Gifted Gorgeousness July Link-up Post

      

Welcome to the July Gifted Gorgeousness link-up. The link-up date continues to be the 15th and I will keep the link-up open until the end of each month so you have plenty of time if you are late posting.

The format remains exactly the same, there is a list of rules on the main sign-up page if you want to check what is required but basically anything connected to the word "gift" is allowed, whether it was a gift TO you or is a gift FROM you.

My evening project was a gift from Vickie and is a finish already!

Lizzie*Kate - Sampling Christmas

stitched on 32 count Desert Sand evenweave

I just need to find a nice charm to fit inbetween P, Q, R and S

My replacement evening piece is being stitched on gifted fabric and will be a gift for a friend too:

Circle Cross - Hare Moon for Taurus

stitched on 28 count opalescent Robin's Egg evenweave from Silkweaver

Steady Thread - Tree of Life Temperature SAL

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stitched on 28 count Meadow Mist linen from Silkweavers

I record the temperature each day and then stitch the leaves on the Sunday morning.

My Dark 13 design is stitched on gifted fabric, a beautiful 40 count linen called Witch's Brew from Zweigart.  My plan is to stitch one letter per month until we reach October and then complete it during Dark October.

stitched on 40 count linen called Witch's Brew from Zweigart

Now it is your turn to show us your Gifted Gorgeousness for the month.  Please use your name or your blog name in the field and NOT the words "July Update" so I can easily see who has linked up this month.  And link to the actual post, not just your blog.  It is easier if you copy and paste the link, rather than typing freehand.

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Finally, this post was missing a couple of photos because I was already late and just want to get it posted so you could add your links!  All photos have been added now.

July TUSAL and Plans

        

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current projects:

These are the two projects called for WIPGO this month.

On the left is Nora Corbett's Zodiac Girl Capricorn, my third in this series.

Here's my progress so far:

stitched on 32 count Capricorn Murano from Sparklies

On the right is my evening project which is Lizzie*Kate's Sampling Christmas.  This should be a quick stitch and give me time to stitch another project I have my eye on. 

stitched on 32 count Desert Sand evenweave

Finally, here is the project I am thinking of starting:

This is the Hare Moon for Taurus from the Circle Cross Lunar Calendar.  I am glad I waited until the entire set have been released as she is doing a special price on all 12 designs!

Finally Fully Finishing Fun for May

    

Hosted by Rachel the Ten Hour Stitcher

This SAL is designed to motivate us all to do something with that box of Finished pieces instead of just storing them under the bed.  We will all be linking up on Rachel's blog on or after the 10th of each month (10 Hour Stitcher - 10th of the month).

This one has been hanging around for some time because I couldn't decide whether to frame or scrapbook it.  I couldn't get into my cupboard where I keep my frames so I decided it had to be scrapbooked!

Look at this lovely ribbon I used to trim the design:

Never throw anything out, it may come in useful!

Two Lizzie*Kate designs together.  The smaller one was stitched over one in just five days back in 2018.  The larger one was stitched over two back in 2015.

Both charts were gifted from blogging friends so it's nice to have them finished together.

Finally, I have a part-finish,  The third element in the Circle Cross Tarot SAL.  This one is Air and joins Fire and Earth:

stitched on 28 count sky blue evenweave from Silkweavers

The People Chose Lizzie*Kate

This SAL is all about what you want to see on the blog.  Each month I ask for suggestions for themes and then put them up to the members of the IHSW Group on FB to vote for their choice.  This is what they have chosen:

January - Lizzie*Kate

February - Penguins

March - Coffee

I put the poll up to decide the February theme and Penguins and Coffee were vying for first place.  On decision-day Penguins was in the lead so I made that the choice, but then Coffee fought back so I decided that would be the choice for March and save me from doing a poll over Christmas!

But back to January and Lizzie*Kate.  

"Who is this elusive Lizzie*Kate? Lizzie*Kate is a cross stitch design business that began in 1996. The creator, Linda, was bored with her job and looking for a new creative outlet. She decided to combine her favorite hobby of stitchery with her past job experience (pre-children) in graphic design. Linda was 40 years old (yikes!) and ripe for a new challenge! In about 6 months, she drew 20 designs, stitched and finished them. As she was readying to exhibit at the annual Charlotte Market in August, she had to pull together all the details to start a new business.

One important job was naming her new company! On a whim, she decided to combine the nicknames for her daughters' middle names - Sarah Elizabeth "Lizzie" and Alison Kathleen "Kate" - and Lizzie*Kate was born! She did a rough sketch of how the logo might look, and never had time to revise it. Thanks to kind stitchers around the world, the Lizzie*Kate logo is now well known!"

From the Lizzie*Kate website

I was aware of Lizzie*Kate designs but they didn't really appeal to me when I started stitching.  In fact I don't think I ever actually "bought" one of her charts.  The first time I laid hands on one was a Travelling Chart back in the early days of my blog.

Travelling Charts were very popular back then, each person stitched it and passed it on to the next person in line.  Maybe I should start one again?

This one came from Cucki in South Africa and I wanted a quirky look to it, so I coloured the aida with fabric pens and swapped all the colours:

The second design was another Travelling Pattern, from Kate's Floss Box this time:

A nice simple design until I changed the border to satin stitch and had problems counting!

The next three were all gifts:

For these two seasonal designs I decided I did not want to stitch the hills so used my trusty felt-tipped pens to colour the fabric in again.

I did buy the other two seasons but haven't stitched them yet!

Two of the Samplings

(prizes again)

and finally this one which was a gift again!

In my stash I have the Holly & Hearts Sampler (a gift again) and the other two seasonal houses.

So from my original feelings of "meh" about these designs you can see I actually rather like them and enjoy stitching them!  Thanks to all the bloggers who kept sending them my way.  As Lizzie*Kate herself would say "Life is better with stitching friends".

Now it's over to you.  All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Lizzie*Kate, 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 Cats, or Blue, or Holidays, or Warmth etc. Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

Looking forward to reading them all!

December Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

My main Small project has been my 12 Days of Christmas by Just Nan which I completed earlier this month.  I started it for 12 Days of Stitchmas last December and then completed one block per month throughout the year.  Here it is all finished:

When I completed the final block I had a new start, a gifted piece from Heather of Stitching Lotus, a Lizzie*Kate design called Life is Better:

stitched over 1 on 32 count Lambswool linen

The adorable buttons were a gift from Ariadne, I just laid them on the fabric for the photo but will sew them on when I fully finish the piece.

When that one was finished I had four days free to stitch anything I wanted, unfortunately the frog came to visit!

Then it was 12 Days of Stitchmas again!  This year I decided to make a start on the 12 Ornaments I will be stitching for the Christmas Ornament Blog run by Kaye.  There are three themes in 2019 and I have decided to go for the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Special 2001 - 2010.  I have chosen my 12 designs from the magazines and started four so far.  Today is the Fourth Day of Christmas.

On Day One I stitched Rosewood Manor's Festive Quaker Tree from 2009:

On Day Two I stitched Ink Circle's Poinsettia from 2008 and Rosewood Manor's Festive Quaker Tree:

On Day Three I stitched The Sweetheart Tree's Noel Christmas Bellpull from 2007 and Rosewood Manor's Festive Quaker Tree:

I debated whether to stitch design 2 as well but thought that as the Quaker Tree is quite large, I'd rather focus on that each day.  I will thank myself once we get further on and I'm not trying to fit 10 designs into one day!

On Day Four I stitched Dragon Dreams' Peace on Earth from 2002 and Rosewood Manor's Festive Quaker Tree from 2009:

I am choosing my own colours on the Festive Quaker Tree and didn't get much done today as the paler colours blend into the fabric too much.  I frogged and will restitch with a medium blue and B5200.

Throughout the year I was stitching 30-a-Day on my Just Nan Smalls.  That ground to a halt in September when I switched to Leonore's Wedding present.

I did manage to complete 10 Just Nan Smalls and here they all are:

And here are Leonore and Felix's wedding presents:

Finally, there is housekeeping to be done on the blog, the "19 in '19" list to be finalised, the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL to set up for next year and the Happy Dance list and blog to be updated.  Plus rather a lot of emails to answer.  Good thing I have some time off work!

December Gifted Gorgeousness Link-Up Post

Welcome to the December Gifted Gorgeousness link-up.  The link-up date will continue to be the 15th and I will keep the link-up open until the end of each month so you have plenty of time if you are late posting.

The format remains exactly the same, there is a list of rules on the main sign-up page if you want to check what is required but basically anything connected to the word "gift" is allowed, whether it was a gift TO you or is a gift FROM you.

In the past month I have only stitched two gifted pieces but did get a finish from one of them!

First, the finish - 12 Days of Christmas by Just Nan:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Grain

Close-ups of the blocks:

I started this piece for the 12 Days of Stitchmas in 2017.  On the 1st day you stitch on block 1.  On the 2nd day you stitch on blocks 2 and 1.  On the 3rd day you stitch on blocks 3, 2 and 1.  And so on.  Then I completed one block per month.

It's a lovely design and because the same colours are used in the borders it lends itself well to the 12 Days SAL.  This year I am planning to start 12 Ornaments from JCS for the Christmas Ornament SAL organised by Kaye.

Once I finished this design, my thoughts turned to next year's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.  Yes, there will be a GG in 2019 and in every year after for as long as I have gifted projects to stitch!  I read a blogpost recently by someone who said she often gave charts and giveaways and wondered how many of the recipients actually stitched them.  I feel she needs to follow GG and she would find out!

Which made me think about the logo for next year.  Each year so far the logo has been a gifted stitched piece but so far this year I did not have a small to use.  Then I remembered, Heather sent me a lovely Lizzie*Kate chart which I said at the time would be perfect!  So here's my start:

I didn't even have to choose fabric as Heather had included that too.  It wasn't labelled but I think it's the called-for Lambswool Linen by Wichelt.  It's certainly stiff enough for a Wichelt fabric, even after a wash.  But that's OK for stitching in hand.  I'm stitching it over one because we all adore tiny stitching!

In case anyone is interested, here are the three previous GG logos:

Now it is your turn to show us your Gifted Gorgeousness for the month. Please use your name or your blog name in the field and NOT the words "December Update" so I can easily see who has linked up this month. And link to the actual post, not just your blog. It is easier if you copy and paste the link, rather than typing freehand.

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Finally, the Advent Calendar Blog Hop is well underway. We've seen some beautiful stitching and heard some lovely songs too.  Today is a Double Door Day so twice the fun!  Don't forget to  visit and leave comments on the posts of the day.

Hallowe'en Trick Or Treat Blog Hop 2016

Trick or Treat!

A collage of the spooky stitches I have completed since the last Blog Hop!

Welcome to the spooky hallowe’en mystery phrase blog hop!

All you need to do is visit each of the following blogs in order, jot down the letter displayed with their Hallowe'en stitched picture then return here and leave a comment telling me the Mystery Phrase.

It'd be nice if you left a comment on their blog too, especially if it's new to you.

I have "moderate comments before publishing" enabled so no-one can copy anyone else!

There will be a small prize for one person picked at random from the guessers.  People who posted a picture  will get one chance for that and another chance if they make a guess too.

So without further ado,

start the blog hop – enter if you dare…



Kitten Stitching
Crossing One Stitch at a Time
A Patchwork of Crafts
An Arizona Stitcher
Tiffstitches a Blog
Mii Stitch
Books, Crafts and Other Procrastinations
Fireflies & Cats in the Garden
Wyrd Needles
Justine's Cross Stitch
Family Business
Reading & Stitching
Stitch Niche
Needle, Pen & Sword
Today I Found
Hokkaido Kudasai
Guava Gems
The Greytail
Karamino
Beth's Needlework Stash
Oubliette - B
Stitching in Sunny California
Dragon Stitches & Stuff by Astrid
The Crafty Princess
Stitch Bitch

and finally back to me for this letter

and this picture:

This is Sampling Hallowe'en by Lizzie*Kate, a gift from Mii in our Hallowe'en Mail Art Exchange last year.  I stitched it on 28 count lilac linen using most of the recommended colours, a few changes so things would show up better on the lilac fabric, which is looking blue in this photo!  The little ghost charm was included with the chart.

Don't forget, some of us are on different time zones so if you visit a blog and can't find a letter or picture yet, pop back later in the day.  

The competition is open for one week closing 00.01 hours 7th November GMT.

happy hunting!

        

all from Hyraea