Finally Fully Finishing for September

     

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).

After the excitement of last month and an early appearance of an FFO, we are back to the usual "let's make the 9th FFO Day".

I managed to frame two pieces, one is an older finish which was waiting for the right frame and the other is a fresh finish from the end of August.

Here's Autumn In The Square from Just Nan:

That's a bit blurry but the colours are accurate.

Here's a close-up so you can see the sweet little hedgehog button I used instead of the charm in the centre:

One change I made from the original was to alternate red and grey squirrels around the edge of the design.

The next piece is also a Just Nan, this is Mermaid Heart:

and my ongoing quest to get a decent colour-match to the fabric, this is a skein of DMC 926 which is the same colour as the fabric.   Go and get your 926 and then you will see how inaccurate the photos are!

Here's an update on one from July, this is also a Just Nan!  Tea with Honey which has travelled it's way onto Mary to stitch.  I managed to get a little teaset from a doll's house company and stick the pieces on to some flat-topped pins to hold them in place:

Finally, here's one that will hopefully be an FFO by next month.  Another Just Nan!  This is Scream House.  Here are the four external walls that now have pumpkin beads added to the fences:

I didn't have the special stripy beads Nan used so I just used two slightly different orange beads from my stash:

Here's the piece charted for the base, but I'm going to use it for the inside floor as I'm not making the pumpkin pincushion.

Look at that - a whole post of Just Nan!

Finally Fully Finishing for July

   

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 finally broke my "just one thing" streak and have a whole hat-trick of fully finished objects this month!

First up is a professionally framed piece from 2019.  I had intended to get it framed for Halloween 2020 but we all know what happened in early 2020 so that didn't happen.

Very difficult to photograph with the glass in place!  I went for a very simple plain black frame and enough of the lovely fabric showing.

This is my Halloween conversion of Lavender and Lace's Enchanted Alphabet.  More photos can be found here - Lavender & Lace - Enchanted Alphabet

The next finish is a simple home frame job.  The frame came from Wilko's and was very cheap!  This is Stitch It Picasso Dragon #2

The final fully finished piece is my Just Nan Tea with Honey:

I stitched this as six seperate pieces and then whip-stitched them into a cube.  I mounted the sides and bottom on thin card but wasn't sure about the top.  I wanted it to be used as a pin cushion but if I mounted it on card it would bend in when I stuck pins in.  So I used thick mat board with a 1 inch square cut in the middle where the pins will go!  I put some nice wadding between the card and the fabric so it feels soft.

It looks pretty much the same from all four sides!

I added my initials to the base:

I stuffed it with my son's old school socks!  They roll up small and have a nice weighty heft to them.  I used them for the Tiny Modernist Greenhouse too.  Nice to have a use for them when they are too small/holey to wear!

What a productive month that was!  August will probably be back to one now.  Unless I get the 3D Bookshop finished.  Although I did get some charity shop haul last week so maybe I will match those to some stuff in the box.  I might even get the scrapbooks out again!

Finally, I'm going to be taking sign-ups for my Summer Blog Hop on the same theme as last year - Stitching Friends are Friends Who Count. Have a look at this post for last year and let me know if you'd like to take part this year.

Stitching Friends Summer Blog Hop

 

 

Gifted Gorgeousness June Link-up Post

    

Welcome to the June Gifted Gorgeousness link-up. The link-up date continues 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.

My main gifted project is my Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow which is my focus project for the year.  Last GG I had nearly finished Block 1.  Which was completed at the start of June:

Then I started on Block 5 which is almost all full-coverage:

Here's where I am now:

stitched over one on 25 count Cassia Rose evenweave from Chromatic Alchemy

My Chatelaine, Gardens of London was a gift for my last Big-0 Birthday, different people bought me the chart, the fabric, the DMC and some of the speciality threads.

Here's where I finished at the end of last month:

stitched on 32 count Cotton Clouds Belfast from Crafty Kitten

My current Just Nan was a gift as it's a Travelling Pattern.  This is Tea with Honey:

stitched on 28 count dusky pink linen

and a close-up of the bees:

This little dragon is stitched on some gifted fabric.  The design is #2 in a series of 12 from Stitch It Picasso on Etsy:

stitched on 32 count Autumnal Woodland by Crafty Kitten

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 "June 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.

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Finally, it's IHSW this coming weekend followed by The Longest Day Marathon so expect to see ALL my WIPs stitched on that day.

Finally Fully Finishing for June

     

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).

We continue the trend of "just one thing to show" with a charity shop frame for my Just Nan Lily Pond sampler:

The backing fabric is a sample from a book which was donated to our local church.  I use the samplers as backings for ornament or framed pieces if they are suitable.

Finally I am making good progress with my Just Nan Super Summer SAL.  This is Tea with Honey.  

stitched on 28 count Dusky Pink linen

Then I added the white Perle to the top, it adds a nice texture to the piece.

May IHSW

 

IHSW or International Hermit and Stitch Weekend always starts on the third Friday of the month.  It's a chance to lock yourself away and focus on your stitching for the weekend.  You can take part on your blog or via the Facebook page - IHSW on Facebook.

This weekend I've been working on Hands On Design's Scary Apothecary Skeleton Polish.  Here is where I started:

stitched on 28 count Radioactive linen from Chromatic Alchemy

Here's my finish point for the weekend:

I'm using the DMC conversion as usual.  The colours aren't such a good match as in previous designs in this series.  The top lilac (3042) looks more grey so I changed to 3041 for the rest of the design which does now look more purple than grey.   The green is much darker than the charted green but it looks fine so it's staying!

I didn't quite finish it this weekend but there's probably only one more day to go on it.

I also continued with my current Just Nan design; Tea with Honey.  I completed another shade of pink:

stitched on 28 count dusky pink linen.

Please excuse the funky colour of the fabric, the picture was taken using my iPad in natural light rather than my camera in artificial light which gives a more accurate colour match.

The next IHSW will be 17th - 19th June so make sure you note the date in your diary or come and join us in the Facebook Group - IHSW on Facebook. If you don't do Facebook then you can check in here by leaving a comment on my post.

Finally, just a couple of days after the June IHSW I will be attempting my annual Longest Day Marathon.  For new followers, this is obviously a stitching marathon and not a running one!  On this day I attempt to stitch on each of my WIPs for 20-30 minutes.  The last couple of years I have had to spread the marathon over two days because of other commitments but I am hoping to get it all done in one day this year.  We shall see!  If anyone want to join me, you'd be very welcome.  Just post on your blog or in the IHSW group.

Here's last year's post so you can see how I got on: Longest Day Marathon 2021

 

Gifted Gorgeousness May Link-up Post

   

Welcome to the May Gifted Gorgeousness link-up. The link-up date continues 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.

My main gifted project is my Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow which is my focus project for the year.  Last GG I had finished Block 4 and was about to start Block 1.  That is taking slightly longer as it's more densely covered than Block 4.

Here's the whole thing so far:

stitched over one on 25 count Cassia Rose evenweave from Chromatic Alchemy

My current Just Nan was a gift as it's a Travelling Pattern.  This is Tea with Honey:

stitched on 28 count dusky pink linen

Little Snapdragon was also a gift from a blogging friend several years ago:

stitched on 32 count Evening Sky Murano from Crafty Kitten

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 "May 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.

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Finally, my Just Nan-athon is continuing thoughout May but I'm saving the photos for the Smalls post!

Finally Fully Finishing Fun for May

    

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).

After last month's amazing finish I'm back to being a bit basic!

This is Just Nan Spring in the Square which I finished in a plain wood box frame.  I didn't have the charm to go in the centre so that's a nice button instead.   I have the other three seasons stitched so that could be three more FFO's this year!

Here's my 5th Day of Christmas from Jardin Prive:

stitched on 32 count Millenium Blue linen

The white and yellow don't contrast much in real life so I backstitched round the butterflies.

Finally I am making good progress with my Just Nan Super Summer SAL.  This is Tea with Honey.  I have stitched all the greens and the purples on the top:

April Smalls

   

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

This year my Smalls will be the Jardin Prive 12 Days of Christmas which I started on Boxing Day 2021 for the 12 Days of Stitchmas.

stitched on 32 count Millenium Blue Linen

Because this year is going to be a Year of Focus, I won't really have a lot of Smalls to share so I'm including some slightly larger pieces.  This is my Tiny Modernist Greenhouse:

stitched on 28 count grey-blue evenweave

Which became an FFO this month:

I now have a need for more 3D buildings and immediately started another.  This will be a Book Shop from Living on the Rainbow on Etsy:

stitched on 28 count Tan evenweave

The original is designed to be a drum shaped ornament stitched as one long piece but I am stitching four walls to make a rectangular building instead.

My final 3D piece is a Just Nan Travelling Pattern called Tea with Honey.  When constructed it makes a little tea table and you can purchase a miniature teaset to make into pins to stick on top.  Again, I am stitching it as six separate pieces to be stitched together.  I didn't have a piece of fabric big enough to stitch as one piece. 

stitched on 28 count Dusky Pink linen

I was able to start this because I completed my previous Just Nan project, the Spring SAL Sampler:

Just Nan - Lily Pond

stitched on 32 count Pale Green linen

Finally, it's nearly time for my annual Just Nan-athon!  I used this to take part in Maynia in previous years.  I stitch on a different JN Small each day.  

Here are last year's projects: