Recovering from the Marathon!

Thanks to everyone who commented on my Marathon Post.  It was such a fun day and so much easier and less stressful than trying to do a Start A Day like the DUCJC.  I will definitely be doing it again next year.  It was worth taking the time in advance to sort out the projects, making sure the charts, threads and fabric were all in one place.   And didn't they look great all laid out on the bed?

Thanks for the feedback on Bande de Dragons too.  I think I will be taking Christine's advice and cutting down what I have already done and completing the segment of the border as a stand alone piece.  Then restarting the design on a higher count over one.  It's not just the scratchiness of the fabric it's the large scale.  I am used to 32 count or 28 count hand-dyed which shrinks.  14 just seems enormous and it's a big design to start with.  25 count over 1 will bring it to a more manageable size.

At least three other bloggers joined me for the day:

Brigitte at Brigitte's Place

Melinda at Family Business

Kerry at Ramblings of a Biscornu Addict

edit to add

Carrie at Crafting Paws

Why not pop over and see how they got on?

Prior to my Marathon we had IHSW hosted by Joysze of Random Ramblings and I made some fantastic progress on my Elizabeth Shephard sampler which has been my designated IHSW project for the last two years.  Here's where she was before the weekend:

And here she is now:

I stitched the rest of the swan motif, all the one to the left and some brown border!  There really is just one weekend of stitching left in her and then I get to choose another long term IHSW project.

Prior to that I continued with the Daffycat Reindeer series.  I completed six of the designs and made them into a cube finish.

Stocking Reindeer

Ribbon Reindeer

Star Reindeer

Here are all six together:

And here's what I made them into:

I mounted each square on some thin card and then whipstitched them into a cube.  I threaded some beads onto a piece of cotton thread to make a hanger and then the other ends of the thread to make some beaded tassels at the bottom of the cube.  Now all we need is Christmas!

I also completed another one of my Just Nan smalls, Beehive Violets:

stitched on 28 count evenweave

Which meant a new start on Big Bee, Little Bee, also by Just Nan:

stitched on 28 count evenweave

There are four of those beehives to stitch and some corner border too.  This is quite a stitch-dense design compared to the previous one and is taking a little longer.

The day after the Marathon I had quite a lot of household things to do which were held over from Monday.  And trying to decide what to stitch first out of all the choices!  When I completed my 30 minutes on Teresa Wentzler's You Were Hatched I noticed that the dark blue did not meet up with the lighter blue I'd stitched for the DUCJC.  I thought the best thing to do was find the error and fix it right away than put it away and not want to face the frog.

So here is where I left off after the Marathon:

and here is where I was after the frogging session:

All of that top blue was out by one row.

And here's where I am now:

stitched on 28 count lilac evenweave

I've stitched all of three of the blues and most of the lightest blue, you can really see the design taking shape now.  Of course, those four colours are actually eight because it's a Teresa Wentzler which means Blended Threads!  This was intended as a Birth Sampler for the Small Boy, he's only seven after all!

Finally, I'm still really behind on blog reading but intend to try and catch up over the next week.  So sorry, if I haven't been to visit recently.  Also, if you took part in The Longest Day Marathon, let me know and I'll add you to this post with Brigitte, Melinda and Kerry.

Serendipity Strikes Again!

Remember the name of my blog and the little sub-heading at the top?  Well, serendipity has struck again!  Last post I showed you the lovely pile of DMC Susan had sent me as an early Birthday present for stitching the Chatelaine Gardens of London Mandala.  It just so happens that Martina has been running a Daily Discount on FB.  Each day she chooses a few charts which have 20% off for one day only.  And I just so happened to spot this on the one day London was included!  So now it's mine.  Isn't that perfect?

I have the long list of speciality threads needed and a quote from Crafty Kitten to kit them up (approximately £150).  It would be cheaper to get them from European Cross Stitch (who are in the US ironically!) but then I would have a huge customs bill to pay.  So it's swings and roundabouts.  I do plan to look carefully at the chart and decide if I really need all the different threads, Waterlilies in particular are very expensive for what they are.  So if anyone wants to "sponsor a skein" I promise to write your name on the bag and think of you whenever I use it LOL

Last Friday was the second Friday of the month which means Christmas stitching.  The theme on the Christmas Ornie SAL blog is Animals or Pets.  This gave me the perfect opportunity to stitch some more Daffycat Reindeer.  Here is the first one:

stitched over one on 28 count sparkly evenweave

I also did a little scrapbooking of finishes:

The Sweetheart Tree - Finger Fun I

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The Little Stitcher - Winter Woods

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And here is the most recent finish, mounted on a calendar page of one of Monet's Waterlilies paintings.

Just Nan - My Fair Ladybug

And a little close-up of the Ladybird charm I got from SewandSo:

Here's my progress on the next Just Nan piece I've been stitching:

Beehive Violets

Once I finish the pink smyrna stitches there is some gold and the beads and it's done.  I am in three minds what to stitch next in the evenings!  Either another Just Nan small, the Primitive Needle Sampler Susan sent me or an Ink Circles Spooky Mandala.  I just can't decide!  Daytime is easy, Little Snapdragon will come back once I have finished the Christmas Reindeer.

Finally, an apology if I haven't visited your blog recently.  I've got a little behind with reading and commenting.  Not sure why but I seem to have had less time to read them in the evenings than usual.  Maybe we should have our tea earlier so I get a longer evening!

May Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather from Stitching Lotus

This year I have two Small Challenges:

1. The Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog

2. The Christmas Ornie SAL Blog

For the Hallowe'en Blog I have done something a little different this year, I've chosen a band sampler by Just Nan called Counting Bats and each band corresponds to the monthly themes on the blog.  May's theme was Spiders and I stitched this band:

stitched on 32 count lilac linen

That is one giant spider!  I am not surprised the ghosts are fleeing.

Here is the whole piece with my special scissors and fob:

The theme on the Christmas Ornie SAL blog was Reindeer and I decided to stitch one of Daffycat's cute little reindeer freebies.  In the event, I stitched three of them!  Jinglebell, Holly and Mistletoe.

I also completed another Small, this time as part of the Stitch Maynia Colour-a-Day SAL, which was Red.

stitched on 28 count Platinum linen

This was a gift from Vickie so I will be sending it back out into the world as part of June's Gifted Gorgeousness post.  So keep your eyes open then!  I used the charted DMC 902 for the darker red and substituted 3722 for the charted 3726 which looked too brown to me.  I also used standard size beads instead of the charted petite.  The standard beads filled the spaces much better than the petites.  Plus I had them in my stash and didn't have the petites!

Having completed that piece I needed something simple to start straightaway and chose the second in a series called Winter Woods by The Little Stitcher.  Only a couple of evenings bathtime stitching and a lunchbreak at work and it was done:

stitched over one on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

Here is the previous piece in this series:

There is one more and I'll scrapbook them together.

I almost forgot my other Small! Inspired by our host Heather, I stitched on the Teresa Wentzler Byzantine Ornaments too.  I used burgundy fabric and changed the colours too:

more details in the post here

Finally, in my last post I showed a picture of Just Nan's Haunted Pumpkins Tree and said I couldn't remember what happened to it.  I found it!  In a sensible place, surprisingly.  I had put the finished piece into the bag with the chart and put them back into my Just Nan bag.  There are a LOT of charts in that bag.  Maybe I'll pull out a JN small to start tonight.

Friday Finishing Frenzy!

I was intending to post on Wednesday or Thursday this week to space the posts out but I was so close to finishing Little Snowy Gray Cottage I wanted to push on and have a Happy Dance post!

So without further ado, here is Little Snowy Metallic Gray Cottage:

Look at all the bling in that!

Design Details:

Little Snowy Gray Cottage by Nora Corbett

Started on 19th January, 2015 for DUCJC2015

Recommenced on 6th April, 2016

Completed on 13th May, 2016 (22 days stitching in total) 

Stitched on 32 count Blue Hydrangea Opalescent by Crafty Kitten

Recommended DMC and Kreinik except for the following:

B5200 for Blanc

Emerald Forest by Jodyri for the Caron Waterlilies

Kreinik 001HL and 014 blended for snowflakes instead of RG Arctic Rays

The Rainbow Gallery Arctic Rays is weird stuff, it's like metallic Whisper and likes to form hairballs on the back of your fabric!  Where the two sides of diagonal stitches meet in the middle the fabric is a little puckered (you can see in the last photo) but hopefully it won't show so much when it is stretched and framed.  

It will need a deep rebate on the frame because of those huge beads on top of the wall posts.

The nicest thread was the Kreinik 9294 used for the walls of the house, I love the colour and ir was so easy to stitch with, a pleasure!

I finished the Cottage this morning which left me some stitching space for the afternoon.  The second Friday of the month is for the Christmas Ornie SAL which is usually my Primitive Hare Christmas Cubes.  But there isn't a Cube which fits this month's theme of Reindeer.  So that gave me the excuse to finally start a series I have been hoarding for about five years!  Daffycat's annual reindeer freebie!

Jinglebell Reindeer from 2008

I didn't stitch him twice but I couldn't decide which photo looked better.  The colours are more accurate in the top one but you can see him better in the bottom one.

I stitched him over one on 28 count silvered white evenweave using the following colours:

Brown - 801

Green - 3346

Red - 815

Beads - 40557

I changed the red and green because colours can look different when you stitch over one and I wanted them to be a little brighter.

The reindeer himself took exactly one hour to stitch.  I timed myself.  The border took longer because my son came home from school and there were snack interruptions and I was needed to read the subtitles on a YouTube clip to him!

I have enough fabric to stitch eight of them, there are nine so far.  I plan to stitch six of them and finish into a cube ornament and hope that Daffycat does three more so I can have two cubes!  If not, then I will "flip" three of them and stitch them reversed.  I will have to get some more fabric though.

In the evenings I have been working on this sweet little chart from Sweetheart Tree:

stitched on 28 count Platinum linen

I am pleased with how well the blackwork shows up in the photo.  It is quite time consuming, the top border took two evenings to complete (doing about 30 minutes per session).

Finally, I joined a new-to-me FB group called Cross Stitch Finish Line which is all about celebrating different types of finishes, encouraging WIPs to become finishes and they host themed events too.  My shoe horn and I do enjoy a good themed SAL (I still miss Theme-a-licious).  The first one will be Sing Me a SAL starting 15th May.  Anything song-related will fit.  Now, I have completed another one of my 16 WIPocalypse projects so I will be continuing with one of the others.  Gathering Honey is earmarked for a later SAL and I have three dragon-themed projects to choose from!

So any suggestions for Dragon-themed songs APART from the obvious Puff the Magic Dragon.