Thursday 1 July 2021

Day 181, 2021

Today is day 181 of 2021. Half the year is officially over at midnight. I managed to meet my WIPGO goals for the month. I worked on Halloween at Hollyberry Farm, and Starry Night. My SAL stitching was on Just add Tinsel, Casing a Spell, 21 Halloween Cross Stitch projects in 2021, and Christmas Ornie SAL. I had one start, Hello Summer, It's Sew Emma  from Fat Quarter Shop's Stith Quarterly. I have one popsicle stitched and started on the second of 6. 

I'm really excited that Starry Night is stitched. Now I have to make a final decision on how I will finish them. 
Ornaments 6 & 7 of Starry Night
The Prairie Schooler
I managed two final finishes.
Magic Kitty
Mill Hill Kit 
and
 

Spooky 2
Newsletter freebie from Heart in Hand

July's Numbers for WIPGO are:
12: Casting A Spell
2: Monica
Will be my WIPGO projects.
My other passion starting tomorrow will be Christmas in July SAL.

Thanks for stopping by, 
Gwen
 




Friday 3 July 2020

June: Mummys and Monsters

For this month's Mummys and Monsters theme I stitched Mummy-corn and Bones by Cricket Collection. The leaflet , Scary-corns has 2 other ornaments. I want to stitch the witch next.


Mummy-corn

Bones
Cricket Collection
Scary-corns

Monday 1 June 2020

May: Ghost

My May Ghost is Essence one of the Mill Hill Ghost Trilogy. 
He is stitched and ready to be beaded.
Mill Hill 
Ghost Trilogy: Essence

Wednesday 6 May 2020

April: Witch

My witch for April comes from, Just Cross Stitch Halloween Collection 2016.
Night Rider
Jemini Designs
JCS Halloween 2016
Night Rider (finish)

Monday 2 March 2020

Feb :Black Cat

Here is my black cat for February.

He is from a Just Cross Stitch Halloween Ornament Issue ( I think it's called Hiss, I left off the word.) I will try to add the details when I find the issue again. It was stitched on a piece of mystery fabric that I dunked in a coffee/tea bath after stitching. The fabric was too light but I didn't want to take the time to look for something else. I wound up having to redo his eyes, since that thread took up the dye as well and turned out way to dark. Now he has the look I had in mind.

Just Cross Stitch Halloween Ornament Mag.

Thursday 20 February 2020

January and February

My first cross stitch finish of 2020.  This one had been on my To Do list for several years.  It was fun to work with all of the bright colors.

Cross Stitching Guild
Michaela Learner

                             Patchwork Pumpkin



Sunday 19 January 2020

Little Stitches Art - Pumpkin

I decided to participate this year in the Halloween Ornie. I am going to stitch designs from the special issues of Just Cross Stitch as I have all the collection. I chose for this month a lovely Pumpkin Pie. It is completely stitched but not finish. I have a broken wrist and I can stitch doing a great effort but I am not able to do any type of finishes with the plaster. Once it is removed I will update with my completely finished pumpkin.


In my blog Little Stitches Art you can find more details about this pumpkin.

Monday 13 January 2020

Lavender & Lace Enchanted Alphabet Spooky Conversion

I promised to dedicate an entire post to this design once we got into the New Year, so here it is!

The chart is called Enchanted Alphabet designed by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum under the Lavender & Lace label in 1991.  Here is the original cover photo:


I have always liked the alphabet but was not keen on The World's Frilliest Child and her Bunny on a Leash.  Then one day, I hit on the idea of a Spooky Conversion!  I had a large piece of orange hand-dyed fabric from Sparklies which was wide enough if I removed the child and moved the letters closer together.  I decided on a simple conversion of:

every colour = 310


I started the project in July 2016 as part of a SAL to stitch one letter of an alphabet each month.  I kept up with the schedule and completed Z in August 2018.  And that's when the fun started!

Since then I have been adding little motifs from other charts to add to the spookiness.  Here are some close-ups.

The pumpkins, ghosts and cats are all Just Nan designs from her various Hallowe'en charts.


The raven is from a sampler featured in Cross Stitcher magazine.  
To make it fit, I stitched it over one.


The owl is from the same sampler in Cross Stitcher magazine




The white dove from the original design was stitched in black and grey.
The gate is from the Hallowe'en Night design by Jardin Prive I stitched in 2018
I added a little over one owl on top of one of the gateposts


The moon was a photo of the actual moon which I ran through Pic2Pat.
The bats on the left come from a freebie design
and the one on the right comes from the Cross Stitcher Sampler.


The little frogs are Just Nan too.


This is the cover of the Cross Stitcher magazine issue 349 with the sampler by Maria Diaz on the front cover:


And now - the whole piece!

stitched on 32 count Murano in Tigerlily by Sparklies

I'm really looking forward to getting this one framed ready for Hallowe'en this year.  It measures 20 inches wide by 8 inches tall so it's unlikely I'll be able to get an off-the-shelf frame.

Sunday 5 January 2020

Cheryl's January Pumpkin


I decided to start the year off stitching this cute pumpkin, "Freebie Boo!".  I stitched it over 2 on 32 ct dark pumpkin fabric with dark brown floss.  I am pondering my finishing options.

It is indeed a freebie chart and can be found here: 
http://thestitcherhood.blogspot.com/2009/10/another-halloween-freebie.html

Friday 3 January 2020

Themes for 2020

Once again, it has been a quiet year for me and this blog!  But if anyone wants to keep stitching and posting I am happy to keep providing themes.  Here are the themes for 2020:

January - Pumpkins
February - Black Cats
March - Haunted House
April - Witches
May - Ghosts
June - Mummys and Monsters
July - Spiders and Insects
August - Bats and Dracula
September - Hallowe'en Words
October - Owls
November - Candy Corn
December - Free Choice


And here are my Spooky Finishes for 2019:

Mystic Sampler by Primitive Needle


Raven by Nora Corbett


Enchanted Alphabet by Lavendar & Lace
(my spooky conversion)









Tuesday 8 October 2019

Cheryl's October Bat

October Bat by Durene Jones
This month I stitched this cute bat by Durene Jones.  This is one of Durene's many freebie charts that she has posted on her facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/DureneJonesCrossStitch/

I had several scraps of Aida fabric in various counts, and some leftover tie-dye, so I dyed several  pieces.  This Aida is 11 count (which I don't stitch on too often), but it turned out pretty good!

Happy October!

Friday 7 June 2019

June - W is for Witch



All done!!

Witchy Tea

2011 Just Cross Stitch Halloween Collection
Designed by Gail Bussi

Monday 3 June 2019

Gwen: May O is for Ocotber

I stitched early in May. Don't know why I'm late posting. It's mostly FFP's just need to add the stuffing to make a small pillow. Still trying to decide if I want to take it out and redo the shape. 


Ocotober 31
Lizzie Kate Tingles




Sunday 26 May 2019

May - O is for October

Gee, I'm starting to feel a little self conscious here.  But I'm actually caught up and ready to move on to the next thing. 
This little design is from the 2009 JCS Halloween issue.  Nancy Boyarsky of Glory Bee is the designer.

.


Wednesday 1 May 2019

April - L is for Loot

I modified this pattern to delete the Frankenstein monster and added candies.





Wednesday 24 April 2019

March 2019 - Jack O'Lantern

Witchy Tea
2011 Just Cross Stitch Halloween Collection
Designed by Gail Bussi

Making progress on this fun design.



Saturday 30 March 2019

Feb 2019

Too much going on this year and none of it is stitching related.  I did finally finish Zero from the Nightmare Before Christmas.  It's a pattern that I needed an excuse to stitch.  It is a free pattern from alexstitches.com


Lili's March Ornament

Hello!!

First, thank you so much for your sweet comments on my January and February update!

Since my piece from the last post don't fit with all the themes, I decided to pick another small design from another book by The Prairie Schooler.

My ornament for this month:

 
Model: The Prairie Schooler - Book No.181 – Heads Up!
Fabric/Threads/Trim: 36 count Vintage Country Mocha/ DMC / Pom Pom by Dames of the Needle in Watermelon Juice colour



Thanks for visiting! Happy stitching,
Lili 
(my blog: Stitching Basket)


Saturday 2 March 2019

Jan 2019: Haunted House

Playing catch up again. Here is my Jan Ornie, Old House by Cheryl Smith, hobbyloco.com

Old House
hobbyloco.com

Monday 25 February 2019

Steph's Spooky Character

Does a bat count as a spooky character?  Well, I say it's a vampire, shapeshifted, so I'm going with it.  Spooky House only got one evening this month, but that was enough to finish the (partial) page and even do most of the backstitching.
Happy Haunting friends!