The People Chose Hallowe'en

Regular followers will be aware that for over 3 years now I have run a themed SAL on the first Saturday of each month.  First we spent 26 months doing The Alphabet Club and then 12 months of the Zodiac.  Now I have decided to listen to the People and post about your choice of theme.  In September I asked for suggestions on the blog and then made a poll in the IHSW Facebook Group from those suggestions.

The top three choices were:

Hallowe'en

Birthstones

Dragons

So I will do one for the next three months.  At the end of this post I will ask again for your suggestions and one of those will become the theme for January.  In November, we choose February's theme and so on.  I will post the results in my sidebar so you have plenty of time to decide what to show.

Hallowe'en

Obviously this post could be twenty pages long and I could still be typing but I will try to keep it to less than that!

Hallowe'en is one of my favourites themes to stitch.  I always have a spooky project (or three) in my WIPs and several more in my stash and on my wish list.

This is the first ever Hallowe'en projects I stitched:

stitched on 14 count aida

Back in 1996 I stitched this alphabet from a Better Homes and Gardens book.  It is now framed and lives in my son's room.

The witch motif seems to feature most often and here's a collage of my own Coven:

You might think of Hallowe'en as Dark stitching, I'm doing Dark October right now but it can be very bright and Orange:

The majority of my pieces are framed, like this sampler by Prairie Moon:

But I have also made cubes, boxes, 3D models and scrapbook pages:

You can see all my Hallowe'en Finishes on my Happy Dance Blog if you click on the Hallowe'en label at the side - Come Happy Dance With Me - Hallowe'en

I mentioned Dark October earlier; that is where I abandon my usual rotation and just stitch on spooky projects.  This year I am using the Tiny Decisions App to chose the daily project.  So far, Jardin Prive and Nora Corbett's Raven have come out twice and 2 other projects once each.  Here's what I've been stitching:

Days 1 and 4 - Jardin Prive Happy Hallowe'en Night

(I also stitched some bats at the other of the piece)

Days 2 and 6 - Nora Corbett Raven (on Nebula fabric)

Day 3 - Just Nan Autumn House (for a Mouse)

Day 5 - JBW Smiling Jack O' Lantern

It's been fun seeing what the wheel chooses for me each day.  I do hope to get a couple of finishes this month.

In future months I plan to go through my stash and show you the pieces I hope to stitch in the future but again, 20 pages of designs to share!  There are 15 Just Nan designs for a start, including 3 of her mice.  Apart from the mice, my top two choices of starts are The Hallowe'en Sampler by Cottage Garden Samplings:

acquired in August 2018

and the Trick or Treat Fairy by Nora Corbett

I have the magazine but you can download it direct from Herrschners now.

What's on my Wishlist?  Everything!  But this is my main objective:

Hallowe'en at Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings.  I even have a piece of fabric for it but not the chart.  This will be a BAP to be started only after I finish my Discworld Mappe.

I've been following this Mystery SAL this month - Stitchonomy.  It's part of the Drawlloween project which is a drawing challenge.  I've been incorporating this challenge into my rock painting.  Here are the first six days:

If you want even more Hallowe'en goodness then do visit the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog and view the list of Spooky Freebies there.

Now it's over to you!  All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Hallowe'en, 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.

*

*

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 Dragons, or Cats, or Blue, or Spring, or Holidays, or Warmth etc.  Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

Looking forward to reading them all!

Dark 13 Stitching

I meant to make a post for my Friday 13th stitching this month but time got away from me!  So I'll include the latest instalment on my spooky conversion of Lavender & Lace's Enchanted Alphabet too.

For Friday 13th, I picked up Raven one of the Bewitching Pixies by Nora Corbett.

stitched on 32 count Nebula by Crafty Kitten

The Pixies are not very big and this wouldn't take very long if I dedicated her as a focus piece, maybe next year.  She is not on my WIPocalypse list for this year but I will pick her up again on the next Friday 13th and for Dark October too.

My current piece for the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog is Jardin Prive's Happy Hallowe'en Night and this month I stitched a spider:

stitched on 32 count Cognac linen

I also added a spider to The Enchanted Alphabet:

stitched on 32 count Tiger Lily by Sparklies

For new followers, this is my conversion of the Lavender & Lace design Enchanted Alphabet.  I have loved this design ever since I first saw it but it features the world's Frilliest Child and she just wasn't my style.  So I hit on the idea of stitching it all in black and adding some spooky touches.  So far we have some spiders and a couple of pumpkins as well as a black dove.  There will be little ghosts, bats, cats and other spookiness once I have completed the lettering.  Because I had to move some of the letters I want to wait until the end to see where the spaces are.

Finally, if you want to join us for our themed Hallowe'en stitching please click on the link and then send me an email:

Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog

Gifted Gorgeousness April Link-Up Post

Welcome to the April 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 stitched a few gifted pieces and received some lovely gifts myself.

12 Days of Christmas by Just Nan - chart was a Christmas present:

Diamond Bouquet by Just Nan - chart was a gift:

Nest Egg by Satsuma Street - fabric was a gift:

Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs - Birthday present:

Raven by Nora Corbett - chart was a gift:

stitched on 32 count Belfast in Nebula by Crafty Kitten

Most recently I have picked up my Chatelaine, Gardens of London to be my focus piece for this month.  This was a Birthday present:

This is the part I have been stitching, the variegated grey/brown which represents the pavements of London.  Instead of spending over £7 on a skein of Gloriana I am using a Jodyri thread called Goblin King (approx 90p) which looks fantastic!  One street done, three more to go.

And on to the gorgeous gifts I have received!  First of all, a lovely Easter card and bunny from the equally lovely Wee Witchy Steph from Show and Tell:

Close-up of the bunny:

The next parcel was from the lovely Beth in IL from Beth's Needlework.  She sent me this lovely Bunny card:

(I believe it is a Mill Hill)

and a parcel of goodies:

including some linen, a chart, the threads to stitch it and my very first Victorian Motto Sampler and Silk N Colours threads:

The final gift was from one of the crafters who go to my regular Friday coffee and craft morning.  Because I couldn't attend in the school holidays she came round my house for coffee, saw my project bags and said "I could make those".  She had a good look at them and last week gave me this one!

It is as tall as an A4 sheet of paper and a little wider so it holds a chart in a plastic jacket perfectly with room for some threads, scissors and a flat ORT tin.

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 "April 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.

Please could you remember to link up as well as make your post.  There have been a few people making GG posts but not linking.  Which means they don't get entered into the draw.  If you have technical or memory issues, just leave a comment and let me know!

*

*

Finally, the Easter Blog Hop is now over and I will be announcing the Winner tomorrow!

As I write this letter,

ten disgusting old men are prancing about all over what used to be the garden - before the geese and the swans and the cows got at it; and several of them, I notice, are taking inexcusable liberties with the milkmaids.  Meanwhile the neighbours are trying to have us evicted.
I shall never speak to you again.
Emily

12 Days of Christmas (Correspondence) - John Julius Norwich

Oh dear, poor Emily.  Although Joan Elliott's Lord-a-Leaping is rather joyeous and full of life he has enough decorum to keep to his own block and not bother the milkmaid above him.  He's clearly practising for the day Ribbon Gymnastics is a gender-neutral sport in the Olympics:

He has a few spaces for beads to be added.  So, sorry to Kerry, I have nothing for Theme-tas-Stitch Opulent October!

Here is where the piece was last month:

And here we are now:

All that red in the Piper was stitched on the 11th and 12th Days of Christmas earlier this year so I have a nice headstart on that block.

 Those of you that have been blogging for a while now may recognise that little fellow as Hermie, the mascot for International Hermit & Stitch Weekend hosted by Joysze of Random Ramblings.  Joysze has not blogged for a while although some people have continued to hermit and stitch alone.

Well, she has resurfaced and has been persuaded to revitalise IHSW on Facebook.  If you'd like to join us, then just click on Hermie and it will take you to the group.

So what did I stitch for IHSW (or Numb-bum weekend as it is also known!)?  The next project in my Dark October stitching - Nora Corbett's Bewitching Pixie Raven:

I used every setting on my camera trying to get a decent picture of the fabric and that one above is perfect - taken with the iPad!  Here's a camera photo so you can see the stitching better:

stitched on 32 count Belfast in Nebula by Crafty Kitten

Finally, there's still time to sign up for the Spookiest Hop on the Block - the Trick or Treat Hallowe'en Blog Hop.  All you have to do is leave a comment or send me an email.  I will send you a letter of the alphabet which you show on your blog on 31st October along with some spooky stitching.  We all hop around collecting the letters which will spell out a spooky word.