Gifted Gorgeousness March Link-up Post

  

Welcome to the March 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.

For the first fortnight in March my focus has been Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow.  The plan is to stitch this for two weeks each month until it is finished.

I have nearly finished Block 10, only a little bit of black to go:

stitched over 1 on 25 count Cassia Rose evenweave from Chromatic Alchemy

I am continuing with my Dark 13 project which is Mani di Donna's Halloween Sewing Basket.  The plan for this one is to stitch it on the 13th of every month.

stitched on 32 count grey linen

Oh look, more black!

Back in February, I completed the block I was stitching on the Faces SAL from Joan Elliott.  This is stitched on gifted fabric:

stitched on 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten.

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 "March 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 an Easter Blog Hop next month, keep your eyes open for the Sign-up post coming soon.

Finally Fully Finishing Fun for March

  

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).

I got one fully finished object this month, a little ornament from December 2017!

Just Nan - Holiday in Ice

Stitched on 32 count Ocean's Kiss Permin Linen

I whip stitched round the edges and added beads and pre-made tassel to the bottom of the design.

Ready for this Christmas now!

I also has one finish right at the start of the month.  The third in Amanda Butler's Houses series in Cross Stitcher magazine.  This one is London Houses:

stitched on 28 count grey evenweave

The backstitch really does make these designs.  My original plan was to finish all thirteen as one very long concertina row but now I am wondering if shorter rows would work.  Because then I could FFO the first four at the end of this month rather than save them all until the end of the year!

Finally, here's my new start to replace the finished House.  This one is Belfast House, another row of tall terraced houses.

stitched on 28 count grey evenweave

The People Chose Science

 

This SAL is all about what you want to see on the blog.  I asked for suggestions for themes from followers of my blog and then put them up to the members of the IHSW Group on FB to vote for their choice.  We are currently working our way through the choices.  This is what was chosen:

March - Science

April - Subversive

May - Embellishments

Science!  A great subject which can cover many things - Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Botany, Zoology, Geology, Astronomy etc.  

The piece that I am currently stitching could be a scene from a laboratory with all its little bottles.  I guess this would come under Meteorology.  This is my Temperature SAL from Stitch It Picasso:

stitched over 1 on 25 count tea-dyed evenweave

I have completed all the green and lime for February, the rest of the bottles will all be blue, as is March so far.

My Scary Apothecary series come under the Alchemy side of Science, here are the first three I stitched and framed:

Climbing Goat Designs on Etsy have some great Space and Astronomy themed designs, DJ is stitching their current SAL based on the Hubble Telescope.  Check out their shop here - Climbing Goat Designs

In fact, Etsy is a great place to find Science-themed designs of all kinds.  I found these cute Chemistry puns there today - Home Sewn Stitches

Now it's over to you.  All you have to do is make a post on the theme of A Way With Words, 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 Cats, or Green, or Holidays, or Warmth etc.   Really anything which could be illustrated in cross stitch.

February Stitch from Stash and Pie

It's time for Pie!

I spent half the month working on Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow. Here's where I started the month:

Here's where I finished:

The whole piece:

stitched over 1 on 25 count Cassia Rose 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 - 27 days

Block 10 - 14 days and counting

Next up was Joan Elliott's Faces SAL, I wanted to finish this large block this year and it's not on my WIPGO Board any more.  I just managed it at the last moment!

I stitched all the skin over one.

I didn't have the charted beads so substituted different ones

I also stitched the version with the covered baby-bum to cut down on the amount of skin!

stitched on 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten

I would like to finish this one next year for it's Tenth Birthday!

Here's my evening pie:

Yes, I worked on the latest Amanda Butler's House the whole month.  It's not quite done, just needs some white backstitch added, so here's an older photo

stitched on 28 count grey evenweave

I have the magazine with the next one already so I will start that one as soon as I finish this one.

Finally, Stitch from Stash.  It's easy when it's a short month!

 

February WIPocalypse 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 "23 in '23" for this year.  This month I stitched on 7 of them and had 1 finish.

1. Joan Elliott Faces SAL

5. Carriage House Samplings Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow

13. Mani di Donna Halloween Stitching Basket

17. Stitch it Picasso Temperature SAL

18. Circle Cross Blackwork Tarot

19. Amanda Butler Harrogate House - Finish

20. Amanda Butler London Houses

The full list can be seen here - WIPocalypse and "23 in '23"

Finally, Measi always gives us a topic to discuss too.

February - What stitch-a-longs (SALs) are you participating in this year?

There are two types of SAL, one is the kind where you stitch on your own projects and post regularly about them.  Either on a blog, on Facebook or Instagram.

Here are the ones I am doing this year:

The People's Choice - posts on the first Saturday of each month - theme in sidebar
Fully Finished Gallery - show anything you have FFO'd on the 10th
Gifted Gorgeousness - post anything gifted on the 15th
Smalls SAL - last Friday of each month
The TUSAL - post on the New Moon each month

WIPGO - like Bingo with WIPs, post on FB each month
WIP Warriors - formerly No New Starts, limit your new starts and post on FB

The other type of SAL is where we all stitch the same design over a period of time.  The only one of those I have is the Temperature SAL.  Although the Joan Elliott Faces started off as a SAL back in 2014!

February Smalls

 

The Smalls SAL is hosted by Mary's Thread

Because I am focusing on my BAPs again, I won't have so many smalls this year but I do have a couple of series with small components so I will share them this month.

The first is the Blackwork Tarot by Circle Cross.  I completed Earth last month and am currently working on Fire:

stitched on 28 count sky blue evenweave from Silkweavers

My next collection of tiny items is the Potion Bottle Temperature SAL from Stitch It Picasso.  

stitched over 1 on 25 count tea-dyed evenweave

After a green start to the month, we went into blue for a week, then got warmer so some lime days appeared.  Heading blue at the end of this week though.

The next series is from Amanda Butler in Cross Stitcher magazine.  I completed Harrogate House at the end of January

And moved straight onto the London Houses:

stitched on 28 pale grey evenweave

Finally, very exciting news out of the Nashville Market.  Noteworthy Needle is releasing a design which was a class exclusive.  It's an incredible 3D design called Turn, Turn, Turn that you can manipulate to show a tree in four different seasons.

February TUSAL and Stitching Library

         

It's TUSAL time!  

Here is my TUSAL jar with my current project:

stitched on 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten

The design is the Faces SAL from Joan Elliott, which I started back in 2014 and have been slowly stitching ever since thanks to a decision to stitch all the skin over one...

This is a sweet block with a mother and baby fairy.  I have almost finished the full crosses and then it will be time to tackle the skin!  I have cut down by stitching the bloomers on the baby instead of the bare bottom!  The design came with the two choices.

What's on my Shelf?

This is a feature I'm going to include on my TUSAL post until I run out of books! I started a Page on my Happy Dance blog for my Stitching Library and realised what a huge task it was so decided to break it down to one book per month. For the next four years...

Title: Cats A Cross Stitch Alphabet

Author: Julie Hasler

Publisher: David Porteous
ISBN: 9781870586122

There are 26 designs in this book, one for each letter of the alphabet.

Lots of different finishing ideas

Different fabric counts and colours

A variety of cat colours too

But all short haired and mostly all moggies!

Instructions for all the finishing techniques are given, including this wonderful quilt

It's a great book and now I am wondering why I have never stitched a cat from it!

Finally, thanks to everyone who took part in the Secret Sweetheart Blog Hop last week.  If your sweetheart has not been able to comment on your blog, do let me know and I'll connect the two of you.

February 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 worked on Friday so the only thing that got stitched that day was my Amanda Butler London Houses project, with evening stitching it now looks like this:

stitched on 28 count grey evenweave

On Saturday morning I put some more stitches into the Fire Element from Circle Cross:

stitched on 28 count sky blue evenweave from Silkweaver

And then did my final day on Halloween at Hawk Run Hollow for February:

On Sunday morning, I added some more bottles to my Temperature SAL from Stitch It Picasso, including added some of the warmest colour so far - lime:

stitched over 1 on 25 count tea-dyed evenweave

In the afternoon I continued to work on the Faces SAL by Joan Elliott.  My goal is to finish this larger block this year.

stitched over 28 count Snapdragon Jazlyn from Crafty Kitten.

Finally the next IHSW will be 17th - 19th March 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.