The People Chose Geometric

This SAL is all about what you want to see on the blog.  Each month I ask for suggestions for themes and then put them up to the members of the IHSW Group on FB to vote for their choice.  This is what they have chosen:

September - Geometric
October - Wizards
November - Magic

Looking at my projects and other people's blogs it does seem that Geometric is more associated with patchwork or needlepoint than with cross stitch.  I do have a couple of projects which come under the category.

The first one is a little old, according to the receipt I bought it in March, 2000 and the kit cost CAN$56 or £25.00.  (I just checked the RoEx and that would now be £32 so I got a bargain!  This design is called Southwest Garden by Karen E. Dudzinski of Textured Treasures.  I bought the kit at the Olympia Stitching Show and I have a feeling it was Karen who served us.  I stitched it straight away.

stitched on 28 count Carnation Pink evenweave

Close-up of one corner:

It's stitched in a mixture of DMC, Flower Threads, Needle Necessities Fibres, and Rainbow Gallery fibres plus some Perle cotton and a silver metallic.

The cover picture has a rather fancy mat around it which means I have never gotten it framed because I couldn't find anyone to fussy cut a triple mat for a reasonable price.  I should just get a square frame and get it up on the wall!

I have a couple of freebies from Gazette94 which come under the geometric banner:

Now it's over to you.  All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Geometric, mention The People's Choice SAL (you can copy the picture I used at the top of this post and in my side bar) and my blog. Please link up using the URL of the actual blog post, not the home page of your blog. I look forward to seeing what you all post.

*

*

Finally, I need your suggestions for the next poll. Any thing, no matter how obscure, weird or random will go into the poll. Keep the theme suggestions to a single word or two - so you could have Cats, or Blue, or Holidays, or Warmth etc. Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

Looking forward to reading them all!

All Around the Discworld

"In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part ...
See ..
Great A'Tuin the turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf, hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge and ancient shell pocked with meteor craters. Through sea-sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and asteroid dust He stares fixedly at the Destination."

I started this one back in June 2017 with this photo:

The fabric is a custom-dyed 32 count Murano from Sparklies.  I explained to Kate what I needed and very exact dimensions for the paler blue circle.  I started stitching in the middle and worked to the top so I could make sure the edge of the Disc would match up with the circle on the fabric.  Fortunately, it did!

Here are some photos of my favourite parts:

The very centre of the Disc, Cori Celesti is the Home of the Gods:

The whole Mappe:

I do know how many days I stitched on this piece, anyone want to make a guess?

I recently discovered how to make Slideshows of my photos!

This first one shows the progress from June 2017 to December 2019:

This one shows the progress throughout 2020:

Finally, the story of my love of the Discworld.  The first book in the series was published in 1983 when I was still at school.  I think my Uncle introduced us to the books as he had with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy some years before.  My edition is a 3rd reprint from 1985 which is the year I started work so I probably bought it to read on the train.  It cost £1.75, about an hour's wages for me.  The standard paperback still costs an hour's wages at about £7.99 which is interesting when so many other things have seen rampant inflation.

I collected each book after that, getting the signed ones when my brother went to Uni and attended all the signings at The Forbidden Planet bookshop.  Then I stopped collecting about the time I started cross stitching on the train.  It was hard to read anyway as there were a good group of us who used to chat every day and socialise together off the train!

Fast forward to my son being born and being read to each evening.  We were given The Bromeliad as a present which he loved.  In April 2014 we started reading the entire series from the beginning.  This took us three whole years.  I started collecting the new hardbacks at this time too.  Then when we finished reading the series, topped off with the Science of Discworld books, I started stitching the Mappe.  Now to get it framed.

Thanks for being part of this journey with me, especially those who were tempted into reading the books themselves.  De Chelonian Mobile - The Turtle Moves.

GNU Sir Terry Pratchett

August Stitch from Stash and Pie

Well, August turned out to be a very productive month, with no fewer than 5 finishes!

Here is the Pie:

Yes, those couched lines on the Discworld Mappe took nearly 2 weeks to stitch.  To be fair, some of those days were very short because it was sometimes difficult to get the enthusiasm to start on them.  I also stitched the lovely silver stars around the edge of the Mappe.  I intend to do a full post this week dedicated to the Mappe, so I will show lots of photos then.  In the meantime, here's another full picture of it:

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

Holly Noel by Just Nan was the first finish at the start of the month and then it took 20 days to get another finish.  This is the Alice freebie from Passion Creative:

stitched on 28 count linen from a Crafty Kitten grab bag

The original is charted in two shades of grey but I knew I wanted blue for Alice.  Originally I planned to use the dark blue for all the darker stitching but having done her eyes I realised it was just too dark.  So I used the intended lighter blue for the rest of the dark stitching and chose a new light blue.  I love the way this turned out and hope to scrapbook it very soon.

The next finish up was my Summer Sampler SAL with Leonore.  We have both been stitching Just Nan's Morning Meadow over the last eight weeks.  Here's my finish:

stitched on 32 count pale green linen (matches DMC 772)

I didn't have all the charted threads or beads so I substituted blended DMC for the Caron Waterlilies, standard DMC for the Perle and beads which I did have in my stash.

I also made those bunnies darker so they would show up better

This is a very early Just Nan - JN013 copyright 1993, the year I started stitching.  She uses some absolutely wonderful speciality stitches in this sampler.  Some I was familiar with and some that were new to me.  The butterfly stitches are fantastic and I like the satin stitch flowers too.  She uses Mosiac Stitch to great effect, there's so much texture in this piece.  I do wish she would do more band samplers but I have several in my collection so I can't complain too much!

Another Just Nan was the final finish for the month.  This is Jasmine Mix, 49 x 49 stitches but 17 colours and 1 kind of bead:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Country Mocha linen

I absolutely love this one.  The way the B5200 just pops off the fabric and those gorgeous dark pinks, the splashes of yellow.  Great little design.

I did purchase a little treat this month.  I saw a former shopowner selling off some Just Nan exclusive kits from when she owned a shop, for a bargain price and had to snatch one up!  Then the Just Cross Stitch Hallowe'en Special came out so that's an essential purchase.  It is very good this year, now I just have to figure out how to fit a couple of the designs into the rotation!

August
Just Nan Regency Roses	£8.50
JCS Halloween mag	£7.50
Total	£16.00

Finally, with only 2 days left in the month after completing Discworld I decided to pick up a very old project.  So old, it's not even on my WIP list as I didn't discover it until I was stash-diving for old finished pieces to FFO.  This is Bramble Harvest from Needlepoise charted by Judith Stanley in the days of hand-written charts.  This is just the cover, I literally have some blackberries and a row of Fly Stitches and it's a finish!

look at that price tag - £7.50 for an entire kit!

August WIPocalypse Mystery SALs

WIPocalypse is hosted by Measi's Musings

Each month we have to share the projects we want to complete before the End Of The World.

Since 2011 I have chosen a number of projects to focus on that year, starting with my "11 in '11" and increasing to "20 in '20" for this year.  This month I stitched on 6 of them.  2 finishes and 1 goal met this month.

Joan Elliott - Faces

(Project 2)

Lyndisfarne - Discworld Map

(Project 5)

JBW - 12 Days of Christmas

(Project 11 - Book 3)

Hands on Design - Broomstick Fuel

(Project 15)

Amanda Butler - Alice in Wonderland SAL in Cross Stitcher magazine

(Project 17)

Just Nan - Morning Meadow

(Project 19)

Measi always gives us a topic to discuss:

August – Have you participated in any of the mystery SALs on Facebook (or other social media)? What do you think makes a successful mystery SAL?

I have taken part in a few Mystery SALs but I am much more cautious about committing myself these days!  The current one is a good example of why.

My usual guidelines would be:

Do I like the designer?
Do I like the theme?
Is there a sneak peek?
Can I keep up?

The Joan Elliott Faces SAL scored highly in all categories.  I love Joan Elliott.  The frame was so pretty and the first face was gorgeous.  Then she released the second block.  A cat's face.  I like cats.  I would have liked a witch's cat.  But this was a moggie and just didn't appeal to me to stitch it.  So the entire SAL stalled!  And we all know that once you fall behind, you stay behind.



I am determined to complete this because every Longest Day Marathon I get it out and love stitching on it.  So the plan is to substitute an owl from one of the fantasy designs for the cat and stitch a block or two each year until it is done.

Other SALs which have also fallen by the wayside include Around the World in 80 Stitches by Papillon.

Reason - it's so fiddly!  I chose to do the speciality stitches version and I am just not loving all the stopping and starting.  I think I prefer my speciality stitches in a band sampler.  I have done loads of those and love them!

The plan for this one is to stitch all the dark green outlines.  Then all the light green foliage.  Then set small goals and see how that goes.

Finally, a successful SAL to finish with!  The Stitchonomy Snowflake SAL from last December.  One snowflake per day.  Of course I decided to be extra and do them all in beads but still completed it by the end of the month.

The Hallowe'en SAL starts soon.  Will I start it?  Will I keep up with it?  We shall see!

August Smalls

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

This year my Smalls will be my JBW 12 Days of Christmas ornaments which I started on Boxing Day 2019 for the 12 Days of Stitchmas.  I completed the Eighth Day in August: 

stitched on 40 count White linen, 1 over 2

(Beads will be added at the end of the set of three

I am slowly ticking along on my current Just Nan, Jasmine Mix:

stitched on 32 count Vintage Country Mocha

I even started a new small project.  This is a weekly SAL from the Lin Pulsion blog entitled Bulles de Bonheur or Bubbles of Happiness.  I have been saving all the charts while I decided how I wanted to stitch them.  In the end, I decided over 1 on 25 count and using rainbow colours:

stitched over one on 25 count white evenweave

My final small will be for Aimetu Clare's Christmas Tree.  Her theme this year is "Flowers".  Can anyone guess which flower this will be?

stitched over one on 28 count white evenweave

I'll tell you when I finish it!

Finally, my Just Cross Stitch Hallowe'en Special arrived today!  So I will keep this brief as I want to peruse and make lists this evening.

 

August 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 have been focusing on my Discworld Mappe this weekend, adding the Longitude and Latitude line which is extremely tedious and leads to much procraftination - doing anything to avoid stitching those lines!

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

So what was I procraftinating with?  I did some FFO'ing which I will show on the 10th for Rachel's FFO Gallery.  I also did some tidying-up on my Happy Dance blog, added a few photos there.  And started writing my "21 in '21" list too!

This one is my current Just Nan small, Jasmine Mix.  There are 17 different colours in this piece just 49 x 49 stitches!  I still have to add two shades of yellow, some pink and quite a lot of white.  And beads!

stitched on 32 count Vintage Country Mocha

I reached the final row of Just Nan's Morning Meadow, my Summer Sampler SAL with Leonore.  This is a pretty motif and once it is done I only have to add beads.

stitched on 32 count pale green linen

I'm doing very well with my bath-time stitching so I will only show this portion of her face.  It's amazing how a few stitches in just three colours can be so effective.

stitched on 28 count linen from a Crafty Kitten grab bag.

Finally, the next IHSW will be 18th-20th September 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.

August TUSAL

It's TUSAL time!

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current project:

You would not believe how long those lines take!  Rather than stitch them in backstitch I decided to do one long stitch and then couch it down with the same colour.

I started off using the same length of thread for both laying down the line and then couching it but that was so difficult to get the tension right and the lines were wobbly.

So then I threaded two needles, one for laying down the line and the other for couching it down.  That works much better but is time consuming.  Added to the fact that this area of the chart covers about 10 pages so you are constantly flipping from one to the other.

But we are getting there!

In the evenings I have been working on the Alice freebie as my bath-time stitching:

stitched on 28 count linen from a Crafty Kitten grab bag

I have completed all the medium blue and have started on the lighter blue.  This is a fun stitch and grows quite quickly.  

Another Alice design - the Amanda Butler SAL from Cross Stitcher magazine.

This month's block is the Duchess:

She didn't take long at all so I spent the third day working on the vines:

stitched on 32 count yellow linen

I backstitched the watch in gold too:

Finally, it's going to be International Hermit & Stitch this weekend.  We have an influx of new members thanks to a shoutout from a FlossTuber so I am going to return the favour.  Check out Tranquil Stitches.  She had over 100 videos so I won't be watching all of them to catch-up but she does Dark October Hallowe'en stitching so that is a must-watch at least.