September Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I am showing my Just Nan 12 Days of Christmas blocks for the Smalls SAL and also my 30-a-day projects.  All smalls also by Just Nan.  It's a Nan-a-thon year!

Here is Block 9 of the 12 Days of Christmas:

And here is the full piece.  You can see that I have stitched a good chunk of Block 10 too.  I want to complete 10 in September so I can dedicate October to Hallowe'en stitching.

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

I finished Happy Bluebird at the beginning of the month, just need to get a charm and scrapbook it:

stitched on 32 count White evenweave

The next Small in line is Jump For Joy, which is now nearly finished too:

stitched on 32 count Antique White linen

The Donna Kooler Tinies have all been FFO'd and once my friend gives me permission I can show them on here.  Should be viewable for next month's Smalls Post.

My final Small is my new app - Tiny Decisons.  This is a free app where you type in a question and then give a selection of answers.  The app creates a wheel which you can spin to help you decide on a option.  For Dark October this year I am also doing Arbitary October where the wheel makes a random selection from your WIPs.  I have 5 Hallowe'en WIPs so I put each one in six times and then added Enchanted Alphabet once.  Each time a project comes up I will stitch on it for the day and then remove the option so they each get stitched on during the month.  If I complete a WIP then I remove all the remaining entries for it to give something else a chance.  Here's the wheel all set up ready to go:

Finally, Blogger has a new glitsch to delight and entertain us all.  Specially selected commenters can no longer comment on blogs where the comment field is embedded.  They can only comment on blogs where the comment field is a pop-up.

So if you like to get comments - go into your Dashboard and change your comment field to a Pop-up.  Chatter is restored!  Thanks to Brigitte for alerting me to this latest vagary of Blogger.

Why I Love Train Journeys

Hours of uninterrupted stitching!  We had two train journeys this week to nearby cities (Norwich and Cambridge) which combined to give me 6 hours of stitching time with. no. interrruptions.  This is the important part.  6 hours of stitching at home is probably about 3 hours if you remove all the requests for snacks and attention.

This is what I stitched:

Is there room on the broom for a cat like me?

The final word

The whole piece so far:

stitched on 32 count Cognac linen

September's goal was to complete the witch with Happy scheduled for October.  But now I think I will be able to get this completed before the end of October.

After that I completed 2 more of the Donna Kooler Tinies:

stitched on 22 count Hardanger

And at coffee morning on Friday I finished a Just Nan small - Happy Bluebird:

stitched on 32 count White evenweave

I just need to decide on a charm for the centre and then I can scrapbook it.

As well as stitching on the train we did some sightseeing and some shopping.  Here's a selection of photos from the two days out.

Norwich has the Hare Trail this year.  In previous years they have had elephants (2008), gorillas (2013),  dragons (2015)  and now hares.

Each one is sponsored by a local business and decorated by a local artist.  There are also smaller hares decorated by local schools.

At the end of the summer they are auctioned off for charity.  You can find more information here:

GoGo Hares 2018

Cambridge had fudge!  The Fudge Kitchen is a franchise business across the UK who like to give out free samples!

This is a book sculpture in the Cambridge Waterstones.  They also have a Book Igloo which is big enough to get into and hide away with a book.

This is a bizarre and very expensive clock!  Quite a nightmarish cricket-like insect moves the wheel round and the lights tell the time.  It's 5.15 pm here.

In Norfolk we found a Suffolk Rock!

Which we hid in Cambridgeshire:

I wonder where it will go next?  We hid it in a niche in a stone pillar at the top of a church tower reached by climbing 123 narrow spiral stairs.  Wonderful views of Cambridge from the top.  Once you got your breath back!

Finally, don't forget to visit all the Summer Postcard participants and leave a comment on THIS POST if you want to be included in the Five Peaks Blog Hop Challenge this year.

August Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I am showing my Just Nan 12 Days of Christmas blocks for the Smalls SAL and also my 30-a-day projects.  All smalls also by Just Nan.  It's a Nan-a-thon year!

Here is Block 8 on the 12 Days of Christmas:

I know I still have a couple of white stitches to do in the 8 but it didn't seem worth threading a needle for them, I'll add them when I do block 9.

Here's the whole piece so far.

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

My current Just Nan small is almost finished, this is Happy Bluebird although it may get a rename depending on which charm I attach in the centre:

stitched on 32 count white evenweave

The Large Boy is in favour of me finding a chicken charm and calling it Happy Mrs Chicken (Peppa Pig in-joke there).

Here is the previous finish, Just Nan's Butterfly Bouquet:

stitched on 32 count Pink linen

I also stitched 2 more tinies from the Donna Kooler 365 Tiny Cross Stitch Designs book:

stitched on 22 count hardanger

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop is well underway.  Five cards have gone out, and will be shown on the recipient's blogs soon:

Ariadne from Greece

Butterfly Wings

Jeremiah's Mom

Mein Allerlei Hobby

The Alchymyst's Study

Hop over and leave a nice comment.  Stay tuned for the rest of the cards!

August IHSW

It was a great progress-filled IHSW this month so I am very happy.

Saturday morning started off with my three daily projects being worked on:

Just Nan - Autumn in the Square

Just Nan - Happy Bluebird

Hetti - Temperature SAL

Then I continued with my Hallowe'en project which is Jardin Prive's Happy Hallowe'en Night.  Stitching one motif per month to tie in with the Hallowe'en Ornie Blog SAL.  This month was Haunted Houses and it was a big one!

Here is the whole piece and a better colour match for the fabric too:

stitched on 32 count Cognac linen

On Sunday I switched to my Donna Kooler Tinies:

stitched on 22 count Hardanger

That might look like a pumpkin, but it's actually a Christmas Teapot!

Next project to share is Alice and the Flamingo by Mrs Peggotty.  Here is what she looked like last IHSW:

And here is where she is now, lots of Flamingo head and neck and beak:

stitched over 1 on 25 count blue evenweave

A few people have said that they don't do Facebook and asked if I could host a link-up for them, so here it is!  Just add your name and the link to your actual IHSW post, not just your blog home page.

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