May Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Heather from Stitching Lotus

This year I have two Small Challenges:

1. The Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog

2. The Christmas Ornie SAL Blog

For the Hallowe'en Blog I have done something a little different this year, I've chosen a band sampler by Just Nan called Counting Bats and each band corresponds to the monthly themes on the blog.  May's theme was Spiders and I stitched this band:

stitched on 32 count lilac linen

That is one giant spider!  I am not surprised the ghosts are fleeing.

Here is the whole piece with my special scissors and fob:

The theme on the Christmas Ornie SAL blog was Reindeer and I decided to stitch one of Daffycat's cute little reindeer freebies.  In the event, I stitched three of them!  Jinglebell, Holly and Mistletoe.

I also completed another Small, this time as part of the Stitch Maynia Colour-a-Day SAL, which was Red.

stitched on 28 count Platinum linen

This was a gift from Vickie so I will be sending it back out into the world as part of June's Gifted Gorgeousness post.  So keep your eyes open then!  I used the charted DMC 902 for the darker red and substituted 3722 for the charted 3726 which looked too brown to me.  I also used standard size beads instead of the charted petite.  The standard beads filled the spaces much better than the petites.  Plus I had them in my stash and didn't have the petites!

Having completed that piece I needed something simple to start straightaway and chose the second in a series called Winter Woods by The Little Stitcher.  Only a couple of evenings bathtime stitching and a lunchbreak at work and it was done:

stitched over one on 32 count Vintage Grain linen

Here is the previous piece in this series:

There is one more and I'll scrapbook them together.

I almost forgot my other Small! Inspired by our host Heather, I stitched on the Teresa Wentzler Byzantine Ornaments too.  I used burgundy fabric and changed the colours too:

more details in the post here

Finally, in my last post I showed a picture of Just Nan's Haunted Pumpkins Tree and said I couldn't remember what happened to it.  I found it!  In a sensible place, surprisingly.  I had put the finished piece into the bag with the chart and put them back into my Just Nan bag.  There are a LOT of charts in that bag.  Maybe I'll pull out a JN small to start tonight.

Merry Bit Between Christmas and New Year

I read somewhere that it is called the Perineum (like the body part) but I didn't want to put that in a post title!  Neither do I want to Google it to check!

We are having a lovely Christmas holiday, I worked full time in the run-up to Christmas and barely had time to update the Advent Calendar each day and remember to leave a comment on each one.  The calendar is finished so now is a good time to pop over and catch up on any you might have missed.  I really loved reading all about your food traditions and imagining the smells and tastes of the recipes.  But the one that really made me LOL was Justine's on Saturday 14th.  Go check it out if you can't remember it!

I thought I'd share some stitching progress and some stitching stash too.  After I completed The Little Stitcher Fairytale Advent Calendar I continued with another of her designs from the Winter Wood trio.  I stitched this one which is called Winter Wood and Deer (for obvious reasons!)

I used an old Christmas card to mount it, simply cutting a triangular shape in the card and using double-sided tape to fix the fabric to the reverse.  The design is stitched over 1 on 32 count Vintage Grain linen, the same as the rest of the Advent Calendar.

Here is the final picture of my Advent Tree with all the designs on it:

After finishing the tiny designs I felt like something a little larger, so I stuck to 32 count but I'm stitching over 2 this time:

This is a design called Noel Blanc by Mon Ami Pierre.  I won it in a giveaway by Kathy Ellen of A Stitcher's Heirlooms quite some time ago!  Here's the blog post where I talked about winning the chart (and some others too).  Lovely-post-of-loveliness-from-lovely-people.  The fabric is a Belfast called Millenium Blue and is not so grey in real life.  Here is what it will look like one day:

For Christmas I asked for framing vouchers as I have a couple of pieces I really want to get professionally framed this year, including my Joan Elliott Flower Fairies Round Robin.  I also received this pair of books:

They are a Perpetual Diary which I intend to use as a Birthday Book and the Ackworth School Memory Book.  These are/were available from Needleprint who recently posted they were down to their last few copies.  This was just the push I needed to buy them!  You can click on that link for more information and a sneak peak inside!

Still on the theme of Antique Samplers, Nicola sent me a lovely Scarlet Letter chart, Janet Carsels, along with the silks needed to stitch her:

I also won a chart in the Scarlet Letter Year Advent Giveaway, Elisabeth Burrows.  This is a nice small sampler which I truly believe I could finish before the official end of the Scarlet Letter Challenge in February.  Although the Challenge is ending on the anniversary of Nicola's 50th Birthday, the Blogs will go on!  So if you love your reproduction samplers, don't feel you will miss out.  You can still join in with a Scarlet Letter sampler or just admire the WIPs and Finishes.

Finally, here are two gratuitous pictures of my tree, simply because I did not have time to post one before Christmas-

Before switching on:

After switching on: