Finally Fully Finished Fun for October

   

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'm on a roll, I finished more things!  Well, technically my framer FFO'd some things for me!

I took Capricorn in for her to work her magic once again.

The frame is a lovely reddish-brown which goes perfectly with her browns and reds.

Here she is on the wall:

And with Taurus.  I need another nail to be able to hang Virgo with them.

Virgo is in my bedroom with J for Joanne at the moment.

I also took this smaller piece with me and told the framer to do what she wanted with it as it was a gift for her.  It took her quite a few minutes to realise I was serious!  The story is - when I took Taurus in last year she joked that it was a gift for her as she is a Taurus and how I might not get her back.  So when Circle Cross finished her Lunar Calendar series with The Hare Moon for Taurus, I just had to stitch her as gift.  She's been framing my work for 20 years now, an average of 1 piece per year and I trust her 100% with the frame choices and my precious stitching.

Here's the frame she chose for herself:

I did FFO something myself.  Having shown the 3D Haunted House last month, that inspired me to finally FFO the 3D Haunted Mansion from 2022!  I'd done it all except for the base.  So here it is completely FFO'd in time for Halloween:

Here they are together:

And here are my 3D shelves:

The castle tower to the left is a bought piece made from felt.

Finally, if you want to see all the pieces framed by Thistles, check out the label on my Happy Dance Blog - Thistles Framing

I notice I need to add both Taurus and Capricorn to the blog!

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 2020	9
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

October TUSAL and Stitching Library

      

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current project:

Those small pieces of blue stitching are all the roof sections for my 3D Haunted Mansion building.  I already completed the building and now I just have to make three roofs and it will be done.

Here's the main building:

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: Cross Stitch Myth and Magic

Author: Various

Publisher: David & Charles
ISBN: 9780715322109

This is a very eclectic collection of subjects and designs!  

The cover is Merlin by Maria Diaz

This one is The Princess and the Unicorn by Susan Penny.  

There's an unusual technique to making the mane and tail which is very effective.

This one is why I bought the book - The Princess and the Dragon by Teresa Wenztler.

This would look great framed with Dragon Rider which I stitched some time ago.

This one is another Susan Penny, called Frost Fairy there are some interesting techniques used here too. Plus a beaded border!

There are a couple of Asian designs, this is Oriental Dragon by Rungrat Puthikul 

The Dolphins come under the Mystic Deep section and are designed by Sue Cook

(like I said - eclectic!)

The final Sue Cook design is fabulous, Celestial Heaven features a very nice Zodiac with a fancy border all around.  You can also finish them as individual ornaments.

As well as the large designs for each chapter there are plenty of smaller charts which haven't been stitched as models so I can't show them!

I did stitch this blackwork castle as a Teacher Gift a few years back:

I must have really liked this teacher as that is all metallic!

Finally, there will be a Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop as usual this year. I am sure you all know how it works but for those who need a reminder - here's a link to last year's:

2021 Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop

If you want to take part, just leave a comment here or email me if you are a "no reply" person. I need an email address for you to take part in this hop.

Finally Fully Finishing for October

      

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).

Last month I was wondering if Scream House would be FFO'd by now.  Not a chance!  I did get as far as finishing the four roof pieces and the base but stalled on the walls.

(There is another roof piece not in this photo)

The reason I didn't FFO that one is because I wanted to try focus on my other 3D project which is Fiona Baker's 3D Haunted Mansion.  I did manage to make the building up:

And have been diligently stitching away on the roof pieces.  13 in all!   I have decided to just stitch the darker blue and not the lighter blue which fills the tiles in.  The fabric is pretty much the same colour so it really won't make much difference!

Another project which could have been FFO'd but wasn't, is my latest Just Nan Mouse - Stitchy Witchy Mouse:

stitched on 32 count grey linen

She won't take long to FFO but I have to be in the right mood for fiddly stitching!

Not sure what I get for those pieces?  Half an FFO for the building?

Finally, there will be a Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop as usual this year. I am sure you all know how it works but for those who need a reminder - here's a link to last year's:

2021 Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop

If you want to take part, just leave a comment here or email me if you are a "no reply" person. I need an email address for you to take part in this hop.

September 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.

It's been a good weekend for stitching!  I was supposed to be going out for lunch on Friday but my son's school phoned to say he wasn't well and I had to go and fetch him.  My lovely friend still went to the cafe and brought me two large slices of cake back! 

So instead of cake and chat, I did stitching.  The WIPGO Board came up with Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas.  This is the first time I've picked it up all year and at the start of the weekend I had stitched a little of the blue background.

Here's where I am now:

stitched on 32 count grey-blue linen

The other project I have been working on is the Stitchonomy Cabinet of Curiosities.  The frame came out on the 10th September and the first motif on the 17th.  What a nice Birthday present!

I managed to stitch all the blocks and I'm working on the border as I complete each motif.  So far we have a Jar of Eye of Newt (Eyes of Newts?) and a Crystal Ball.

stitched on 28 count tan evenweave

The Facebook group is so much fun at the moment, everyone is posting their progress and their adaptations.  I added beads to my newts' eyes.

My evening project has been the 3D Haunted Mansion from Fiona Baker.  I've finished all four walls and might actually stitch them together rather than work on the roof pieces which are not very exciting!  That will leave evenings free for the Cabinet of Curiosities and give me half a chance to keep up!

I've flipped the photo so you can see both sides the right way up!

stitched on 28 count purple linen

Finally, the next IHSW will be 21st - 23rd October 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.

August Stitch from Stash and Pie

 It's time for some end of the month Pie!

Continuing to hit my 14 days goal on Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow.  This month I continued with Block 5 which went from here:

to a finish here:

then on to Block 8:

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

I should get that finished in the first few days of September and then go down to Block 9.

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 - 11 days and counting

The WIPGO Board called for Virgo by Nora Corbett which was most serendipitous as we are currently in the star sign of Virgo.  I'm also using a fabric called Virgo for this one!

I did show the finish in my WIPocalypse post but I made a small adjustment since then - I made her earring more dangly:

Here's some more photos:

Here's how she compares to the original on the right:

I started with the dress which is charted for 414 and 415, shades of grey rather than the blue it looks on the cover photo.  I changed those to the lavenders in the new colours - 25 to 30

Her skin is as charted (although it looks paler in the cover photo).

Her hair was the biggest change, I went for the 550 family of purples.

The Caron colours have been changed to two Stef Francis threads, one silk and one cotton.  I used the silk for the butterflies and backstitched in silver metallic.

I also used the silver metallic for the antenna, which I backstitched, then whipstitched to hide the places where it entered the fabric.

The wings are now a purple blending filament with a touch of green satin in the "eyes".  I used a DMC Satin thread for the satin stitch!  Then surrounded them with purple beads.

The larger beads have stayed as charted but all the others have changed.  For the necklaces I stitched over the gaps left in the design for beads and simply strung them on thread and tacked down at intervals so they hung more naturally.

The lowest strand of beads was charted with squares of stitching with a bead in the middle.  I used sequins held in place with a bead.

My final project for the month is Just Nan's Mermaid Heart, which is also a finish!

stitched on 32 count grey-green linen

I am going to try get a better photo of the linen colour!

I've kept my usual bath-time stitching pie as well.  

Most of the month went on the Haunted Mansion by Fiona Baker from World of Cross Stitching magazine.  Warning - this needs two skeins of DMC 333 which is not indicated in the magazine.

stitched on 28 count purple linen

Finally, Stitch from Stash:

Only the usual Shannon Christine 12 Days charts and the continuing Year in the Woods from CGS for this month.