February Stitch from Stash and Pie

It's time for Pie!

I spent half the month working on Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow. Here's where I started the month:

Here's where I finished:

The whole piece:

stitched over 1 on 25 count Cassia Rose from Chromatic Alchemy

So far the number of days is:

Block 7 - 13 days

Block 6 - 16 days

Block 2 - 19 days

Block 3 - 20 days

Block 4 - 15 days

Block 1 - 19 days

Block 5 - 25 days

Block 8 - 15 days

Block 9 - 27 days

Block 10 - 14 days and counting

Next up was Joan Elliott's Faces SAL, I wanted to finish this large block this year and it's not on my WIPGO Board any more.  I just managed it at the last moment!

I stitched all the skin over one.

I didn't have the charted beads so substituted different ones

I also stitched the version with the covered baby-bum to cut down on the amount of skin!

stitched on 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten

I would like to finish this one next year for it's Tenth Birthday!

Here's my evening pie:

Yes, I worked on the latest Amanda Butler's House the whole month.  It's not quite done, just needs some white backstitch added, so here's an older photo

stitched on 28 count grey evenweave

I have the magazine with the next one already so I will start that one as soon as I finish this one.

Finally, Stitch from Stash.  It's easy when it's a short month!

 

February WIPocalypse SALs

     

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 "23 in '23" for this year.  This month I stitched on 7 of them and had 1 finish.

1. Joan Elliott Faces SAL

5. Carriage House Samplings Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow

13. Mani di Donna Halloween Stitching Basket

17. Stitch it Picasso Temperature SAL

18. Circle Cross Blackwork Tarot

19. Amanda Butler Harrogate House - Finish

20. Amanda Butler London Houses

The full list can be seen here - WIPocalypse and "23 in '23"

Finally, Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too.

February - What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?

There are two types of SAL, one is the kind where you stitch on your own projects and post regularly about them.  Either on a blog, on Facebook or Instagram.

Here are the ones I am doing this year:

The People's Choice - posts on the first Saturday of each month - theme in sidebar
Fully Finished Gallery - show anything you have FFO'd on the 10th
Gifted Gorgeousness - post anything gifted on the 15th
Smalls SAL - last Friday of each month
The TUSAL - post on the New Moon each month

WIPGO - like Bingo with WIPs, post on FB each month
WIP Warriors - formerly No New Starts, limit your new starts and post on FB

The other type of SAL is where we all stitch the same design over a period of time.  The only one of those I have is the Temperature SAL.  Although the Joan Elliott Faces started off as a SAL back in 2014!

February Smalls

 

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

Because I am focusing on my BAPs again, I won't have so many smalls this year but I do have a couple of series with small components so I will share them this month.

The first is the Blackwork Tarot by Circle Cross.  I completed Earth last month and am currently working on Fire:

stitched on 28 count sky blue evenweave from Silkweavers

My next collection of tiny items is the Potion Bottle Temperature SAL from Stitch It Picasso.  

stitched over 1 on 25 count tea-dyed evenweave

After a green start to the month, we went into blue for a week, then got warmer so some lime days appeared.  Heading blue at the end of this week though.

The next series is from Amanda Butler in Cross Stitcher magazine.  I completed Harrogate House at the end of January

And moved straight onto the London Houses:

stitched on 28 pale grey evenweave

Finally, very exciting news out of the Nashville Market.  Noteworthy Needle is releasing a design which was a class exclusive.  It's an incredible 3D design called Turn, Turn, Turn that you can manipulate to show a tree in four different seasons.

February TUSAL and Stitching Library

         

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current project:

stitched on 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten

The design is the Faces SAL from Joan Elliott, which I started back in 2014 and have been slowly stitching ever since thanks to a decision to stitch all the skin over one...

This is a sweet block with a mother and baby fairy.  I have almost finished the full crosses and then it will be time to tackle the skin!  I have cut down by stitching the bloomers on the baby instead of the bare bottom!  The design came with the two choices.

What's on my Shelf?

This is a 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...

Title: Cats A Cross Stitch Alphabet

Author: Julie Hasler

Publisher: David Porteous
ISBN: 9781870586122

There are 26 designs in this book, one for each letter of the alphabet.

Lots of different finishing ideas

Different fabric counts and colours

A variety of cat colours too

But all short haired and mostly all moggies!

Instructions for all the finishing techniques are given, including this wonderful quilt

It's a great book and now I am wondering why I have never stitched a cat from it!

Finally, thanks to everyone who took part in the Secret Sweetheart Blog Hop last week.  If your sweetheart has not been able to comment on your blog, do let me know and I'll connect the two of you.

February 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 worked on Friday so the only thing that got stitched that day was my Amanda Butler London Houses project, with evening stitching it now looks like this:

stitched on 28 count grey evenweave

On Saturday morning I put some more stitches into the Fire Element from Circle Cross:

stitched on 28 count sky blue evenweave from Silkweaver

And then did my final day on Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow for February:

On Sunday morning, I added some more bottles to my Temperature SAL from Stitch It Picasso, including added some of the warmest colour so far - lime:

stitched over 1 on 25 count tea-dyed evenweave

In the afternoon I continued to work on the Faces SAL by Joan Elliott.  My goal is to finish this larger block this year.

stitched over 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten.

Finally the next IHSW will be 17th - 19th March 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 February Link-up Post

 

Welcome to the February 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.

For the first fortnight in February my focus has been Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow.  The plan is to stitch this for two weeks each month until it is finished.

I have nearly finished the top part of the Block 10, which is full coverage:

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

I was quite poorly early in the month so the black fill-in has progressed very very slowly.  It was difficult to get motivated.  The bottom half is not full coverage so should go much quicker.

I am continuing with my Dark 13 project which is Mani di Donna's Halloween Sewing Basket.  The plan for this one is to stitch it on the 13th of every month.

stitched on 32 count grey linen

Oh look, more black!

Back in January, I worked on the Faces SAL from Joan Elliott.  This is stitched on gifted fabric:

stitched on 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten.

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 "February 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, a big Thank You to everyone who took part in the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop yesterday.  There was a lot of love around the blogoverse!  Here's a collage of them all:

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop

 

Happy Valentine's Day and welcome to the Secret Stitching Sweethearts Blog Hop.  My annual chance to show some stitchy love to our fellow stitchers.  Over the last month my inbox has been filled with various lovely stitched and crafted pieces on the theme of Love and Friendship.  On Monday I sent out them to randomly allocated participants who will be showing their Valentines on their blogs today.

Please hop round and see if they have found their Secret Stitching Sweetheart yet.  The following blogs are participating this year:

💖💖💖

💖Beth's Needlework Stash💖

💖 Aimetu's Stitching 💖

💖Guava Gems💖

💖Tickled Pink in Stitches💖

💖A Patchwork of Crafts💖

💖Life Outside the Washing Basket💖

💖A Stitching Grandma💖

💖Nature and Needles💖

💖Tiff Stitches A Blog💖

💖Needle, Pen & Sword💖

💖Mary's Thread💖

💖Dragon Stitches and Stuff💖

💖An Arizona Stitcher💖

💖BAP Attack💖

💖Jocondine💖

💖Needles, Pins & Dragonflies💖

💖

As the organiser of the Hop I don't get a secret sweetheart but sometimes I still get some love!

One participant sent in two designs, so I kept one for myself!

(Click on the photo to discover my Sweetheart!)

My seasonal display is not as big or as varied as some people but I have a few pieces which come out in February: 

Finally, don't forget to leave some lovely comments on all the participating blogs, share the love 💖

There have been a few issues recently with leaving comments on blogs which have the comments embedded rather than as pop-ups.  I can only comment on these when I use my laptop, not my iPad.  So if you have an issue commenting on your Sweetheart's blog, leave a comment here and I'll pass it on!

Finally Fully Finishing Fun for February

 

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).

I've got one little framed piece to share with you this month.

I started the Stitchonomy Christmas Banner SAL in December planning to use a pale grey linen.  Unfortunately the piece I had wasn't cut straight and ended up with very narrow margins.  So I decided to stitch it over one.

Which started off OK but not brilliant.  The more I stitched, the less I liked it.  Added to this, someone in the FB group was stitching it on black which looked amazing!

So I decided to cut my losses, complete the row I was stitching and make a square finish:

I happened to have this tiny gold frame so it was a quick and easy FFO for this month.

Finally, I will be contacting everyone who had agreed to take part in the Secret Stitching Sweetheart SAL over the weekend.  Please send me your photos if you haven't already done so!