October Stitch from Stash and Pie

 It's time for pie!

Most of the month was spent on my Halloween Sampler from Cottage Garden Samplings which I managed to finish:

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

Once I finished the main sampler, I cut off the bottom of the fabric and stitched this little small from the JCS Halloween Special 2024.  This is from Quaternion Creations and is called Nevermore.  I left off the words from the bottom of the design.

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

I have enough fabric to stitch one or two more smalls.

I added some more of the border to my Blackwork Temperature Tree:

I also started this cute little Skeleton Chameleon from Fil'anthrope:

stitched on 36 count Dark Green linen

The evenings were dedicated to my Steady Thread Halloween Blackwork and my pie looks like this:

It now looks like this:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

Finally, Stitch from Stash and my spending was higher that expected:

The local wool shop is closing down and were selling off everything at a discount including DMC at 60p a skein.  Yes, my US friends, that is very cheap for us!  So I grabbed the colours I needed plus some of the variegated threads I wanted.

I also went over to the needlework shop in the next town to collect my JCS Christmas magazine and while I was there picked up two of the Cottage Garden Samplings Year of Houses charts.  I won't get all of them, just the ones I particularly like.

I bought these two.

I also like the Hobbit House, the Tree House and the Haunted House.

Halloween Spooky Link-up 2024

   

This is the time of year when I'd usually do my Trick or Treat Blog Hop but due to circumstances beyond my control, I just haven't had time to organise it this year.

Instead, we will have a Spooky Link-up party all week!  Just make a post on anything spooky; stitching, decorating, crafting etc and link up below.  Make sure you come back and visit some of the other bloggers too.  We've all noticed visits and comments dropping this year so it would be nice to show some spooky love to our fellow bloggers.

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Here's what I have to share with you all.  This year I have been stitching for Dark 13 each month.  I chose the Halloween Sampler from Cottage Garden Samplings and stitched on word per month

At the start of the month I had completed up to I:

And now we have a finish!

Here's the whole piece:

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

I just need to find a square black frame that is big enough for this design.

I did manage to FFO the three Halloween Trifles from Shepherd's Bush, using a wooden pumpkin board from The Works.  I mixed up some orange acrylic paint with a splash of black and diluted it with water to make a paint wash which turned out really well.  Then I mounted each of the three pieces to card and stuck them to the board with double sided tape.

I didn't have the right charms so I just chose some from my stash

I realised I had used all my spider charms so used this bigger web instead:

Very pleased with the final result:

Here are some more photos of my Spooky Stitching on display this year:

Finally, enjoy the Spooky Link-ups!

        

all from Hyraea

October WIPocalypse Stash Storage

         

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 just 2 of them but did get both finished.

11. Hands on Designs [never.more]

24. Cottage Garden Samplings Halloween Sampler

Finally, Measi always gives us a topic to discuss:

October – How do you organize your WIPs and stash?

I have managed to get all my WIPs into 2 places.  The projects bags with the charts and any special threads all live in this bag:

If the design is small enough to fit into an A4 plastic wallet or rolled up inside a kitchen roll tube then it's in the project bag.

If not, then it's rolled up inside an old wrapping paper tube and stored on top of this cupboard:

Each of the tubes has the name of the project written on the outside of the tube so I can find the right one quickly.

My DMC all live in Floss Away bags on rings inside this large bag.  It holds the entire set of DMC in one easy to carry bag:

My speciality threads and metallics are in another similar bag.  Kreinik and beads are in boxes near my stitching spot.  Fabrics are in the cupboard where I store my charts and FFO'd pieces when not on display.

Unfortunately, all these places are in different rooms of the house!  I'd love to have just one craft room and keep everything in one place but that's not possible right now.  So the stuff I use every day is in the kitchen, stuff I use regularly is in the living room or the bedroom and stuff I need less frequently is in my utility room where I have a large cupboard to store all those things you only want once every few months.

October 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 [never.more] from Hands on Designs and finished it all except adding a charm:

stitched on 32 count Khaki linen

This month, WIPGO called for Drawn Thread's Spot of Summer but I decided to ignore that and work on my Halloween Blackwork from Steady Thread instead.  Definitely not a Small but there are a number of motifs which could be stitched as stand alone pieces and be ornaments.

Like this lovely mini sampler:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

I finished my main focus piece for Dark October (dedicated post to follow!) so decided to start a small from the current Just Cross Stitch Halloween Special.  

This is stitched on the same 40 count linen as my main focus, there was enough left to stitch two smaller designs.  This one is Nevermore by Quaternion Creations

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

The white does show up better in person, this is a difficult fabric to photograph, it comes out paler than in real life.

 

Finally, I gave the [never.more] chart to my friend and she stitched it on RED!!  How stunning does this look?  She's got an amazing charm to go in the centre of the piece too.

October 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.

The letters R and S were designated for October.  I don't have an R project so I went with three S projects which were actually the three projects I have been stitching all month!

First up was Cottage Garden SAMPLINGS and Halloween SAMPLER.

I had finished all the words and now have the motifs to work on.  It started here:

And finished here:

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

Next up was the Halloween Blackwork from The STEADY Thread, from here:

To here, completed the Home Sweet Home sampler, added some colour and a little bit of the lacy border, then almost all of the Witch picture:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

The third project is my Temperature Tree, again from The STEADY Thread.  That went from here:

To here, with a lot more of the border done:

and back down to green leaves again:

stitched on 28 count Meadow Mist linen from Silkweavers

Next month will be T, U and V.  Except I don't have anything for U or V so it will just be T projects.  I do have plenty of those!

Finally the next IHSW will be 15th - 17th November 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.

October Gifted Gorgeousness Link-up Post

         

Welcome to the September 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 focus pieces for last month were both gifted charts and both finished.  During the day I stitched on Couer de Sorciere by TraLaLa:

stitched on 32 count Taupe evenweave

In the evening it was this little repeating design from Hands on Design, [never.more]

stitched on 32 count Khaki linen

Continuing progress on this one as we cool down to Lime again:

Steady Thread - Tree of Life Temperature SAL

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.  This is my current focus piece and I am stitching one word per day, then I will complete the motifs around the words.

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

Finally, 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 "October 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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