May/June catch-up for Anne S

I've been pretty useless keeping up with my SALs again this year - gee, what a surprise!  Eventually, though, I do put needle to fabric and do a bit catch-up session.  That's what I've been doing this weekend, starting to catch up on our Hallowe'en SAL.

May - Black Cats

For the black cats theme, I continued working on Prairie Schooler's 'When Witches Go Riding'. Unfortunately I'm chewing through the Crescent Colours Blackbird thread way more quickly than expected, and I only have one skein left, which isn't enough to do all the dark areas ... so I opted to use DMC 3371 instead for the top banner and the borders. Also unfortunately, the colour is very different to the Blackbird thread, which leaves me in a quandary ... whether I should unpick all the other three elements I've stitched and re-do them all again in DMC 3371.  If I do end up doing that, it'll be at the end of the year, I think. You can't even tell that the dark thread is an overdyed thread, so in hindsight I should have just used 3371 in the first place ... but that's the thing with hindsight, it only seems a good idea after you've already put the effort in! ;)

June - Anything Green

Oh my goodness, it took me a very long time to decide on what to stitch for this theme. As it turns out I'd made my decision, but when I was in my stitching room I spied a totally different design, and ended up stitching that one instead.  This was my chosen project, and I have to say I really love it! The colours are a lot deeper/brighter in real life, though.

"Jack o' Juggle Spell" by Cathy Dean for The Victoria Sampler
Stitched on 32ct summer khaki (or dirty, I can't remember) Belfast linen
Stitched with recommended threads, with the exception of replacing Kreinik #4 braid 010HL with 011HL. I also subbed the black beads with ones I had in my stash, and added two extra legs on the dangling spider.

Next up is July, and another theme with lots of project choices, but I'm opting for a very quick stitch option to help me catch-up. With any luck it won't be long before that one is sitting in the finishing pile, as I fully intend to start stitching that one tonight :)  Then I'll be all caught up, and it'll be back to When Witches Go Riding for August's theme of 'Creepy Trees'.