July Stitch from Stash and Pie

 It's time for Pie!

As you can see, apart from Dark 13 and IHSW when I stitched on the Art Noeveau Head for N in my Alphabet Challenge, I focused on Nora Corbett's Capricorn.  This is the third in the Zodiac Girls series I have stitched on the respective fabric from Sparklies.

This is the most heavily beaded and is going to be gorgeous!

stitched on 32 count Capricorn Murano from Sparklies

I have a pie for my evening stitching too.

I finished the 3D Haunted House at the start of the month, then switched to my WIPGO piece, Lizzie*Kate's Sampling Christmas.  This only took 10 evenings to stitch so I finished the month with The Hare Moon from Circle Cross' Lunar Calendar.

stitched on 28 count Robin's Egg evenweave from Silkweaver

Finally, over to Stitch From Stash.  I needed the beads for Capricorn.  She's heavily beaded but luckily I had 4 of the packs already and just needed to buy three of them.  I also bought the Kreinik and two different variegated red/purples to substitute for the Waterlilies.  Those 3 cost the same as one skein of Waterlilies!

Obviously, I need the Lunar Calendar which was a great deal, all 12 for £14.80 plus the borders for the medium and large sampler.  The Mill Hill beads came from someone destashing - 4 unopened packs for just £4.  

Quite a spend this month but I've had a number of Zero months so far this year.

July WIPGO

 

WIPGO is basically Bingo for WIPs.  Each person makes their own board of 25 squares with various WIPs and goals for each number.

Two numbers are called each month and we work on those projects.
The centre square is a bonus, if 13 is called then another number is called in addition so you could have three projects that month.  I use 13 for my Longest Day marathon.

For July, we had Lizzie*Kate's Sampling Christmas and Nora Corbett's Capricorn.

Sampling Christmas was an easy finish:

stitched on 32 count Desert Sand evenweave

Capricorn is wonderful, she's so much fun to stitch and bead!

stitched on 32 count Capricorn Murano from Sparklies

Finally, we have the choices for next month.  Joan Elliott's Faces and Halloween Trifles from Shepherd's Bush. 

July WIPocalypse Tricky Stitching

          

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 "24 in '24" for this year. This month I stitched on 4 of them and had two finishes.

6. Lizzie*Kate Sampling Christmas

12. Living on the Rainbow 3D Haunted House

19. Nora Corbett Capricorn

24. Cottage Garden Samplings Halloween Sampler

Finally, Measi always gives us a topic to discuss:

July - Which of your current WIPs do you consider your most difficult piece to stitch?

It's got to be my Chatelaine!  Gardens of London is absolutely glorious but you have to pay very close attention to the chart and the key.  There are so many different speciality stitches and fibres, silks and metallics.  Not to mention the beads!  

Here's the portion I worked on most recently.  You can really see all the details and intricate stitches here.  But it's totally worth all the time spent on it.

July Smalls

      

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Rachel

For my Smalls stitching this year, I have chosen 12 smaller designs and numbered them for my WIPGO Board.  Each month one Small will be stitched in the evening timeslot and hopefully finished within the month.  

Last month I was stitching the 3D Haunted House from Living on the Rainbow.  I continued with that for the first four days of July and finished the stitching.  Now I need to FFO it, maybe in time for the FFO Gallery in August?

After that I moved on to my July WIPGO choice which was a Lizzie*Kate design, Sampling Christmas.  I finished that in just a few days and now need to attach a charm from my collection and FFO that one too.

stitched on 32 count Desert Sand evenweave

For the rest of the month I have been stitching another blackwork design from Circle Cross.  This is The Hare Moon for Taurus and part of her Lunar Calendar.

stitched on 28 count Robin's Egg evenweave from Silkweavers

Finally, have you seen Jocondine's latest Tour de France?  It's a tricky one this year!!

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 - IHSW on Facebook.

This year I am trying something different for IHSW - an A-Z Challenge!  These usually take place in April and people stitch one letter every day except Sunday.  I don't want to swap projects daily so thought I could do 2 or 3 letters per IHSW instead.  

July is N and O.
I didn't have an active project for O but I did have two for N.

I have been trying to fit in my Art Nouveau Head from Craft Collection as much as possible for this challenge as it is my oldest WIP now.  I stitched some more of the pink background.

stitched on 28 count White Aida

The other N was this month's focus piece from Nora Corbett, this is Capricorn, the third Zodiac Girl I have chosen to stitch.

stitched on 32 count Capricorn Murano from Sparklies

I made some nice progress on the flowers above and below her.  They are more red in real life.

In the evenings I continued with this beautiful lady - The Hare Moon for Taurus from Circle Cross.

stitched on 28 count Robin's Egg evenweave from Silkweavers

 

Next month will be P and Q.  I've got 2 P projects and one that covers both P and Q, so that's good.

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 by leaving a comment on my post.

The Start of 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 - IHSW on Facebook.

This year I am trying something different for IHSW - an A-Z Challenge!  These usually take place in April and people stitch one letter every day except Sunday.  I don't want to swap projects daily so thought I could do 2 or 3 letters per IHSW instead.

July is the turn for N and O.  I don't have an O project but I do have 2 N's so I'll be working on both of those this weekend.

The first one will be my Focus piece for the month - Nora Corbett's Capricorn, part of the Zodiac Girls series.

Here's my starting photo:

stitched on 32 count Capricorn Murano from Sparklies

The original calls for 3 skeins of Caron Waterlilies which are lovely but cost £7 each. So I've substituted them for two of the DMC 4000 series and one Classic Colorworks which look great so far.

I also managed to get a substitute for the Magnifica beads.  Create Nostalgia recommend a Delica which is a close match and send those instead.

My second N project will be the Art Nouveau Head from Craft Collection.  Here's the start photo:

stitched on 14 count white Aida

I've been trying to get a day in on this one whenever I can.

Finally, my evening project is not an N but I am loving it!  It's part of the Lunar Calendar from Circle Cross.  This is The Hare Moon for Taurus:

stitched on 28 count Robin's Egg evenweave from Silkweavers

Gifted Gorgeousness July 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 evening project was a gift from Vickie and is a finish already!

Lizzie*Kate - Sampling Christmas

stitched on 32 count Desert Sand evenweave

I just need to find a nice charm to fit inbetween P, Q, R and S

My replacement evening piece is being stitched on gifted fabric and will be a gift for a friend too:

Circle Cross - Hare Moon for Taurus

stitched on 28 count opalescent Robin's Egg evenweave from Silkweaver

Steady Thread - Tree of Life Temperature SAL

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stitched on 28 count Meadow Mist linen from Silkweavers

I record the temperature each day and then stitch the leaves on the Sunday morning.

My Dark 13 design is stitched on gifted fabric, a beautiful 40 count linen called Witch's Brew from Zweigart.  My plan is to stitch one letter per month until we reach October and then complete it during Dark October.

stitched on 40 count linen called Witch's Brew from Zweigart

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, this post was missing a couple of photos because I was already late and just want to get it posted so you could add your links!  All photos have been added now.

Finally Fully Finishing Fun for July

   

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).

Unfortunately, nothing got FFO'd this last month!

So here's a photo of my current progress on Nora Corbett's Capricorn:

stitched on 32 count Capricorn Murano from Sparklies

Finally, I need to make a resolution to do some FFO'ing earlier in the month and not leaving it to the end and running out of time!!

Stay tuned for next month to see if I succeed...

July TUSAL and Plans

        

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current projects:

These are the two projects called for WIPGO this month.

On the left is Nora Corbett's Zodiac Girl Capricorn, my third in this series.

Here's my progress so far:

stitched on 32 count Capricorn Murano from Sparklies

On the right is my evening project which is Lizzie*Kate's Sampling Christmas.  This should be a quick stitch and give me time to stitch another project I have my eye on. 

stitched on 32 count Desert Sand evenweave

Finally, here is the project I am thinking of starting:

This is the Hare Moon for Taurus from the Circle Cross Lunar Calendar.  I am glad I waited until the entire set have been released as she is doing a special price on all 12 designs!