Smalls SAL - March 2018

Hello everybody!

It's the last Friday of the month again so time to check in with the Smalls SAL run by Heather of Stitching Lotus.

This month I stitched another piece of cheeky fruit. May I introduce Percy Pear:

Pear from Fabulous Fruit
Designed by Jenny Barton in Cross Stitch Crazy magazine issue 192 (I think)

Stitched on 16ct Lichen over-dyed aida from sewitall.com 2 over 1
Stitch count - 29 wide by 39 high
Started - 1st March 2018
Finished - 4th March 2018
Total stitching time - 4 hours 30 minutes

I don't think he's quite as cute as January's raspberry but he's still a lot of fun and looking forward to great big hug!

And, as usual, he's been finished in my usual way:

Next month... a second Australian tweety.

Take care,

Rachel x

Haunted House Bell Pull - 30 hours

Hello all!

I just couldn't wait to get back to this piece! It's been sitting in my peripheral vision all month but I resisted temptation until my planned stitching had been completed.

I finally filled in the missing bit of chimney pot before finishing off the remaining backstitching around the window and then working down.

So it's now gone from this:

To this:

And means I'm about half way through.

If all goes well I should be able to fit in another 10 hours before the end of the month. I really hope so as I love this piece sooooo much!

For those who have asked or are interested, this pattern and its big sister were purchased from patternsonline.com. Happy browsing! Disclaimer... I am not responsible (you know who you are) for your purse strings...!!!

Take care,
Rachel x

1 Box of Shame Finish - Birds With Umbrella

Morning all!

The pace at which I'm finishing off my Box of Shame pieces has substantially decreased now that the little pieces are out of the way but I did finish one last week - Birds With Umbrella, a silly and simple free pattern from my-cross-stitch-patterns.com. I knew this piece was not important enough to warrant framing so - surprise surprise - have made another little cushion with perfectly-matching backing fabric. No hanging loop this time though. The colours in the first picture are not as accurate as those in the other two.

So that's another one down but still loads more to go! Time to do some framing now perhaps...

Take care,
Rachel x

Spring Alphabet - finished

Hello all!

This month's finish from my Challenge WIPs was Lizzie Kate's Spring Alphabet. I'm going to repeat myself by saying it was another enjoyable stitch, especially as each little section felt like a mini finish.

At the end of last month I left it like this:

And now completed, including the charm and buttons:

Spring Alphabet by Lizzie Kate

Stitched on 16ct Cloud Pink over-dyed aida by sewitall.com 2 over 1
Stitch count 112 wide by 158 high

Started - 22nd January 2016

Finished - 9th March 2018

Total stitching time - 34 hours 40 minutes

Amusingly, the large motif under the Q is a bug (presumably a ladybird?) on a leaf, not a badly-coloured straw hat or a flying saucer as I originally thought!

Autumn was finished back in 2015 and I plan to finish both the Summer and Winter Alphabets later this year after which I will frame them all at the same time.

Take care,
Rachel x

Blogoversary Giveaway Winner

Good afternoon all!

Just a short post to announce the winner of my blogoversary giveaway this year.

Entries were:

(1) Linda,  (2) Faith,  (3) Marie,  (4) Pull the other thread,  (5) Katie,  (6) Preeti.

... so not many, which means each of you were in with a good chance of winning (I get less and less entrants each year, so pop back next year and you might be the only one!)

I programmed the RNG and the number it chose was... drum roll please...

2 - Faith

Congratulations, Faith! If you leave a comment I'll get back to you and see if we can sort out an e-voucher of some sort.

For those who didn't win, sorry :(  and better luck next year.

Take care,
Rachel x

Haunted House Bell Pull - 20 hours

Hello all!

After I'd finished my compulsory stitching in February I had just about enough time to fit in another 10 hours on my Haunted House Bell Pull by Stoney Creek.

Annoyingly, I was very close to finishing a section - about another 30 minutes of backstitching would have completed it - but 10 hours is 10 hours so there I stopped.

So it's now gone from this:

To this:

Which means I'm about a third of the way through.

I'm really hoping to get another 10 or more hours stitched on this in March (including filling in the missing chimney top) but we'll see how it goes. Lots more other stuff to stitch on first!

Take care,
Rachel x

4th Blogoversary Giveaway

Good morning everyone!

It's the 3rd March so I'm four years old today!! Happy blogoversary to me!

Another year gone by, another year older, and another giveaway for one lucky person!

I say this every year but I can't believe it's another year since I started this blog! I say this every year too but where has the time gone?!

Looking back I've had four very successful years of stitching. For once I won't bore you with statistics, but looking at the finished projects on my wall, all of my recently finished ornies and how many blog postings I've made indicates just how much I have achieved.

And I still have so much more to achieve if I carry on whipping my WIPs and avoiding too many new starts (for the next couple of years anyway!)

Since I rarely hold giveaways during the year I like to celebrate my blogoversary by rewarding one lucky follower with a gift. So, in true form, up for grabs is the usual £10, or local currency equivalent, e-gift voucher for the store of your choice. All you have to do to win is:

1) be a follower of my blog via the link on the left (email followers will not be included) and
2) leave a comment stating you would like to be entered into the draw

Simple!

You have one week until 9am GMT on 10th March 2017 to enter, after which a winner will be chosen by Random Number Generator and a post made. I'll get the voucher out to the winner once we've exchanged emails and your store has been selected.

Good luck!
Rachel x

February Progress on 2015/2016 Challenge Pieces

Hello there!

Another month has flown past already so it's time to check in with my stitching for February on my outstanding WIPs started back in 2015/2016. Remember that my aim is to finish one and work on two more each month. So, how did I do?

Well, I finished Spring from The Four Seasons (posted previously) and worked on:

Spring Alphabet by Lizzie Kate

started 22nd January 2016; worked on last month

completed fifth and half of sixth rows

Canal Crossing by Heritage Crafts
started 10th February 2015; last stitched on 26th April 2015
worked my way down and across from the top right

I also ripped out and re-stitched the green I was not totally happy with on the Spring Alphabet. I chose the best brightish olive green match I could find so now the 'wrong' green...

has been replaced with a better green (particularly noticeable in the trefoil):

Much better, don't you think? I'm certainly a lot happier and think it was definitely worth the additional 5 hours it took to rip and restitch these sections and a few more odd bits.

In March I should be able to finish Spring Alphabet and make further progress on Canal Crossing and another project from my very slowly shrinking bag of WIPs.

Take care,
Rachel x