May Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather from Stitching Lotus

This year I have two Small Challenges:

1. The Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog

2. The Christmas Ornie SAL Blog

For the Hallowe'en Blog I have done something a little different this year, I've chosen a band sampler by Just Nan called Counting Bats and each band corresponds to the monthly themes on the blog.  May's theme was Spiders and I stitched this band:

stitched on 32 count lilac linen

That is one giant spider!  I am not surprised the ghosts are fleeing.

Here is the whole piece with my special scissors and fob:

The theme on the Christmas Ornie SAL blog was Reindeer and I decided to stitch one of Daffycat's cute little reindeer freebies.  In the event, I stitched three of them!  Jinglebell, Holly and Mistletoe.

I also completed another Small, this time as part of the Stitch Maynia Colour-a-Day SAL, which was Red.

stitched on 28 count Platinum linen

This was a gift from Vickie so I will be sending it back out into the world as part of June's Gifted Gorgeousness post.  So keep your eyes open then!  I used the charted DMC 902 for the darker red and substituted 3722 for the charted 3726 which looked too brown to me.  I also used standard size beads instead of the charted petite.  The standard beads filled the spaces much better than the petites.  Plus I had them in my stash and didn't have the petites!

Having completed that piece I needed something simple to start straightaway and chose the second in a series called Winter Woods by The Little Stitcher.  Only a couple of evenings bathtime stitching and a lunchbreak at work and it was done:

stitched over one on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

Here is the previous piece in this series:

There is one more and I'll scrapbook them together.

I almost forgot my other Small! Inspired by our host Heather, I stitched on the Teresa Wentzler Byzantine Ornaments too.  I used burgundy fabric and changed the colours too:

more details in the post here

Finally, in my last post I showed a picture of Just Nan's Haunted Pumpkins Tree and said I couldn't remember what happened to it.  I found it!  In a sensible place, surprisingly.  I had put the finished piece into the bag with the chart and put them back into my Just Nan bag.  There are a LOT of charts in that bag.  Maybe I'll pull out a JN small to start tonight.

First Day of Advent

I decided to give myself the first Door of the Advent Calendar this year and I'm making it a Little Stitcher post.

Last year I stitched The Little Stitcher's Twelve Days of Christmas as a monthly project.  Laura designed twelve charts with a different theme for each one to represent the days of Christmas.  She invented the different themes herself using her lovely imagination!

I stitched them all on the same fabric, it just photographs differently depending on the light on the day!  The centre piece was in Just Cross Stitch's Ornament Preview issue in 2014.  I am making them into a mini scrapbook which was going well until Christmas was over and I didn't feel so seasonal.  One of my goals is to finish it this year.

Two years ago I completed the Advent Calendar designs also from The Little Stitcher and display them on this rather useful wooden tree.  I add a different one each day:

The theme for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop this year is:

How do you celebrate Christmas Eve?

Now, that all depends on whether hubby and I are working!  The first three years we were together he was working in the evening and I had the night off.  Then we had two years when neither of us were working on the night followed by three years when I worked during the day!  In the shop where I work the deal is that you either work Christmas Eve or Boxing Day but not both.  Last year and this year I'm down for the Boxing Day shift.

The daytime is like a normal Sunday with an extra air of excitement!  Then we have our usual tea and a quiet early evening.  We have a special plate you can write on and wipe clean so my older son writes a letter to Santa from both children.  We leave it beside the wood burner along with a mince pie and a carrot for Rudolph.  If we have reindeer food from the Primary School Fayre we will scatter that outside (it is basically muesli mixed with glitter by the Nursery class and sold for 20p a bag!).

We hang our stockings beside the beds for Santa to fill with smaller treats, he will leave all the presents under the tree in a pile for each person.  He also leaves a Santa Sack for mother-in-law who spends Christmas morning with us (dinner with one daughter and tea with the other son). 

When I put the Large Boy to bed we have a selection of books we always read together:

How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

The Night Before Christmas by Clement C Moore

Another Night Before Christmas by Carol Ann Duffy

Pirate's Night Before Christmas by Philip Yates

The Traditional 12 Days of Christmas

12 Days of Christmas by John Julius Norwich

A Pirate's 12 Days of Christmas by Philip Yates

Christmas in Exeter Street by Diana Hendry

and finally the new Allan Plenderleith:

The Tiny Tree

(previous offerings were:

 The Bonkers Banana, The Silly Satsuma, The Smelly Sprout and The Christmas Banana)

Then it's time for the Small Boy to have his bath and snuggle down with Mummy.  Once he is asleep I get up again and make sure everything is ready for Santa to deliver the presents. 

So that's our Christmas Eve!  Let's see what everyone else does for their special evening.

Finally, one last Little Stitcher photo:

Day 1 Advent Calendar

TUSAL of Tradition

It's TUSAL time again!  For those of you new to blogging, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button on the right hand bar for more details.

This year I have been stitching The Little Stitcher's Twelve Days of Christmas as a monthly project.  Laura has designed twelve charts with a different theme for each one to represent the days of Christmas.  She has invented the different themes herself using her lovely imagination!

This week I have stitched The Day of Tradition.  Here it is as part of my TUSAL photo:

Alongside Acorn House Designs Merry Christmas

and close-up on it's own:

I have been debating all year how to finish these 12 designs and when I found a mini scrapbook with just the right number of pages I knew I could make a little book out of them using different festive scrapbook pages.  When I received the JCS Christmas Ornie preview mag I knew I had found my cover for the book too.

This design originally had Miss Santa underneath which I recharted and stitched the title over one so it would fit.  I have made six pages in the book and have six more to do, plus the facing pages and the cover.  I plan to finish this off over the Christmas holiday.

This month the theme is Tradition and what could be more appropriate for the time of year?  There are so many traditions it's harder to think of something we do which ISN'T a tradition!  We usually get the tree the weekend before Christmas because we have a real one and don't want it dropping before Twelfth Night.  Here it is all decorated up:

And here is one with the lights switched on:

The ornaments on the tree are a variety of gold. silver, red and crystal I have collected over the 27 years I have owned my own home.  There are "First Christmas" ornaments for both boys too.  This year there was one new ornament; here is it in Santa's sleigh:

If you squint you can probably see who sent it!

And here it is on the tree:

In case you couldn't make out the name, this ornie came all the way from The Devil's Playground from our own lovely Shirlee the Easily Influenced Stitcher.  It is beautifully stitched and finished with a lovely beaded handle.  Thank you Shirlee!  I love my ornie and it will be a fixture on my tree for evermore.

Finally, a Public Service Announcement courtesy of Aurelia Eglantine.  There is a glitsch in Blogger whereby a fake Captcha appears on blogs when the Comment Box is a pop-up (like mine used to be!).  It asks you to tick a box to prove you are not a robot and then enter some numbers.  You can, however, still post a comment by ignoring this.  Hopefully Blogger will fix the glitsch soon but if you have found your comments are fewer just lately then the solution is to make your Comment Box embedded into the blog.  This is easily done by amending your comment settings in your Dashboard.

TUSAL of Finishing

It's TUSAL time again!  For those of you new to blogging, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button on the right hand bar for more details.

This year I am intending to stitch The Little Stitcher's Twelve Days of Christmas as a monthly project.  Laura has designed twelve charts with a different theme for each one to represent the days of Christmas.  She has invented the different themes herself using her lovely imagination!

This week I have stitched The Day of Finishing.  Here it is as part of my TUSAL photo:

And here is the close-up: 

As most stitchers know there are two types of Finishing.  The first is the finished stitched piece, like the Eleventh Day shown above.  All the stitching is done and it can be added to my list of finished pieces, currently at 51 pieces for the year.  But what of the second type of finish?  Actually "finished- off", whether that be framed, mounted or ornamentified?  Sadly that number is much lower.  How many of us put our stitched pieces into a nice neat pile of "To Be Finished Properly Later"?

I have to be in the right mood to do actual sewing so the pile of things I want to make into ornies is growing tall!!

The new start you can see in the main TUSAL photo is Jack-A-Rachnid by Tempting Tangles from JCS Sep/Oct 2013.  This has been on my list since I got the magazine and I am so pleased to be able to make a start on it.  The fabric is a random 32 count linen from a Crafty Kitten grab-bag.  It's a pinky-orange colour.

I spent some time this week going through my JCS magazines especially the Christmas Ornie editions.  I make a list every year of which designs I like and then stitch about one of them!  Here is my Top Nine from this year's magazine:

Top row - Summer House Stitches; The Workbasket; Ink Circles

Middle Row: Victoria Sampler; Blue Ribbon Designs; Dragon Dreams

Bottom Row: SamSarah; Little House Needleworks; Dames of the Needle

These two tied for tenth place!

Tempting Tangles; New York Dreamer

The categories were interesting this year.  I either liked none or several in a category!  The red selection was interesting because I liked the whole page but when I came to choose I realised that there wasn't one which stood alone.  It was the effect of all the red I liked rather than the ornies themselves!

I also don't usually choose snowmen designs, but here they are - three of them!!  I love the snowbaby putting the star on the tree, it would make a lovely Baby's First Christmas ornie.

Finally, don't forget to read all about the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL and I now have enough people for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop!  Yay!

TUSAL of Tea

It's TUSAL time again!  For those of you new to blogging, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button on the right hand bar for more details.

This year I am intending to stitch The Little Stitcher's Twelve Days of Christmas as a monthly project.  Laura has designed twelve charts with a different theme for each one to represent the days of Christmas.  She has invented the different themes herself using her lovely imagination!

This week I have stitched The Day of Tea.  Here it is as part of my TUSAL photo:

And on its own:

It's a lovely little tableau featuring a woman with an oversized cup about to have a nice gallon of tea!  I suspect there are many of my friends who would drink that much tea but probably spaced over the course of a whole day.  Despite being English I am not a tea drinker.  I drink instant coffee or cappucino if I am out.  But not the little biscuits that come with a cappucino because one of the children usually want it!

My Dad is not a tea drinker either, he likes a cup of sugar with a spoonful of coffee!  My Mum and my Brother however are avid tea drinkers.  They only have a small kitchen but one entire cupboard is devoted to teas of all types for different times of the day and the year.

So how about you?  Tea, coffee or something else?

For fans of The Little Stitcher there is a lovely Christmas design in this month's Just Cross Stitch magazine:

Here is the other project I have been stitching this week, Madame Chantilly On the Beach.  This will be a birth sampler for my cousin's baby.

Stitched on 32 count Kynance from Sparklies

In the last post I said I wasn't happy with the blue stripes charted in DMC 926 so I switched them for 799 which looks much better.  I exchanged the light blue for 800 and will also change the darkest blue for 798 when I get to it.  I think this is going to be a nice quick design and I promise to take some better photos!  This was taken in artificial light on a dull evening and doesn't show the fabric to its best but the scanned version just whites it all out!

The Spooky Countdown is continuing, here are the collages for days 9-16 and 17-23:

Days Nine to Sixteen

Days Seventeen to Twenty-Three

   

Finally, one last call for the Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop sign-up.  Just leave a comment (making sure I can contact you via email - Hazel D please contact me) and then a few days before the 31st October I will contact you with a letter to display on your blog on the 31st along with some Hallowe'en stitching of your own.  I will list all the blogs in order and people will hop around collecting the letters to SPELL out the Mystery Phrase.

To see how it all works, check out last year's Blog Hop here 

TUSAL of Playing

It's TUSAL time again!  For those of you new to blogging, the TUSAL is a project run by Daffycat, click on the button on the right hand bar for more details.

This year I am intending to stitch The Little Stitcher's Twelve Days of Christmas as a monthly project.  Laura has designed twelve charts with a different theme for each one to represent the days of Christmas.  She has invented the different themes herself using her lovely imagination!

This week I have stitched The Day of Playing.  Here it is as part of my TUSAL photo:

The Moon Riders I shall save for my Just Nan SAL post.

There are a few more white stitches to go under the straight line across the bottom.  This one has slightly different proportions to the others so far, being wider but not so tall.

So what shall we say on the subject of playing?

Play - (verb) engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.

That seems to sum up cross stitching perfectly to me!  Most of us started this hobby as a form of relaxation and an outlet for our creativity.  It is difficult to earn a living through the hobby (unless your name is Nora Corbett, Joan Elliott or one of the big names in the hobby) because of the hours you have to put in to create a stitched piece.  I know a few people who model stitch and some of them say it does burn you out after a while, always stitching for commissions.

I even feel that way about too much obligation stitching.  I love my Round Robins but there has been the odd band that just hasn't been fun to stitch!  This next piece was emphatically NOT one of those.  I did the bulk of this in just two days it was so much fun.

San-Man Designs Blackwork February

Bead shot!

The whole thing so far.

Not technically a sampler with bands but very lovely nonetheless!  Each one of us chose a different month to stitch.  My birth month was already stitched so I chose February which is the Small Boy's birth month and charted with a lovely shade of deep red.  Kathy's square has lighthouses which are one of her favourite designs to stitch along with nutcrackers.

Finally, I took a little look at my followers, over the 500 mark!!  Interestingly, 3 out of the last 7 new people are called Cathy!  If you are a new follower and haven't left a comment yet, please do so, along with a link to your own blog if you have one.  I do like to return the following.  I promised a giveaway when we reached this landmark so I will have to have a little think about this one.

August Just Nan SAL and Theme-a-licious Update

Just Nan SAL is hosted by Zeb of Keep Calm and Cross Stitch

I stitched two different Just Nan designs this month, they will follow as part of the main post this month.  They are Moon Riders Jasper and Nan's Garden bands for a round robin.

Theme-a-licious is hosted by Heather of It's Geek to Me

Each month Heather thinks up a theme for us to stitch to, or in my case, a theme to somehow shoe-horn my existing stitching into, no matter how tenuous the link!

Author! Author! August

The words are speaking this month! Hunt out those WIPs with a verse or two. It's time those projects with words and sentences grew.

Once upon a time a young girl who lived in a country where it was always Winter and never Christmas.

She was very sad and often lonely so she would wander through the woods building herself friends from the snow which lay all around her.  Because it was always Winter the days were short and she knew she must be safe at home by nightfall.

The woods were also home to many strange and frightening creatures.

There were rumours of witches

 living in unusual tumbledown or halfbuilt cottages within the depths of the woods.

One day when the young girl was returning from her daily Build-a-Friend expedition she encountered a beautiful shimmering fairy, her Guardian Angel.

"I am here to grant you the traditional three wishes.  What is your greatest desire, oh lonely young woods girl?" the Angel sang to her.

The young girl thought hard.  Should she wish for Frosty the Snowman to come alive?  Or should she think of herself?  Maybe the circus could come to town to entertain her and Frosty?

"My first wish is for the key to a beautiful garden full of Summer flowers, where bees Gather Honey"

The Angel waved her wand and granted this wish.

"It's a very lovely green garden" the girl said, "but somehow I imagined a few flowers?"

So the Angel waved her wand again and a beautiful archway of roses appeared in the garden with beds of fragrant flowers and more bees.  The girl knew she would never be hungry for honey again.

"And for your final wish?" asked the Angel.

The young girl thought hard, "I would really like a special treat"

"It's always Winter in the woods and never Christmas.  I would really love to see a complete White Christmas"

The Angel looked at her and said "Come on dearie, I gave you a flower garden amidst the snow but some things need more than fairy magic!"

Hope you enjoyed the story!

Finally the Summer Postcard Blog Hop is nearly at an end.  I am waiting for one more photo promised to me then I will send out the final two postcards.

First postcard from Marcy goes to Gracie at Needles, Pins and Dragonflies

Second postcard from Krista goes to Jocondine at Jocondine

Third postcard from Michelle goes to Sharon at Shebafudge

Fourth postcard from Mouse goes to Vickie at A Stitcher's Story

Fifth postcard from Christine goes to Marcy at Stitching Plus

Sixth postcard from Astrid goes to Krista at Just Stitching Along

Seventh postcard from Vickie goes to Michelle at Michelle's StitchCraft Place

Eighth postcard from Jocondine goes to Deborah at A Patchwork of Crafts

Ninth postcard from Gracie goes to Maggee at Stitching Devotee

Tenth postcard from Deborah goes to Heather at It's Geek to Me

Eleventh postcard from Maggee goes to Mouse at Tales of a Stitching Mouse

Twelfth postcard from Sharon goes to Kaye at Kitten Stitching