Finally Fully Finishing Fun for July

Hosted by Rachel the Ten Hour Stitcher

This new 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).

It was a little bit of a quieter month for fully-finishing owing to me working two out the four Sundays since the last link-up.  Sundays seem to be a good time to FFO!

I completed another scrapbook page for a Just Nan small.  This is Butterfly Lace so I added some purple lace trim around the edge and some butterfly stickers:

It shares a page with Dragonfly Summer, renamed Butterfly Summer as I didn't have the dragonfly charm:

I also managed a slightly more complex finish.  The Christmas Joy Bellpull by The Sweetheart Tree is now a padded ornament to match the Christmas Noel Bellpull:

I found the ribbon I had saved and even remembered which two colours I combined to make the tassel!

If you are a Fan of Fully Finished pieces (and who isn't?) then have a look at my People's Choice this month which is all about finishing and some of the different techniques I have used.  Plus we have people linking up to show their's too.  While you are there, don't forget to leave some idea for the Poll for the next choice.

Finally, I will be sending out the first postcard in the Summer Postcard Blog Hop this weekend.  So keep your eyes open to see who receives it.  There is still plenty of time to sign up and take part this year.  Just leave a comment letting me know you would like to join in.

The People Chose Finishing

Regular followers will be aware that for over 3 years now I have run a themed SAL on the first Saturday of each month.  First we spent 26 months doing The Alphabet Club and then 12 months of the Zodiac.  Now I have decided to listen to the People and post about your choice of theme.  Each month I ask for suggestions on the blog and then make a poll in the IHSW Facebook Group from those suggestions.

July - Finishing

August - Monochrome

September - Bees

Finishing - the end goal and the thing we love to hate!  The biggest source of procraftination - starting another project so you don't have to fully finish the previous one.

There are so many different ways to fully finish a design - from framing to pillows, from 3D fancies to flatfolds, from scrapbooking to putting it in a bag for 20 years.  Most of us have a pile of finished pieces we have promised to FFO "one day".  In fact Rachel, the Ten Hour Stitcher started a SAL for that very reason.  You can link up with her on the 10th of every month and find out what she has inspired everyone to FFO recently.  

Like most people, my first finishes were simple frames.  In fact, my very first finishes went in "click" frames, no stretching or lacing needed, cut fabric to size, click the clips around the edge!  My first fancier frame was this one in 1994:

The wooden frame came plain with the kit.  I painted it red and mounted the stitching on the back.  The design is stitched all on one piece of fabric with the gaps charted.

Compared with this Joan Elliott design from 2010 where I had to draw around the glass for each mini frame and choose the portion of the design to fit in each aperture:

I do make pillow finishes although my sewing is not my strong point!  This is one of my first attempts from 2012:

That is my own design, for an exchange we did.  Here's a more recent Just Nan one from 2017:

I mentioned 3D stitching which is incredibly fiddly but very rewarding.  Here's my first attempt:

Drac-in-a-Box by Acorn House Designs

An adorable little cottage by the Nutmeg Company:

Just Nan Haunted Autumn Mouse in a House:

My exploding book was another fun finish:

I need to make a video of that one.  It uses two series of Just Nan designs.  More photos in this post here - Warning-this-post-contains-explosives

Of course, I could dedicate an entire post to my Scrapbook finishes.  I discovered a love of collecting the papers and a simple way to display a lot of small finishes.  I have a page on my Happy Dance blog with them all on - Scrapbook pages

Here's a favourite  - Brooke's Books Belinda Witch in Venice.  Old calendars make great scrapbook pages!

All my finishes can be found on my Happy Dance blog - there are over 600 of them now which is why it was so hard to just choose a few for this post!  Link in the tabs at the top of the page.

Now it's over to you. All you have to do is make a post on the theme of Finishing, 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.  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!

July TUSAL

And now it's TUSAL time, the Totally Useless SAL where we all show our ORTS and link-up on Daffycat's blog (if she makes a post, she's gone very quiet again).

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current projects:

On the left we have the two sides of the Just Nan Butterfly Needlebook:

stitched on 28 count pink evenweave

The side on the left is all finished except for the beads and my initials.  The side on the right needs the pink shades adding.

 The other design is my Christmas Ornament for the month.  For July we can choose any design from the 2006 issue of Just Cross Stitch Ornament Special.  I went for this one from The Sweetheart Tree to co-ordinate with their Noel Christmas Noel Bellpull.  This is Christmas Joy Bellpull: 

stitched on 32 count linen

What I did not realise is that it is simply a smaller version of the Noel ornament!  Or rather, Noel is a larger version of Joy, as Joy was published first.  The designer clearly ran out of time for a new design and thought "I can duplicate the leaves, add an eyelet and have a new ornament"!

I stitched both of them using a DMC conversion and the same beads from my stash.  I will finish Joy in the same way as Noel.

Rachel, the Ten Hour Stitcher made a blog post recently about the DUCJC 2016 which sparked my interest.  Debbie the SoCal Stitcher was a blogger who started the whole Crazy January Challenge with 15/31 starts every January.  Sadly she passed away and was sorely missed by her blogging friends.  I took part in the DUCJC in 2015 (Debbie's Ultimate Crazy January Challenge) which I decided meant working on 31 projects in January, some WIPs, some new starts.

Rachel got me wondering how many were ever finished.  As luck would have (or serendipity?) 13th July is Debbie's Birthday.  So I thought it would be good to make a post about my own 2015 challenge and find out how many got completed.  Here's a chance for you to join in - either show your own DUCJC pieces or take a guess how many out of my 31 projects got finished!  Here's the collage of the projects I worked on that year:

Finally, there will be a Summer Blog Hop this year.  We will have an International Theme for the Postcards this year.  Each person emails me a photo of something they have stitched on an International theme which is suitable to send to a fellow stitcher along with a short message of the kind you write on a postcard.  I will forward the photo to another participant who shows it on their blog.  The photo can be anything which fits the International theme, let's see which countries we visit this Summer.  If you'd like to take part then leave a comment or send me an email.

The Hop will run over the whole of the Summer with a few cards going out each week.  Final deadline will be the end of August, just in time for Back to School!

June Stitch From Stash and Pie

Let's do Pie first and talk about how the month shaped up including a new challenge I took part in.

Once again I managed a full 2 weeks on my Discworld Mappe and got a load of progress, thanks to not working on IHSW.  The Mappe went from here:

to here:

stitched on 32 count Murano custom dyed by Sparklies

I am delighted with my progress and the lack of frogs this month.  Next month I will head to the right hand side of the Mappe, starting at the frozen wastes in the middle there.

After I completed my 14 days on the Discworld I decided to continue with My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez.  As I mentioned in my previous post I am focused on finishes this year and it would be amazing to see this one completed.  

stitched on 40 count white linen

I didn't complete a full page this time around.  I only had 6 days and that quilt is full coverage!  You can see from the whole piece just how close I am now:

The final page is "I Love Embroidery" so it's more like the 4th page for coverage.  Then I have the border to finish, the beads, buttons and charms to add.  Maybe an end of August finish?

The new challenge I mentioned is from the Facebook group #24 Hours of Cross Stitch.  In June they had an acrostic challenge where you has to stitch projects connected with the letters in TWENTY FOUR.  Shoe horns are quite acceptable but thanks to the Marathon I managed it without a shoehorn in sight.  July might be a different matter!  Here are the projects I used:

T - Typography  - Just Nan Summer Typography
W - World - Lyndisfarne Designs Discworld Mappe
E - Enchanted - Lavender & Lace Enchanted Alphabet
N - Needlebook - Just Nan Butterfly Needlebook 2
T - Transitional - Scarlet Letter English Transitional Sampler
Y - Yiota - Yiota's Coffee Fairy
F - Flowers Just Nan Butterfly Needlebook 1
O - The letter O  - Ernie Bishop NOEL Letters
U - The letter U - Marie Suarez My Lovely Sewing Tools
R - Raven - Nora Corbett Raven

Photos on various posts this month, mostly on the Marathon post.

This was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to July's challenges.  One is another acrostic, this time spelling out TEAM 24 HOUR.  There is a "Stitch for a total of 24 hours in July" which isn't much of a challenge to be honest, it's less than an hour a day!  The third one is a total shoehorn festival.  They have chosen a different holiday for each day and you have to find stitching to fit that holiday.  For example 1st July is Creative Icecream Flavour Day!  I am going for Mrs Peggotty's Queen of Hearts and her famous Jam Tart Flavoured Ice Cream.

The first half of the Stitch from Stash year came to a finish this month and I was so happy to get another zero spend month (except for a magazine subscription which is allowed) and a final imaginery balance of £103.85 that I decided to treat myself to a couple of charts in a series I want to collect.  These are the first three charts in the Scary Apothecary series by Hands On Designs.

June
Cross Stitcher sub	£8.72
HoD Scary Apothecary x 3	£14.25
Total	£22.97

Finally, there will be a Summer Postcard Blog Hop this year.  Previous posts have all the details.  There is still lots of time for people to join in and the first card will be going out next week!

June WIPocalypse Half Year Recap

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 "19 in '19" for this year.  You can find the full list here.

This month I stitched on seven of my list, thanks to the Longest Day Marathon! I will start with the ones I stitched outside of the Marathon:

1. Enchanted Alphabet by Lavender & Lace

 stitched on 32 count Murano in Tiger Lily from Sparklies

2. Discworld Mappe by Lyndisfarne Designs

stitched on 32 count Murano custom-dyed by Sparklies

3. Summer Typography by Just Nan - Day 235

stitched on 32 count Pink Linen

4. My Lovely Sewing Tools by Marie Suarez

stitched on 40 count White linen

And the rest?

5. Chatelaine Designs - Gardens of London

stitched on 32 count Cotton Clouds Belfast by Crafty Kitten

6. Nora Corbett - Gathering Eggs

stitched on 35 count Vintage Country Mocha

7. Nora Corbett - Raven

stitched on 32 count Nebula by Crafty Kitten

Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too.

June – Half-year recap: How are you doing with your goals so far this year?

This is full list of 19:

1. Lavender & Lace - Enchanted Alphabet  - WIP
2. Chatelaine Designs - Gardens of London - WIP
3. Lyndisfarne - Discworld Map - WIP
4. Nora Corbett - Gathering Eggs - WIP
5. Mrs Peggotty - Alice and Flamingo  - Finish
6. Just Nan - Summer Typography - WIP
7. Nora Corbett - Raven - WIP
8. Satsuma Street - Nest Egg - Finish
9. Marie Suarez - My Lovely Sewing Tools - WIP
10. Cottage Garden Samplings - Hallowe'en Alphabet
11. Primitive Needle - Mystic Sampler
12. Just Nan - Wee Witchy Mice
13. Mirabilia - 25th Anniversary Cameo
14. Just Nan - Summer Night
15. Mill Hill - Easter Egg - Finish
16. The Sweetheart Tree - Merry Christmas Bell Pull
17. Dragon Dreams - Never Too Big
18. Sue Hillis - Victorian Christmas Tree
19. Ink Circles - Poinsettia - Finish

So far this year I have four finishes, seven WIPs and eight unstarted.  Out of those eight, three are the monthly Christmas ornaments so they will be started and finished in their relevant months.  Three more are Hallowe'en pieces which I will start in October for Dark October stitching, along with Raven as the focus piece for that month.  The other two may possibly be started after I finish My Lovely Sewing Tools.

At the moment I am really focusing on finishes and the Discworld Mappe.  If that means I don't start all my 19, that is perfectly fine.  Out of that list I can pretty much guarantee another six finishes which will be over half the list.

My other goals are going great.  I am keeping up with my 10-a-Day and my Just Nan Smalls.  I have completed 6 Christmas Ornaments and stitched six different sorts of motifs on my Hallowe'en piece.

Finally, there will be a Summer Blog Hop this year.  We will have an International Theme for the Postcards this year.  Each person emails me a photo of something they have stitched on an International theme which is suitable to send to a fellow stitcher along with a short message of the kind you write on a postcard.   I will forward the photo to another participant who shows it on their blog.  The photo can be anything which fits the International theme, let's see which countries we visit this Summer.   If you'd like to take part then leave a comment or send me an email.

A couple of people have asked "what do you mean by "International"?"

To which I replied "Use your imagination!   If you don't have something which represents a country or an area of the world, how about a mode of transport?  Or something designed by an international designer?  Or gifted by an international friend?   Or stitched on French Navy fabric? LOL!!"

The Hop will run over the whole of the Summer with a few cards going out each week.   Final deadline will be the end of August, just in time for Back to School!

June Smalls SAL

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

For this SAL I am showing the monthly project for the Christmas Ornie Blog. I am choosing from the back issues of the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Specials. This month we could chose any ornament from any issue from 2001 to 2010.  I went for a Just Nan design from 2002; A Little Joy.

stitched on 28 count Platinum linen

The fabric next to it will be the backing fabric for the ornament finish.  The original was charted so the small design in the centre was stitched over 1 on a separate piece of fabric and then put into a tiny frame attached the main design.  But as I don't have a tiny frame, I stitched it direct on the fabric and added a little gold backstitched frame around it.

This was a lovely design to stitch, some speciality stitches, some metallics and some beads as well as the tiny over one scene in the centre.

The other regular project for the SAL is my spooky conversion of Lavender & Lace's Enchanted Alphabet.  I finished the letters a while back and now I am adding various spooky motifs each month.  This month I added some little ghosts:

I am also stitching a Just Nan small each month.  This is side 1 of Butterfly Needlebook.  I am calling this a finish although there are some initials to be added in the centre of the motif.  I want to complete both sides before I add them.

stitched on 28 count hand-dyed pink linen

This is side 2 of the Needlebook:

Finally, a less pleasant subject - Spam.  I have had a rash of spam comments just lately.  Fortunately they have not appeared on my blog as I moderate comments, so for those of you who do not moderate - check your comments daily to delete them.  Most are quite obviously spam although there was one that seemed to be a real person "Millie", until you followed their link and they were not!

June 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.  Links at the bottom of this post.

I kicked off the weekend with my Longest Day Marathon where I successfully stitched on every single one of my WIPs - 19 in all.  Here they all are:

For the rest of the weekend I focused on my Discworld Mappe.  I am determined to get 2 weeks every month on this project.

Here's where I was on Friday morning:

Here's the part I worked on this weekend:

And here's the piece right now:

Llamedos is a hilly and permanently rainy country on the main continent. It is the home of druidism and druidical music and lots and lots of cold, exceptionally wet rain (It even has rain mines). It is also home to some dwarf clans, who mine coal in its hills. 

Famous inhabitants include: 

Rhys Rhysson, who would become Low King of the dwarfs 

Imp y Celyn, a.k.a. Buddy, lead singer and guitarist of The Band With Rocks In, during the Music With Rocks In fever in Ankh-Morpork(see Soul Music), 

and Sgt. Dai Dickins, a stalwart in the Glorious Revolution (see Night Watch.) 

Evangelist and explorer Llamedos Jones, reputed to have discovered the Brown Islands, was also a native. 

The main town would appear to be Pant-y-Girdl.

The odd tendency of local placenames to spell strange things backwards in Morporkian does not arise from any jocular attitude on the part of the Llamedosians. They are known as a rather dour and humorless group. The Compleat Discworld Atlas hints that it even rains indoors and books have titles like How Damp Was My Mattress. Sheep do not need to be dipped so much as regularly wrung out, for instance.Source: L-space


I'm also making steady progress on my evening piece.  This is the project I stitch while The Small Boy is in the bath.  The current project is The Queen of Hearts by Mrs Peggotty.  Here's where she was last IHSW:

And here is where she is now:

stitched on 22 count white hardanger

A few people have said that they don't do Facebook and asked if I could host a link-up for them, so here it is! Just add your name and the link to your actual IHSW post, not just your blog home page.

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The next IHSW will be 19th - 21st July 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.

Finally, there will be a Summer Blog Hop this year.  We will have an International Theme for the Postcards this year.  Each person emails me a photo of something they have stitched on an International theme which is suitable to send to a fellow stitcher along with a short message of the kind you write on a postcard.   I will forward the photo to another participant who shows it on their blog.  The photo can be anything which fits the International theme, let's see which countries we visit this Summer.   If you'd like to take part then leave a comment or send me an email.

A couple of people have asked "what do you mean by "International"?"

To which I replied "Use your imagination!   If you don't have something which represents a country or an area of the world, how about a mode of transport?  Or something designed by an international designer?  Or gifted by an international friend?   Or stitched on French Navy fabric? LOL!!"

The Hop will run over the whole of the Summer with a few cards going out each week.   Final deadline will be the end of August, just in time for Back to School!