September Theme-tas-Stitch Smalls

Theme-tas-stitch is hosted by Kerry

Each month Kerry gives us a theme to stitch to and we show our progress on the 21st of every month.

September - What is the smallest stitch in your stash?  Show us your smalls!

I'm currently stitching two smallish projects, both Just Nans for the 10-a-day and 30-a-day challenges.

Here is Day 83 of Summer in the Square:

And here is Day 9 of Holly Knot:

Earlier in the month I completed Lacy Diamond for the 30-a-day:

Kerry asked for the smallest item in our stash.  I have a couple of the Just Nan Witchy Mice and the Autumn Mouse in a House on order.

I have stitched a few tiny things in the past:

Mr X-Stitch Mona Lisa - over one on 28 count evenweave

My own design Tiny Mice - over one on 40 count

Christmas Card from WOCS - over one on 40 count

Finally, if you like tiny stitching, check out Janet Granger's website, she currently has 10% off all her dollhouse needlepoint kits - Janet Granger and also look at this tiny cardigan from Althea Crome:

Althea Crome micro-knits

Theme-tas-Stitch Animalia August

Theme-tas-stitch is hosted by Kerry

Each month Kerry gives us a theme to stitch to and we show our progress on the 21st of every month.

Animalia August - Give some love to those projects with our furry or feathered friends.

Or indeed, the scaly ones!  Tiff and I decided that this was a great chance to focus on our dragon projects.  I have two on my WIP list but I was enjoying this one so much I decided to keep going and make it the focus for the month.

Here's where Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dreams was last November:

And here's where we are now:

Stitched on 32 count Moondust Murano by Crafty Kitten

Close-up of the head.  I love the contrast between the white rayon and the Waterlilies silk which is the variegated blue/cream colour.  The spines are sparkly Kreinik.

I also stitched half a cow for the 8th Day of Christmas:

A cat in a Martini Glass Y for Stitcher's Alphabet:

A black bird for the Enchanted Alphabet:

And two spiders for the Witches:

I will be carrying on with my dragon until the 26th when it's time for Enchanted Alphabet to re-enter the rotation.  For more Dragony goodness, check out Tiff's blog where she is having a little competition.  Guess which projects she will work on this month!

🐉  🐉  🐉  🐉  🐉  🐉  🐉

Finally, we just featured our 26th Blogger of the Week so do pop over and learn more about them.  As a treat to celebrate the six month point and also the Bank Holiday Weekend I will be having a little competition this Friday instead of featuring a Blogger.  So make sure you get over there on Friday and join in the fun!  Here's the link to this week's Blogger:

Blogger of the Week

Theme-tas-Stitch Just One July

Theme-tas-stitch is hosted by Kerry

Each month Kerry gives us a theme to stitch to and we show our progress on the 21st of every month.

Just One July - Pick a focus piece for the month and see how much progress you can make - show us before and after pictures if you can.

This was perfect timing to work with the FB Joan Elliott July too as I planned to make her July Mermaid my focus piece for July.

I started the Mermaid on the 8th August last year for the Stitch Maynia Water Olympics and did another 30 minutes of her for the Longest Day SAL this June.  Here is where she was then:

August 2016

June 2017

21st July 2017

These designs are only 66 x 66 stitches but there is a lot of detail and each one takes longer than I think.  Especially with quite a few work days thrown in and very little stitching done on those days.

My other Joan Elliott project is the 12 Days of Christmas which I am stitching a little bit each evening during bathtime.

6th July 2017

21st July 2017

I have still got four days of the Focus Piece section of my rotation left this month so when I finish the Mermaid I might pick up my Joan Elliot Faces SAL which currently looks like this:

Finally, there's a new post up today for the Blogger of the Week.  Pop over and see who is featured this week.  Your clue is "hardanger".

Longest Day Marathon 2017

This time last year I had the fun idea of stitching ALL my WIPs and UFOs on one day.  I chose the Summer Solstice as the Longest Day for the most stitching hours.  You can read all about last year here.

This year I decided to invite FB friends to join me live as I posted and several people did so.  Quite a few are stitching today as it is the actual Solstice today.  I was out of town so I had to do it a day early.  Kaye in the Southern Hemisphere stitched on just one project as it is their Shortest Day.

So where did I start?  By getting all the projects out and putting them on the bed:

You can see that I like to keep my fabric rolled in tubes, the long ones are wrapping paper tubes.

The first project was my 10-a-Day, Just Nan's Spring in the Square:

Followed by my 30-a-Day, Just Nan's Royal Blossoms:

Then I moved onto my 30 minute rotation.  Each 30 minute slot included getting the project out, photographing the before picture, stitching, photographing the after picture and loading onto Facebook.  So there's less than 30 minutes of actual stitching on each one.

Here we go with Project 3 at 9.00am:

Happy Hallowe'en by Imaginating

Stitched the L

Project 4 at 9.30am:

Witches by Oberlin Samplers

Started the W

Project 5 at 10.00am

The Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books

Stitched the border for X

Project 6 at 10.30am

The Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace

Started the M

Elevenses!

Project 7 at 11.00am

Gardens of London by Chatelaine

Stitched some background

Project 8 at 11.30am

The Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs

Stitched some land!

Project 9 at 12.00 noon

Little Snapdragon by Kustom Krafts

Stitched some wing

Project 10 at 12.30pm

Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dreams

Stitched some Kreinik spines

Lunch

Project 11 at 1.30pm

Mermaid by Joan Elliott

Stitched an arm

Project 12 at 2.00pm

Gathering Eggs by Nora Corbett

Stitched more sleeve

Project 13 at 2.30pm

Memories by Just Nan

Stitched some pink flowers

Project 14 at 3.00pm

Faces Mystery SAL by Joan Elliott 

Stitched more ribbon and some leaf

Project 15 at 3.30pm

My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez

Stitched some cream border

Project 16 at 4.00pm

Coffee Fairy by Yiota

Filled in some coffee

Project 17 at 4.30pm

Art Nouveau Head by the Craft Collective

Stitched some brown 

Project 18 at 5.00pm

Bande des Dragons by Dessins DHC

 Stitched some red scroll

Teatime, forgot to take a photo!

Project 19 at 7.00pm

Spring Sampler with motifs from The Samplermakers

Stitched some green leaves

Project 20 at 7.30pm

English Transitional Sampler by The Scarlet Letter

Some Holbein Stitch 

Project 21 at 8.00pm

Around the World in 80 Stitches by Papillon Creations 

Stitched some green border 

Project 22 at 8.30pm

NOEL by Ernie Bishop

 Stitched some more of the O

9.00pm - Storytime with The Large Boy, reading Science of the Discworld III

Project 23 at 9.45pm

Autumn Tree from an old Yahoo Group 

Stitched five eyelets just to say I worked on this one!

Project 24 at 10.00pm during the Small Boy's bath

12 Days of Christmas by Joan Elliott 

Stitched some green leaves in the border 

Apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos.  Some were from my iPad and some were just "point and click, move on to the next one".

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Today is the posting day for Kerry's Theme-tas-Stitch too, which is:

Jardin June - Venture outdoors and put some stitches in a piece which has a garden or floral theme.

Several of my projects fit this theme.  Project 1, 2, 7, 9, 13, 19 and 21 to be precise!  I have also completed and framed a beautiful garden design since the last Theme-tas-Stitch post and gave it to my friend today.

Gathering Honey by Jannlynn Designs!

My friend loved it and said she hadn't forgotten she'd asked me to stitch it for her but thought I had!  So she was really pleased to see that I hadn't.

Finally, I really enjoyed the Stitching Marathon and it was lovely to have people stitching and commenting along with me.  It was so nice to get some of the older projects out again.  Some are mammoth pieces and will take years to finish while others could be done in a week or two.  But then there are my active WIPs already in the rotation!  So much to think about and plan.  I will definitely be doing this again next year anyway.   So make your plans now to join me!