Spooky Stitching

I've shown both these pieces as part of my SAL updates but I thought I'd do a little focus on them and some of my other spooky WIPs.

The first piece is Jardin Prive's Happy Hallowe'en Night which I am stitching for the Hallowe'en Ornie Blog SAL.  This month the theme was Haunted Houses and I stitched a rather palatial residence for our witch:

Here's the whole piece before I move on to the witch herself.  I love how those little pops of yellow really stand out.

stitched on 32 count Cognac linen

My second large Spooky WIP is my conversion of the Lavender & Lace design Enchanted Alphabet.  This month I reached the end of the alphabet with Z:

Now I'm ready to get creative with some spooky additions.  There are already two pumpkins, some spiders and a bat.

stitched on 32 count Tiger Lily Murano by Sparklies

The rest of my spooky WIPs were all stitched on for the Longest Day Marathon.  First up was Just Nan's Autumn Mouse:

I'd really like to finish this one for Dark October this year. 

This little freebie from Plum Street Sampler was next - Brew Ha Ha:

The letters won't take long but I am not sure how much more there is to stitch!  There are coffee mugs to one side.

This one definitely won't take long to finish.  Just the border on JBW's Smiling Jack O'Lanterns:

My final spooky WIP is a larger one - Nora Corbett's Bewitching Pixie; Raven:

Dreadful photo of the fabric from my iPad, it's much darker in real life.  There's a lot to go in this one.  

I think my plan for Dark October will be to stitch one motif on the Jardin Prive design, finish the JBW and the Plum Street Sampler and then divide the rest of the days between Just Nan and Nora Corbett to work on both pieces equally.  Or maybe not.  Maybe I'll do something different!  We shall see.

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.  The remaining cards will all be sent out tomorrow and the list shown on my blog on Friday.

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.

*

*

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.

August TUSAL

It's TUSAL time, the Totally Useless SAL where we all show our ORTS and link-up on Daffycat's blog.

Here is my TUSAL jar with two projects:

The project on the left is Jardin Prive's Happy Hallowe'en Night which I am stitching for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog.  August's theme is Haunted Houses and I have stitched most of the ground floor of the house.  Got to add the first floor next and the roof.

How do you stitch houses?  Ground upwards as you would build a bricks and mortar house?  Or make a framework and fill it in as you might with a wood or steel framed house?

The small project on the right is Just Nan's Butterfly Bouquet which is all finished except for the beads.  A project for Sunday.  So  I'll show a close-up when they have been added.

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop has started!  Two cards have gone out, been received and shown on the recipient's blogs:

Ariadne from Greece

Butterfly Wings

Another one is being sent this weekend to Katie AKA Jeremiah's Mom, so visit her blog to see the card on view.

If you want to take part, just email me a photo of something you have stitched which is suitable as a postcard to a fellow stitcher along with a short message of the kind you write on a postcard.  I will forward the photo to another participant who shows it on their blog.  The photo can be anything Summer themed, beach themed, holiday themed, you get the idea!   It can be a new piece or something from your archives.

July TUSAL

It's TUSAL time, the Totally Useless SAL where we all show our ORTS and link-up on Daffycat's blog.

Here is my TUSAL jar with two projects:

I've been stitching part of Jardin Prive's Happy Hallowe'en Night each month for the Hallowe'en Ornie Blog.  This month the theme is Pumpkins but as I had already stitched the pumpkins last year, I did the little graveyard this time:

stitched on 32 count Cognac linen

 Here is the whole piece:

There's a lovely big Haunted House for next month.  I'll have to allocate a few more days to stitch that!

The other piece in the photo is my Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs.  This is my focus piece for the month and I've stitched a turtle flipper and a hippo wing.  Yes, hippos have wings when they are heraldic beasts.

stitched on 32 count Murano custom dyed by Sparklies

It's been another busy week and next week will be even busier with work every day.  But last weekend I did manage to get some scrapbooking done!  Hurrah!

Just Nan - Have a Heart

Just Nan - Royal Blossoms

Just Nan - Honeysuckle Rose and Painted Lady

Joan Elliott - July Mermaid from The Year of Magical Stitching

I'll post more photos of these on my Happy Dance blog so you can see the close-ups of the stitching.

Finally, the Summer Postcard Blog Hop will be starting soon.  I have a few photos sent in already and will be sending the first one out this weekend.  If you want to take part, just email me a photo of something you have stitched which is suitable as a postcard to a fellow stitcher along with a short message of the kind you write on a postcard.  I will forward the photo to another participant who shows it on their blog.  The photo can be anything Summer themed, beach themed, holiday themed, you get the idea!   It can be a new piece or something from your archives.

May WIPocalypse Favourite Stores

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings

Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World.  For me, this will be my "18 in '18".  Many of them are part of SALs so I will be working on them each month.

This month I have stitched on 8 of the 18 projects.

1. Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace:

stitched on 32 count Murano in Tiger Lily by Sparklies

2. Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

3. Zodiac by Donna Kooler:

stitched on 32 count Millenium Blue linen

4. Happy Hallowe'en Night by Jardin Prive:

stitched on 32 count Cognac linen

5. 12 Days of Christmas by Just Nan:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

6. Libra by Satsuma Street

stitched on 28 count black evenweave

7. Alice & Flamingo by Mrs Peggotty:

stitched over 1 on 25 count blue evenweave

8. Diamond Bouquet by Just Nan:

stitched on 28 count lilac evenweave

Measi always gives us a discussion topic:

May - where do you love to shop for stash?

Well, I'm doing Stitch from Stash for the fourth year so "My Stash Cupboard" should be my answer!

But you have to spend a little sometimes and looking back over the past year, the answer seems to be direct from the designer via Etsy.  The majority of my transactions have been PDF charts from designers such as Satsuma Street, Mrs Peggotty Arts and Jardin Prive.

Plain fabric usually comes from SewandSo and hand-dyed from Crafty Kitten and Sparklies.  I love both Dawn and Kate as well as their fabrics so I try to alternate purchases.  From Crafty Kitten I seem to buy more subtle fabrics and I go to Sparklies for the more vibrant fabrics.

I buy my DMC from Lakeside Needlecrafts as she is the cheapest place to buy genuine legal DMC.  I bought some from an eBay shop which turned out to be US imports sold illegally.  Other places buy cones and wind them onto bobbins (again illegal) so you have no idea if it's a full skein or even DMC!  Support your LNS and only buy the genuine skeins.

On the rare occasions I buy paper charts these days it will be SewandSo or Lakeside.


Finally the ongoing issue with email notifications for comments continues!  The work-around seems to be to comment yourself and tick the "notify me" button.  Then you get sent an email every time someone else comments.  BUT they all come from "no-reply" addresses so you still need to know the person's email to reply to them.  Also, if you moderate comments, you don't get the email until after you publish the comment!  We must be patient and wait for Blogger to fix this.

Dark 13 Stitching

I meant to make a post for my Friday 13th stitching this month but time got away from me!  So I'll include the latest instalment on my spooky conversion of Lavender & Lace's Enchanted Alphabet too.

For Friday 13th, I picked up Raven one of the Bewitching Pixies by Nora Corbett.

stitched on 32 count Nebula by Crafty Kitten

The Pixies are not very big and this wouldn't take very long if I dedicated her as a focus piece, maybe next year.  She is not on my WIPocalypse list for this year but I will pick her up again on the next Friday 13th and for Dark October too.

My current piece for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog is Jardin Prive's Happy Hallowe'en Night and this month I stitched a spider:

stitched on 32 count Cognac linen

I also added a spider to The Enchanted Alphabet:

stitched on 32 count Tiger Lily by Sparklies

For new followers, this is my conversion of the Lavender & Lace design Enchanted Alphabet.  I have loved this design ever since I first saw it but it features the world's Frilliest Child and she just wasn't my style.  So I hit on the idea of stitching it all in black and adding some spooky touches.  So far we have some spiders and a couple of pumpkins as well as a black dove.  There will be little ghosts, bats, cats and other spookiness once I have completed the lettering.  Because I had to move some of the letters I want to wait until the end to see where the spaces are.

Finally, if you want to join us for our themed Hallowe'en stitching please click on the link and then send me an email:

Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog

Give Me a Blog Until it is 7

And I will show you the stitching!

Apologies to Aristotle.

Happy 7th Blogaversary to me!

I have no idea why I only have one of a pair of bunches, I assume the other one was hidden behind my head.  Love the 1970s wallpaper though.

By the time I had my 7th Birthday I had acquired a little brother (you can just see him at the edge of the photo) and moved house, yet again!  We did stay in that house for 8 years though to make up for the numerous moves before then.  I was at the same Primary School and in Mrs Blake's class.  It was this year that I experienced my first loss - Jeremy the Gerbil passed away while I was at school one day.  I was devastated and Grandad promised to make a headstone for him.  Mum expected a little wooden cross made in his shed.  Not a foot high piece of marble with his name carved in it!   Grandad was a stonemason by trade, she should have realised.

Here are my blog stats:

*

7 years

757 posts

625 followers

16,012 comments

831,532 pageviews

WOW

I'd also like to wish my Blog-Twins Susan and Calamity Jr a very Happy Birthday too!

Last year I was working on my Christmas and Hallowe'en pieces and the same goes for this year although they are different designs.  I have also done some fully finishing this afternoon, trying to get back into that habit, and got some progress on both Diamond Bouquet and my Alice SAL which I took with me to visit my Godmother.  It's amazing how much stitching you can get done on two 3 hour train journeys.

Here is Jardin Prive's Happy Hallowe'en Night:

stitched on 32 count Cognac linen

And this is my Christmas progress on Just Nan's 12 Days of Christmas:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

Amazing progress on Alice by Mrs Peggotty.  I need to complete two pages per month to finish this by the end of the year.  The piece is 7 pages tall by 3.5 pages wide.  I have stitched nearly all of the right 7 pages:

stitched over 1 on 25 count blue evenweave

It's so nice to reach the flamingo.  Stitching the neck is really easy and very quick too.

This afternoon I did some narrow bands on my Diamond Bouquet by Just Nan:

stitched on 28 count lilac evenweave

Because they were speciality stitches they were very quick and that left me time to do some FFO'ing.  Yay!  Sunday afternoon used to be the time for that and it's a good habit to get back into.

Here is Just Nan's Painted Lady which I completed back in February.  I have mounted it on patterned card and then on a page from an old Monet calendar.  Monet's paintings make great backdrops for floral designs.  I would recommend going into a certain chain of bookshops at the end of January and buying up their calendars for 75% off.

Close-up of the finished piece:

It's been a good year on the blog again.  The Blog Hops continue to be popular and attract new participants.  The Gifted Gorgeousness SAL posts are the most viewed on the blog.  I guess people come back to link up and see who else has joined in.  The Blogger of the Week was new last year and continues to grow with 55 different bloggers featured so far.  I'm taking part in all the old blogging favourites such as WIPocalyse, the TUSAL, the Smalls SAL and the invigorated IHSW as well as the newer FB based Stitch Maynia.  I will be starting 31 Just Nan smalls one per day throughout May if anyone wants to join the Just Nan-a-thon do let me know.  Any Just Nan project you like.  If I have it I will start that one too.

Finally, no competition this year but just for fun - what has been your best blogging or stitching moment of the last 12 months?  Leave a comment below!