A Memorable TUSAL

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

I am actually a day late with the TUSAL which almost never happens but I was so ill yesterday!  I came down with the bug that has kept the Small Boy off school all week.  I spent all of yesterday either asleep or being sick in the bathroom.  I managed my 10-a-Day, skipped the 30 as it was beads, put five little stalks into Just Nan's Memories to say I'd worked on it and 2 little stitches on 12 Days of Christmas for the same reason.

(Now on Facebook, click to link)

Fortunately I feel better today, delicate but able to finish two projects!  It was really slow going, I have never made so many errors; threading the wrong colour, frogging the satin stitch and even losing the needle at one point.  At least I didn't spill the beads!

The first completed project was Memories by Just Nan, this was a gift from the lovely Vickie of A Stitcher's Story.  I chose a fabric in her favourite colour - Pink, and added one more personal detail, can you spot it?

stitched on 32 count Pink linen

Here are some close-ups of the bands:

The chart didn't come with the bead pack so I substituted what I already had - 00479, 00553 and 18828.

The second finish was my 30-a-Day project - Have a Heart by Just Nan:

stitched on 32 count white evenweave

This was a nice quick stitch, only 17 days.  I will turn this into an ornie when I have the energy!  Short and sweet today, I am in need of a lie-down now.

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Finally, it's time to sign up for the Advent Calendar  Blog Hop!  For this hop, each participant is allocated a day in December to make their post on.  They will show something they have stitched on a Christmas theme and answer the topic question I set.  I then copy their photo onto my blog post in the style of an Advent Calendar.

So if you'd like to join in, please leave a comment or send me an email.  Let me know if there is a date you would particularly like or one you'd like to avoid.  I will be in touch towards the end of the month!

Here is a link to last year's so you can see how it works:

2016-online-advent-calendar

Gifted Gorgeousness November Link-Up

Welcome to the November link-up for Gifted Gorgeousness. The linky will stay open until the end of the month so you have plenty of time to link up and join in.


Another great month for Giftedness.  As well as stitching on gifted pieces I also gave three away as prizes in the Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop.

Part of my Dark October stitching was Raven by Nora Corbett, the chart was a gift from Tiff:

stitched on 32 count Nebula by Crafty Kitten

Spooky Night from Shepherd's Bush was a gift from Vickie and another finish:

stitched on 32 count Platinum linen

Progress continued on Joan Elliott's 12 Days of Christmas, a gift from my MIL:

My big finish for the month was Dragon Dreams Dragon of the Winter Moon, a gift from Riona:

stitched on 32 count Moondust Murano from Crafty Kitten

see previous post for more photos

I'm currently stitching Memories by Just Nan, a gift from Vickie:

stitched on 32 count Pink Linen

So now I hand over to you. This is where you link up your post for this month. Please use your name or your blog name in the field and NOT the words "November 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, it's time to sign up for the Advent Calendar  Blog Hop!  For this hop, each participant is allocated a day in December to make their post on.  They will show something they have stitched on a Christmas theme and answer the topic question I set.  I then copy their photo onto my blog post in the style of an Advent Calendar.

So if you'd like to join in, please leave a comment or send me an email.  Let me know if there is a date you would particularly like or one you'd like to avoid.  I will be in touch towards the end of the month!

Here is a link to last year's so you can see how it works:

2016-online-advent-calendar

Dances With Dragons

Happy Dancing here!  When I put Dragon of the Winter Moon away at the end of September I knew it wasn't far from a finish and I was right.  I returned to the project last week and in just four days I was Happy Dancing With a Dragon.

Here's a few photos:

Who lives in the castle? 

Gorgeous Caron Waterlilies in the wings: 

Sparkling Kreinik tail: 

stitched on 32 count Murano in Moondust by Crafty Kitten

I received this chart as a gift from Riona along with the threads and beads.  I started it on Day 26 of the DUCJC in 2015 but didn't really work on it again until November 2016.  The project was then added to my "17 in '17"and was the focus for Animalia August.  I loved stitching it so much I kept it as the focus for September and only stopped for Dark October.  Four more days in November and it's time to look for a frame!

I have the companion piece to this  - Dragon of the Summer Sky, also a gift from Riona, so I'd like to get them both stitched and hung together.

As I finished stitching on Sunday I decided to do a little framing.  This was a finish in 2015 and has been waiting for the right frame.  I found three in a charity shop for just 50p each.  This is Ghoulies and Ghosties by Just Nan:

This morning it was decision time - what to stitch next?  Another 17 in '17 piece or a design close to a finish?  This piece won the competition!  A gift from Vickie earlier this year I want to finish it so I can start another gifted Just Nan piece in 2018 as a SAL with Brenda.

Memories by Just Nan

stitched on 32 count Pink linen looking a little grey on here!

That is the final band you can see, it's a long thin piece.  I have some white Perle to add, some satin stitching and some beads.  I definitely see a finish over the next few days, by the end of the weekend at the latest.

🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎅🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄

Finally, it's time to sign up for the Advent Calendar  Blog Hop!  For this hop, each participant is allocated a day in December to make their post on.  They will show something they have stitched on a Christmas theme and answer the topic question I set.  I then copy their photo onto my blog post in the style of an Advent Calendar.

So if you'd like to join in, please leave a comment or send me an email.  Let me know if there is a date you would particularly like or one you'd like to avoid.  I will be in touch towards the end of the month!  If you asked to take part before the previous post could you remind me.  I am not sure if someone mentioned it during the Hallowe'en Hop.  I'd rather have two comments from you than miss an email!

Here is a link to last year's so you can see how it works:

2016-online-advent-calendar

Summing up the Birthday Pie

It's the end of September and my thoughts are turning away from my Birthday and towards Dark October culminating in the Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop.  My annual spookfest around my friends' blogs to collect not candy but letters which will spell out a mystery phrase and win you a prize!

Here is a link to last year's Hallowe'en Hop so you can see how it all works:

Hallowe'en Blog Hop 2016

If you'd like to be a picture poster please leave a comment or send me an email and I'll add you to the list.  We have a great group last year and a nice long phrase!

You've seen most of this month's stitching already but not my Just Nan band sampler Memories since the GG post on the 15th:

I finished the purple swags and went on to stitch the turquoise band:

There are extra bits to fill in, some satin stitch and some beads.

I did another letter on the Enchanted Alphabet Spooky Conversion:

I must confess to cheating.  I stitched O last month so it was P this month.  But because I am not stitching the flouncy girl in the middle I have to move P, Q and R to the right.  You can see the bottom of Q at the top, and that is R underneath with P charted at the bottom.  I have no idea why Marilyn charted the letters like that but rather than count all the way to P and risk getting it wrong I decided to stitch R as a P this month, stitch Q next month and then stitch P and finish R the following month.  Make sense?

stitched on 32 count Tiger Lily Murano by Crafty Kitten

I've also kept up with the Ten-a-Day project which is another Just Nan Summer in the Square.  I am up to Day 92 so this is 920 stitches:

I have been stitching the dark green border since Day 49, the 18th of August and have so nearly finished it!

So what else did I work on in September?  Here's some pie:

It's also time to tally up the spending for the month:

September
X-Stitch mag	£6.00
Crafty Kitten fabric	£13.00
JCS Hallowe'en issue	£8.50
Waterlilies	£5.25
JN Autumn Mouse	£21.00
Kreinik	£2.99
Satsuma St	£4.18
Total	£60.92

That looks like a lot, thankfully nearly all of it was Birthday money.

Finally, it's time to decide what to stitch for Dark October.  I have so many choices!

JBW Sweet Nothings and Shepherd's Bush Spooky Night

(gifts from blogging friends)

Nora Corbett's Raven on Crafty Kitten Nebula

(gift from a blogging friend)

Jardin Prive Happy Hallowe'en Night

(potential part work for the blog next year)

Stacy Nash Cast Your Spells

(gift from a blogging friend)

Just Nan's Autumn Mouse in a House

(Birthday present)

and the Dracula book cover

You have until tomorrow morning to decide what I should stitch first!

End of the Summer Pie

We've reached the end of August and only a few more days of the Summer holidays left so I took a day trip to London to "geek out" on two major exhibitions - The Art of the Brick: DC Superheroes and Star Wars: Identities.

Both were awesome!  A great day out for me and the Large Boy.  You can learn more about both exhibitions by clicking on our favourites photos below:

And this is the identity I created for myself:

A train trip means one thing - train stitching!  Nearly five hours of stitching time saw me add quite a bit to Just Nan's Memories band sampler.  I took this because it's small, doesn't use many colours and is an easy pattern for travelling, the repetition makes it easier to follow:

I stitched everything below the line with "memory" in it.

As it is the end of the month, it's time to assess the stitching.  I didn't get quite so much time on my focus piece because the 12 Days block was more time consuming that in previous months.  However I managed 11 solid days and there will be more next month as I have decided to continue with my Dragon in September.

Start of the month:

End of the month:

stitched on 32 count Moondust by Crafty Kitten

The first photo is more accurate for colour.

How does this look on the pie?

Spending-wise it was an OK month.  I had a quarterly magazine subscription come out and I got some fabric on Stash Unload UK.  She had some gorgeous colours of hand-dyed very reasonably priced but I was good and only bought two pieces.  The first piece was a Colour Cascade opal Belfast in Sorcerer.  As ever, it's much prettier in real life, more blue than grey and will either be good for the Dragon of the Summer Sun or one of Nora's Bewitching Pixies:

The second piece was labelled by the manufacturer as "35 count white linen 19 x 23 inches".  Only some of that information was correct!  As soon as I saw it I knew it wasn't 35count, so I measured and it turned out to be 30count.  Which is OK, it's a nice big piece anyway so maybe I can tea dye it.  It was only £5 would have been an absolute bargain for 35 count and not bad for 30 count!

So here is the spending for the month:

August
CS Crazy sub	£25.44
2 x fabric	£11.00
Total	£36.44

Finally, the competition on the Blogger of the Week blog is still open and we have a new interview to read too.  So pop over and have a look at both.

Blogger of the Week

Gifted Gorgeousness August Link-Up Post

Welcome to the August link-up for Gifted Gorgeousness. The linky will stay open until the end of the month so you have plenty of time to link up and join in.
I've been making some nice progress on my gifted projects again this month.  I reached the top of the design for Just Nan's Memories, a gift from Vickie:

stitched on 32 count pink linen

Another block on 12 Days of Christmas by Joan Elliott - a gift from my MIL:

 

Another witch on Witches by Oberlin Samplers - a gift from Barb:

My focus piece for this month is Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dreams - a gift from Riona.

Here is where I left the dragon last November:

And here is where we are now:

stitched on 32 count Moondust Murano by Crafty Kitten

Close-up of the Kreinik spines:

So now I hand over to you. This is where you link up your post for this month. Please use your name or your blog name in the field and NOT the words "August 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, 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! Don't forget to check and see if new links have been added since you last looked.

Click here to join in.