G is for Gargoyles, Ghosts and Gravestones

G is for Gargoyle from A Dark Alphabet designed by Julie and Becky's Note of Friendship blog.

Gargoyles are essentially stone drainpipes designed to take the water fromthe roofs of medieval buildings away from the walls.  The name comes from the old French word "gargouille" meaning throat or gullet.  The stone masons liked to make their work as fanciful as possible and enjoyed carving the most grotesque gargoyles they possibly could.  Some were even made in the image of their bosses or disliked members of the clergy!!

They were also believed to keep evil spirits away from the churches and cathedrals by frightening them away.

Some of the most famous gargoyles are found on the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, and here are some I met when I was there:

Iconic photo!

In the centre of the photo you can see the little park where we had our lunch after climbing up Notre-Dame.

This fellow would make a good door guard!

Gargoyle by Bennie Harman - Crosstitch.com

Our next G - Ghosts need no introduction!  Ghosts are one of the most popular cross stitch motifs for Hallowe'en.  Usually the cute and friendly variety like our own Mr Boo

Boo - Val's Stuff JCS 2012 Hallowe'en Ornie Special

Goblins-Ghosts-and-Ghoulies- Glendon Place

(two more Gs there!)

There are even Glow-in-the Dark Ghosties (another G!)

Stitched with Glow-in-the-Dark Kreinik

Ghostie Kitty - Carand88

And the final G is for Gravestones.  I must confess, this is one symbol I am not so sure about stitching!  I don't know why.  I don't mind within a larger Haunted House picture but as a standalone stitch I am not interested.  Superstitious me.

Gravestones themselves started out as a mere pile of stones to protect the body from wild animals digging it up and to prevent the body from rising again!  They gradually evolved to become carved with the deceased's name and dates added then into the memorial stones we recognise today.  The Victorians were the masters of gravestone carving and their's were ornate and highly decorated with long verses dedicated to the person below.  Nowadays stones are not so much carved as etched with a laser.  The designs are often modern pictures with no religious significance, usually something connected with a sport or hobby.

Susanna Goose - Kathy Barrick

Tombstone Monkeys - Ink Circles

I love Tracy's designs and the blurb on this one intrigues me - You've seen the three monkeys in the classic "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" pose. These tombstone angels make the same gestures, with the epitaphs letting us know the tomb's occupant made a fatal mistake. If you're familiar with your patron saints, you might notice the gentle folks' names were not randomly selected.

I must go Google those names now!!

Jo's April Ornament

Another late finish, mostly because I stitched it in the DMC conversion then didn't like the purple they used for the alphabet.  So I put it aside to make the substitution decision.

Thanks to a fellow blogger I went with 930 Dark Blue.

This is The Little Owl Sampler by Knotted Tree Needleart from the Just Cross Stitch Hallowe'en Ornie Special 2012.

I used the recommended DMC conversion, subbed 930 for 327 and used a blend of 930 and 931 for the border.  The fabric is 32 count Twilight Blue Linen.

I'm going to scrapbook this one.

Our Snowflower Diaries Witches Coven

Here's a lovely collage of our Snowflower Diaries Witches, 

put together using my new toy, the Pixlr Collage Maker

Debbie's witch has joined the coven!

I stitched this adorable Winter Witch by Maja of The Snowflower Diaries so she can join the coven, too!  I think I'll stitch Spring Witch on the same bright green hand-dyed fabric next!

Winter Witch

"Winter Witch"
Designed by Maja Matyas Szilagyi
The Snowflower Diaries
18 ct green hand-dyed Aida
Started 4/30/2014, Finished 5/1/2014

Debbie's April ornament finish!

On the last day of the month, I just finished my Owl!  This is "O" is for Owl, a freebie from Rainbow Gallery.  The body of the owl is done with the oblong rice stitch. I used variegated DMC 111 for the letters.

"O" is for Owl
Designed by Erica Michaels
Rainbow Gallery
14 ct Fiddlers Lite Aida
Started 4/27/2014, Finished 4/30/2014

Now I have 6 hours left in the day (Pacific Time) to finish my Snowflower Diaries witch and join the coven!

April Owl

I barely managed to get my tiny owl done on time this month. Nothing like waiting till the last minute. This is not the best picture. Though it doesn't look like it, this owl is one of the motifs from Behind the Gate and is stitched on the same orange fabric as before.

Behind the Gate

Blue Ribbon Designs

In Stitches,

Lili's April Ornament

My April ornament!

Model from the JCS Halloween Collection 2011.

The Prairie Schooler: Night Owl.

Stitched on 40 count Light Mocha Linen.

With DMC floss.

(my blog here.)

Thanks for the nice comments on my last ornament!

Happy stitching,

Lili

I am now a coven member, too...

Hi everyone,

Well, I think that this may be my first Halloween Ornie Sal finish for the year!  Oh no!  I feel so bad but taking a month off to travel through South-east Asia and Italy sort of mucks up your daily routine! lol!

Anyway, I heard a little rumour that instead of stitching an owl design this month we had special dispensation from Jo to stitch Spring Wittch, a freebie by Maja from The Snowflower Diaries as she has kindly offered to design us a special witch if we do - so here is my cute as a button Spring Witch.

... and you will be please to know that I have started my May piece already - it is Maja's Haunted House which has a ghost in it - so I think that counts as a monster.

Here is what it will look when finished:

Now, I am off to check what everyone else has stitched.

hugs, 

F is for Furies, Fairies and Frankenstein

F is for Furies from A Dark Alphabet designed by Julie and Becky's Note of Friendship blog.

In classical mythology the Furies were avenging deities, fearful goddesses from Tartarus who avenged wrong and punished crime. Usually the furies refer to three sisters, Alecto, Tisiphone, and Magaera, children of Gaia and Uranus.  They were placed in the Underworld by Virgil and it is there that they reside, tormenting evildoers and sinners. However, Greek poets saw them as pursuing sinners on Earth. The Furies are cruel, but are also renowned for being very fair.

You might have been surprised by the next F - Fairies, not really very spooky or Hallowe'eny you might think.  Sorry, Tink, this blog is not for you!!

This is the sort of Fairy you want at Hallowe'en:

Mystic Stitch - Bad Faerie 

After all, traditionally fairies were not the saccharine twinkle toed good guys, they were something to be feared, they would steal your babies and leave a changeling in its place.  Of course, they are dangerous to adults too - if you stumble across a fairy ring in the woods, don't step inside.  Some stories say you will die at a young age, others say you will be spend the night only to return to find a hundred years have passed.  Still more stories say you will dance until you drop dead of exhaustion.

And here's one from my own stash - Nora Corbett's Trick or Treat Fairy.  She was orginally in Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine in September 2008.  I believe you can get hold of a copy by contacting them direct.

Our third F is for Frankenstein.  I looked everywhere for a cross stitch of Frankenstein but couldn't find one anywhere.  This is the closest I could get:

Nerdy Cross Stitch - Scientist Pig

Because the name Frankenstein belongs to the creator of the monster, Dr Victor Frankenstein.  In the book by Mary Shelley, the creature is simply called Monster.  And there are hundreds of great cross stitch designs for Monster!!

I love this one, based on Boris Karloff in The Bride of Frankestein:

Danielle Sayer Etsy Shop

If you prefer cute, you might like this one:

I am not a Doll Etsy Shop

Or the Happy Couple for a quirky Wedding Sampler?

Lady Beta Etsy Shop

It's been a bit of an Etsy-fest this post.  The smaller crafters seem to be best for the more quirky designs.  Of course there are plenty of Frankenstein's Monster charts in the JCS Hallowe'en specials so maybe you will choose one of them for your May subject? 

Ciao everybody!

ciao everybody!

I'm happy to join the Coven with my recent finish, the Spring/Easter Witch!

I decided to dress the sweet lass with Easter colours; soft yellows, lilac and pink - all Nina's Threads on 40ct. "Cloudy Sky" linen. sorry the linen photographed so badly, it's been raining all weekend so I rarely had good daylight exposure.
I'll post about her in my blog with a detailed list of what I used, and a better snap, hopefully tomorrow.
thank you, Maja, for the adorable chart - I really enjoyed sitching my very first Snowflower Diaries! ❤ :)
chiara

Noni's April Owl

Happy Owl-a-ween!!!

As you know April's theme was "Owls"... and I have finished my owl ahead of time (for a change!!)

So for my April stitching I decided to go back to my trusty Just Cross Stitch "Halloween Ornament 2013" special.  Now there are a couple of cute owls in the magazine but I just had to stitch the one designed by Diane Arthurs - "Owliver & Punky".

"Owliver & Punky" - Diane Arthurs
stitched 5 April 2014, finished 25 April 2014

I decided to stitch this little cutie on plastic canvas - I haven't used plastic canvas for so long so it made a nice change to do something different for a change!

Next month's theme is "Monsters" and this time I have no idea what to stitch!!  Fingers crossed some inspiration comes along sooner rather than later!!

So til next month, happy Halloween stitching!

A tiny owl

I finished my April owl.  He's just a little guy but spooky cute none the less.  This pattern is called Acorn House from designer Jeannette Douglas.  I changed the border a bit from the original.

Who?

My owl for April is an adaptation of Owl-O-Ween in the 2013 JCS Halloween Issue.  Designed by Marie Driskill of Blackberry Lane Designs, I left the checkered border off and just went with the owl because I wanted a round shape.  I love how realistic he looks!  Stitched with WDW on 16ct black aida.

Owl.

Pumpkin Patch, The Prairie Schooler

 ★ ★ ★

E is for Eek, Eisoptrophobia, Ectoplasm and Enchantment

E is for Eek from A Dark Alphabet designed by Julie and Becky's Note of Friendship blog.   There are lots of things in this picture to make you go "EEK!" from spiders to ghosts and bats.

One friend of mine was told that to keep spiders away you should place a conker in each corner of the room.  So every time we visited in the Autumn there were little piles of conkers all over the floor as the children wanted to play with them.

Alessandra Adelaide - Spider Banner

I found a great list of Hallowe'en related phobias while searching for Things That Make You Go EEK including this one:

Eisoptrophobia - fear of mirrors, or seeing oneself in a mirror 

E is also for Ectoplasm -  a supernatural viscous substance that supposedly exudes from the body of a medium during a spiritualistic trance and forms the material for the manifestation of spirits.

Mill Hill - Ghost Dance

And when you have ghosts, who're you gonna call? 

GHOSTBUSTERS!!

Wee Little Stitches

The final E is for Enchantment, the act of putting someone (or something under a spell).  Sometimes used as a curse (Sleeping Beauty's Enchanted Castle) or as a Love Spell, we also use the word to describe something which captivates our attention - "your stitching is enchanting!"

Teresa Wentzler has to be the Mistress of enchanting designs and here is one fittingly called The Enchanter:

Teresa Wentzler - The Enchanter

Teresa has this to say about the design on her website:
This piece was designed in response to numerous requests for a "wizard". Since I am an avid reader of fantasy, inspiration for this project was certainly not lacking! The challenge, of course, was to come up with something original: ideally something that was a synthesis of my favorite impressions from all that I'd read and/or seen. I chose to show a young wizard (mage), perhaps an apprentice, studying and practicing his art. Exactly why I decided to show this aspect instead of a grander portrait of a wizard in full regalia doing something appropriately fantastical I'm not sure. Perhaps it's because I feel the process of "becoming" (growing in knowledge) is a journey that never truly ends....


And here is another Enchanted design -

Joan Elliott - Sleeping Beauty

Which designer enchants you most with their creations?

March Owl

I decided for my March Owl I would do something Halloween Themed.

I found this freebie from My Owl Barn.

I completely redid the color scheme. 

It is stitched on 18 ct White Aida.

We have a Spring Witch Coven!

Jo mentioned in one of her recent posts that three (3) to thirteen (13) witches make a coven... and then when I was deciding what to stitch Jo also commented on my post that three witches can make a coven, and we almost had a coven as two of Maja's Spring Witches had already been stitched...

So I stitched the Spring Witch, and we now have a coven of the Snowflower Diaries Spring Witches for March!

Spring Witch (The Snowflower Diaries)
Started 23 March 2014, Finished 4 April 2014

For more info on my Spring Witch, pop over to my blog....

So now onto the April stitch which is "Owls".  I have already picked my owl design out and started stitching. I am stitching another design from the Just Cross Stitch Halloween 2013 special edition magazine.  Will post an update soon.....

My Owl

This is a little guy that I got off of Pinterest.

I did him on 18 ct Adia cloth and used 2 different reds, black Dmc floss. He took me less than 20 minutes.

My very own Halloween owl

Here is my Halloween owl for the month of April... 

I have really enjoyed stitching this... I searched for a design to stitch but could not find one so I set about to create my first chart!

Yes its created by me!!

Its only got whole stitches and done in one color... DMC 310 - black!

Here is the chart if you would like to stitch it...

If you do stitch it let me know and I will put it on my blog :)  

Happy stitching....

March Witch

This month I managed to stitch 2 ornaments. The witch's hat and the witch out for evening ride (maybe).

Behind the Gate Ornaments 

Blue Ribbon Designs

In stitches,