Serendipitous Stitching

Saturday, 1 January 2022

The People Chose Designers for 2022

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:

January - Designer for 2022

(a designer you are keen to stitch in the coming year)

February - Snow

March - Quilts

This is the time of year when all my plans have been made, my lists have been written up, goals set and projects ready to go. It's also a time when someone releases a new design that wants to boot several other off the list and make those plans go awry before we even start the year! But that's another story...

2020 was my Year of Focus when I spent 111 days working on my Discworld Mapp project to see a Happy Dance before the end of the year. 2021, in contrast, was the Year of Rotation because I had some BAPs I wanted to start and some projects which were feeling neglected. Another successful year with several designers sharing the spotlight. This year I am back to a Year of Focus.

I have one particular designer I have followed for a while, admiring their large works but never buying one because I couldn't choose just one. I always said "If they release a Halloween design, I will get that one". Lo and behold, they did and I did. I started it last year and completed the centre blocks.

Have you guess who it is yet?

Carriage House Sampling and their Hawk Run Hollow series! CHS are sisters Kathy and Marty, their designs tend to the prim style with traditional images of animals, farmhouses, tombstones and of course the village of Hawk Run Hollow!

You can learn more on their website - Carriage House Samplings

Halloween at HRH is a large design divided up into 12 blocks although the centre two form one vignette. I decided to stitch the piece on 25 count over 1 to keep it to a manageable size! I started in the centre and the first two blocks took 29 days in total. The first half took 12 days and the second half took 17 days as my stitching days were longer at the start of the year when we were in lockdown.

So I figured if I can spend 22 weeks of 2022 on this piece I have a good chance of stitching most of the piece. Some of the blocks are close to full coverage so they will take longer. I will be happy if I get 8 blocks done and leave 2 for next year to be honest.

Here's the centre two blocks and my starting point for this month:

stitched over 1 on 25 count Cassia Rose from Chromatic Alchemy

I only own one other Kathy Barrick design, which I won in a Giveaway - Good Intentions. I have good intentions to stitch this after I finish Halloween at HRH!

Now it's over to you. All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Designer for 2022, 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. Anything, 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 Green, or Holidays, or Warmth etc. Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

Friday, 31 December 2021

December Stitch from Stash and Pie

It's Old Year's Night and time for a look back at the past 365 days of stitching.

First of all, here is the Pie for December:

Definitely a 12 Days month! You've seen the Stoney Creek in previous posts and the Bothy Threads almost finished. Here's my French Hen all couched:

stitched on 32 count grey-blue linen

There is a small gap in the metallic border but that will be filled when I stitch Day 6!

Here are the first three days all completed:

For this year's 12 Days of Stitchmas I am stitching the Jardin Prive designs. Here are Days 1 to 6, all stitched on 32 count Millenium Blue linen:

I'm using Anchor threads for this, nice bright colours, and I've added white to the top of each roof to look like snow! You can see which days I was busiest doing other things. There are large margins because I am going to finish these individually once they are stitched.

My final finish for the year was the Bubbles of Happiness from Lin Pulsion. This was originally free but you can purchase it now. I chose a rainbow theme for my piece:

stitched over 1 on 25 count white evenweave

In my WIPocalypse post I showed you my 12 finishes from my "21 in '21" list and now here are the rest of my finishes for the year:

Let's have a look at the Annual Pie Chart now:

The top three individual projects were:

Bothy Threads 12 Days - 54 days

Stoney Creek 12 Days - 44 days

Just Nan Scream House - 32 days

Then another seven projects with between 21 and 29 days on them. This was very much The Year of the Rotation.

I also stitched on a number of Just Nan projects, totalling 64 days when I only stitched those projects.

Here's my current progress on my Christmas Elegance sampler:

stitched on 28 count white evenweave

I am a couple of weeks behind schedule but I might catch up in January. Or I might just extend my stitching time on this one.

I came into the year with 18 WIPs and started 35 projects over the course of the year of which 7 are still WIPs. I also completed 3 projects started prior to 2018. My current WIPs are:

Prior 2019	7

2019	1
2020 2021 Total	3 7 18

How did the spending go last month? My magazine subscription came out and I bought another three of the Nora Corbett Zodiac Girls charts.

I also tallied up the spend for the whole year:

That figure is about £40 up on last year. Once again, I spent more on charts and less on fabric and threads. Those Zodiac Girls were my downfall! I bought 9 of them for £9 each plus the fabric to stitch 1 on them in 2022. I also bought more DMC than the previous year but still only 34 skeins which isn't a lot when you consider how much stitching I did!

Finally,

Have a very Happy Old Year's Night

and a very Peaceful New Year's Day

Sunday, 26 December 2021

December WIPocalypse Annual Review

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 "21 in '21" for this year.

Ernie Bishop NOEL Letters - Finish
Samplermakers Spring Sampler - Finish
Joan Elliott Faces SAL (2 blocks) - WIP
Chatelaine Gardens of London - WIP
Nora Corbett Gathering Eggs - Finish
Amanda Butler Alice in Wonderland
Lin Pulsion Bubbles of Happiness - WIP
Just Nan Scream House - WIP
Tiny Haunted Village by Various Designers
Stoney Creek 12 Days of Christmas - Finish
Carriage House Samplings Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow - WIP
Mirabilia Fairy Idyll - WIP
Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas - WIP
Hands on Designs Scary Apothecary Cackle Lozenges - Finish
Hands on Designs Scary Apothecary Cauldron Cleaner - Finish
Hands on Designs Scary Apothecary Coffin Paint - Finish
Just Nan Summer Sampler Follow the Needle - Finish
Just Nan Witchy Mice - Finish
CCN Halloween Village 2 - Finish
CCN Halloween Village 3 - Finish
CCN Halloween Village 4 - Finish

Only 12 finishes this year, but that was because this was The Year of Rotation rather than a Year of Focus like last year! The intention was to make good progress on some of my BAPs. Which I did.

Here are the BAPs:

Chatelaine Gardens of London

Carriage House Samplings Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow

Mirabilia Fairy Idyll

Bothy Threads 12 Days of Christmas

(still working on this one! Final photo to be shown in the last post of the year)

I only had two projects that didn't get touched other than on my Longest Day marathon. They were the Amanda Butler Alice SAL which needs a block redesigning by me and the Tiny Haunted Village which will remain very tiny for the time being!

I achieved my goal of 2 blocks on the Joan Elliott Faces SAL. The 2022 goal is to add a large block:

Lin Pulsion Bubbles of Happiness is almost there, I am stitching the final bubbles in the final evenings of the year!

Just Nan Scream House is very close to having the stitching finished, just the floor pieces to go. Then it's the long task of making it.

Here are the 12 WIPocalypse Finishes - I did have more finishes this year, these are just the ones from my "21 in '21"

I've been putting together my "22 in '22" for next year and also my WIPGO Board which is a FB group where you make a Bingo Board for 25 of your projects. The Admin calls 2 numbers each month and you reward yourself for completing rows or columns. And just for added fun, I'm doing the 22:22 in the No New Starts group! For that challenge, I have to keep my WIPs below 22. I currently have 18 so I can start 4 new things but after that I have to finish something before I start another thing.

Finally, I do hope you are all enjoying this time of year - the planning for the New Year, when everything is possible! The fun of going through our stash and working out what we would like to start. The promise to work on those older projects and keep up with the SALs too!

Friday, 24 December 2021

December Smalls

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

(Just realised I am a whole week early!)

This year my Smalls have been the Stoney Creek 12 Days of Christmas 2019 Ornament series. I finished the final three earlier this month and here they all are:

I also made a little slideshow so you can see each one:

The plan is to make a concertina book ready for next Christmas. I'll also be starting another 12 Days series on Boxing Day. Starting one Day per day and then finishing them one per month next year.

At the start of the month I completed another year long small project, the calendar designed by Tiny Modernist which was a cover gift from Cross Stitcher magazine.

I stitched one month per month and here they all are:

stitched on 32 count Summer Sky Belfast linen from Silkweavers

The plan for this one is to frame it and get a little calendar tag so I can use it as a calendar each year.

That's it for stitching this month but I do have photos of my stitched smalls on my Christmas garland. Some were made by me and others by stitchy friends:

The large angel is Angelica by Lavender & Lace

The red sampler is Snowfire Christmas by Just Nan

There will be more photos of my Christmas displays in later posts.

Finally, it's the last day of the Advent Calendar Blog Hop. I do hope you've been able to visit everyone or can find time over the next week. This year's question about Christmas Trees was so inspiring and we learned a lot about our fellow bloggers and their Christmas pasts and presents!

2021 Online Advent Calendar

Here is our Online Advent Calendar, it will be updated every day.

Scroll down to see the latest picture and a link to the poster's blog.

This year I have asked each participant to tell us all about their Christmas Tree, their traditions, ornaments and whether they are a Star or Angel household when it comes to a tree topper.

Wednesday 1st December