October WIPocalypse Stitching Beginnings

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings
Also linking up with 17 in '17

Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World.  I have chosen my "17 in '17" which are the 17 projects I want to focus on this year.  You can see the full list on this page here.

This month I have worked on 3 of my 17, the numbers are getting low as I have finished quite a few now!

The three were 12 Days of Christmas, The Enchanted Alphabet and the Dracula book cover.

I finished the October block for 12 Days of Christmas by Joan Elliott and a very exciting landmark too - I completed the border!

My spooky conversion of Lavender & Lace's Enchanted Alphabet is a piece I work on the 26th of every month.  This month was Q:

stitched on 32 count Tigerlily Murano by Sparklies

The third project is a new start as part of Dark October; Dracula Book Cover by Dam Good Crafts:

stitched on 32 count Amortentia by Chromatic Alchemy

Measi always sets us a discussion topic:

October - How did you begin stitching?

I threaded the needle, picked up the fabric and off I went!

Like many people I stitched a little mat on Binca when I was 7 years old.  It lived on top of the televison in the days when you could put things on top of televisions as they were not the depth of a piece of paper!

The next time was following a visit to a new friend who was stitching a Country Companions cute animals piece.  I liked the look of the craft but not the subject matter!  I visited the haberdashery department of John Lewis and purchased two mini samplers kits by Anchor.  I am not sure which one I stitched first so here they both are:

stitched on 14 count aida with Anchor threads

You can see they were dated as 1993 which I am really pleased about because I know exactly how long I have been stitching!

If you dance over to my Happy Dance blog you will see the next project I completed was on black aida:

stitched on 14 count aida

Followed by this gorgeous dragon with gold metallic thread:

stitched on 14 count aida.

The next year I moved on to Teresa Wenztler designs.  In 1995 I started on linen.  Unfortunately I don't have a photo of my first linen project but here is the second one:

It's got beads too

This is the first design I made for myself using graph paper and pencil to chart it.  I still chart this way, nice and simple.

Finally, the lovely CJ is having a giveaway on her blog for a gorgeous Blue Ribbon Design chart she has just completed.  I've passed on the giveaway but asked if I could share with you all - please pop over and say Hi from me!

Tea and Stitches Giveaway

As I write this letter,

ten disgusting old men are prancing about all over what used to be the garden - before the geese and the swans and the cows got at it; and several of them, I notice, are taking inexcusable liberties with the milkmaids.  Meanwhile the neighbours are trying to have us evicted.
I shall never speak to you again.
Emily

12 Days of Christmas (Correspondence) - John Julius Norwich

Oh dear, poor Emily.  Although Joan Elliott's Lord-a-Leaping is rather joyeous and full of life he has enough decorum to keep to his own block and not bother the milkmaid above him.  He's clearly practising for the day Ribbon Gymnastics is a gender-neutral sport in the Olympics:

He has a few spaces for beads to be added.  So, sorry to Kerry, I have nothing for Theme-tas-Stitch Opulent October!

Here is where the piece was last month:

And here we are now:

All that red in the Piper was stitched on the 11th and 12th Days of Christmas earlier this year so I have a nice headstart on that block.

 Those of you that have been blogging for a while now may recognise that little fellow as Hermie, the mascot for International Hermit & Stitch Weekend hosted by Joysze of Random Ramblings.  Joysze has not blogged for a while although some people have continued to hermit and stitch alone.

Well, she has resurfaced and has been persuaded to revitalise IHSW on Facebook.  If you'd like to join us, then just click on Hermie and it will take you to the group.

So what did I stitch for IHSW (or Numb-bum weekend as it is also known!)?  The next project in my Dark October stitching - Nora Corbett's Bewitching Pixie Raven:

I used every setting on my camera trying to get a decent picture of the fabric and that one above is perfect - taken with the iPad!  Here's a camera photo so you can see the stitching better:

stitched on 32 count Belfast in Nebula by Crafty Kitten

Finally, there's still time to sign up for the Spookiest Hop on the Block - the Trick or Treat Hallowe'en Blog Hop.  All you have to do is leave a comment or send me an email.  I will send you a letter of the alphabet which you show on your blog on 31st October along with some spooky stitching.  We all hop around collecting the letters which will spell out a spooky word.

September WIPocalypse Favourite Threads

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings
Also linking up with 17 in '17

Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World.  I have chosen my "17 in '17" which are the 17 projects I want to focus on this year.  You can see the full list on this page here.

This month I have worked on 4 of my 17 including another finish.

The finish is Hallowe'en Happiness by Sandra Cozzolino for Imaginating:




Z from The Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books:

I completed 9 Ladies Dancing from 12 Days of Christmas by Joan Elliott:

And continued to work on the right hand border:

I also focused on Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dreams and came very near to a finish:

I ran out of Pearl Krienik so moved on to the castle.  I still have the moon to stitch and the beads to add.  As well as finishing the Pearl.

Measi always sets us a discussion topic:

September - which floss (or colour of floss) do you absolutely adore and want to stash constantly?

For me, that would be DMC 310 or black!  I have so many projects with black in them that I bought an entire cone a while back:

January 2015 to be exact.

I also love DMC 115, a variegated dark red which I used in this lovely JBW Rocking Horse for my little cousin:

I usually use DMC for everything as the speciality threads can be so expensive here.  I did splurge on a Waterlilies for the Dragon above, and I bought several of the Crescent Colours for the Nora Corbett Alphabet Fairies, each of the five designs I stitched used several of the same colours so that was good value.

I will be treating myself to the new tin of DMC which is available on pre-order from both SewandSo and Lakeside Needlecraft, got to keep the collection complete!

Finally, I'll be opening up sign-ups for the Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop very soon so keep your spooky eyes peeled for that!

Look here, Edward

This has gone far enough.  You say you're sending me nine ladies dancing; all I can say is that judging from the way they dance, they're certainly not ladies.  The village just isn't accustomed to seeing a regiment of shameless hussies with nothing on but their lipstick cavorting round the green - and it's Mummy and I who get blamed.  If you value our friendship - which I do less and less - kindly stop this ridiculous behaviour at once.

Emily

12 Days of Christmas (Correspondence) - John Julius Norwich

The picture that accompanies this chapter is wonderful.  I do recommend that you buy the book (ISBN 9780385410281) for the illustrations.   Thankfully Joan Elliott's Lady Dancing is rather more sedate than Quentin Blake's drawings.

The gaps are for beads to be added at the end.  In the evenings I've been working on the lettering at the top:

Here is where the piece was last month:

And here we are now:

I have completed another Just Nan ornie as part of my 30-a-day stitching challenge.  This was a quick one, a mere 18 days for the stitching.  I will finish it as an ornie next weekend:

Just Nan - Lacy Diamond

stitched on 32 count Twilight Blue linen

Of course, a finish means picking up the next ornie in turn.  This one is called Holly Knot and is stitched on 32 count lavender evenweave:

I stitched 60 stitches on it when I started it back in March so I have a head start with 90 stitches already on Day 2.  It's a pretty one, all in greens and pinks.

Finally, the competition on the Blogger of the Week is finished and I have published all the comments.  I will announce the winner on Friday.  So stay tuned for that!

Belated TUSAL

Somehow I managed to forget to include the TUSAL post with my Theme-tas-Stitch post on Monday, so here it is now, only a little bit late.

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 with the current project:

I have a lot of ORTs this month as you see from the close-up of the ORTS tin before it was put into the main jar:

The project is Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dreams stitched on 32 count Moondust Murano by Crafty Kitten.  I'm currently stitching Kreinik which is slower than cotton but we're getting there.

I'm also stitching a little bit here and there on Joan Elliott's Reading Fairy which I started for the Guess What SAL.  I just do one length if I have time in the morning after my 10 and 30 a day projects.

stitched on 28 count Aurora Jazlyn by Crafty Kitten

Finally, Tiff and I are both stitching dragons for Theme-tas-Stitch Animalia August and it got me thinking about whether there was a group just for stitching dragons.  I've had a look on FB and couldn't find one.  I wondered if this is something people would be interested in.  There are groups for all the different designers who do dragons and for themes like Hallowe'en and Christmas but not for Dragons of any origin.  Let me know and I'll think about setting one up!

Frankly, I think I prefer birds.

What am I supposed to do with eight milkmaids - AND their cows?  Is this some kind of joke?  If so, I'm afraid I don't find it very amusing.
Emily

12 Days of Christmas (Correspondence) - John Julius Norwich

Emily obviously feels the same way about cows as my Nana did!  This block took quite a long time to stitch compared to the previous blocks.   I think it's the amout of colour changes and small details.  Once again I did the background with just one thread.

In the evenings I have continued with the header.  I have completed both angels and the two Christmas Roses now:

Here's where I finished last month:

And here is where I am now:

I have also stitched on both my Hallowe'en pieces this month, the theme on the blog was Creepy Trees which fit perfectly for Happy Hallowe'en (see this post) but not for Witches by Oberlin Samplers.  However I wanted to get both pieces ready for September's theme which is Spooky Woods.  So here is another Witch:

And the whole piece so far.  Like Happy Hallowe'en it could be complete but has words above and below the figures:

One of the SALs for Cross Stitch Finish Line this month was called Guess What? and each day we had to post first our fabric, then our thread, then 25 stitches per day until Reveal Day on Day 7.  Here are my 7 photos, see if you can guess before the Reveal:

Day 1 - 28 count Jazlyn in Aurora by Crafty Kitten

Day 2 - Threads, mostly purple and yellow

Day 3 - 25 stitches

Day 4 - 50 stitches

Day 5 - 75 stitches

Day 6 - 100 stitches

Any ideas yet?  Two people had got very close guessing the designer straightaway and narrowing it down to one of her Fairy designs.  Shame there are so many to choose from!

Here's a close-up of the part I was stitching:

And here's the Reveal - Joan Elliott's Fairy Dreams AKA Little Reading Fairy AKA September Fairy from the 2013 Diary AKA Year of Magical Stitching:

I've carried on stitching a little bit each day and here's where she is now:

Finally, we had a Tenuous Shoehorn Linky Party on 8th August, the linky is still live if you'd like to join in any time this month.  I love reading the different posts and it would be nice to see more!

Click here to join in.