December Progress on DSDUCJFC 2015 Pieces

Good morning all!

Last post of 2016!

During November, I hardly stitched on my Challenge pieces so aimed to rectify that in December. After I had finished my LK Stamp for the month and a couple of small Christmas pieces I dove straight into my Challenge pieces and as well as finishing one piece, April Showers, made the following progress:

Friends For Life from 1st January

finished the clouds and stitched a little of the dog

Little Black Cat Tea from 23rd February

finished all but the background stitching

Little Black Cat Sugar from 16th February

stitched the cat (minus eyes) and continued with the sugar

Winter from 22nd February
finished the tree and stitched down to the horizon

I had intended to stitch on more pieces, but once I'd picked up April Showers I couldn't put it down so that took up most of my time.

I don't expect many of my remaining 43 Challenge pieces from 2015 will see much daylight in 2016, given that I will be starting another 31, but I really hope that's not the case. I still love and want to finish each and every one of them. I suppose I'll have to see where my mood takes me!

Tomorrow I'll be posting my stitching plans for 2016 - another long and boring post - then there will be daily posts from 2nd January with my 31 new starts. Hope you don't get bored of me!!

Keep stitching!
Rachel x

2015 End Of Year Summary

Hello all!

As we say goodbye to 2015 I thought I would look back and summarise my stitching for the year. This record is mostly for my benefit so some (most) of you will probably find this very, very boring.


Number of WIPs brought forward from 2014 - 11 (all large)
Plus number of new starts - 77 (59 challenge, 12 LK stamps, 4 gifts, 2 large)
Less number of finishes - 34 (17 challenge, 12 LK stamps, 4 gifts, 1 large)
Number of WIPs to carry forward into 2016 - 54 (42 challenge, 12 large (5 now suspended))


Hmm, I know that most of these WIPs carried forward are small(ish) pieces but I shall be adding between 44 and 49 to them in 2016 (31 challenge, 12 ornaments, 1 A-Z, 5 others) which could bring my potential number of WIPs up to 103! That figure doesn't scare me but I do realise my total WIPs could quite easily get out of hand (if you don't think it has already!!) so.....

..... I have already made an executive decision that if my number of WIPs (excluding large and suspended projects) by the end of 2016 is not less than 40 I shall not do the January Challenge in 2017. This means that roughly 50 of my starts/WIPs need to be finished next year - or one per week. Now that does scare me!!


As for stitching itself I totalled 810 hours with needle and thread in hand and amazingly stitched every single day throughout the year. Admittedly, some days were for only 5 minutes, but I am so pleased to have not missed a single day. It definitely kept my mojo and enthusiasm running smoothly.


Now here comes the really boring bit.....

Here are the lists of projects which make up the statistics at the top of the page:

NUMBER OF WIPs BROUGHT FORWARD - 11
1)  Mythical Dragon (True Colors) - NOW SUSPENDED
2)  Rainbow Angel (White willow Stitching) - NOW SUSPENDED
3)  QS Emerald Dragon (HAED) - NOW SUSPENDED
4)  SK The History Of Chocolate (HAED) - NOW SUSPENDED
5)  QS Fairy With Butterfly Mask (HAED) - NOW SUSPENDED
6)  QS Come Softly (HAED)
7)  Mini Bookworm Fairy (HAED)
8)  Mini The Owrd Lord (HAED)
9)  Mini One (HAED)
10)  Dolphin Ruins (Rabnann - ebay)
11)  OMG Tigger Is Out (UnconventionalX - etsy)

NUMBER OF NEW STARTS - 77 and FINISHES - 34
1)  January stamp - FINISHED
2)  Friends For Life
3)  Christmas Quacker - FINISHED
4)  Dragon of Air - FINISHED
5)  Feline Groovy
6)  Loves Me ... Love Me Not
7)  Daisy Hugs
8)  Dreaming Of Dolphins
9)  April Showers - FINISHED
10)  Book Worm

11)  Dragon Of Earth - FINISHED

12)  Carefree Summer

13)  Playful Puss 1 - FINISHED

14)  A Tatty Friend

15)  Friends Forever - FINISHED

16)  Dandelion Time

17)  Cookie and Cream - FINISHED

18)  Dragon Of Fire - FINISHED

19)  Flower Power

20)  All Aboard The Walnut Shells

21)  Christmas Wishes

22)  Daisy Umbrella

23)  Cuddly Feline Friends

24)  Choc-A-Holic

25)  Dragon Of Water - FINISHED

26)  I Love Butter

27)  Good Morning Nelson

28)  Winter Hugs

29)  Lickle Snooze

30)  A Windy Day
31)  Playful Puss 2 - FINISHED
32)  Little Green
33)  Spring
34)  Coffee
35)  Winter Owl - FINISHED
36)  Gryffindor Crest
37)  Pretty Little London
38)  February stamp - FINISHED
39)  Start Trek TOS
40)  Polar Bears - FINISHED
41)  Summer
42)  Cream
43)  Canal Crossing
44)  Hufflepuff Crest
45)  Puddle Duck - FINISHED
46)  Clue
47)  Red Foxes
48)  Autumn - FINISHED
49)  Sugar
50)  The Lock
51)  Ravenclaw Crest - FINISHED
52)  Pretty Little Paris
53)  Evil Minions
54)  Spotted Owls
55)  Winter
56)  Tea
57)  The Milk Train
58)  Slytherin Crest
59)  Waterlogged - FINISHED
60)  My Treasure - FINISHED
61)  Pandas
62)  March stamp - FINISHED
63)  April stamp - FINISHED
64)  May stamp - FINISHED
65)  June stamp - FINISHED
66)  July stamp - FINISHED
67)  August stamp - FINISHED
68)  September stamp - FINISHED
69)  Initial I ornament - FINISHED
70)  October stamp - FINISHED
71)  Initial J ornament - FINISHED
72)  Owls In Love - FINISHED
73)  Dragon Eye (Large Project)
74)  November stamp - FINISHED
75)  December stamp - FINISHED
76)  Wait until Dec 25th! (1) - FINISHED
77)  Wait until Dec 25th! (2) - FINISHED

Are you bored now?? Or did you just skip the lists?!!

Regarding Stitch From Stash, had it carried on I would have finished the year with deficit of about £33. Just thought I'd let you know.

And regarding my contribution to Tammy's A New Stitchy Start blog, well, I never really got out of the starting blocks. The saga of searching for the perfect fabric on which to stitch Scarlet Macaw Preening is still on-going.....

Thank you for allowing me to continue to bore you witless and for being there to keep me sane. I appreciate and value every visit and comment I receive. You are a wonderful bunch of stitchers and I am so pleased to have "met" you!

With pretend glass in hand, here's to the end of a fantastic stitching year and the start of another - cheers!

All the best and

Happy stitching :)

Rachel x

Challenge Finish 17

Good morning everybody!

I hope everybody has had a good Christmas or restful break over the last few days? Was Santa good to you? I'm excited to see any new goodies you have received and might be stitching on in 2016.

Santa was good to me and gave me a few little second-hand charts which he'd apparently bought on ebay - clever Santa! So I have a little Halloween Kitty and some more Lizzie Kates to add to my collection. My daughter also made a fabric case for me to carry a project and the accompanying thread bobbins. It took a long time and required a lot of work so I will blog about it later as it definitely deserves it's own post.

Our family had a quiet but busy festive period but not so busy that I couldn't do a fair amount of stitching! So, as the title has given away, I have another Challenge finish to show you. This will definitely be my last for 2015.

Once I'd picked this piece up I couldn't put it down and somehow knew I would work on it until completed. I left him back in June having only stitched the umbrella and rain but now Lickle Ted looks like this:

Lickle Ted - April Showers

Featured in Cross Stitch Crazy issue 110

Stitched on 16ct Iced Coffee over-dyed Aida by Fabric Flair 2 over 1
Stitch count 86 wide by 111 high

Started - 8th January 2015
Finished - 28th December 2015
Total stitching time - 32 hours 40 minutes

Some of the umbrella and scarf were supposed to be stitched using satin threads but I just used normal DMC. Compared to the original picture I don't think it makes much difference. I love the half stitching for the rain and the variegated thread used for the puddles. I even enjoyed watching him come to life as the backstitching was added. Unfortunately the subtle shading of the fabric has not come out too well in the photograph. :(

For the time being Lickle Ted will become an Orphan in my Box of Shame until I decide how to frame him.

17/59 Challenge pieces down, 42 to go!

Now to go and make sure everything is ready for my 31 new starts in January. I must be mad!

Happy stitching everybody!
Rachel x

Merry Christmas!

Good morning all!

I just wanted to wish all of my lovely blog readers a very Merry Christmas 2015!

Image from www.hdwallpapersnew.net

I hope Santa has been good to you and your day is filled with love, laughter and lots of stitching. I look forward to reading all about your new stitchy goodies you have received for Christmas!

If you do not celebrate Christmas, then I hope you have a relaxing and enjoyable break.

Love
Rachel x

Christmas Variegated Thread Tags

Good morning all!

Wow, wow and triple wow! Thank you all so much for your lovely comments about my framed Owls In Love. I really am overwhelmed by your generous comments. It's pleasing to know I've stitched and framed a piece that so many of you genuinely like!

Getting into the Christmas spirit, I wanted to make a couple of tags using variegated threads. I always use the cut and loop method so saw this as a good opportunity to carry out a little experiment. The top tag has been stitched using that method, the bottom tag using two strands in parallel. You may have to enlarge the photo to see the differences:

 Based on Lizzie Kate's Wait 'Til Dec 25th

Stitched on 16ct Holly Aida with silvering by Sewitall.com 2 over 1

Stitched with - Threadworx 1085 Christmas Time

Total stitching time - 2 hours 10 minutes each

I can't decide which one I prefer. The colours in the top tag looks a little "dirtier" because of the green-red combination yet give a lovely effect close up. The colours in the bottom tag are obviously sharper as that's how the thread is supposed to be used! Perhaps the cut and loop method would work better in other colours? I don't know.

I made them into simple tags using pearlised green card and red tinsel ribbon:

I know that one of the recipients has already opened their presents but the other has duly waited, so my stitching was not all in vain!!

This will be my last post before Christmas (I think) so may I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Holiday or Merry Christmas filled with love, laughter and lots of stitching!

Take care,
Rachel x

Owls In Love - framed!

Hello all,

Christmas has definitely arrived early for me!

Remember Owls In Love? Remember my mum was going to buy me the frame for Christmas? Remember I said I wasn't going to wait until Christmas to frame my piece? Well, I kept my word and spent his morning putting Owls In Love into its frame. And here it is:

And a close up of the corner. If you look carefully you can just about make out the silvering which covers the whole fabric.

I kept to the monochrome palette choosing a 22mm Pedroza Grey distressed frame with a dark grey top mount, bright white bottom mount and anti-reflective glazing. The grey fabric was very difficult to match up - sometimes it has hints of lilac or blue or green depending on which colours are next to it or under which light you are looking at it. So apologies if the colours don't look too good on your screen - I can assure you they are perfect together in real life!

I am absolutely over the moon with this whole piece and once again have to send a big thank-you to ezeframe.co.uk for making the online ordering process of mounts and frames so easy. It really is a dream website to deal with.

The question is..... do you like it? It doesn't bother me if you don't - all tastes are different.

I have two more small framed pieces to show you, but they can wait until my next post.

6 days until Christmas - hope you're not feeling too stressed!
Rachel x

Elemental Dragons - framed

Good morning,

Remember I purchased some frames last week? Well, here's the first frame being used for my four Elemental Dragons by Dragon Dreams Inc. available as free charts here. These were all stitched on 16ct Nebula from The Crafty Kitten as part of Debbie's Crazy January/February 2015 Challenge. I absolutely love these designs and can't believe I waited so long to frame them.

As a reminder, these are the four Dragons of Air, Water, Earth and Fire:

This is the frame I ordered:

Here they are individually mounted:

And this is how they all look together:

I used my usual internet framing service, ezeframe.co.uk, ordering a dark pink top mount, dark grey bottom mount and dark grey frame. The glazing should be anti-reflective acrylic but I received acrylic in error and therefore had a lot of problems taking decent photographs! With hindsight I should have allowed room for more of the lovely fabric to show instead of the mounts being so close to the stitching, but nevermind. Anyway, too much more fabric and the dragons would have looked lost.

I really wanted blue for the bottom mount but, as you can imagine, blue looked awful against the greeny-brown earth and orangey-red fire colours. I then thought about having four different colour bottom mounts to coordinate with each dragon but couldn't be bothered with the detailed measuring! So I finally opted for a dark grey mount as it is the only colour consistent across all four dragons.

What do you think? I'm really pleased with how it's all come together - which is much better in real life than the photograph. Now to hang it with my menagerie of other stitching.

I'll post about the other frames I bought over the next few days. One at a time is enough, especially when I waffle on so much!

Take care everyone,
Rachel x

Lizzie Kate December Flip-It Stamp - finished!

Hello again!

I am going to start by saying a lot of big thank yous.

First, thank you to everybody who left comments regarding my attempt at designing the November poppy. Despite your positivity I'm still not completely happy with it so may re-attempt it next year but under less pressure!

Second, an even bigger thank you to everyone for such lovely comments about Owls In Love. I have been truly overwhelmed with how well it has been received by so many of you. In one personal email a stitcher pointed out that the design and fabric were so different it was a like breath of fresh air. Thank you. I hope you'll think the same once you see the project framed!

Now, back to business. I have finished the final LK monthly stamp. I am pleased to have stitched them all as planned and on schedule but am a little sad to have reached the end. Nevermind, I haven't finish-finished them yet so I still have that to look forward to. Here's the last stamp:

Stitch count 47 wide by 47 high

Stitched on 16ct Rustico Aida 2 over 1

Started - 1st December 2015

Finished - 8th December 2015

Total stitching time - 10 hours 50 minutes

But it's not all doom and gloom on the LK front as I shall be stitching some of her Tiny Tidings next year as my one-a-month and Smalls SAL project.

As for my stitching for the rest of the 2015 - all of my obligations are out of the way so I'm free to stitch on what I want! I might pick up a big project, I might try to finish some more Challenge pieces or I might pick up some of my neglected Challenge pieces. But one thing's for certain - there will definitely be no new starts before 1st January 2016!

I hope all of your plans for the festivities / holiday season are going well. I've still got some decorating and all the wrapping to do but that's about it. Let's hope Santa is busy wrapping lots of stitchy goodies for us all!!

Take care everyone :)
Rachel x

Owls In Love - finished!

Hello all!

It's Happy Dance time!!!

Yep, Owls In Love is finished! In my last post I estimated 5 hours to finish this project. It was in fact 4 hours 55 minutes - not a bad guess then?!

So, without any more yapping, here are a finished Hedwig and Errol, along with all the usual boring details:

Owls In Love

FluffyFuzzyPatterns (etsy)

Stitched on 16ct Cloud Grey Aida with silvering by sewitall.com 2 over 1

Stitch count 250 wide by 152 high

Started - 16th October 2015

Finished - 6th December 2015

Total stitching time - 54 hours 55 minutes

Oh boy, did I enjoy stitching this design and watching the owls take shape! You would have thought that stitching three shades of grey on grey fabric would have been boring but it wasn't. Quite the contrary. It was actually very relaxing. I loved every stitch, LOVE the fabric and would happily stitch the whole piece again, right now! Don't you think browns on brown would look good? Just a thought!

The mounts and frame have already been ordered and should be delivered by the end of the week. I know they are supposed to be a Christmas present but do you honestly think I'm going to wait another two weeks to frame this piece? I think not!! Honestly, this is more exciting than Christmas itself!!!

Oh, and while I was ordering the frame for this piece, a couple more just "happened" to slip into my basket. You know how it is! I'll show you all of the finished-finishes as soon as I have framed them.

My stitching for the rest of 2015 now consists of finishing the LK December Stamp and trying to finish a couple more January/February Challenge pieces. Wonder how I'll do?

In the meantime, thanks for joining me in my blog postings and thanks for all of your comments. I know a few of you have really been waiting to see this project finished - I hope you are not disappointed, although you haven't seen it framed yet!!

Back soon!

Take care one and all,
Rachel x

Owls In Love - 50 hours

Good morning, good morning, good morning!

Just a quick post today to show the next update on this project.

I'm getting really excited as these owls are so close to being finished. I reckon about five more hours to stitch the branch and fill in the final colour on the left owl's tummy and they'll be done. Yippee!

After 40 hours

After 50 hours

I'm definitely going to stay with and finish this project. My mum's offered to buy me a frame for Christmas so there's no way this project is going into my Box of Shame / The Orphanage to collect dust! I'll be back very very soon with a great big Happy Dance!

Happy stitching everyone!
Rachel x

November Progress on DSDUCJFC Pieces

Hello all!

Oh dear - my Challenge pieces were very neglected during November. In fact, I only picked up one piece and that was for just a few hours. Note to self - must do better! But progress is progress. Here are the before and after photos:

Winter from 22nd February

continued with the tree and sky

With me desperate to finish Owls In Love, along with all the preparations for Christmas now in full swing, goodness knows how much stitching I will do on my Challenge pieces in December. I'm not holding out much hope but have got a couple which could be potential finishes. We'll just have to see how it goes.

Take care everyone,
Rachel x

Lizzie Kate (sort of) November Flip-It Stamp - finished!

Hello fellow stitchers!

Goodness me, I'm very late finishing this month's LK stamp but at least it's still November!

Do you remember I wanted to replace the LK pheasant with either fireworks or poppies? Well, that was easier said than done! I scoured the internet for suitable free fireworks and poppy charts but didn't have much success. Then I thought about using autumnal icons such as squirrels, acorns and leaves but wasn't too lucky there either. Finally I decided to raid my mum's messy stash (which hasn't really been touched for five years) and I came across this poppy design. The poppy was perfect but I had to alter the leaves to fit in the allotted space.

I'm not that happy with it as it has more of a "flower-of-the-month" rather than sombre feeling. But at least you can (should be able to) tell it's a poppy! I'm sorry if redesigning the stamp upsets any LK perfectionists, but I tried to keep to her style as best I could.

Stitch count 47 wide by 47 high

Stitched on 16ct Rustico Aida 2 over 1

Started - 2nd November 2015

Finished - 25th November 2015

Total stitching time - 12 hours 10 minutes

Now for December's Stamp - yippee - and the last in the series - boo-hoo! Good job I've got more LK smalls planned for nearly every month next year!

Happy stitching everybody!
Rachel x

Owls In Love - 40 hours

Good afternoon everybody!

Important things first.....

Wow! Heather and I are overwhelmed with the amount of fabulous positive and generous comments she has been receiving about her work. In fact she's getting more comments than I usually get! Thank you all so much. It really does mean a lot to her. Now, am I allowed to play the jealous mother and go sit in a corner and sulk??!!

Regarding Heather's stitching, there's been an interesting development.....

.....unbeknownst (posh word) to me, my darling daughter already has her own live blog! Of course, she wasn't going to tell her mum but as she has respected our strict on-line rules I'm OK with it. It's not been going long, only has a couple of posts and contains no cross stitching (yet.) But it is amusing. So if you're interested, pop over to All The Little Awesome Things and have a bit of a giggle. For a while I will link to her blog when she posts about her stitching just in case you're interested but don't want to follow her - afterall, we don't necessarily want to know what goes on inside the head of a 14 year old girl..... or do we??!!

So, now onto my stitching, which is obviously FAR less important!!

I have another Owls In Love update for you. Over the last few days I've been able to put in long evening sessions on Errol and Hedwig. As you can see, the second Owl (whom I am assuming is the female) now has the top of her head, but more importantly those very cute eyes! Even without a body, they've definitely brought her to life and given her a personality.

After 30 hours

After 40 hours

(and with more accurate colours of the fabric!)

I shall now put this project down for a couple of days while I finish Lizzie Kate's November Stamp. The outline and month have been stitched as charted, I just need to design and stitch the middle bit, although what that "middle bit" will be is still undecided. Seeing as Heather's so talented, maybe I should get her to design something for me?! Otherwise, fingers crossed I do a good job.

See you soon,
Rachel x

Heather's Wolf Head - progress 1

Hello all!

Heather would like to share her new project and progress with you.

Her new chart is called Wolf and charted to be stitched in one colour. But Heather wasn't keen on that idea and decided she wanted a variety of blues. She took most of my spares and is simply making up the colour palette as she goes along! I certainly wouldn't try that and don't think there are many stitchers who would. She's a brave girl! Here's the chart then.....

Wolf

LudivinePointDeCroix (etsy)

.....and here's her progress so far on the eye, nose and forehead, full size and close up:

 Stitched on 16ct Rustico Aida

I have to say that, obvious bias aside, she's doing a fantastic job! I really hope she keeps up her enthusiasm and I can show you more of her progress soon.

Should her enthusiasm continue she may even set up her own cross stitching blog!

Until next time,
Rachel and Heather xx

Owls In Love - 30 hours

Hello all!

First up, Heather says thank you for all the lovely comments you left regarding her Birds On A Wire finish. She has certainly been inspired to stitch more and is making good progress on her second project, which I'll post about soon.

As for my stitching, I have an update to show you on this gorgeous chart which so many of you seem to have fallen in love with:

After 20 hours

After 30 hours

As you can see I've filled in the owl's tummy, stitched the branch and made a small start on the second owl (which I think makes the first owl look as if he is wearing a little party hat!) This means two of the four pages have been completed so I am officially halfway through - yippee!

I'm definitely going to continue with this project for at least another 10 hours so I should be back with another update soon!

And, yes, I'm about 5 days behind with reading and commenting on blogs. Bear with me - I should be able to catch up this weekend.

Take care and happy stitching :)
Rachel x

Birds On A Wire by Heather

Good morning all,

Thank you for all your lovely comments about Wilfred the Winter Owl. I'll be replying to them shortly.

But for now, it's down to business.

My daughter, Heather, is a very talented 14 year old who can draw, paint, knit, sew, quilt, make her own clothes and do countless other creative things..... apart from cross stitch! She has tried a few times in the last five years but never managed more than about twenty stitches as she found it "boring".

So you can imagine my scepticism when she asked a couple of weeks ago to have another try. Naturally she didn't want to stitch anything from my stash so she browsed etsy and (following my recommendation that she try to keep it small and simple) finally chose this one:

(picture shapshot from front page of chart)

She then rummaged through my box of fabric, choosing this:

16ct Setting Sun Aida by Silkweavers (expressions range)

And within a few days had put the two together to create this:

Birds On A Wire (our title)

Started - 31st October 2015

Finished - 5th November 2015

With the exception of cutting the fabric and ironing the finished piece it's all her own work. Now it just needs a frame - a simple black one I think. She is very proud of her first finished cross stitch (as am I of course) so asked if I would post it on my blog. I said yes - I hope you don't mind!

Close-up she needs to work on keeping the tension consistent but it's absolutely brilliant for a first attempt. And, yes, all of her crosses do lie in the same direction!

The trouble now is that her second project is bigger so she keeps sitting in MY stitching space using MY daylight lamp, MY frames and MY floorstand! Oh, the sacrifices us mothers have to make!!! Looks like I might be asking Santa for another daylight lamp for Christmas!

I'll be back soon, probably with an Owls In Love progress report (if I'm allowed my space back for a while!)

Thanks for stopping by,
Rachel and Heather xx

Challenge Finish 16

Good morning everybody!

It's been a couple of months since my last Challenge finish but I am happy to report that Winter Owl has now been completed. Like all of my projects, Wilfred was an absolute joy to stitch, especially with those eyes watching me all the time! Here he is then:

Winter Owl

UAHomeMadeStudio (etsy)

Stitched on 16ct Misty Blue aida 2 over 1

Stitch count 88 wide by 87 high
Started - 3rd February 2015
Finished - 8th November 2015
Total stitching time - 27 hours 5 minutes

To add some sparkle to the snow I used Kreinik #32. The snow on top of his scarf had already been stitched so, to save unpicking it, I simply added a cross of single strand Kreinik on top. It's very subtle but just catches the eye. The blue and white snow on the branches was stitched using one strand of thread and two strands of Kreinik. It's quite bold but gives the impression that there is at least some sunshine on what is obviously a cold winter's day. Naturally, none of the sparkles show up in the photo!

Wilfred will, for the time being, be going into my Box of Shame. But he shouldn't be there long - I just need to find a suitable 8" square off-the-shelf frame so that he can join some of my other projects on the wall.

I'm hoping to finish at least one more Challenge piece before the end of the year but am not going to rush or worry if I don't. Que sera sera is very much how I feel at the moment.

16/59 Challenge pieces down, 43 to go!

See you soon,
Rachel x

October Progress on DSDUCJFC 2015 Pieces

Good afternoon everybody!

Thank you again for all of the lovely comments you have been leaving me. And welcome to the new followers I have recently gained. I hope you are enjoying my ramblings.

October was strange month for stitching on my Challenge pieces as making two little initial ornaments and starting two new projects during my Stitching Retreat ate into my usual stitching time. I didn't have any finishes but I did manage progress on:

"Wilfred" the Winter Owl from 3rd February

stitched his chest/tummy

Spotted Owls from 21st February
the first owl now has the beginnings of a companion
(don't you just love those eyes?!)

I'm not an owl person but all three pieces I have stitched on this month have been owls. Just a coincidence perhaps? Or is somebody trying to tell me something?

November might see a bit more progress on my Challenge pieces but that very much depends on how obsessed I remain with the monochrome Owls in Love.

As for next year's Crazy Challenge..... I may have recently increased my stash of charts but I'm sticking to my plan and definitely only joining in with the 31 new starts in January. In fact, most of my stitching for the whole year has been planned so no amount of hinting will get me to change my mind - sorry!!

I'll be back soon with an Owls In Love update.

Take care and if you celebrate it, Happy Halloween.
Rachel x

Birthday Stash

Afternoon all!

As stitchers and stashers we all love receiving cross stitch goodies, even if we tell ourselves that we have enough things and don't need any more. I am no exception!

When it comes to birthday and Christmas presents from my mum, I am very cheeky! You see, she rarely goes out and can't browse the www for bargains as I do, so if I see a cross stitch item I like I often buy it on her behalf. This year I have (she has) been collecting Lizzie Kate charts so yesterday I received the following "surprise" birthday presents from her:

Lizzie Kate A-B-C-razy

Lizzie Kate Tiny Tidings VIII, IX, X, XIV and XV

Lizzie Kate Santas 1999, 2000, 2001, 2007 and 2012

Thanks mum! I love them all!

These will definitely be put to good use as, during 2016, I intend to stitch one LK ornament each month in the same way I have been stitching a LK flip-it stamp each month this year. They are small and easy enough to start and finish in a few days so will not add to my huge pile of WIPs. And I already have the fabric - nothing like forward-planning!

The more eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that I have already used the A-B-C-razy chart for the little I and J fobs I stitched a couple of weeks ago. I cheekily borrowed the chart before my mum wrapped it!

The postman and internet also delivered surprise goodies from my two bestest stitching buddies.

Ingrid was a VERY naughty girl and gave me the other three charts in the Lizzie Kate Seasonal Alphabet collection to go with the Spring Alphabet I already have.

Lizzie Kate Summer, Autumn and Winter Alphabets

Justine gave me a voucher with which I wanted to buy something special and completely different rather than "yet another" LK chart! Bearing in mind that Justine had previously given me a selection of Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Halloween-themed hand-dyed threads, I did go completely different and bought two Halloween-themed charts on which I can use those gorgeous threads. I shall certainly have fun choosing which fabrics and colours to use for these designs! Purple pumpkin anybody!!

White Willow Stitching

Tribal Pumpkin and Tribal Witch Hat

(pictures taken from sewandso.co.uk)

Thank you both so very much for your generosity. Now all I need to do is slip these additional projects into my 2016 stitching schedule as "special" pieces.

Right, enough yapping. With so many WIPs and potential new starts calling me I had better go and do some stitching!

All the best :)
Rachel x