2 numbers each month and you reward yourself for completing rows or columns.  And just for added fun, I'm doing the 23:23 in the WIP Warriors group (formerly No New Starts).  For that challenge, I have to keep my WIPs below 23.  I currently have 15 so I can start 7 new things but after that I have to finish something before I start another thing.


Finally, I do hope you are all enjoying this time of year - the planning for the New Year, when everything is possible!  The fun of going through our stash and working out what we would like to start.  The promise to work on those older projects and keep up with the SALs too!








Saturday 24 December 2022

2022 Advent Calendar Blog Hop

   Here is our Online Advent Calendar, it will be updated every day. 

Scroll down to see the latest picture and a link to the poster's blog.

This year I have asked each participant "What's for Afters?"
The question familiar to every parent whether you call it Afters, Dessert, Sweet or Pudding, you just know the kids are going to ask for it before the main course is barely finished.
For us, there is only one choice - Christmas Pudding with flaming brandy and custard.

But what do you have?
Hop over each day to discover what delicious treats our blogging friends enjoy.

This year, we have some lovely new doors, thanks to my dear friend Jocondine who made me the most beautiful Advent Calendar with a different hand-painted door each day!


Thursday 1st December


Friday 2nd December


Saturday 3rd December


Sunday 4th December



Monday 5th December



Tuesday 6th December

Wednesday 7th December


Thursday 8th December


Friday 9th December


Saturday 10th December


Sunday 11th December


Monday 12th December


Tuesday 13th December


Wednesday 14th December


Thursday 15th December


Friday 16th December


Saturday 17th December


Sunday 18th December


Monday 19th December


Tuesday 20th December


Wednesday 21st December


Thursday 22nd December

(Love the choice of book too!)


Friday 23rd December


Saturday 24th December



Now I've visited everyone and enjoyed a little afters with each person, I can reveal our Top Desserts:

In the Number 1 spot we have Cookies of various kinds with 12 votes.
Second place with 9 votes is the traditional Christmas Pudding.
In third place we have a variety of Pies - including pumpkin (or squash) and apple.

Pies alone got 8 votes but Mince Pies got an additional 4 votes.  However I don't tend to think of individual mince pies in the same way as an large apple pie.  Do you?

Next most popular were the Buche de Noel (3 votes) and various other cakes (also 3 votes).  We could combine these all under "Cake" and get fourth place with 6 votes.

Sherry Trifle received 3 votes as did sweet treats such as fudge.

Only 1 person mentioned fruit!

The totals do add up to more than 24 because several people listed more than one dessert.




Finally, I'll be updating the Calendar every day, do remember to leave a comment on each blog.  It really does encourage people to keep on blogging!