March's Small Smalls Update

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather from Stitching Lotus

This year I am going to have two monthly challenges:

1. The Primitive Hare Hallowe'en Cubes SAL

2. The Hallowe'en Ornie SAL themed blog.

I completed the first L from the Hallowe'en Cubes earlier this month:

Stitched on 32count Vintage Grain Linen

Because I have been focusing on my SOS piece I haven't stitched the March Ornie yet.  But I have six days left this month so there's plenty of time!

I have worked four out of five days so far this week so my stitching time is waaaaaaay down on usual.  I didn't even pick up Satsuma Street last night so I am planning on dedicating Thursday to that one this week.  The good news is that with the Easter holidays coming up I only have one day of work between now and the 15th April!  So expect some good picture-filled posts next month.

Finally, I saw this project on the Mr X-Stitch blog recently:

Lynn Harrigan - Calendar Project

January 2015

The artist embroiders one square every day inspired by the weather that day.  I have seen scarfs with one row knitted every day in a colour relating to the temperature but never anything quite like this!  Each block is only 1.25 inch square but so detailed.  I love it!  I am looking forward to seeing how this progresses through the Summer into Autumn.

February Stitch from Stash

Month: February
Spent: £ 5.50
Earned: £ 0.00



Stitch from Stash is hosted by Mel from Epic Stitching

Essentially the idea behind Stitch from Stash is that we are limited to spending US$25 (or £15) per month. There are various exemptions (Birthday money, existing mag subs, clubs etc) but the idea is not to try and pervert the rules and to stitch some of that stash!  I will be posting on or around the 20th of each month because that is when I get paid!

January Budget	£ 15.00
January Spend	£   0.00
February Budget	£ 15.00
Crafty Kitten Voucher	£ 20.00
Crafty Kitten Spend	£ 22.50-
Willow Fabrics Voucher	£ 10.00
Willow Fabrics Spend	£ 13.00-
Current Balance	£ 24.50

So what did I buy?  From Crafty Kitten I bought a cone of DMC 310 for all the black stitching I do plus some Crescent Colours for J is for Joanne.  I was gifted three of the colours and figured I only need three more, the rest would be fine in DMC.  From Willow Fabric's sale I got two great fabrics, both 32 count green linen for £ 6.50 a fat quarter of each.

Willow Fabrics really do have some great sales and some interesting fabrics too, I do recommend them.

So, that is the Stash part of the post.  Now for the Stitch part.

Since my last SFS post I complete the DUCJC but I won't show those again, I will just show the projects I have worked on since the beginning of February.

Primitive Hare - Hallowe'en Cubes:

Stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain Linen

Prairie Moon - Thine is the Trick and the Treat

Scarlet Letter - Elizabeth Shephard



I noticed something really interesting about these two designs - the border around the centre motif for each one is exactly the same!

 Finally, I am using hubby's laptop and the mouse keypad is stupidly over sensitive and keeps jumping the cursor around all the time.  It is virtually impossible to do anything so I am going to call this post done and try make it look a little better when I can get on the PC.

February TUSAL of Time Travel

It's TUSAL time again!  For those of you new to blogging, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button on the right hand bar for more details.

Here is my ORTS jar posing with the current stitching project:

And here is a close-up of the first completed block:

The project is Primitive Hare's Hallowe'en Cubes.  The plan is to stitch one per month until Hallowe'en.  There is a lot of black as you can see so it's a good thing I bought that cone of 310.

Becca from Finding Flapjack has come up with a great idea for blogging prompts.  Here is the current one:

If you could travel back to any time in the past, what date would you choose and why? Would you attempt to influence past events while you were there? Why or why not?

I had a good think about this and strangely enough my thoughts were on the same lines as Becca.  Not of returning to an historical event but of going back to a point in my own life and making a change there.  She even referenced a favourite film - The Butterfly Effect.

Hubby and I watched this film on DVD.  The plot is a man going back in time to try put things right in his life and in his friends' lives.  However he makes things worse instead of better.  We enjoyed the film and when it came on TV we sat down to watch it again.  As it neared the end we became more puzzled.  This was NOT how we remembered it.  The film had a totally different ending!  This made us wonder "what if this film is different every time you watch it?"  How freaky would that be?

I also thought about those "Sliding Doors" moments when one little action or event changes your entire life.  I had one of those in 2001 actually involving a late running train.  My train being late set a chain of events in motion which led to the birth of the Large Boy in 2002.  If only Anglia Railways knew their power!

When I first got together with my husband we knew a lot of the same people (it's a small town!).  I was going through my photo album from my teenage years and showed him a photo of a group of us who had been fundraising.  And there, right at the back, barely visible was my husband!  If only we had known!  Our lives would certainly have been very different.  We would probably have about eight children rather than the current two LOL.

We met again about ten years later at an event my ex-husband was hosting, I was helping and hubby-to-be was the sound and light engineer.  Apparently he was very impressed by my organisational skills, my hostessing, my professionalism and my elegant red dress!  I wonder what would have happened if we had run off together that night?  Apart from getting a very different review in The Stage newspaper!

In reality it took a further ten years for us to meet again as single people and get together once and for all.

Returning to the historical point of view, I would love to go back and find out the truth behind the King Arthur legends.  I have been fascinated by these stories for so long and have read many different versions. Was he a Roman or a Celt?  Was Guenivere good or bad?  Christian or Pagan?  Did Lancelot actually exist or was he a later invention?  Merlin and the Lady of the Lake also fascinate me.  It would be amazing to sit with the people who first wrote down the legends and find out the truth.

And to tie in with my stitching, here is one project I would go back and change - stitch it on evenweave and not aida!   How great would this look on a hand-dyed evenweave?

How about you?  Would you change something in your past?  Or would you rather visit an historical event?

Finally, thanks to everyone who took part in the recent Valentine Blog Hop and also linked up for Gifted Gorgeousness.  I believe all the Secret Sweethearts have now been revealed.  If not, then the links are up so you can still find out where your stitching went.  The next Blog Hop will be the Easter Treasure Hunt.  So prepare your bunnies for that one.

WIPocalypse February 2015 Stuck in a Rut?

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings

The focus of my WIPocalypse will be my "15 in '15"which are 15 charts I want to stitch in 2015 (following on from my "11 in '11", "12 in '12", "13 in '13" and "14 in '14" - imaginative, eh?)

Obviously taking part in the DUCJC meant I stitched on every single one of the 15!  You will have seen them all already throughout January but here are small pictures of them once again:

Joan Elliott – Diary February WIP

Just Nan – Winter Typography WIP

Frosted Pumpkins – Hallowe’en Town WIP

Joan Elliott – Faces Mystery SAL WIP

Just Nan – Haunted Pumpkins Tree WIP

Jannlynn – Gathering Honey WIP

JBW – Rocking Horse

Teresa Wenztler – You were Hatched

Kingfisher for school

Dragon of the Winter Moon from Riona

Joan Elliott – Believe for school

Nutmeg Cottage from Susan

Since the DUCJC ended I have actually worked on three of the pieces.  Trick and Treat has continued to be my bathtime focus piece, one length of thread per evening.  On the Beach is my OAAT piece so I can finish it for my cousin's baby.  And the Hallowe'en Blocks are one a month, mostly on a Sunday.

Praire Moon – Thine is the Trick and the Treat WIP

Stitched on hand-dyed 40 count linen

Primitive Hare – Hallowe’en Cubes

 

Stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

Madame Chantilly – On the Beach WIP

Stitched on 32 count Kynance evenweave by Sparklies

I have changed the colours quite a lot for this piece.  The charted ones just did not look the same as the cover picture.  Weirdly, the two rocks are stitched with the same colour but from two different skeins.  Big difference in old and new DMC there!

Measi also sets discussion topics for each month:

February
How do you overcome that feeling that you’re in a rut with a particular project?

On the Beach is actually a good piece to illustrate this.  The lighthouse is blocks of plain colour.  Not very exciting, just /// and \\\ like a typewriter.  So to keep me motivated I have been stitching one block of it and then a little motif along the bottom.

I find rotation is the key to not getting in a rut in the first place.  If you have like I do, a large focus project, a small or two and a monthly target there will always be something from your Goal List you can stitch on and not feel you are "cheating"!  I personally don't like stitching long repetitive borders so find the one thread of border followed by one thread of something more interesting works for me!

Finally, I will be hosting the annual Valentine's Day Blog Hop this year.  See this post for more details.  Just send me a photo of your lovely stitching to be sent to another blogger on Valentine's Day,  I've added the Heart to my sidebar, please feel free to copy it onto your blog to link back here.

Days 15 to 17 of the DUCJC 2015

Gosh, this makes post titles a doddle, doesn't it?

The DUCJC is being held this year in memory of SoCal Debbie and I am attempting to stitch on 31 different projects throughout January.  A mixture of WIPs and new starts.

Day 15 - Just Nan - Haunted Pumpkins Tree:

Stitched on 28 count Chocolate Orange evenweave from Crafty Kitten

I stitched the two pumpkins on the bottom left.

Day 16 - Joan Elliott - Believe:

Stitched on 28 count opal evenweave Robin's Egg by Silkweaver Fabrics

I really didn't want to put this one down and continued into the evening when I usually read blogs

Day 17 - Primitive Hare - Hallowe'en Cubes:

Stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen.

Giovanna will be SAL with me on this one.

One cube per month until Hallowe'en.

I emailed Isabella to ask for this chart plus two thread winders for Christmas.  Due to a misunderstanding she sent me the Christmas Cubes instead.  So what's a girl to do?  I decided to keep those too, pay for them and ask her to send the Hallowe'en Cubes in addition.  As a little "sorry" she invited me to choose one more chart of my choice!  I loved the design Gracie had stitched for the Christmas competition so chose "Dear Santa, define Good".

My previous post was the link-up for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.  I have now visited and commented on every blog who linked up so far.  The link-up will stay there so please feel free to join in any time this month.  There has been some great stitching going on, lots of lovely gifted charts and fabrics plus a good few shoehorns too!

Finally, I will be running the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop on Valentine's Day.

Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop

 

It's really very simple, all you have to do is email me a picture of something you have stitched which is suitable for a stitching friend on Valentine's Day.  It could be a heart, or a pair of cute creatures, or the word "love" or anything which warms your heart. Really anything you think a fellow stitcher would like to receive in her email Inbox.   It can be something you've stitched in the past or something you've made especially for this year.  It could also be quilted or sewn this year as I know some of my followers do other crafts too.

Send me the email by 10th February.

When I have all the emails I will randomise them and send one to each participant on 13th February.  Then on 14th February you must post the picture you receive onto your blog under the heading

 Secret Stitching Sweetheart. 

There will be a list on my blog of everyone joining in, so check out all the blogs and find out who got your picture and identify yourself  in their comments as their

Secret Stitching Sweetheart. 

Does that make sense to everyone?  I hope so!

If you'd like to be involved then leave a comment on this post, I'll be putting little reminders up from time to time and will email on 9th February to make sure you send the pic in time.