Rita's January Winged Creature

Happy New Year, everyone!

I chose one of the bats from a biscornu (freebie) design from the old "tantes zolder" site.

The lighting wasn't very good for the picture but here he is:

April's January Stitch

Happy New Year everyone!  Hope everyone got what they wanted for the holidays and you are getting lots of stitching done. 

I put the last stitch in my January stitch tonight, so I am sorry for the wrinkles. I stitched Nevermore from The Prairie Schooler. It is from Book #196.  I loved the Raven and felt it fit the theme for this month so well.  I used a piece of fabric from my stash and the called for DMC.

Can't wait to we more finishes for this month.

F is for Furies, Fairies and Frankenstein - Revisited

When we first started this blog I made a series of posts beginning with each letter of the alphabet starting with A.  Unfortunately, they ground to a halt after L.  So in honour of The Alphabet Club hosted by Chiara I have decided to resurrect the original posts and link up each month with the rest of the Alphabet Club posters.  To learn more about this SAL follow the Alphabet Club link to Chiara's blog.

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 Frankenstein:

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 Monster subject?  I'm also looking forward to seeing what people choose for the Bad Fairy theme in September.

Carla's January Finish - Winged Things

Jo gave me an idea when she posted her lovely bats this morning!  This idea then led to another idea..my Halloween ornaments will all hopefully look like they are badly stuff with straw.  They aren't stuffed with straw, but they are stuffed badly to give them a kind of creepy rustic look.

It's the Raven and Spider from the freebie Pattern of the Month Series May 2015 "Halloween" by Stoney Creek.

Somewhere on Etsy I found the perfect ornament tree for the Halloween ornaments and if I can find it again I'll grab it up as these will go amazingly well on it.

Thank you Jo for the inspiration AND for helping me have a first finish of the year along side you.

Jo's January Finish - Winged Creatures

This month's theme is Winged Creatures.  That could be Owls, Ravens, Crows or in this case - Bats.

I have stitched this month's design already!  Only 18 hours into the New Year and I had a piece to show.  This is actually the header from a Just Nan design called Counting Bats.  The whole piece is a rhyme a little like the magpies' One for Sorrow.  You will have to wait for each month to see what each  number means.  By a strange co-incidence each section of the design ties in perfectly with our monthly themes*

Because I seem to have altogether too much time on my hands today I have made a little collage using extracts from the main design and rotating them in Paintbox.

The design is stitched on 28 count lilac line, it's a much nicer colour than in the photos.  I'm using AVAS silks for the main design but switched to DMC for the over 1 words.  The AVAS seemed too "bouncy" and wasn't lying nicely.

So, I've set the example - what have you got lined up for this month?  Do you like the themes this year?  I've made them a little more open to interpretation this year.  eg Winged Creatures can cover a lot more than simply saying "Bats".

* of course it's a co-incidence, anyone would think I set the themes deliberately to fit in with this piece!

Cheryl's December Ornament

Itsy Bitsy

by Charlette Dockens

I chose this chart to stitch for December as it is just so darn cute!  I stitched it on 14 count plastic canvas and backed it with felt.  A quick and easy finish to end the year.

"Itsy Bitsy" by Charlette Dockens of Charlette's Collectibles is featured in the 2015 Just Cross Stitch Halloween Issue.

November & December Done and Dusted!!

This is a real shoe-horn post.... I have finished off November's creepy tree finally... and added December's free choice and combined them to be a big hurdle finish on this design - "Dancing in the Moonlight" by Praiseworthy Stitches.

So here we are.... the creepy tree finished.... along with the raven, cat and resident ghosts!

"Dancing in the Moonlight" - Praiseworthy Stitches

I still need to add beads and a bit of back stitch but that will be done at the end when everything else is stitched.

Did you notice my lovely new needle minder?  Just perfect for Halloween stitching - a spider in his silvery blingy web!

So that's me done for 2015.... now I just need to start planning for my 2016 stitching!

Before I go though, I just want to say thank you to Jo for hosting such an awesome blog for all of us that love to stitch Halloween...  It has been great fun seeing all the great stitching over the year as well!

Til we meet again in 2016, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!  See you all again soon!

December - Free Choice.

Sweeping Cobwebs, The Prairie Schooler

 ★ ★ ★

Jo's December Ornament

Remember the Blue Ribbon Design's Creepy Tree from November?  Well, I liked it so much I stitched all eight blocks and added another BRD to make a Box of Treats:

Here are the side views:

You can read all about it on my blog post here - Serendipitous Stitching

E is for Eek, Eisoptrophobia, Ectoplasm and Enchantment - Revisited

When we first started this blog I made a series of posts beginning with each letter of the alphabet starting with A.  Unfortunately, they ground to a halt after L.  So in honour of The Alphabet Club hosted by Chiara I have decided to resurrect the original posts and link up each month with the rest of the Alphabet Club posters.  To learn more about this SAL follow the Alphabet Club link to Chiara's blog.

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?

November-Creepy Tree

I didn't finish the ornament I intended to have for this month but, I quickly stitched this tree. After seeing Jo's entry I remembered and added another ornament to my Behind the Gate project.

Behind the Gate

Blue Ribbon Designs 

Gwen

Cheryl's November Creepy Tree Ornament

"Little Owl Sampler"

by Knotted Tree NeedleArt

Pattern was featured in the 2012 Just Cross Stitch Halloween Special Issue. Stitched on a scrap of 14 count "something or other" with leftover bits of floss.  Just for fun, I used a lighter shade of purple for the letters that appear in my name.

 

Themes for 2016

Thank you so much for all your comments on the post about Plans for Next Year.  I am so pleased that so many of us want to continue and you're enjoying the blog.

We had some great suggestions for new themes for 2016 and as ever it was quite hard to choose.  The favourites from this year are Black Cats, Pumpkins and Ghosts so they will all feature next year.  I also amalgamated some categories into one (Bats and Owls have become Winged Creatures).  I have included two free months so you can stitch your choice even if it didn't make the list this year.

So here are the themes for 2016:

January - Winged Creatures
(Bats, Owls, Crows and Ravens etc)

February - Mummies and Monsters

March - Pumpkins

April - Ghosts

May - Spiders and Bugs

June - Free Choice

July - Witches' Accessories
(things like brooms, hats, boots, cauldrons etc)

August - Spooky Words

September - Bad Fairies and Wicked Queens

October - Black Cats

November - Skeletons and Skulls
(including Sugar Skulls and Day of the Dead themes)

December - Free Choice

You can be imaginative with your choices, the theme doesn't have to be the main feature of the ornie as long as it is in there somewhere!

I also have a larger piece which features many of the themes so I'll be showing that too.

Lisa had a great idea of theming the months according to the alphabet.  We thought this would fit in very well with The Alphabet Club posts.  I have done A-D so far and December's will be E.  So if you have any spooky stitching which fits in with the letter E please email me a picture before the 1st December.  It could be a designer beginning with E or a design title beginning with E or an E feautured in the design (Spooky Elephant anyone?).

Just to finish off a wordy post, here is Trixie The Hallowe'en Witch from Brooke's Books looking very elegant:

November - Creepy Trees.

Halloween Tree: Spook.

the Trilogy

★ ★

Jo's November Ornament

It's a little one but I have big plans for it!  This Creepy Tree is by Blue Ribbon Designs from the latest Just Cross Stitch Hallowe'en magazine.

There is a series of 8 small designs, each one only 27x27 stitches.  I'm planning to stitch all of them on this piece of random 32 count blue linen and make them into something.  Watch this space!

Some of the other designs:

Thanks for all your suggestions for themes for next year.  I'll be going through the emails and comments and making the final list soon.

Plans for 2016

Thanks to everyone who replied to the email with your suggestions for themes for next year.  Here's another chance to have a think.  Also for those people who follow the blog but haven't signed up to contribute yet - you can leave a suggestion too.

As a little reminder, the SAL has been running for three years now.  The first year was at a different address then it moved here in 2014.  Here's a recap of the themes for those years:

2013

JANUARY - PUMPKINS

FEBRUARY - BLACK CATS

MARCH - HAUNTED HOUSE

APRIL - OWN CHOICE

MAY - GHOSTS

JUNE - MUMMY/TOMBS

JULY - SPIDERS/BATS

AUGUST - OWN CHOICE

SEPTEMBER - HALLOWEEN WORDS

OCTOBER - OWLS

NOVEMBER - CANDY CORN

DECEMBER - OWN CHOICE

2014

January - Free Choice

February - Vampire

March - Witches

April - Owl

May - Monster

June - Freebie Patterns

July - Pumpkins

August - Ghosts

September - Black Cats

October - Trick or Treat

November - Bugs, Insects or Spiders

December - Free Choice

2015

January - Witches

February - Skeletons

March - Owls and Birds

April - Tombstones

May - Pumpkins

June - Free Choice

July - Haunted Houses

August - Black Cats

September - Spooky Words

October - Ghosts

November - Creepy Trees

December - Free Choice

You can see that some of those categories feature every year and some only make the occasional appearance.  There will always be a couple of Free Choice months too so you can stitch the designs which simply don't fit into a category.

And just to include a picture to brighten up the post, here's Trixie the Hallowe'en Witch from Brooke's Books ready to be assembled this week:

D is for Devil, Death and Dressing Up - Revisited

When we first started this blog I made a series of posts beginning with each letter of the alphabet starting with A.  Unfortunately, they ground to a halt after L.  So in honour of The Alphabet Club hosted by Chiara I have decided to resurrect the original posts and link up each month with the rest of the Alphabet Club posters.  To learn more about this SAL follow the Alphabet Club link to Chiara's blog.

D is for Devil from A Dark Alphabet designed by Julie and Becky's Note of Friendship blog.  So you might be wondering why there is a monkey in this picture?  In Dutch samplers the stitchers would often use a Spinning Monkey to represent the Devil rather than tempt bad luck by stitching Old Nick himself.  The monkey stood for folly, laziness, lechery and vanity and his punishment was to be turned into thread.

I wonder if we get a bit of "monkey thread" sometimes, you know where it knots and twists and won't lay neatly no matter what you do?

If you like your devils on the cute side, Ellen Maurer-Stroh has a series of stitching devils, this one has a bobbin (ready to tangle?) and there is one with a pincushion and a sweet pair playing with a sewing machine.

Onto Death, that's a gloomy subject for stitching?  

Witchykitt Designs - Black Grim

So here's a more cheerful Death, from Terry Prachett's Discworld series:

Lyndisfarne Cross Stitch Designs - Death and Kittens

So where do we get these images of Death from?  In England, Death is often called The Grim Reaper and from the 15th Century onwards is shown as a skeletal figure cloaked in hooded black  and carrying a large scythe.  In the Bible there is also a reference to "The Angel of Death" who reaps the firstborn sons of the people of Eygpt.

Probably the most common image for Death in cross stitching is the gravestone (but I'm saving those for G!) or some of the verses stitched on antique samplers.  For example this piece by Amy Ball which includes the couplet "When I am dead and in my Grave, my Friend's in Hand my work may have":

Scarlet Letter - Amy Ball

These samplers were often stitched by very young girls and it makes you realise how close to death people were in those days.  Many women would have given birth to several children only to see three or four survive into adulthood.

And onto something more modern and cheerful!!  Dressing-up.  Why do we dress up for Hallowe'en?  This tradition goes back to Celtic times when people believed that evil spirits walked the land on Hallowe'en.  The best way to fool these spirits was to disguise yourself as someone else.  In early 20th Century America Trick or Treating was referred to as "guising" before the actual term Trick or Treat came into use.

Here's a cute pair dressed up ready to go Trick or Treating:

Ursula Michaels - Trick or Treat Kids

So what's your favourite dressing up costume?  Do you enjoy dressing up or do the words "Fancy Dress Party" strike dread into your heart?  Being rock fans has always made dressing up for Hallowe'en easy for me and my friends.  We already have wardrobes full of black velvet and lace, long wild hair and leather coats.  Just add a white hair streak, some extra eyeliner to the black lipstick, nail varnish and the jet jewellery and you have the perfect Vampire.  In fact, at one party in our local pub, my friend brought his new girlfriend to meet us all for the first time.  I admired her outfit and hair only to be told she hadn't realised it was Fancy-Dress and that was how she dressed all the time!

Witchykitt Designs - Vampire

This would definitely make a great Fancy Dress outfit!

Patty's June Ornament

The September 2014 chart by Nicole Dostal of Northern Expressions Needlework for Pumpkin Seed Stitchers.

Patty's May Ornament

I'm a bit behind, but here is my May 2015 ornament:

Design by Jamie Kile of Knotted Tree Needlearts. Pattern on page 42 of Just Cross Stitch, September/October 2009.

Ghostly Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!!

I actually finished my Ghost stitching earlier this month but I decided to wait until Halloween to post.... seems so much more like Halloween to post on the day!!

My "Ghost" is actually another square on The Trilogy's Halloween Sneak Peek that I have been been stitching for quite some time now...

Here he is all in his ghostly glory:

The whole piece looks like this at the moment:

I have one more square to stitch once I have finished the pumpkin and then it will just be the black border left to do!

Before I go I have one more pic to show you.... Jo asked us to show pics of any Halloween decorating that we do.  I generally don't decorate for Halloween but this year I did do something....

I decorated my Meerkats (this is an on-going Meerkat competition that I have going with a friend at work - we have started to decorate our Meerkats for various events and sharing the pics)

However you celebrate Halloween, have a great time.... and don't forget Jo's Halloween Blog Hop... my post is up showing my letter of the mystery phrase.