June 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 attempting International Hermit and Blackwork.  I do love blackwork and have a couple of projects I want to try fit in to my rotation without being on the WIPGO Board.

My main blackwork piece is the Halloween Blackwork from The Steady Thread.  It went from here:

to here:

stitched on 32 count tea-dyed linen

Always exciting when the border meets up!

This is the part I worked on over the weekend:

I'm a little bit behind with my Temperature Chart but here is the most recent photo, lots of lovely oranges and a bit of red to be added:

stitched on 14 count Aida banding

Finally the next IHSW will be 18th - 20th July 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.

May 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 attempting International Hermit and Blackwork.  I do love blackwork and have a couple of projects I want to try fit in to my rotation without being on the WIPGO Board.

My main blackwork piece is the Halloween Blackwork from The Steady Thread.  It went from here:

to here:

stitched on 32 count tea-dyed linen

This is the part I worked on over the weekend:

I spent two days on the Blackwork and one on the lovely Scorpio from Nora Corbett.  You can really see how her hair resembles the scorpion's tail now:

stitched on 32 count Scorpio Murano from Sparklies

In the evenings I continued with my Just Nanathon and stitched three more designs:

Finally the next IHSW will be 20th - 22nd June 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.

April 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 attempting International Hermit and Blackwork.  I do love blackwork and have a couple of projects I want to try fit in to my rotation without being on the WIPGO Board.

My main blackwork piece is the Halloween Blackwork from The Steady Thread.  It went from here:

to here:

stitched on 32 count tea-dyed linen

This is the part I worked on over the weekend:

On Sunday morning I continued with this year's Temperatue SAL.  Just a very simple column of colour for each day.  Charting the lows for the night time and the highs for the day time.

stitched on 14 count Aida banding

Finally the next IHSW will be 16th - 18th May 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.

March 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 attempting International Hermit and Blackwork.  I do love blackwork and have a couple of projects I want to try fit in to my rotation without being on the WIPGO Board.

My main blackwork piece is the Halloween Blackwork from The Steady Thread.  It went from here:

to here:

stitched on 32 count tea-dyed linen

(the fabric is very bleached out in this photo, the "before" is more accurate)

This is the part I worked on over the weekend:

Lots of lovely green leaves, perfect for Spring!

On Sunday morning I continued with this year's Temperatue SAL.  Just a very simple column of colour for each day.  Charting the lows for the night time and the highs for the day time.

stitched on 14 count Aida banding

Finally the next IHSW will be 18th - 20th April 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.

February 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 attempting International Hermit and Blackwork.  I do love blackwork and have a couple of projects I want to try fit in to my rotation without being on the WIPGO Board.

My main blackwork piece is the Halloween Blackwork from The Steady Thread.  I didn't get huge amounts done on this but went from here:

to here:

 

stitched on 32 count tea-dyed linen

I added some more of the blue to the crystal ball, started the shelf and vases to the right of it.  Then a few bits of border.  The border is fiddly but I can stitch it without the chart in front of me.

On Sunday morning I continued with this year's Temperatue SAL.  Just a very simple column of colour for each day.  Charting the lows for the night time and the highs for the day time.

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

January 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.

Last year I did my A-Z Challenge for IHSW with mixed success.  I actually forgot it a couple of times!  But I did manage to work on all my WIPs across the year so I count that as a result.

This year I am going to attempt International Hermit and Blackwork.  I do love blackwork and have a couple of projects I want to try fit in to my rotation without being on the WIPGO Board.

The first project up was the Temperature Tree from The Steady Thread.  I filled in the corner and then worked on the final branch for the December temperatures:

And then it was done!

stitched on 28 count Meadow Mist linen from Silkweavers

I moved on to my second WIP from The Steady Thread, the Halloween Bookshelf:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

I focused on the clock this session and then stitched some more of the crystal ball inside.  Here's how it looks now:

I realised that my photo in Friday's post was not the current state of the piece.  I had stitched more since that was taken.

Today I am going back to my focus piece for the month, the Art Nouveau Head:

stitched on 14 count white Aida

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

November Pie

 It's time for pie!

Steady Thread Halloween Blackwork

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

And here's my evening pie:

November Plans

At the start of the year I made a list of 24 projects I want to stitch this year for my "24 in '24".  The order I stitch them in is going to be determined by the WIPGO Board.  Jessie-Marie calls two numbers each month and those will be the two projects I stitch that month.  One small and one medium.

In October, the numbers were 8 and 17.  These related to Cottage Garden Samplings' Halloween Sampler and Drawn Thread's Spot of Summer.

I finished the Halloween Sampler and didn't even start the Spot of Summer.  That can roll over to 2025 along with Spot of Autumn.

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

In the evenings I stitched the Steady Thread Halloween SAL:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

In November, the numbers are 14 and 16.  These relate to Maria Brovko Life in the Shire and Full Circle Designs Moonshadow Mini "A Child's Dream".

A while back I bought a batch of charts from Ukrainian designers to support them and this is one of them:

I haven't decided what fabric to stitch it on, I want to make sure the black backstitch shows up well on the blue.

The other chart is an old one I picked up in a needlework shop just because it was sweet.  I like a mini sampler and it came with the moon button. 

Here's a close-up of the design:

I'll stitch the sampler rather than the needleroll.

Finally, I am making plans for 2025!  After a year of small/medium designs I have two larger pieces I want to focus on and then keep up with some of the series I started the last couple of years.  Designs such as the Zodiac Girls, the 12 Days of Christmas, The Year in the Woods.  I'll publish my finished list next month as it's very much a WIP at the moment.

November TUSAL

    

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current projects:

The main project is the Halloween Blackwork from The Steady Thread:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

This one is a cute little extra for the month.  The lovely Jocondine sent me a beautiful gift package for my Birthday which included a kit for Miguel le Cameleon.  Apparently Miguel is an icon who comes in a variety of designs, this one is the Skeleton, perfect for Halloween.

stitched on 36 count dark green linen

Finally, a big Thank You to everyone who linked up for my Spooky Link-up, I'm going to be hopping around and visiting everyone this weekend.

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.