This Is The Last Straw

You know I detest bagpipes.  The place has now become something between a menagerie and a madhouse and a man from the Council has just declared it unfit for human habitation.  At least Mummy was spared this last outrage; they took her away this afternoon in an ambulance.
I hope you're satisfied.

12 Days of Christmas (Correspondence) - John Julius Norwich

Things are not improving between Emily and her "true love".  Joan Elliott's Piper has wisely taken the decision to play his pipes on the shores of a loch near a castle rather than a suburban house full of birds and dancing people!

Here is where I was last month:

And here is how the whole piece looked on completion of the Piper block:

I'm actually a good way through the final block as I wanted a headstart so I can finish the beading in December.

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Stitching Lotus

This year I will be showing my Hallowe'en and Christmas SAL partworks and any other Smalls I may stitch.

You've already seen the Christmas block above, so it's time for Hallowe'en.  The theme for November is Candy Corns or Food.  I am not sure you would want to eat from the menu in this piece!  Fillet of snake anyone?

This design is called Witches by Oberlin Samplers.  The fabric is actually a lime green Murano but it's difficult to photograph, think DMC 3345 for colour.  The original design had some random spooky phrases round the edge but as I had already stitched the Hallowe'en Happiness with various spooky phrases I decided to change this to reflect a speech from my favourite Shakespeare play - the Scottish one!  I also changed the words to the right which said Ghosts and Goblins to "brew a spell".  There were no ghosts or goblins in the design!  I added a bat charm to fill the space.  I already have a frame, I just need the mount board and it will be done.

Another spooky finish from Dark October was Shepherd's Bush Spooky Night:

stitched on 32 count Platinum linen

My Zodiac SAL had a second sign added, this is Scorpio by Donna Kooler:

stitched on 32 count Millenium Blue linen

I am continuing to stitch 30-a-day on a Just Nan freebie and here is the latest finish:

Have a Heart - stitched on 32 count white evenweave

Rather a good Small Month!

Finally, I have all the names for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop and will be sending out dates and instructions on Sunday.  Milly left a comment on my TUSAL post saying she would like to join us but left no contact details.  If you are reading this, Milly, you are no-reply, have no email in your profile and no blog details either.  If you contact me by email before Sunday I can still include you, but I need a blog and an email address to do so.  Thank you!

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.

Dear Edward

Whatever I expected to find when I opened the front door this morning, it certainly wasn't six socking great geese laying eggs all over the doorstep.  Frankly, I rather hoped you had stopped sending me birds - we have no room for them and they have already ruined the croquet lawn.  I know you meant well, but - let's call a halt, shall we?
Love, Emily

12 Days of Christmas (Correspondence) - John Julius Norwich

And we are back to birds!  Luckily for me, there was only one goose-a-laying to stitch this month:

I got all the goose and her nest completed and started on the lettering before I realised the entire picture was one row too low!  So I just stitched the lettering one row higher and it touches the nest but looks fine.  I have also noticed that I haven't stitched the bottom right hand corner bits.

Here is the whole piece last month:

And here it is now:

You can see I have finished all the metallic in the border and stitched some green vine, I've also added some stitches to the left hand Herald Angel.

I've also stitched my two Hallowe'en samplers this month for the theme Something Green on the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog.

Here is a green lizard and some green froggies on  Happy Hallowe'en by Imaginating:

On Witches by Oberlin Samplers I stitched an olive green letter with some green leaves and pumpkin stalks/vines:

And here is the full Itches designs!  Need that first W very soon.

Finally, I fully-finished the latest Just Nan freebie into an ornie:

Christmas Hearts

Dearest Edward

The postman has just delivered five most beautiful gold rings, one for each finger, and all fitting perfectly.  A really lovely present - lovelier in a way than birds, which do take rather a lot of looking after.  The four that arrived yesterday are still making a terrible row, and I'm afraid none of us got much sleep last night.  Mummy says she wants to use the rings to "wring" their necks - she's only joking, I think; though I know what she means.  But I love the rings.  Bless you.
Love Emily

12 Days of Christmas (Correspondence) - John Julius Norwich

Emily seems a little happier with her gift this month, even if Mummy has a bird-induced migraine.

Who remembers singing this part of the song with great gusto and not a lot of tune?

There will be gold beads in the little gaps when I finish this design.  I am saving all the beads until the end so the metallic thread doesn't catch on them.

Here is the full piece so far.  I will be stitching for another day on the top Herald Angel.  The plan is do a little bit on her each month to complete the design this year.

Those crumples do come out when I stretch the fabric out, don't worry!

I also stitched both my Hallowe'en pieces this month.  First up is Happy Hallowe'en by Imaginating:

Black cats are our theme this month

I also started some of the "Happy" as the cat was such a quick stitch

The second piece is Witches by Oberlin Samplers:

Not a black cat!

When I stitched the french knot eyes in the first cat I realised that DMC 3345 is the perfect match for the fabric which is so hard to photograph.  Here's a skein of 3345 on the fabric and they look different!  So go and get your skein and just imagine that the fabric is the same colour as that skein.

Remember my Blogaversary this year, back in April?  I had a little giveaway competition where you had to tell me your favourite quote and you could win the new Stitchrovia Quotes to Live By partwork.  There were a lot of entries and I loved all the quotes.  I used the Random Number Generator to pick a winner.  You got one entry for commenting on that post and then additional entries for taking part in the Easter Blog Hop and Gifted Gorgeousness too.   The RNG chose:

Deborah

who said "at the moment I still like "be kind to dragons, for thou art crunchy when roasted and taste good with ketchup" perhaps not inspiring words to live by but it makes me smile and that is a start."

Not the most deep and meaningful quote but it made me smile too.  It comes from the book Dragonswan by Sherrilyn Kenyon, which I have never read but maybe I should.  Find out more here-

Sherrilyn Kenyon

also here- 

Fantastic Fiction - Sherrilyn Kenyon/Dragonswan

Fantastic Fiction is one of my favourite websites.  The Bookseller's best friend, it is basically a catalogue of almost every fiction author, their books, a synopsis and links to where to get them.  It lists every book written by the author, in series order and in publication date with a thumbnail of the cover.  So when your customer says "have you got the new M.C. Beaton book, it's got Death in the title?" you can look up M.C. Beaton, discover that almost every book she has written has Death in the title, you can print off the list, show the customer and work out which one they want.

It also has recommendations under "Visitors to this page also looked at these authors" which can be useful but remember that every bookseller in the country is skewing the results by looking up both Sherrilyn Kenyon and M.C. Beaton within ten minutes of each other.

Finally, Kaye is hosting a Christmas in July Exchange, so if you want to exchange some Christmas Goodies, hop over and visit her blog.  Click the photo for the link:

Hallowe'en and Christmas Stitching and Easter too!

Almost completely unseasonal!

As I mentioned in my interview on the new Blogger of the Week Blog, my current rotation starts with The Enchanted Alphabet, followed by The Stitcher's Alphabet and then the two Ornie Blogs - Hallowe'en and Christmas.  For both of those I am stitching a portion of a larger design with the aim of completing two large WIPs by the end of the year.

The first one is Happy Hallowe'en by Imaginating.  This month's spooky theme is Spiders and Cobwebs so here are the two Es and their creatures:

stitched on 32 count Lime Green Murano

Here is the full piece so far:

Why will the fabric colour not come out right?

I have a second Hallowe'en piece which I am stitching alongside this one if I have time in the month.  It is Witches by Oberlin Samplers:

stitched on the same fabric.

My Christmas design is The 12 Days of Christmas by Joan Elliott and I have reached Block 3, although I haven't quite finished it yet.  I just wanted to get a blog post up today!

I have been diligently working my way round the border every evening.  Most recently I have been stitching the blue snowflakes in the corners.  Then it will be more dark red lines followed by another double row of metallic!  Once I finish those I will start on the vines between the two rows of border.  I have a feeling this border will be my evening stitching for the entire year!

I hope to finish the French Hens and the red in the left-hand angel tomorrow.

🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇

Finally, we are approaching the Easter Holidays which means only one things - Chocolate Eggs!  

NO - Easter Blog Hops!  As usual I will be hosting an Easter Blog Hop with a Treasure Hunt for the Mystery Phrase.  Provide your own eggs!  If you would like to take part this year, just leave a comment here.  The week before Easter I will send you a letter of the alphabet which will form part of the mystery phrase.  On Good Friday you will post that letter along with a photo of something seasonal that you have stitched (could be Easter or Spring or just something cheerful and sunny or floral).  We all hop around like little bunnies to find the Mystery Phrase!

Here's a link to last year's hop so you can see how it all works - Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop 2016

Making the Most of a Long Weekend Off

It's gonna get busy enough soon enough!

I usually only work 2 days a week, last week I worked Monday and Tuesday.  Next week I am working Thursday and Saturday so that meant I was off from Wednesday to Wednesday!  Eight days off without having to take any holiday.  Let's not mention that I will be working 7 out of 10 days from Thursday for the Christmas Rush.

So what have I been doing?  Helping hubby with the end of year accounts, writing Christmas cards, clearing the living room, keeping up with running TWO online Advent Calendars and, of course, stitching!

You saw the Spot of Winter last post and here is my final piece for the Hallowe'en Ornie Blog, Free Choice December:

stitched on 32 count lime green murano

This is part of a larger design by The Oberlin Sampler Company called Witches.  I will be stitching more of it as it fits into the themes next year alongside my focus piece for the Hallowe'en blog which you'll see in January!

I like this witch stirring her cauldron, there's a clever use of blended threads using grey and yellow for the highlights down her back and also grey and red down the front of her dress.  Love the flash of pink in her underskirt too.  She also has some French Knot warts on her face!

This afternoon I completed another Christmas Cube for the shelf:

And took the Small Boy out for a walk so Hubby and the Large Boy could wrangle the tree into place:

The decorations are still in the loft, not a place which is Small Boy-proof so I'll be getting up there tomorrow when he's at school.

In the evenings I've continued with Fox Forest by The Workbasket:

stitched on 32 count light khaki linen

It is looking nearly done but there's quite a bit of fill-in motifs and then a border all the way round the edge.  Should be done by the end of the year though.

Finally, I hope you're all enjoying the Advent Calendar Blog Hop.  I had so many people in the end, we are doing Double-Door Weekends so there's plenty to see.  Please leave comments on the participating blogs when you visit.  It's nice to share the love!

November Pie and a New Start

Slight accumulation of posts at this end of the month!  I usually try space them better earlier in the month.

Let's have some Pie first:

You can certainly see what I worked on most during November!  Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dreams started off looking like this:

And ended up looking like this, not just a heap of snow after all!

stitched on 32 count Moondust evenweave from Crafty Kitten

I also spent quite a lot of time on the Brooke's Books Alphabet because I stitched 2 days on P at the beginning of the month and 4 days on Q at the end, usually it's only one letter per month.

I finished Q yesterday so I thought I would get a head start on the Hallowe'en stitching today instead of waiting until Friday.  Here's what I stitched:

stitched on 32 count Lime Green Murano

At least one person will recognise the design!

Here's where I am with The Workbasket's Fox Forest:

stitched on 32 count Light Khaki Linen

Apparently there are other Forests in the series - Deer, Rabbits and Owls.  Not sure if there are any more than that.

Finally, I would usually detail my spending for the month here.  But not this month because I spent a grand total of Nurthin!  Absolutely Zero, No Pounds and No Pence.  Even my mag sub isn't due until December!   See you all tomorrow for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop.