December TUSAL and a Happy Dance

        

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current project:

Here's a better look at the project I am Happy Dancing for:

The seventh shop in my spooky conversion of Main Street from CCN.  The Dress Shop has become the place for the fashionable witch to buy her dresses, robes and cloaks.  I decided the name would be A la Robe as a pun on A la Mode!  The basic shape of the dresses stayed the same, I just changed them to black and added cloaks to two of them.

The original shop was pale blue and yellow, now it's dark blue and brown,

Here's the whole piece so far:

stitched on 32 count Charcoal Slate Murano from Sparklies

Here's the original pastel version:

Finally, my Stitching Library is taking a break this month but will be back again in January!

December 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.

The December IHSW is always a tricky one as we are so busy this time of year.  I worked Saturday and Monday but finished at 3pm each day so had a little time.

My focus piece was my spooky conversion of CCN's Main Street.  This month I am working on the Dress Shop which started here:

And here's where I finished:

stitched on 32 count Charcoal Slate from Sparklies

My evening project has been the Amanda Butler Edinburgh House from Cross Stitcher magazine and I finished it this weekend:

stitched on 28 count grey evenweave

This was a fun stitch, lots of detail despite the small size and lovely backstitch in Amanda's style which really is best done on evenweave.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the series now.

Finally the next IHSW will be 20th - 22nd January, 2023 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.

December Gifted Gorgeousness Link-Up Post

        

Welcome to the December Gifted Gorgeousness link-up. The link-up date continues to be the 15th and I will keep the link-up open until the end of each month so you have plenty of time if you are late posting.

The format remains exactly the same, there is a list of rules on the main sign-up page if you want to check what is required but basically anything connected to the word "gift" is allowed, whether it was a gift TO you or is a gift FROM you.

My main gifted project is my Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow which is my focus project for the year.  I've been working away on Block 9 recently.  I only did one week this month because I have two other projects to work on according to my WIPGO Board.

I went from here:

to here:

stitched over one on 25 count Cassia Rose evenweave from Chromatic Alchemy

The fill-in does take a long time!  Fortunately, the whole block is not full coverage, just the coffins.

This was my Dark 13 project where I stitch for one day on the 13th of each month.  It's by Mani di Donna and is going to be a Halloween Sewing Basket:

stitched on 32 count grey linen

I've got some non-stitched Gifted Gorgeousness to share with you too.  I recently made a papercraft photo album for a friend and enjoyed the process so much I wanted to make another one.  The first name that came to mind was a dear French friend who always makes me beautiful crafted gifts. 

Here are a few photos of the pages:

Speaking of my dear French friend, here are the latest creations she sent me:

Four lovely felted cup ornaments with an initial for each member of my family.  These will be going on my Ornament Garland very soon.

The gifted ornaments cluster down one end of the garland:

Except for Gracie's angel who is close to my ceramic angels:

Now it is your turn to show us your Gifted Gorgeousness for the month.  Please use your name or your blog name in the field and NOT the words "December Update" so I can easily see who has linked up this month.  And link to the actual post, not just your blog.  It is easier if you copy and paste the link, rather than typing freehand.

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.Finally, there will be a Gifted Gorgeousness SAL next year, of course there will!  The 15th wouldn't be the same without it.  The sign-up page and new logo will go up as soon as I get round to creating them!

Thanks to everyone who joined in this year.

 

Finally Fully Finishing for December

 

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).

Unfortunately I haven't fully finished ANYTHING this last month.  But I do have a nice recap of the year so hopefully that will do instead!  This is exactly what happened last year too!

January

 

February

 

March



 

April

  

May

  

June

  

July

 

August

 

September

 

October

November

 

Totals are:

5 ornaments

4.5 3D finishes

1 mouse

8 framed pieces (2 by a professional framer and 6 by me)

My numbers are way down on previous years.  But I have had a lot fewer finishes this year so less to FFO.  That's what happens when you have a large focus piece like Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow.

Finally, the Advent Calendar Blog Hop is in full swing and we are having a wonderful time discussing our Tree Traditions.  Don't forget to visit and comment each day.

The People Chose Glitter

         

This SAL is all about what you want to see on the blog.  I asked for suggestions for themes and then put them up to the members of the IHSW Group on FB to vote for their choice.  Now we are working through the choices.  This is what has been chosen:

December - Glitter

January - Pick a Designer

February - A Way with Words

Glitter AKA The Devil's Dandruff to all crafters!  It is said that one pot of glitter can infect an entire family for three generations.

For that reason, I tend to stick to metallics for my glittery effects!

My Joan Elliott 12 Days of Christmas had a lot of glittery metallics, a double row all around the borders for every block.  I worked on it as my bathroom stitch for months!

You can see it clearly on Day 1:

This project is a Nora Corbett, Little Snowy Gray Cottage.  There is so much metallic in this one it was impossible to leave it until after I stitched all the cotton, which is my usual technique.  Plus I chose a sparkly fabric so lots of glitter there!

Look at all this lovely glitter!

And now it's over to you.  All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Glitter, 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.

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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 Elephants, or Green, or Holidays, or Warmth etc.   Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

November Stitch from Stash and Pie

 It's time for some Pie:

I decided to just do one week on Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow this month so I could get more time on both Joan Elliott and Fairy Idyll.

I'd made a small start on Block 9 in September and had reached this point on 1st October:

Now I am here:

stitched over one on 25 count Cassia Rose evenweave from Chromatic Alchemy

So far the number of days is:

Block 7 - 13 days

Block 6 - 16 days

Block 2 - 19 days

Block 3 - 20 days

Block 4 - 15 days

Block 1 - 19 days

Block 5 - 25 days

Block 8 - 15 days

Block 9 - 10 days and counting

I completed another block on the Joan Elliott Faces SAL:

stitched on 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten 

The Mani di Donna Halloween Sewing Basket is going to be my Dark 13th project, so I stitched for one day on the 13th

stitched on 32 count grey linen

Which leads us to Fairy Idyll from Mirabilia.   Here's where I started her this month:

Here's the part I've been focusing on, I really wanted to get this stone face finished:

And here's the whole piece so far:

stitched on 32 count Vinyard Murano from Crafty Kitten

Next year she will be my focus piece once I complete Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow.

I've kept my usual bath-time stitching pie as well.  

I knocked the Jardin Prive 12 Days of Christmas out as well as my Stitchonomy Cabinet of Curiosities and was wondering what to put in the evening slot when my Cross Stitcher magazine appeared on the doormat.  On the front cover was this lovely house:

The first in a series of 13.  Here's where I am so far:

stitched on 28 count grey evenweave

These will be a lovely bathtime and work project throughout next year.

Finally, Stitch from Stash:

The final two Shannon Christine 12 Days of Christmas designs plus the 10th and 11th Year in the Woods charts.