Finally Fully Finishing Fun for June

Hosted by Rachel the Ten Hour Stitcher

This new 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).

Over the last month I have been very unseasonal!  I have continued with my progress on some older pieces which were all finished in the same way - Put It In A Bag For Twenty Years.

First up is a jolly little Santa from Mill Hill:

It took a massive amount of work to FFO him, two pieces of double-sided tape:

He looks a bit lonely so at some point I will stitch his friends:

I only have the charts and some leftover threads as these came from my friend who was destashing a few years back.

The next piece was also a Santa, look how well he matches the paper I had in my stash: 

You can see how old this one is, issue 8 of Cross Stitch Collection from December/January 1993!  The card mount came with it.

Now for something a little bit more recent, although still an older magazine:

Not a Creature Was Stirring by Dragon Dreams

from Just Cross Stitch Ornament Special 2001

The little card frame came from an old Christmas card

Finally, there will be a Summer Blog Hop this year.  We will have an International Theme for the Postcards this year.  Each person emails me a photo of something they have stitched on an International theme which is suitable to send to a fellow stitcher along with a short message of the kind you write on a postcard.  I will forward the photo to another participant who shows it on their blog.  The photo can be anything which fits the International theme, let's see which countries we visit this Summer.  If you'd like to take part then leave a comment or send me an email.

A couple of people have asked "what do you mean by "International"?"

To which I replied "Use your imagination!  If you don't have something which represents a country or an area of the world, how about a mode of transport?  Or something designed by an international designer?  Or gifted by an international friend?  Or stitched on French Navy fabric? LOL!!"

The Hop will run over the whole of the Summer with a few cards going out each week.  Final deadline will be the end of August, just in time for Back to School!

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2019

Welcome to this year's Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop; the bounciest, springiest Hop of them all!

First new finish - Mill Hill Daffodil Egg

The original kit was fully beaded on perforated paper but as the chart for this was passed on to me without the supplies I used a piece of 16 count yellow aida and the DMC equivalents to stitch this.  I needed a small project for my train journey last week and this was perfect.

Now on to the Hop.

As usual, I have a list of bloggers, each one was allocated a letter which will spell out the mystery phrase when you hop round in the order below.  A little clue this year - you may be confused to start with as the letters may not seem to spell out anything you can understand but persevere and all will become clear!

The first little bunny is:

Ariadne from Greece

then

Jeremiah's Mom

Tiffstitches a Blog

Sewing After Seven

Needle, Pen & Sword

A Patchwork of Crafts

Jocondine

Beth's Needlework Stash

Oh Sew Crafty

Needles, Pins and Dragonflies

Ishkabibble

The Alchymyst's Study

Aimetu's Stitching

Elfin Stitches

Mary's Thread

A Stitcher's Story

Wicked Stitcher

Dragon Stitches & Stuff by Astrid

Books, Crafts and Other Procrastinations

Little Stitches Art

Le Coeur Celtique

Alaska Wolf Pack

and finally back to me for this letter:

Hopefully you have a phrase now!  Don't forget that some people will post later than others because of time zones.  Leave a comment telling me what you think the mystery phrase is.  I have enabled comment moderation so the answers will not appear for two weeks.  Closing date is Friday 3rd May, 2019.

My second finish was a new start last Easter so it is very fitting that it was finished for this Easter.  A lovely bright Springy design from Satsuma Street officially called Nest Egg but also referred to as "Goose in a Bonnet" as a nod to the 80s when I did not stitch those sorts of designs!

stitched on 32 count Marie's Daffodil by Chromatic Alchemy

Because the fabric was paler than the recommended fabric, I decided to backstitch the goose, the basket and the eggs to make them stand out a little but more.  For a lovely version on the recommended fabric - have a look at June's blog here - Butterfly Wings

This is how I have finished the piece for my Easter display:

I bought a felt basket from The Works and cut it apart to get a nice long line of "grass" which I stuck to the edge of the frame.  Then I "planted" the Mill Hill Egg in the grass!  Because the frame is a box frame, the trim doesn't obscure the stitching.

Finally, it is IHSW - International Hop & Stitch Weekend - or Hermit, whichever you prefer!  Enjoy the Blog Hop and make time for stitching inbetween the egg hunting!  Have a wonderful weekend.  Except for Alicia, the Crafty Princess who is working all weekend.  Hope it's a quiet and peaceful weekend instead!

August 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.  For August we had Spooky Words and this band completes the Counting Bats rhyme:

The whole piece, nearly finished now:

For the Christmas Ornie SAL we had Christmas Clothing as the theme:

The only change I made was to stitch the pompom with satin stitch rather than cross stitches.

Christmas Cubes by The Primitive Hare

All six so far:

 

We had a Fifth Friday at the end of July so I started the second Byzantine Ornament by Teresa Wentzler and finished it for the Gold Day of the Olympic Challenge:

I used the same fabric, threads and bead as Byzantine Ornament I

I completed the Mill Hill Trumpet I started for the Olympic Challenge:

I substituted green Magnificas for the petite green beads and some red for the charted cranberry which I didn't have.  I stitched this on 14 count Christmas Green aida rather than the perforated paper provided so I could use two strands instead of three,

One for the scrapbook

I continued with the 1862 Snowflake from JCS 2010 and started adding the beads.  I am not sure I like the centre fully covered with beads and may just do the crystal ones and remove the petite white.

stitched on 28 Colonial Blue evenweave

*******************************

I've continued with the Daily Art Challenge on FB.

Day 23 - Abstract

Day 24 - Bed

Day 25 - Door

Finally, several people have commented on how organised I am and wonder how I ever keep up with all the SALs.  I have a simple diary, one double page per week and I write down all the SALs in the notebook section at the end and then each day I jot down which projects I worked on.  I do have the X-Stitch app on my iPad and I keep that up-to-date with all my charts and WIPs but it is easier to use pen and paper.

Why am I so organised though?  I worked for an international insurance brokers for 17 years in the North European Documentation team.  I had six major clients, each of whom had several fleets they were responsible for.  Each fleet had 20-50 vessels with an typical value of US$ 20,000,000 each vessel.  As well as the renewals for each fleet, things were constantly happening throughout the year - new additions, sales, values increased, values decreased, voyages into dodgy areas etc.  I had to keep track of all of this and make sure the documentation was accurate and up-to-date, also making sure the client paid on time and we paid the underwriters on time too!  If you are not organised you don't last long!  

Of course when you stop doing a job like that, all that brain power has to go somewhere.  When I gave up work I felt like my brain could suddenly do what it wanted to do, rather than spend all it's time working for someone else.  It's so liberating  not having to work for someone else and be free to think about anything you want.  Now I work part-time so I still have the freedom to use my brain energy how I want to.  Although, like most people I do find myself thinking about work-related things on my days off!  Fortunately it's all about books now rather than Marine Insurance.

Just to prove it - here's some book art:

Please note - this was a proof copy not a real book. The pages are only folded, not cut or glued. No books were harmed in the making of this project.

Instructions can be found here - Instructables.com

IHSW Started Here

The weekend starts here!  And since it's the third Friday in the month, it's an International Hermit & Stitch Weekend.  Hosted by Joysze of Random Ramblings, this is your chance to stay at home and stitch to your heart's content.

Since I am working on Sunday, my weekend will be Friday and Saturday.  I am still taking part in the Stitching Olympics and today was a Silver day.  I had no WIPS with silver in them so a new start was in order.  I got out my collection of the JCS Christmas Ornament Specials (2010-2015) and discovered this one from 2010:

stitched on 28 count Colonial Blue evenweave

The design is by Forget-Me-Nots in Stitches and is called 1862 Snowflake after an antique beadwork pattern they had.  The charts suggest using all beads but I have substituted silver for the crystal beads to fit the Olympic theme.

Another small was started for the Music Day:

stitched on 14 count Christmas Green aida

I didn't have anything for Music, so it was most serendipitous that Kim sent me this little Mill Hill chart just in time!  I'm not a fan of three strands on perforated paper so I switched it for this green aida.  Now I remember why I'm not a fan of aida either!  But it's a nice little project and will look good scrapbooked with these three:

I've made quite a lot of progress on Gathering Honey which has been my focus piece for the Marathon:

Plenty of backstitch in this section!

I had a finish for the Gold Medal day, I saved the gold from my Fifth Friday project in July:

stitched on 28 count burgundy evenweave

This is the second Byzantine Ornament by Teresa Wentzler, using the same fabric and threads as Number 1.

Two more ghosts have been added to Ghostly Mandala by Ink Circles:

stitched on 32 count Autumnal Woodland by Crafty Kitten

*****************************

I've also been keeping up with my daily art themes.  Here are Days 13-19:

Day 13 - Sails

Day 14 - Buildings

Day 15 - Movement

Day 16 - Light

Day 17 - Trains

Day 18 - Summer

Day 19 - Hands

Finally, it is four weeks tomorrow until my Birthday!  There are still a very few places left in the Days of Jo's Life Blog Hop.  If you'd like to join in with this very special blog hop on the 17th September please email or leave a comment and I'll tell you all about it.  In the meantime I will leave you with this image:

Wooden Thread Organiser from Tangerine 8 on Etsy.

I just love wooden thread organisers.  Just saying.

Gifted Gorgeousness July Link-Up Post

  

For newbies, this is my first year long SAL.  Click on the picture above for the full details.

We will be posting and linking up on the 15th of each month, because it is 2015.  Should be easy to remember.

Over the last month I stitched some more Elizabeth Shephard which was a gift from Nicola:

stitched on 30 count linen using AVAS silks

I completed January Wordplay by With Thy Needle & Thread which was a gift from Shirlee, the recently moved stitcher:

stitched over 1 on 32 count Star Sapphire linen

And I framed three pieces which I had previously completed: 

Mill Hill Frosted Heather Rose, 

a gift from Rosey now gifted on to Christine

Anchor Kingfisher

a gift for the Small Boy's school

Joan Elliott Believe

a gift for the Small Boy's other school!

And now over to you - Here is the place for you to link up so we can see what Gifted Gorgeousness you have been stitching so far this year.  Please use your name or your blog name in the field 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.  People are still getting this wrong!

Thank you.  I can amend links if you make a boo-boo though.

*

*

Last month we have a GGGG (Gifted Gorgeousness Giveaway by Gwen!).  The lovely Gwen from Guava Gems said to me that she had some charts she'd like to donate for giveaways.  I was very happy to facilitate and sent her my address.  Well, an entire box arrived!!  I selected six very varied charts (because it is the sixth month of the year) and asked people to choose their two favourites.  The winners were drawn by the random number generator used in conjunction with a complicated spreadsheet!  They are:

Kaye - Kitten Stitching

Cheryl - Today I Found

Hazel - Stitch Witch Hazel

Congratulations to those three and commiserations to those who did not win this month.  But, don't despair, we have another giveaway!!  This one is sponsored by the lovely Kay from Stitching in the Country and is a Dimensions kit called Potting Shed, seen below:

So if you are interested just link up for GG as usual and leave a comment saying "please include me in the draw" or some such phrase.

Finally, I disovered a new-to-me company called Patience Brewster.  They make the most delightful quirky ornaments and are keen to celebrate Christmas in July.  They are offering a prize draw for anyone who links up to this event.  It is primarily an Instagram thing but I believe you can also enter by making a blog post and emailing them.  So check out the blog and the website and if any of the Hallowe'en themed items fall into your basket, don't forget to add my address!

Patience Brewster blog -why oh why think Christmas in July

Patience Brewster - Hallowe'en Collection

This cake plate!

Without cake if you are posting from overseas!