Happy Dance Duo

Not one but two big finishes this month!!

First up is the Joan Elliott Faces SAL started in 2014.  Joan released a block each month featuring an adapted face from one of her existing designs.

I decided to stitch the skin on the first face over one and was really pleased with how she turned out.

The second block was charted as a rather chonky cat which I wasn't fan of so I left that block blank.

I did complete the centre with some lovely over one butterflies from another of Joan's fairies

I eventually stitched this lovely owl:

When the third block was released I just stalled on the skin as there was so much of it!

I finally completed her in 2020 and  decided to focus on just one or two blocks per year and work through them all in time.

The owl and the dragon were completed in 2021

The unicorn and the beading on the centre block were 2022

This pair were completed in 2023

And the final two blocks in 2024, just in time for it's 10th Birthday!

The second big finish is Nora Corbett's Capricorn, started and completed this year.  The beading did take a while, she is the most heavily beaded out of the Zodiac Girls plus it's difficult in the Summer holidays to find time to sit and bead, I need to spread everything out on the table to do it properly.

stitched on 32 count Murano in Capricorn from Sparklies

Look at all the beads!

Finally, I hope to get these two framed and on the wall as soon as possible.  I'll do Faces myself but my framer will be in charge of Capricorn.

October Stitch from Stash and Pie

 It's time for Pie!

This was Dark October and I worked on three Spooky projects, the primary one being my CCN Spooky Conversion of Main Street.

I started this in May 2020 with the conversion of the Bookshop into Grimoires.  Then stitched three buildings per year until this month when it was finally finished.

I tried to keep the shops related to the original shops and the colour schemes too.

The trees became autumnal trees

I love the carniverous plants adapted from a Stitchonomy design

What's your favourite shop?

The next project up was the final Scary Apothecary design from Hands on Designs - Spider Legs.  I used two different Jodyri Threads for the variegated grey and pink.

stitched on 28 count Radioactive linen from Chromatic Alchemy

nice bit of sparkly orange metallic in this one:

I also made a pie for my evening stitching:

To start with, I focused on my Halloween Sewing Basket which is now fully finished just in time for Halloween!

Then I decided to knock out the Just Nan Spooky Smalls I started during my Just Nan-athon.  There were three of them and I finished all three.

Batty Jack

Horrified!

Fraidy Frog

Finally, Stitch from Stash.

I intended to buy the fabric for the next four Zodiac Girls earlier in the year but Sparklies closed their order books for a couple of months to try catch up with stock.  As soon as Kate reopened I was straight in with my order and it arrived very swiftly too.

Here's the three Water signs on their respective fabrics thanks to The Design and Fabric Viewer.  I also bought Capricorn which will be on next year's "24 in '24"

A Happy Dance was Predicted in the Stars

I'm Happy Dancing!  This is the second of the Zodiac Girls designs from Nora Corbett that I have stitched.  She is Taurus, of course:

Here's the full design:

Stitched on 32 count Murano called....Taurus!

When I saw that Sparklies did a range of fabrics named after the Zodiac signs I knew they would be perfect for this series.

There were some Waterlilies charted for this design, but I substituted DMC for the ones in the centre of her dress.  3 different colours in the 501-503 range instead of one variegated.

Nora made a little error on the chart and put the sigil for Aries, but it was simple to change it to Taurus

The other Waterlilies was the teal to each side of her.  I used a Classic Colourworks thread called Bejewelled instead.

The swirls around the pale green beads were charted for Waterlilies and I used DMC 503 for them all.

Finally, here's a photo of her sister Virgo who was completed last year.  Capricorn will be next to complete the Earth Trio.

December TUSAL and a Happy Dance

        

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current project:

Here's a better look at the project I am Happy Dancing for:

The seventh shop in my spooky conversion of Main Street from CCN.  The Dress Shop has become the place for the fashionable witch to buy her dresses, robes and cloaks.  I decided the name would be A la Robe as a pun on A la Mode!  The basic shape of the dresses stayed the same, I just changed them to black and added cloaks to two of them.

The original shop was pale blue and yellow, now it's dark blue and brown,

Here's the whole piece so far:

stitched on 32 count Charcoal Slate Murano from Sparklies

Here's the original pastel version:

Finally, my Stitching Library is taking a break this month but will be back again in January!

Halloween Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2022

  

 Welcome to the spooky hallowe’en mystery phrase blog hop!

All you need to do is visit each of the following blogs in order, jot down the letter displayed with their Hallowe'en stitched picture then return here and leave a comment telling me the Mystery Phrase.

It'd be nice if you left a comment on their blog too, especially if it's new to you.

I have "moderate comments before publishing" enabled so no-one can copy anyone else!

So without further ado,

start the blog hop – enter if you dare…

An Arizona Stitcher

Life Outside the Washing Basket

Needle, Pen & Sword

A Patchwork of Crafts

Mary's Thread

Jocondine

Aimetu's Stitching

Books, Crafts and Other Procrastinations

Guava Gems

Tales of a Stitching Mouse

The Flashing Scissors

Dragon Stitches & Stuff by Astrid

Tickled Pink in Stitches

Today I Found

and then back to me to comment with the phrase.

Hope you've worked it out!

I've been working away on my Spooky Stitching this month which included a finish for Just Nan's Scream House, a Just Nan Mouse I really need to make up, one roof piece for my 3D Spooky Mansion (which was incredibly tricky) and some lovely progress on my Mani di Donna Halloween Sewing Basket. As well as a whole shop completed for my CCN Spooky Main Street Conversion.

Which now looks like this:

stitched on 32 count Charcoal Slate Murano from Sparklies

I decided to turn the Grocey Store in the Potions Store. I did consider Pumpkins because it would have been easy to change the fruit into orange pumpkins. But there were two little bottles in the window of the original shop so they became potion bottles.

I added the side extention to the shop to replace the outside fruit displays. It reminds me of a Chemist Shop from the part of town I lived in as a child. The shop was on a corner and down one side wall was a totally enclosed window space which had an enormous glass bottle inside. To a child, there was no way they could have got out of there so obviouslt it had been sealed in for some reason. As an adult, I guess the back wall was actually a door and could be opened!

Just for fun, I Googled the shop and look - they have bricked up the window!! It's on the left of the photo.

Also, it's a Bridal shop now. I don't think my witches need one of those! But the style of the building would not look out of place in my Main Street.

Here are some more photos of my Spooky Stitching on display this year:

 

Finally, don't forget, some of us are on different time zones so if you visit a blog and can't find a letter or picture yet, pop back later in the day.

The phrase will stay a mystery for one week then all comments will be shown from 7th November, 2022.

happy hunting!

        

all from Hyraea