Finally Fully Finishing Fun for February

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).

Since last month I haven't had a lot of finishing time as my son is only in school 3 short days of the week and I try to cram as much into those hours as I can!

I did finish this lovely ornament from the November 2008 Gift of Stitching issue.  Designed by MTV Designs and called Treasure Christmas Pincushion:

stitched on 32 count mid-green linen

The backing fabric is an upholstery sample

I finished stitching the Stitchonomy Winter SAL and fully finished it almost immediately.  I had this reindeer hanger in my stash from a couple of years back.  It had the letters XMAS hanging down but those were easily cut off and ribbon attached so it made the perfect hanger for Winter.

stitched on 14 count Riveria Aida

I'm not an Aida stitcher usually but I got the kit and it was such a beautiful colour I decided to go with it.  It did make finishing much easier as it is stiff enough not to need stretching or lacing.  I just used double-sided tape to fix it to a piece of card.  Nice and easy to follow the threads to fold it perfectly straight too.

Here are some close-ups of each section:

The charm and the pom-pom trim came with the kit as did all the DMC

This was the final Stitchonomy SAL for 2020 and was free if you signed up before the deadline.  Now you can purchase it from the Etsy store - Stitchonomy Etsy

The next SAL will be the Homely Houseplants Version 2 - if you want to grab that for free, make sure you sign up on the website before the deadline - Stitchonomy website

The design was very appropriate because we've had quite a bit of snow here this week.  Enough to shut the schools for two days which further cut down on my finishing time.  So the next piece is not quite done yet.  Here's a hint for next month!

Finally, it's the TUSAL tomorrow and a new feature on my blog which I am quite excited about.  And then the Valentine Hop at the weekend.  It's all go here!

January 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.

I worked on three projects over the weekend which wasn't terribly productive unfortunately.

The main focus was my second WIPGO project.  This is an oldie started back in 2012 for the Samplemakers Forum challenge.  They gave us a selection of motifs and we made a small sampler from them.  I stalled on the trees and it's taken me 8 years to complete them!

stitched on 28 count Slightly Lilac evenweave from Sparklies

I have almost finished the green leaves on the left hand tree then I can get started on the smaller motifs.  There will be a rabbit, a bird, a butterfly and a peacock as well as an alphabet, my initials and the year.  Charted as 2012 it will be easier to flip those last 2 numbers!  I also need to fill in the flowers in the urn and it's finally done.

My bathtime project is the Stitchonomy Winter SAL.  I got the kit for this one so I'm stitching it exactly as charted using the kit DMC and, shockingly, the kit aida!  It was such a gorgeous blue/turquoise colour I thought "why not?" plus I didn't have any evenweave this bright.

As with all of Alyssa's SALs, this was free for a certain period of time and now you can get it by joining her Pattern Club for a small fee.  At the end of the SAL it will be available to buy in her Etsy shop.

stitched on 14 count Riviera aida

It's a lovely simple piece, perfect for bathtime stitching as we get one band every three days and they take exactly three bathtimes to stitch!  How did she do that?

The third piece is a very different band sampler, this is Just Nan's Winter Blues.  I am SALing this with several people in the Just Nan Junkies FB group.  I set a schedule of just 1 or 2 bands per week and I'm now on Band 5 for Week 3.

stitched on 28 count White Jobelan

In various emails I've been saying to people "I want to use more coloured fabrics this year" but White was the perfect choice for this sampler.  It had to be 28 count because of the over-one sections, I wanted the words to be legible!

Finally, the next IHSW will be 19th - 21st February 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.