November WIPocalypse Must Stitch Design

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.

The focus of my WIPocalypse will be my "16 in '16" which are 16 projects I particularly wanted to concentrate on in 2016.   The full list can be found on my WIPocalypse page where you can also find my secondary list "16 Series in '16".

My main goal is to keep to my rotation of one small every Friday and the rest of the month working on my focus piece until it is finished.  I also have a number of SALs I want to keep up with:

The Alphabet Club - a different letter on the first Saturday of each month

Gifted Gorgeousness - post anything gifted on the 15th

Hallowe'en Ornie Blog - a different spooky theme each month

Christmas Ornie Blog - a different festive theme each month

Smalls SAL - last Thursday of each month

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I have worked on 1 out of 16 projects since my last WIPocalypse, plus 3 from my series list.

3. Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dreams:

stitched on 32 count Moondust by Crafty Kitten

And for the series:

1. Christmas Cubes by The Primitive Hare.  Which I'm not going to show because I'm nearly finished the final letter!  Instead I will show you the four finished ones so far:

6. Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books:

stitched on 28 count afghan

16. Byzantine Ornaments by Teresa Wentzler:

stitched on 28 count Burgundy linen

Measi always give us a topic to discuss:

November - what pattern or designer is on your "must try to stitch" bucket list.

This will be an easy one for observant followers of my blog.  It's been in my profile description of my blog since Day 1.  Quote "my ambition is to stitch a Chatelaine ... one day".  Well, that day is nearly here!  After years of indecision I finally chose the perfect design "Gardens of London".  I wanted a Mandala but not one that was the same on all four sides because I knew I would get bored of that.  I also wanted one that meant something to me and London is the city I have visited most often.  Norwich doesn't count because I worked there and anyway Martina has not done a "Pubs and Churches of Norwich Mandala" yet.  The city's claim is that they had a different pub for every night and a church for every Sunday.  I received the gorgeous fabric from Crafty Kitten last week and have been gifted many of the threads needed for my Birthday.

32 count Belfast Cotton Clouds from Crafty Kitten

I have printed the centre part of the design at x300 so it's nice and clear.  I have printed the black and white chart which I will colour as I go but I will have the coloured chart up on the laptop at the same time because it's easier to see in some ways.  I have bagged up all the threads and written the symbols for the ones used in the centre on the actual chart so I don't need to refer to the main list as I stitch.

All I need to do is finish the H Cube for Christmas and iron that fabric then we're good to go!  How exciting.

Finally, I am taking names for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop.  I will allocate each participant a day in December, they will post a stitched picture and an answer to this year's discussion topic.  I will copy their picture onto the main post and add a link to their blog.  To take part, just leave a comment or email me.  If there's a day you can't do or a special day you would like then please let me know,

Remember, Remember the Chill of November

It's freezing and a poor little robin is just outside my window begging for food.

I've been focusing on two designs for all of November so far.  This one is my evening and workday project:

Ghastly, Ghostly Ghouls by Just Nan

Those three little frogs across the top brought their froggy pals with them and I stitched that top border three times!  First because I forgot to leave a gap for the frogs and second because I stitched the gaps one square to the left,

I also frogged those bottom two pumpkins again and replaced the darker shade with the next lighter shade so that's three times they have been stitched too!

I debated with myself about what should be my focus project this month and decided to pick up the one WIP which hasn't really been touched this year apart from 30 minutes on the Longest Day SAL in June:

This is Dragon of the Winter Moon by Dragon Dreams, stitched on 32count Moondust by Crafty Kitten.  Here's where I am now:

Lots and lots of white Rayon and some Waterlilies too.  The Waterlilies are lovely and I'm planning to splash out and buy the colour needed for the wings.  Riona sent me the chart and kindly included most of the speciality threads needed, which is most of the dragon!  There's a lot of Kreinik to come and some beads too.  But he is beautiful.

Advent Calendar Blog Hop!  I'm taking names for the next blog hop.  I will allocate each participant a day in December, they will post a stitched picture and an answer to this year's discussion topic.  I will copy their picture onto the main post and add a link  to their blog.  To take part, just leave a comment or email me.  If there's a day you can't do or a special day you would like then please let me know,

Finally, vote for me!  I've been nominated for Blog of the Year here, so please click on the picture, answer a few simple questions about stitching and vote for me!

 

The Passionately Perfect Alphabet Party

It's the first Saturday of the month so it's time for detention!

"They only met online, but it changed their lives forever"

I think most of you know the lovely enigmatic Chiara who blogs at The Grey Tail?  We were chatting via email a while back and between us came up with the idea of an A-Z language challenge.  We batted some ideas around and are calling it the The Alphabet Club.  Chiara has the full details on that link but basically she will post a link-up post on the first Saturday of each month (Saturday being detention day in the film) reminding us of the month's letter and we will all link up with themed things, from stitching to designers and local customs.

P is for Phantom from A Dark Alphabet designed by Julie and Becky's Note of Friendship blog.  They were going for the Phaaaaaaaantom of the Op-er-ahhhhhhhh rather than a ghost here.

P is also for Pins and Pincushions from the Stitcher's Alphabet by Brooke's Books.  There's one more P it took me ages to work out.  It's to do with the stripes in the letter P.  Pinstripes, of course!

P is for Pumpkins, which you will see plenty on the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL Blog.  And a whole tree full here:

Haunted Pumpkins Tree by Just Nan

P is also for Poinsettia, a beautiful Christmas flower:

Merry Christmas by Acorn House Designs

Poinsettia Place by CCN

Flower of the Month from World of Cross Stitching magazine

We are quite spoiled for choice with designers for the letter P.  My top one is Primitive Hare.  I have her Christmas and Hallowe'en Cubes, her Spooky Countdown and a couple of smaller pieces too.

Spooky Countdown

Hallowe'en Town adapted as mail art

Many of us took part in this SAL - 12 Days of Christmas by Plum Street Samplers:

And of course Prairie Moon:

Thine is the Trick and the Treat

The P Blog Roll:

A Patchwork of Crafts

Pretty Little Things in a Box

Pull The Other Thread

Purple Pixie Dust

Finally, it's time to sign up for the next blog hop - the Advent Calendar Hop.  I will allocate a day to each participant.  They will post a nice seasonal stitched picture on their day along with the answer to the discussion topic (as yet undecided!).  I will copy and paste their picture onto the main post here and we'll open a new door every day!  If you'd like to take part leave a comment or email me if you are no-reply.

Pumpkin Pie? With a Side Serving of ORTs!

Pumpkin-coloured Pie!  The oranges make it a little harder to see which project is which but basically I spent more days working on smaller projects because I had less stitching time than usual.

I started the month off stitching on She Tends by Shepherd's Bush hoping to get all four completed but sadly not.  I wanted to get Frosted Pumpkin done and off the list and then the Teresa Wentzler Byzantine Ornament took more days than the previous two put together!  And then I ran out of beads and had to wait for SewandSo to deliver in three days instead their usual next day.  Here is the finished piece:

stitched on 28count Burgundy linen

I also had a new start and finish for the Blog Hop which you saw then.  The Brooke's Book's letter is for The Alphabet Club next Saturday.  I can show you the latest letter on the Enchanted Alphabet.  I am stitching this one for the Now I Know My ABCs SAL for Cross Stitch Finish Line on FB.  The original design is by Lavender & Lace but I have changed the colours, the fabric and this week the placement of the letter:

Stitched on 32 count Tiger Lily Murano from Sparklies

I wanted to use this fabric but it was just a little bit too short for the full design.  By removing the child from the design and moving the E to the middle (it was originally to the left of the B) the full alphabet will fit nicely onto the fabric with a good margin for framing too.

I'm continuing with Just Nan's Ghastly, Ghostly Ghouls mostly during my son's bathtime but also in my lunchbreak at work when I do a full day.  Here's the current progress picture:

stitched on 28 count lilac linen

I did change the red in the border for 919 but I still think it's a little dark for the pumpkins so I might change them to 920 or even 921.

Here's the side-serving of ORTs for this month's second TUSAL:

Spending-wise it was a much more frugal month after my Birthday extravaganza.  SewandSo revamped their website recently which caused enormous problems for everyone.  You just couldn't get anything to load and then when it did load we discovered they hadn't migrated our Wishlists in the first run, they were waiting to do that when the site was working properly.  Or when enough people complained!  Originally they offered us all a 10% discount from the website but after all the problems they upped it to a £5 voucher.  When I was eventually able to get it to load I bought the beads I needed for Byzantine Ornament and some lovely Lime Green 32 count for my Hallowe'en SAL project for next year.  

October

Beads	£1.27
Lime Green Fabric	£10.95
Total	£12.22

Good practise for the Stitch from Stash next year.

Finally, don't forget to vote for me!

British Craft Awards

Hallowe'en Trick Or Treat Blog Hop 2016

Trick or Treat!

A collage of the spooky stitches I have completed since the last Blog Hop!

Welcome to the spooky hallowe’en mystery phrase blog hop!

All you need to do is visit each of the following blogs in order, jot down the letter displayed with their Hallowe'en stitched picture then return here and leave a comment telling me the Mystery Phrase.

It'd be nice if you left a comment on their blog too, especially if it's new to you.

I have "moderate comments before publishing" enabled so no-one can copy anyone else!

There will be a small prize for one person picked at random from the guessers.  People who posted a picture  will get one chance for that and another chance if they make a guess too.

So without further ado,

start the blog hop – enter if you dare…



Kitten Stitching
Crossing One Stitch at a Time
A Patchwork of Crafts
An Arizona Stitcher
Tiffstitches a Blog
Mii Stitch
Books, Crafts and Other Procrastinations
Fireflies & Cats in the Garden
Wyrd Needles
Justine's Cross Stitch
Family Business
Reading & Stitching
Stitch Niche
Needle, Pen & Sword
Today I Found
Hokkaido Kudasai
Guava Gems
The Greytail
Karamino
Beth's Needlework Stash
Oubliette - B
Stitching in Sunny California
Dragon Stitches & Stuff by Astrid
The Crafty Princess
Stitch Bitch

and finally back to me for this letter

and this picture:

This is Sampling Hallowe'en by Lizzie*Kate, a gift from Mii in our Hallowe'en Mail Art Exchange last year.  I stitched it on 28 count lilac linen using most of the recommended colours, a few changes so things would show up better on the lilac fabric, which is looking blue in this photo!  The little ghost charm was included with the chart.

Don't forget, some of us are on different time zones so if you visit a blog and can't find a letter or picture yet, pop back later in the day.  

The competition is open for one week closing 00.01 hours 7th November GMT.

happy hunting!

        

all from Hyraea

October 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

Now I have finished the Counting Bats sampler I have to find a smaller piece for each theme for the Hallowe'en blog.  This month I chose Ghastly, Ghostly Ghouls also by Just Nan for the two little cats which fit the month's theme:

stitched on 28 count lilac linen

I'm not sure if I'll finish it before the end of the month but the cats have been done.

I started a new Hallowe'en small ready for the Blog Hop:

stitched on 32 count Twilight Blue linen

This is Sampling Hallowe'en by Lizzie*Kate and was a gift from Mii for last year's Hallowe'en Mail Art Exchange.

I also completed finish-finishing my Hallowe'en Cubes from Primitive Hare:

Here's a shot showing the side fabrics, the same print in three colourways:

Now I have finished them I have started on the Christmas Cubes, also by Primitive Hare:

Here is this month's block:

stitched on 35count Country Mocha linen

And here are all eight so far:

Here's a nearly finish of the third Byzantine Ornament by Teresa Wentzler, I ran out of beads and SewandSo's delivery is no longer "next day" so I had to wait until today but have had no time to attach them:

stitched on 28 count Burgundy linen

I really should apologise to you all for giving you a scare regarding the title of my last post.  So many people thought I was getting all political on you but no, I just want you to vote for me!   My blog has been nominated in the blog category for the

British Craft Awards

By "my blog" I mean my blog and all my lovely followers who make it the happy place it is.  So please pop over and vote for us!  The first question asks if you live in the UK or not but that's only to decide if you are allowed to enter the draw.  Anyone from anywhere can vote in the awards.

Finally, the Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop is nearly here.  I have decided on the Mystery Phrase and will be emailing all the participants tomorrow with their letter so they have plenty of time to make their post on Monday 31st.

ps this is my 600th post!