Finally Fully Finishing Fun for February

 

 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).

I just want to make it clear that this IS me, Jo the Serendipitous Stitcher AKA Jo who can't think of a clever nickname, posting.  This blog has not been taken over by someone else.  I was merely visited by a Finishing Fairy in the last month!  If you've heard the tale of The Elves and the Shoemaker, this is very similar.  I left my finishes out and some spirit came along and FFO'd them!

First up was my 2024 Temperature Tree from The Steady Thread.  All the Finishing Fairy had to do for this one was iron it, stretch it and mount on card to be slipped into a pocket in my scrapbook.

It's almost exactly 12 x 12 inches.  Those leaves look so pretty!


Next up was Evening in the Shire by Maria Brovko.  Again, iron, stretch and mount on card then popped in a simple black frame:

In the same style frame is Aslan from Life in Stitch:

Both of those have glass in front of them but I always take the photos without glass then put it back afterwards.  That way I get a nice clear photo without reflections.

Last up was Nevermore from Quaternion Creations.  This frame was from a charity shop and originally had a mirror in it.  The frame is brass so I painted it with a black paint wash so you can still see the details of the frame.

The moon on this does show up better in real life.

Finally, while getting out my February stitched decor to add to the Winter pieces already on display, I decided to sort out my frame collection.  They were stored in two different places and now they are all in one cupboard.  I have measured and catalogued them all onto a spreadsheet too.   I have 56 frames of an assortment of sizes, shapes and styles.   The largest 3 are 10.5 x 13.5 inches.

Some came from charity shops, some from home department stores, some from my Mum and a couple were gifts.  Now I have all the sizes down in one place it should make it easier to match stitching to frame!

October Stitch from Stash and Pie

 It's time for pie!

Most of the month was spent on my Halloween Sampler from Cottage Garden Samplings which I managed to finish:

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

Once I finished the main sampler, I cut off the bottom of the fabric and stitched this little small from the JCS Halloween Special 2024.  This is from Quaternion Creations and is called Nevermore.  I left off the words from the bottom of the design.

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

I have enough fabric to stitch one or two more smalls.

I added some more of the border to my Blackwork Temperature Tree:

I also started this cute little Skeleton Chameleon from Fil'anthrope:

stitched on 36 count Dark Green linen

The evenings were dedicated to my Steady Thread Halloween Blackwork and my pie looks like this:

It now looks like this:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

Finally, Stitch from Stash and my spending was higher that expected:

The local wool shop is closing down and were selling off everything at a discount including DMC at 60p a skein.  Yes, my US friends, that is very cheap for us!  So I grabbed the colours I needed plus some of the variegated threads I wanted.

I also went over to the needlework shop in the next town to collect my JCS Christmas magazine and while I was there picked up two of the Cottage Garden Samplings Year of Houses charts.  I won't get all of them, just the ones I particularly like.

I bought these two.

I also like the Hobbit House, the Tree House and the Haunted House.

October Smalls

         

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Rachel

For my Smalls stitching this year, I have chosen 12 smaller designs and numbered them for my WIPGO Board.  Each month one Small will be stitched in the evening timeslot and hopefully finished within the month. 


Last month I was stitching [never.more] from Hands on Designs and finished it all except adding a charm:

stitched on 32 count Khaki linen

This month, WIPGO called for Drawn Thread's Spot of Summer but I decided to ignore that and work on my Halloween Blackwork from Steady Thread instead.  Definitely not a Small but there are a number of motifs which could be stitched as stand alone pieces and be ornaments.

Like this lovely mini sampler:

stitched on 30 count tea-dyed linen

I finished my main focus piece for Dark October (dedicated post to follow!) so decided to start a small from the current Just Cross Stitch Halloween Special.  

This is stitched on the same 40 count linen as my main focus, there was enough left to stitch two smaller designs.  This one is Nevermore by Quaternion Creations

stitched on 40 count Witch's Brew linen from Zweigart

The white does show up better in person, this is a difficult fabric to photograph, it comes out paler than in real life.

 

Finally, I gave the [never.more] chart to my friend and she stitched it on RED!!  How stunning does this look?  She's got an amazing charm to go in the centre of the piece too.