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, 

September Smalls SAL update....

Well, I have a couple of Smalls finishes to show you this month for my Smalls SAL, if you are not sure what I am talking about then please follow the link.

First up is "Chimney Disasters" by Sue Hillis Designs ....

Ta da!  Santa is all stuck down that chimney!

Such a fun design!

Next up is my Prairie Schooler finish, "Summer" from Book #138 "Measure of a year"

I am very pleased as to how this turned out, now I just need to work out how to best Finish it.

So, feeling pretty pleased with myself re my Smalls this month, please check out everyone else's Smalls update here.

Now, it is the inaugural (and probably only ever) Grand Final eve public holiday today - yay! - and it is both Friday Frolics and Friday Night with Friends - double yay! - so three days of stitching coming up - triple yay!

Have fun everyone, 

hugs, 

Smalls SAL check in ...

.... oh dear, a few day's late... but here are this month's Smalls, some you have seen already, one is new...

Firstly, here is my latest Small finish... American Santa....

This is a freebie from I don't know where stitched on what I think is 32 ct white linen using a variety of speciality threads, colours chosen by me.

I am quite pleased with him - he is going to make a cute ornie.

Secondly, I stitched "S" for Sampler from A Stitcher's Alphabet, a Freebie from Brookes Books, as a birthday gift for a friend and colleague at work. (She loved it)

Please check out Heather's blog Stitching Lotus to see what everyone else got up to for the Smalls SAL this month.

hugs,

Smalls SAL/Hallowe'en Ornie SAL update...

Well, here is my Smalls SAL update - a couple of days late, I am afraid!  As is often the case, my Smalls this month are related to my Hallowe'en stitching.  I am just scraping in for my July Hallowe'en ornie for the Haunted House theme but I am a day early for my August Hallowe'en ornie for the theme Black Cats, although my cats are not quite black but there is a ghost cat! lol!

July: Haunted House from the Side Panel of  "Halloween Days sewing basket" by Simona Bussiglieri of Mani Di Donna on page 89 from JCS Halloween Ornament Magazine 2015.

August: Halloween Cats - freebie from Kreinik, which you can find here.

I am very pleased with my finishing on both of these cushions.  I think that maybe I am finally getting the hang of creating a nice finish.

TraderVic keeps asking me why there is so much stuff in my sewing room but, of course it is full of my stash so that I can always put my hand on the perfect fabbie or ribbons or buttons or beads for finishing.  For my haunted house I found some gorgeous reproduction fabric in different shades of lilac and the perfect ribbon - do you like the pretty little purple bow underneath the haunted house?

Furio approves....

I love the ghost kitty and do you see how Furio has snuck onto the top of the right column and Milo has crept underneath the ghost cat?

I finished it with little black cats on a ribbon.

And the bottom and backing fabric is black kitties on black!

For both of these designs I used overdyed 28 count fabric from my stash, plus various DMC and specialty threads which I chose myself.

Click on the wee ghostie below to check out what other people stitched for this month's Hallowe'en SAL.

... and you can check out everyone else's Smalls SAL update, here.

New SALs update:

I am so thrilled, I have had a wonderful response to my Christmas Ornie SAL blog, which you can check out here.
Also, I have had some good interest in my other two new SAL blog ideas: Americana and Prairie Schooler, which you can read about here if you are interested in joining.

Plus, watch this space for a new idea coming from me and my SSF, Kim from Wisdom with Needle and Thread.

hugs,

Small SALs June Update...

...  Hallowe'en Ornie SAL June update and Weekend Round Up.

So, first up, here is Haunted Love by T.A. Smith (Free design on Pumpkin Seed Stitchers Facebook group).  This fits into both the Smalls SAL and the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL (this month was a free choice).

Stitched on 28ct Almond linen using 310, WDW Fiesta (for the pumpkin - my go-to thread for pumpkins and moons in Halloween stitching) and GAST Oatmeal (for the ghosts).

I also had a Happy Dance for my third ombre cowl scarf - this one is for my friend, Shirley (who is a work colleague - she chose the colourway)

On Saturday night I made this "Almost Shepherdless Pie" from Rachel Khoo's Kitchen notebook - it was absolutely delicious!

Lastly, DS2 was down from Sydney for the weekend again (he lucked on a cheap airline ticket), so on Sunday afternoon we all went for a late lunch at Crabapple Kitchen in Hawthorn.  TraderVic and I both had the oh so delicious buttermilk pancakes with ricotta, maple syrup and bacon. (Sorry, no photo this time).

So, back to some stitching for me and to watch a bit of The Voice.

Love to you all and hugs, 

P.S. Visit these links if you want to visit the Smalls SAL or the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL.