Halloween Happiness... The Witch

Each month during 2017 I am stitching on the design Halloween Happiness by Sandra Cozzolino / Imaginating.  I will pick a portion of the chart that fits with the themes and hopefully get it all finished by the end of 2017!

February's theme was "Witches" .... and here she is.... say hello to the tipsy witch and her familiars!

I agree with Jo she definitely looks like she has been up to something with her spells and potions! Legs all akimbo over the letter W!  Goodness me! :o)

Next month it will be the "ee's" which are all wrapped up in spider webs and spiders!  Eek... that's going to be fun!

Til then.. happy Halloween Stitching :o)

January - Anne S

Oops, just realised I hadn't posted my finish as yet for January.  I was actually a day or two late in stitching it, mainly because I just couldn't decide what to stitch, there were too many designs to choose from!  I ended up with this wee freebie by The Prairie Schooler.

This year it was my hope to work on two or three larger designs throughout the year - but in hindsight that's probably a bit ambitious. I'll decide how I go throughout the year, but I'll be adding to at least one of the following larger designs at some point in the year. Considering I had intended to do both moons in the Just Nan (Witchy Way) and Prairie Schooler (When Witches Go Riding) ones in January, I'm not off to a great start on that score!!! Oh well, I may do a catch-up soon - I'll kit them all up this weekend in readiness so I can pick them up on a whim ;)

Jo's February Finish - Witches

I am continuing with Happy Hallowe'en by Imaginating and have added a rather tipsy witch!  Is it just me or does she look a little three sheets to the wind?

I still can't get an accurate photo of the fabric, it's a 32 count Lime Green Murano not khaki or dull green.

I made one unintentional change, there are two shades of purple in the W and I swapped them over.  I had nearly finished stitching the letter when I realised my error.  But it looks fine and no-one except us will ever know!

Also, why is there a tortoise on the end of the W?  How spooky are tortoise?  Not very.  Maybe she uses him in a sloth spell?

April's January Finish

Here is my little finish for January.  The design is by The Prairie Schooler and is from the leaflet called Hocus Pocus.  I used DMC and GAST.  The fabric is a piece from my stash.

It was a very fun stitch.

Lili's January Ornie: The Moon

Hello!

My first ornament for the 2017 SAL.

Design: Primitive Acorns - Lunar Spells

Fabric/Threads: 40 count  Thieffry Linen Bleu Ciel / DMC

Thanks for visiting!

See you next month! Happy stitching!

Lili

Halloween Happiness... The Moon

Halloween Happiness.... yes... I am also stitching this gorgeous design for my themes this year. The plan this year is to break this design down each month and by the end of the year I will have one big finish :o)

I started the moon as my New Year's Day start and managed to finish it by the end of the month... so far I am on track!

You will notice that I have also started the Witch... or at least her foot has appeared.  You weren't supposed to see that but I did a boo boo Betty....  I backstitched the stars, took the picture, started the witch's foot and then realised that I had backstitched the stars in black not white.... so out they came!  All fixed now!

I am stitching the design on some 28ct count light purplish coloured fabric that I bought at a craft fair a couple of years ago with the called for DMC threads - stitching from stash!

See you next month with my witch :o)

Rita's Jan 2017 The Moon Finish

It took me a while to decide on what to stitch for this month.  I finally decided on this one from the PS Boo Moon leaflet.

Which Witch finish

Hi everyone,  This is my first post to the Halloween Stitching.  I finished a set of 4 small Halloween pieces from the JCS Magazine.   It was titled Which Witch.  I will come back later to show you the FFO piece (Fully Finished Piece) when I take it out of the bin of shame.

My Copy Cat January Finish...

Well, as you all probably know, I love practically everything that dear Jo stitches, so I have jumped onto the Halloween Happiness bandwagon and I am stitching the Imaginating design, too, for this SAL.  So, without further ado, here is my Moon for this month's theme....

Fabric: 28 ct orange Lugana

Floss: My own choice of specialty threads

hugs, Kaye

Jo's January Finish(es) - The Moon

Hello 2017 and my first Spooky Stitching of the year!

This year I have once again chosen a larger pattern which I will stitch one element each month to fit in with the themes.  The design is by Imaginating and is called Happy Hallowe'en.  You can Google it or wait and see!

I have chosen a 32 count Murano in Lime Green which is incredibly difficult to photograph accurately.  This is the best match I could get:

And here is the finished moon:

I also continued with the Oberlin Witches piece I started last month because that has a moon too.  Here it is now:

It's stitched on the same fabric as the first design.  I will try scanning it next month to see if that works.

Jo's December Finish - Free Choice

Here's the piece I stitched for our Free Choice month:

stitched on 32 count lime green murano

This is part of a larger design by The Oberlin Sampler Company called Witches.  I will be stitching more of it as it fits into our themes next year alongside my focus piece for this blog which you'll see in January!

I like this witch stirring her cauldron, there's a clever use of blended threads using grey and yellow for the highlights down her back and also grey and red down the front of her dress.  Love the flash of pink in her underskirt too.  She also has some French Knot warts on her face!

OOOOPS!

Just realised that I never posted my October finish for the Black Cat theme - silly, silly me!

Here goes, another PS design, of course (because it was stitched whilst travelling).

Black Cat from PS Book #140 Pumpkin Patch

28 ct Orange Lugana

Floss: DMC 3371 and 720 plus WDW Fiesta for the moon

So, yes, NOW I am DONE for the year, Bring on 2017!

hugs, Kaye

That's me done for the year ....

Yay!  I have finished the Hallowe'en Ornie SAL for 2016 early!

I present to you..... 

'Trick or Treat What's to Eat?' from Prairie Schooler Book #188 Trick or Treat.

This was an absolute dream to stitch, I started it on Friday and finished it just before midnight on Saturday night.  So, a very quick stitch for me.

I am so looking forward to next year's themes, I can't wait to get started!

hugs, Kaye

Themes for 2017

Thank you to everyone who responded to the email asking for suggestions for next year's themes.

A particular Thank You to Jacquie who would like Pumpkins every month.  So if you want, you can add a pumpkin to any of the themes shown below!

2017 Themes

January - The Moon

February - Witches

March - Spiders and Cobwebs

April - Winged Creatures

May - Black Cats

June - Anything Green

July -  Ghosts

August - Creepy Trees

September - Spooky Words

October - Pumpkins

November - Candy Corns and other Foods

December - Free Choice

I hope you like these themes, there are some old favourites and a couple of new ones too.  I'm certainly looking forward to seeing what everyone stitches up for us next year.

Here is my Ghastly, Ghostly Ghouls all framed up:

There are at least 9 themes covered in that design!

And here are the trio of frames for November:

A dislocated shoulder.....

Dont' worry, not mine but my poor Prairie Schooler Skeleton!

See his right shoulder (on the left)?  Well, it should be sitting at the same level as the other shoulder but I didn't notice the discrepancy until after I had stitched all of his arm and the two keys.  At first I thought to myself, 'oh no! All that frogging!' But then the more I looked at it, the more I quite liked my unintentional change to the design and I have decided that the poor skeleton has a dislocated shoulder - poor lamb!

Skeleton from 

"Boo Moon"
Prairie Schooler Book #189

Fabric: Mystery orange (yes, it is actually orange, much brighter than the pic shows) lugana 

Floss: DMC 3371 and 720

.... and now for a very belated Hallowe'en Ornie Finish....

I present to you Witchy Remedy by Silver Creek Samplers from JCS Halloween Ornie Mag 2011.

This was my piece for the April 2013 theme on the earlier incarnation of this Hallowe'en Ornie SAL blog - finally finished!  Only Three and a half years late! lol!

Look carefully, at the last pic, can you see the mistake I made, again?  Another one that I intend to keep, as it sort of fits in with the theme of the piece.

Witchy Remedy

Silver Creek Samplers

JCS Halloween Ornie Mag 2011

Fabric: Unknown

Floss: Suggested DMC

So, that is all for me for now, 

hugs, Kaye

Jo's November Finish - Skeletons

Continuing with October's design for Black Cats I have a finish for this month's Skeleton theme:

And here is the whole thing:

stitched on 28 count lilac linen

The design is Ghastly, Ghostly Ghouls by Just Nan, just one of my large collection of Spooky JN designs.  It will fit perfectly into a 6x6 box frame.

Those three little frogs along the top definitely brought their friends!  I frogged and stitched that top border three times and the two gourds at the bottom, trying to get the right dark orange.

Jo's October Finish - Black Cats

Better late than never!  I started this design at the very beginning of October because it had two black cats in it.  Unfortunately it took a little longer to stitch than I thought!

Here's the portion with the black cats:

stitched on 28 count lilac linen.

The cats are stitched over one.

If you want to see the rest of the design and find out what it is called, you'll have to look at my November post!

Yearly catch-up -AnneS

Well I had such great intentions at the start of the year, until I started a HAED challenge and got addicted and that's all I wanted to stitch for a while ... then work was mental busy and I was barely stitching at all. Anyway it was always my intention to work a bigger piece this year instead of doing all ornaments and a few weeks ago I decided 'what the heck' I still want to do it. So here is my year to date, primarily working on Halloween Markings by Heart in Hand.  I stitched everything in order of the monthly SAL themes :)

January - Winged creatures

February - Mummies and monsters

March - Pumpkins

April - Ghosts - it't teeny, tiny, and hiding behind a tree, but there is a ghost in there ;)

May - Spiders - a freebie by Lizzie*Kate (then I realised after I'd stitched it that I'd stitched the exact same design last year - doh!!)

June - Free choice (the geometric border)

July - Witches' accessories

August - Spooky words - unfortunately I can't find the photo I took with the words completed, but without the black cat block stitched :(

September - Bad fairies - no idea what to stitch for this one, so it was a bit of a fail ...

October - Black cats - and this saw the end of Halloween Markings, with all the blocks and border completed, just in time for Halloween itself

November - Skeletons and Skulls - Halloween Ornament 4 by The Floss Box (the skulls are hiding at the bottom), I just love their Halloween designs, they use lovely and bright colours (and great to see DMC as the threads of choice instead of overdyeds, as much as I love the look of overdyeds)

So, just December left to go now - hopefully next year I'll be able to keep up and keep on track ... although if I can I'm going to continue doing a larger project with multiple elements present, it's great to see some of the bigger projects get stitched up gradually bit by bit.

O is for Occult, Ouija and Owls

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 continue the 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.

O is for Occult from A Dark Alphabet designed by Julie and Becky's Note of Friendship blog.  Those are Octagon stitches there.

The word "occult" comes from the Latin occultus meaning hidden or secret.  It generally refers to anything mythical, supernatural, magical or having those powers.  Most of the designs chosen for this blog could come under the heading "occult".  I thought I'd look at some occult symbols for this post.

Baphomet is a goat-headed idol used to denote evil in many sources from the Knights Templar to modern Death Metal.

Baphomet by Apocalypse Girl

The all-seeing eye and hand is often used as a symbol of an omniscient presence watching over us.  But is it good or evil?  There is a lot of information online about the Illuminati and their use of the symbol.

All Seeing Eye Hand by Cardinal and Fitz

Here's a fun one of a witch using her crystal ball:

Witch's Prediction by Janet Morningstar

The ouija board is supposed to be used to communicate with those who have passed over.  It's a staple ingredient for teenage parties where someone always makes the glass move to scare everyone else!

Primitive Ouija Board by Clouds Factory

Ouija Board by Gecko Rouge

Our final O is a very popular topic here on the Hallowe'en Ornament Blog.  Here are a few of mine:

Left - Cross Stitcher magazine, Blackberry Lane, Jacquie,

Centre - June Rose

Right - Knotted Tree NeedleArt, Blue Ribbon Designs, Blackbird Designs

And a bonus choice - O is for Orange, a great colour for a fabric, especially for Hallowe'en designs:

Cheryl's November Skulls

I stitched up these cute sugar skulls from a free pattern found here:
http://commonthread.us/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Octubre-Halloween-Chart.pdf
The pattern includes several different skulls from which to choose. 

I stitched the skulls on 14 count white plastic canvas, backed the ornaments with black felt and added a black satin ribbon loop for hanging.

PS. Blogged here:
http://chaosatlanta.blogspot.com/2016/11/sugar-skulls-and-uneven-evenweave.html
Happy Stitching!