Finally Fully Finishing Fun for April

   

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 was quite organised this month and have two framed pieces to share with you.  One was finished this year and the other is a little bit older (2021),

I went through my frame box looking for a frame for the first piece and found two, a gold rectangle and a blue square.  Then I went through my finished pieces folder to see if there was anything that fitted into the square frame better,  There was, so I framed both pieces.

Here is the first one, the intended FFO for this month - September Strawflowers from The Sweetheart Tree:

Here's the second bonus FFO - Peacock Tapestry from Just Nan:

I didn't have the peacock charm for the centre but I did have this lovely sparkly rainbow star so I used that instead.

While I was doing the framing, I took some photos to show how I frame my pieces and get them centred and straight in the frame.

The first thing I do is measure the aperture of the frame and measure the width of the stitching.  Take one from the other and divide by two.

So the frame was 9cm and the stitching was 7cm which leaves 2cm to be divided by 2 so 1cm margin.

Do the same for the height. In this case, it's a square but always doublecheck!

Then I take the stitching and remove one thread 1cm from the edge of the stitching, as below:

Fold along those lines and fold the corners diagonally.  Take a piece of card ever so slightly smaller than the aperture of the frame, eg 8.9cm for this frame.  Lay the stitching face-down and centre the card onto it.

Put a small piece of double sided tape in each corner and fold the corners over diagonally.  You can use the removed thread lines to make sure they are straight.

Repeat for all four corners, then add double sided tape to the middle of each side:

Although I'm using tape, it never touches the back of the stitching so won't affect my threads over time.

Fold the edges over, looking at the front side to make sure the fold is exactly down the removed thread line.

Here's the back when all four sides are done.  You could stitch across the corners if the linen is very loose or springy but I don't usually bother.  If I was going to stick metal washers to the back and mount it with magnets then I probably would because it will keep the corners secure for longer.

Pop it in the frame and take a photo!  

Hope you found this useful for framing your small pieces.

Finally, thanks to everyone who took part in the Easter Treasure Hunt this year.  The Mystery Phrase was :

Hippity Hoppity

Just like this bunny that was sent to me by Beth in IL a few years ago.  I get him out every Easter for my display.

March 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.

In February, the WIPGO number was for the Alice in Wonderland Bottles Collection from Rainbow Hunter on Etsy.

I finished Alice and showed her last month and completed the Cheshire Cat at the start of March.

stitched on 32 count Antique Blue linen

Once the Cat was done, I moved on to the March choice; September Strawflowers by The Sweetheart Tree:

stitched on 32 count Antique White linen

The chart came with the little charm for the centre but not the beads.  The variegated purple is a Six Strand Sweets hand-dyed called Witches Brew.  This was a gift from a fellow blogger a long time ago so it was nice to use some!

After I finished that one, I moved on to the Circle Cross Zodiac signs and completed Aquarius:

stitched on 28 count sky blue evenweave from Silkweavers

Finally, WIPGO for April is a very old chart from 1995 which I have had in my stash for about that length of time so it's great to be making a start on it at last!

Finally Fully Finishing Fun for March and TUSAL

  

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 decided to do something different with my latest Christmas Ornament finish.  Rather than make a 3D ornament, I mounted it over some wadding on a piece of card.  We display greetings cards from strings hung from our beams on the ceiling.  They are out of the way and make a lovely colourful display.

Just Nan - Snowberries

Fewer people send physical cards now so we usually have at least one string empty at Christmas.  I thought it would be nice to fill it with ornaments.  When Christmas is over, the card folds the other way to protect the stitching and beads in the storage box.

    

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current projects:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Country Mocha linen

On the left we have The Primitive Hare Hocus Pocus Cabinet and on the right is my evening stitch - September Strawflowers from The Sweetheart Tree.

stitched on 32 count Antique White linen

🐇 Good Friday - Friday 29th March 🐇

Finally, it's time to sign up for the Annual Easter Treasure Hunt.  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 2023

December Pie and Stitch from Stash

It's Old Year's Night and time for a look back at the past 365 days of stitching.

First of all, here is the Pie for December:

Two weeks on the Discworld Mappe which went from here:

to here:

stitched on 32 count Murano custom dyed by Sparklies

Not so much progress this month, I didn't even finish my owl.  But here is where it was last year so you can see just how much 166 days of stitching is:

8 days to complete the 12th Christmas Ornament of the year.  I started all 12 as part of last year's 12 Days of Stitchmas and completed one per month this year.  This is the fourth design from The Sweetheart Tree called Merry Christmas Bellpull.  I will be fully finishing it like the Noel and Joy Bellpulls.

stitched on 32 count linen

For this year's 12 Days of Stitchmas I am stitching the JBW designs.  Here are Days 5 and 6:

stitched on 40 count white linen

In my WIPocalypse post I showed you my 13 finishes from my "19 in '19" list and now here are the rest of my finishes for the year:

Plus this one I forgot to include in the Collage!

Let's have a look at the Annual Pie Chart now:

The top four individual projects were:

The Discworld Mappe - 163 days

Marie Suarez My Lovely Sewing Tools - 31 days

Lavender & Lace Enchanted Alphabet - 23 days

Chatelaine Gardens of London - 21 days

I also stitched on a number of Just Nan projects, totalling 39 days when I only stitched those projects.  More often they were part of a daily stitch project.

I have actually finished the Enchanted Alphabet and I do intend to dedicate a post to my conversion, but here's a picture to be going on with:

stitched on 32 count Tiger Lily Murano from Sparklies

I came into the year with 20 WIPs and started 31 projects over the course of the year of which all except three have been finished.  I also completed 2 projects started prior to 2017 and 6 started in 2017/18.  My current WIPs are:

Prior 2017	9
2017	3
2018	0
2019	3
Total	15

Yes, just 15 WIPs.  I plan to complete another 2 of those older ones this year and gradually whittle the total down.  Leaving me space to make more starts!

How did the spending go last month?  My magazine subscription came out and that was it.

December
CS sub	£8.72
Total	£8.72

I also tallied up the spend for the whole year:

Magazines	£76.49
Charts	£145.22
Fabric	£35.95
Threads	£0.95
Other	£39.12
Total	£297.73

That figure is about the same as last year.  Once again, I spent more on charts and less on fabric and threads.  Literally 95p on one skein of DMC the entire year!  The money spent on charts was nearly all Christmas and Birthday money so that's OK.

As well as getting the JBW 12 Days of Christmas charts, I also got these charts from my family:

Yes, another BAP!  The plan is to start that one when I complete the Discworld Mappe.

This is a series I have had my eye on for a while.  I am considering stitching them as sets of six cubes.

Finally,

Have a very Happy Old Year's Night

and a very Peaceful New Year's Day

December Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

This year I have been stitching Christmas Ornaments from the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Specials 2001 to 2009.  I have almost finished this month's ornament which is a design by The Sweetheart Tree called Merry Christmas.  So here is the top part only:

stitched on 32 count linen

I just need to add beads and fully finish it as a bellpull ornament like the other two, albeit slightly larger.  Here are the other Sweetheart Tree Ornaments I stitched for this SAL:

   

I did complete another Word in the Jessica Savage series for Cross Stitcher magazine.  This month it was Embrace:

stitched over 1 on 25 count blue evenweave

All five so far:

At the end of November I joined in with a new SAL - 1 small snowflake for 26 days by Stitchonomy.  I did well to start with but work and pre-Christmas busyness caught up with me and I finished it after Christmas.  I decided to use all beads instead of the charted colours.  The blue are some unbranded beads I had in my stash and the white and crystal are Mill Hill (00479 and 00161).  The fabric is a random piece of opalescent blue linen from stash:

I made a few changes, the blue beads are a bit bigger than Mill Hill and wouldn't all fit so I tended to leave them off where they got too crowded.  The "sparkles" she added on the 27th day are the little single stitches and small motifs inbetween the snowflakes.  I used a Madeira silver metallic for them.  Finally, I added a snowflake charm that Mouse sent me for Christmas.  Now I need a round frame!  For maybe just a round mount for a square frame.

This was a lovely SAL, not too demanding, any other time of the year I would easily have managed one motif per day.  You can buy it from her Etsy store now - Stitchonomy Etsy

I have now started the 12 Days of Stitchmas, originally I intended to stitch a band sampler but serendipity demanded a 12 Days design which I received as a Christmas gift.  Here is the cover:

And here is Day 1

And Day 2:

My plan is to stitch one length of green  border on each day and one colour on Day 1.  If I complete Day 1 then I'll stitch one colour on Day 2.

Then throughout 2020 I will finish one ornament per month.

Finally, I had a Smalls Tree this year!  Usually I have a section of our main tree for stitched ornaments but this year I decided as I had made quite a few myself there were enough to put them on their own tree:

How many do you recognise?

The gifted ones are mostly on this side: