December WIPocalypse Annual Review

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.  

Since 2011 I have chosen a number of projects to focus on that year, starting with my "11 in '11" and increasing to "19 in '19" for this year.

1. Lavender & Lace - Enchanted Alphabet  - Finish
2. Chatelaine Designs - Gardens of London - WIP
3. Lyndisfarne - Discworld Map - WIP
4. Nora Corbett - Gathering Eggs - WIP
5. Mrs Peggotty - Alice and Flamingo  - Finish
6. Just Nan - Summer Typography  - Finish
7. Nora Corbett - Raven  - Finish
8. Satsuma Street - Nest Egg - Finish
9. Marie Suarez - My Lovely Sewing Tools - Finish
10. Cottage Garden Samplings - Hallowe'en Alphabet
11. Primitive Needle - Mystic Sampler  - Finish
12. Just Nan - Wee Witchy Mice
13. Mirabilia - 25th Anniversary Cameo  - Finish
14. Just Nan - Summer Night  - Finish
15. Mill Hill - Easter Egg - Finish
16. The Sweetheart Tree - Merry Christmas Bell Pull  - WIP
17. Dragon Dreams - Never Too Big  - Finish
18. Sue Hillis - Victorian Christmas Tree  - Finish
19. Ink Circles - Poinsettia - Finish

A fantastic 13 finishes for this year!  

Current pictures of the four WIPs:

Chatelaine Designs - Gardens of London

stitched on 32 count Cotton Clouds Belfast by Crafty Kitten

Lyndisfarne Designs - Discworld Mappe

stitched on 32 count custom-dyed Murano from Sparklies

Nora Corbett - Gathering Eggs

stitched on 32 count Vintage Country Mocha Linen

The Sweetheart Tree - Merry Christmas Bell Pull

(this will be a finish before the end of the year!)

stitched on 32 count linen

The remaining two projects were intended to be new starts for Dark October but by then I was Focused on Finishes so I decided to leave them for another time. 

Finally, I am currently working on my "20 in '20" list.  People keep giving me new ideas!  I have already added my "12 Days of Stitchmas" projects.  I think these might count for four entries as there are four leaflets!

Day 3

Day 4

December Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

This year I have been stitching Christmas Ornaments from the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Specials 2001 to 2009.  I have almost finished this month's ornament which is a design by The Sweetheart Tree called Merry Christmas.  So here is the top part only:

stitched on 32 count linen

I just need to add beads and fully finish it as a bellpull ornament like the other two, albeit slightly larger.  Here are the other Sweetheart Tree Ornaments I stitched for this SAL:

   

I did complete another Word in the Jessica Savage series for Cross Stitcher magazine.  This month it was Embrace:

stitched over 1 on 25 count blue evenweave

All five so far:

At the end of November I joined in with a new SAL - 1 small snowflake for 26 days by Stitchonomy.  I did well to start with but work and pre-Christmas busyness caught up with me and I finished it after Christmas.  I decided to use all beads instead of the charted colours.  The blue are some unbranded beads I had in my stash and the white and crystal are Mill Hill (00479 and 00161).  The fabric is a random piece of opalescent blue linen from stash:

I made a few changes, the blue beads are a bit bigger than Mill Hill and wouldn't all fit so I tended to leave them off where they got too crowded.  The "sparkles" she added on the 27th day are the little single stitches and small motifs inbetween the snowflakes.  I used a Madeira silver metallic for them.  Finally, I added a snowflake charm that Mouse sent me for Christmas.  Now I need a round frame!  For maybe just a round mount for a square frame.

This was a lovely SAL, not too demanding, any other time of the year I would easily have managed one motif per day.  You can buy it from her Etsy store now - Stitchonomy Etsy

I have now started the 12 Days of Stitchmas, originally I intended to stitch a band sampler but serendipity demanded a 12 Days design which I received as a Christmas gift.  Here is the cover:

And here is Day 1

And Day 2:

My plan is to stitch one length of green  border on each day and one colour on Day 1.  If I complete Day 1 then I'll stitch one colour on Day 2.

Then throughout 2020 I will finish one ornament per month.

Finally, I had a Smalls Tree this year!  Usually I have a section of our main tree for stitched ornaments but this year I decided as I had made quite a few myself there were enough to put them on their own tree:

How many do you recognise?

The gifted ones are mostly on this side:

December TUSAL

The final TUSAL of the year and my jar is not full!  I am very parsimonious with my ORTs, rarely more than an inch.

Edit to add - I keep my ORTs to stuff ornaments.  I do not put them outside.  Although they are cotton, they have been dyed and longer lengths can be very dangerous for birds.  Rather than risk a longer piece being in the pot I would rather keep them safe indoors.


There are three of my current projects in that photo.  The first being the Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs.  This week I have been stitching an owl:

It's very fiddly and I am so glad I am stitching on evenweave!

The second project is Christmas Friends by Just Nan.  This was my travel project earlier in the year but I put it aside to focus on the Mirabilia 25th Anniversary Cameo.  December seemed an appropriate time to get it back out:

stitched on 28 count beige evenweave

The third project is my new start from the 12 Days of Stitchmas:

Originally I was going to start a Just Nan Christmas Band Sampler from my stash but on Christmas Day I opened a present from my friend which contained all of the new JBW 12 Days of Christmas ornaments.  Who can resist a 12 Days of Christmas series?  Not me.  So this became my new start. I wanted to stitch them on 40 count and searched through my fabric stash finding a piece which was big enough to stitch them three in a column and make four long hangings.  I started the border and soon discovered that the fabric may have been an average of 40 count but it was actually 38 count one way and 42 count the other so the circle became an oval!

Start again on some 40 count white linen instead.  This piece is a little smaller in size but I can make do with smaller borders.  The plan is to start one each day for the 12 Days.  Technically 25th  December is the first day but I'm starting from today and will finish on Epiphany, 6th January.


Finally, I do hope you all enjoyed the Advent Calendar Blog Hop this year.  I certainly did!  All the links now go direct to the relevant posts so it's easy to find them if you are catching up with your blog reading.  Which is what I am going to do right now.

October Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I have been 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!

October was a little bit different though.  I managed to get all of Day 10 done except the number itself in September so I could clear the decks for Dark October stitching.

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

From the 1st October I used the Tiny Decisions app to choose my project each day.  This was very successful and I got two more Small finishes out of that plus one larger one which I will save for the WIPocalypse post.

The first finish is by Plum Street Samplers, the freebie called Brew Ha Ha (click for the link to the design).

stitched over 1 on 32 count Platinum linen

The second finish is a cute JBW design called Smiling Jack-O-Lanterns.  All I had to do on this one today was the very fiddly plaits.

stitched on 32 count Platinum linen

Finally, I have everyone signed up for the Hallowe'en Blog Hop so I will be choosing the Mystery Phrase over the weekend and emailing everyone with their letter and further instructions.  If you signed up and don't get an email, please do contact me.  I'd hate to miss anyone out.

Hermitting Starts Here!

It's the start of the October International Hermit & Stitch Weekend where we all try to get as much stitching time in as we possibly can.  Just like every other weekend of the year but this is Official!

I have no idea what I'll be stitching as I am using the Tiny Decisions app to choose my project each day.  But here's what it told me to do for the last few days:

Jardin Prive - Happy Hallowe'en Night

Day 14

JBW - Smiling Jack O' Lantern:

Day 17

Just Nan - Autumn Mouse House:

Day 11

Nora Corbett - Raven:

Days 8, 9, 10, 16 and 19

And a finish!  Plum Street Samplers - Brew Ha Ha:

Days 7, 12, 13, 15 and 18 

I stitched this over one on 32 count Platinum linen using some of the called for colours.  I changed the large coffee bean man into DMC 4130 and the coffee cups into the colours used for the leaves.  Because I stitched it over one, it meant I could stitch the border over two and just do a single X instead of 4 smaller xx.  It was charted to have the dark grey inbetween the orange in the border but I thought that would be too heavy and preferred it like this.

Depending on what comes up this weekend, we could see two more finishes!  Or a lot more purple on Raven.

I've also been busy with my rock painting, my second obsession.  This is not taking time away from my stitching but does take time from the computer.  So if I haven't visited your blog lately, I apologise; I was getting rocked!

Here's a batch I have done for a Harry Potter event at the shop where I work:

Just to prove that I am not the only artistic one working there, here are the wands my colleague made:

Look at them!!  Garden canes with hot glue and painted.  There's a YouTube tutorial apparently.  These are seriously incredible.  This is the disclaimer I added to our Facebook page:

"Please note - we are not responsible for the result of using the wands. Your own magical ability will determine whether it works or not. Please do not turn us into toads or complain if you are a Muggle and nothing happens!"

Don't want to get sued for defective wands.

Finally, it's nearly time for the spookiest Hop on the Blog - the annual Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop.  For this one, you send me an email or leave a comment saying you would like to take part.  A few days before the end of October I will send you an email with a letter of the alphabet.  On the 31st you must make a blog post featuring something spooky you have stitched (or crafted) and your letter.

I will list all the participants on my blog and we all hop around collecting the letters to form the spooky phrase - report back to my blog and leave a comment to win a prize!

The People Chose Hallowe'en

Regular followers will be aware that for over 3 years now I have run a themed SAL on the first Saturday of each month.  First we spent 26 months doing The Alphabet Club and then 12 months of the Zodiac.  Now I have decided to listen to the People and post about your choice of theme.  In September I asked for suggestions on the blog and then made a poll in the IHSW Facebook Group from those suggestions.

The top three choices were:

Hallowe'en

Birthstones

Dragons

So I will do one for the next three months.  At the end of this post I will ask again for your suggestions and one of those will become the theme for January.  In November, we choose February's theme and so on.  I will post the results in my sidebar so you have plenty of time to decide what to show.

Hallowe'en

Obviously this post could be twenty pages long and I could still be typing but I will try to keep it to less than that!

Hallowe'en is one of my favourites themes to stitch.  I always have a spooky project (or three) in my WIPs and several more in my stash and on my wish list.

This is the first ever Hallowe'en projects I stitched:

stitched on 14 count aida

Back in 1996 I stitched this alphabet from a Better Homes and Gardens book.  It is now framed and lives in my son's room.

The witch motif seems to feature most often and here's a collage of my own Coven:

You might think of Hallowe'en as Dark stitching, I'm doing Dark October right now but it can be very bright and Orange:

The majority of my pieces are framed, like this sampler by Prairie Moon:

But I have also made cubes, boxes, 3D models and scrapbook pages:

You can see all my Hallowe'en Finishes on my Happy Dance Blog if you click on the Hallowe'en label at the side - Come Happy Dance With Me - Hallowe'en

I mentioned Dark October earlier; that is where I abandon my usual rotation and just stitch on spooky projects.  This year I am using the Tiny Decisions App to chose the daily project.  So far, Jardin Prive and Nora Corbett's Raven have come out twice and 2 other projects once each.  Here's what I've been stitching:

Days 1 and 4 - Jardin Prive Happy Hallowe'en Night

(I also stitched some bats at the other of the piece)

Days 2 and 6 - Nora Corbett Raven (on Nebula fabric)

Day 3 - Just Nan Autumn House (for a Mouse)

Day 5 - JBW Smiling Jack O' Lantern

It's been fun seeing what the wheel chooses for me each day.  I do hope to get a couple of finishes this month.

In future months I plan to go through my stash and show you the pieces I hope to stitch in the future but again, 20 pages of designs to share!  There are 15 Just Nan designs for a start, including 3 of her mice.  Apart from the mice, my top two choices of starts are The Hallowe'en Sampler by Cottage Garden Samplings:

acquired in August 2018

and the Trick or Treat Fairy by Nora Corbett

I have the magazine but you can download it direct from Herrschners now.

What's on my Wishlist?  Everything!  But this is my main objective:

Hallowe'en at Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings.  I even have a piece of fabric for it but not the chart.  This will be a BAP to be started only after I finish my Discworld Mappe.

I've been following this Mystery SAL this month - Stitchonomy.  It's part of the Drawlloween project which is a drawing challenge.  I've been incorporating this challenge into my rock painting.  Here are the first six days:

If you want even more Hallowe'en goodness then do visit the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog and view the list of Spooky Freebies there.

Now it's over to you!  All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Hallowe'en, mention The People's Choice SAL (you can copy the picture I used at the top of this post and in my side bar) and my blog.  Please link up using the URL of the actual blog post, not the home page of your blog.  I look forward to seeing what you all post.

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Finally, I need your suggestions for the next poll.  Any thing, no matter how obscure, weird or random will go into the poll.  Keep the theme suggestions to a single word or two - so you could have Dragons, or Cats, or Blue, or Spring, or Holidays, or Warmth etc.  Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

Looking forward to reading them all!