October Smalls SAL report.....

Hello my dear fellow stitchers, as you will see, I have a few Smalls to show you this month:

First up is Liberty Starburst by Summer House Stitche works, this was stitched as part of my Americana SAL blog.

Now, I did make one change, if you look at the original pattern:

you can see that there is a piece of blue felt blanket stitched in the centre - well, do you think I could find that piece of blue felt when I was ready for it?  No way, Jose!  Nowhere to be seen, so I improvised:

... and made up my own centre, which I am actually really happy with.  I hope that you all like it, too.

Now, of course, as soon as I wasn't looking for it, I found it! lol!

Now, I have offered this pattern as a Giveaway on the American SAL blog and if you follow this link, you can find out who won!

Next, we have my Friday Frolics SAL/ FNSI/Prairie Schooler SAL finish from this post (love to double or triple dip! lol!)

Day 11 of PS's Santa's 12 Days of Christmas

I especially love Mr Fox in the bottom right hand corner.  Plus I have finished Day 12, as well, so now the set is complete:

... and lastly, I finished two Hallowe'en pieces:

Moon and Cider Apple Cider

Needlework Press

28 ct overdyed fabric

Floss: as per designer

My second Hallowe'en stitch is "Bump in the Night".  Again, when I saw this cute row of tipsy houses, I just knew that I had to stitch this one, too!

Bump in the Night

Tempting Tangles Designs

JCS Hallowe'en Ornie Mag 2015

28 ct overdyed blue fabric

Floss: I chose my own overdyed threads from my stash

I must admit that I am thrilled with both of these finished pieces - each have their own special brand of spookiness.

So, there you go, a very productive month of stitching.

If you want to see how everyone else went with their Smalls this month, you can check them out here:  Stitching Lotus

hugs, 

Weekend Roundup.....

.... and what a good stitchy weekend it turned out to be for FNSI, FF and IHSW!

FNSI = Friday Night Sew In, hosted by Wendy from Sugarlane Quilts
FF = Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics, hosted by moi!
IHSW - International Hermit and Stitch Weekend

Please click on any of the links on above to find out more.

Firstly, I stitched for my Prairie Schooler SAL blog. The piece I started is for an exchange (shhh!), it is the Summer piece from Book #138 "Measure of a year".

I am just stitching the block with the word "Summer" and the block next to it with the beehive.  Not sure how I am going to finish it yet but I am surely open to suggestion.

Then I stitched some more on my latest Americana start. It is called "Liberty Starburst" by Summer House stitche workes ... 

At the start of the weekend, I was here:

by last night, I was here:

While I am finding the fine count of linen a bit tricky to stitch on at times (I know, I know, I am being a wimp complaining about 32 ct linen when so many of you stitch on far higher counts but you must remember that I often stitch smalls like this on the train during my commute to and from work!) I am loving the way it is stitching up.  I am over three-quarters done and I hope to have it finished over next weekend.

Then, I thought I had better get my act together for the Christmas Ornie SAL, this is my post from this morning for the blog:
.. oh dear, as I have been a little busy (setting up another new SAL blog plus work has been horrendously busy), it has taken me a little bit of time to decide upon a design to stitch for this month.  I couldn't make up my mind between a tree or presents, so I was happy when I found a design which incorporated both!  (and a Santa and a snowman!)

"Wee Santa 2015" by Heart in Hand designs... and here is Furio's "hand" holding it out to you...

... not a lot of progress on it this weekend, I am afraid (I did only decide upon it late yesterday afternoon), as I ended up frogging that pink Christmas tree, twice!  Oh, how I hate it when the Frog Prince visits me!

So, hoping to work on it some more during the week,

This design is the prize for September.  To win, all you need to do is post a finish on the SAL blog by September 30th.

(And no, Furio does not come as part of the prize - lol!)

And last but not least, for my FNSI and FF piece, I randomly picked up this WIP:

ABC Christmas by Lizzie Kate.

This is what it looked like when I picked it up early Friday evening...

By the end of the evening I had finished the word "Poinsettia" and started on the "S" for "Snowman"....

I then worked on it intermittently over the weekend (interspersed with other SAL stitching) and I finished quite a bit more.

Psst!  Do you want to know a secret?  Of course you do!  See the three "snowflakes" under the snowman?  Well, that are not meant to be there at all!  Just above the "W" there was a tiny reddish-brown mark (possibly blood from a pricked finger) which I could not remove (as the floss is overdyed I didn't want to try washing the piece), so I came up with the bright idea (well, I hope it is a bright idea) of adding three snowflakes like the one at the end of the word.  What do you think?  Does it work okay?  I am pretty happy with my solution.

So, lots and lots of stitching and I also, managed to take my Dad out for lunch on Saturday, hit the gym twice, catch up on my loads and loads of washing, catch up on my blog reading a little bit, post on my four other SAL blogs and bake a cake!

Spice cake with Lime icing

Have a great week, everyone, I am off to work to have a rest - lol!

hugs,