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Sunday 10 January 2021

Link-up For Fully Finished Gallery SAL - January 2021

Hello all!

It's the 10th of the month so time for another Fully Finished Gallery SAL, the place to show your FFOing achievements since your last link-up.

And this year there is a new logo! I thought I'd go Ye Olde Worlde, with a scroll of parchment written (on purpose) in Blackadder font. It's available on my sidebar if you want to grab it.



The link-up for this SAL opens on the 10th of each month and stays open for 10 days so you can join in whenever you're ready.



But before delving into this month's FFOs, let's take a look back at 2020.

In 2020, 394 FFOs were submitted by 18 different bloggers - fairly comparable to the 389 FFOs by 23 participants in 2019. That's amazing! Thank you all so much, not only for joining in, but in taking the time to create wonderful fully-finished objects from your beautiful stitching.

For those who like statistics, here's how many participated and how many entries were received each month:




Apart from June, there's a fairly good correlation between the two, with obvious enthusiasm at the beginning and end of the year waning a little in the middle.

This FFG SAL isn't competitive, but I do have to do a few shout-outs to:

* Jo, Leonore, Mary H and Suzanne who linked up every month.
* Jo who submitted the most FFOs during the year with 55, closely followed by Suzanne with 51.
* Katie who submitted the most entries in one month with 19 in January.

But well done all of you; even one FFO is one less in those Boxes/Drawers/Cupboards Of Shame!


So let's see what 2021 brings - any guesses as to how many FFOs could be achieved this year? There's probably not as much of a backlog as in previous years, so I'm expecting numbers to be a little lower.

Having said that, I had an FFOing binge during Twixmas so am starting the year off with 17!

First up is Daisy Hugs, a start from 2015 finished in December 2020. It's FFOd to match last month's Daisy Umbrella, on metallic card with some gems for a bit of bling and a ribbon bow to finish:



Next up, October's Smalls SAL piece, Witchy Spookie Hootie. He's been mounted in a frame made from black card covered with black glittered felt, with ribbon added for a hanging loop and ric-rac for an extra bit of colour:



Then we have November and December's Smalls SAL pieces, two Christmas Words Cards by Durene Jones. For these I used foam mounting board, covering the back piece with sparkly fabric and the front piece with the padded cross stitch. Silver and blue tinsel wool was added around the outside (to cover the join!) and as a hanging loop, and a little tassel added at the bottom:




And then the Gold Stars Christmas Tree started on Christmas Day and finished a few days later. The ornie was originally going to replicate the shape of the tree, but as I didn't want to lose the fabric it became a mini pillow, with gold and silver tinsel wool twisted together to create the edging, bow and hanger. Bling bling!



Finally, we have Durene Jones' Cute Animal Calendar. Although stitched on one piece of fabric for the 2017 Smalls SAL, I always intended to FFO each month separately. However, I didn't leave much space between them so had that nagging doubt about cutting the fabric. But on Boxing Day I took the plunge and turned this...


... into these...


... and then into these:









Each month's piece was stuck onto felt and then onto metallic linen-effect card. Ribbon was added as a hanging loop and onto which a button and a couple of raindrops were attached at the bottom.

I wanted to mix rather than match the purples, greens and blues and deliberately make each card different, but I just couldn't do it; apart from the backing card, my brain told me they all had to be identical! In some ways it's a shame, but it does mean that I can save other card-finishing ideas for another time.

So with 17 FFOs to start off the 2021 FFG SAL, it's now over to you.

Please link-up using the URL of your FFG SAL post and not the home page of your blog, adding a thumbnail of a finish and either your name or your blog name as the caption. The link-up will remain open for 10 days, closing at 6am UK time on 20th January.


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And please don't forget to follow other links and see what fellow fully-finishers have been up to; an encouraging comment can go a long way.

Next month's post will go live on 10th February at 6am UK time. Hope to see you there!

Take care,
Rachel x

13 comments:

  1. Thank you Rachel for doing this again this year, it really helps me finish my work and is full of inspirational finishes. You've a great collection this month, I love the sparkly edging.

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  2. Congrats on all of the beautiful finishes Rachel. The monthly animal are absolutely adorable. I so love the way you finished them. Sure wish I could do that.

    Linda

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  3. That's a lot of finishes to start the year! I'm glad you finally managed to find a way to finish your monthly animals. And I love the way you did the gold tree.

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  4. Ohhh I love all yours. The monthly pieces are perfect!!! Great start to the new year!!! I'm really going to try hard to participate all year....I hope....I really do. I pushed myself to get 2 for this check in. No sewing yet. But finishes so they count. If the stupid virus continues I bet we will have more than this year since we are all at home more often. We'll see.

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  5. Wow! So many gorgeous finishes and thanks for the stats - I do like a good stat!

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  6. I love all of your finishes. I especially love the colour combination in the little owl (green/purple). Jingle & Snow look very wintery. I have enjoyed seeing your calendar months (and Katie's) for the past few years now. I think I need to make a set for myself. I love how you finished them. Great FFG start to the year!!

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  7. They all look great Rachel. I like how you wanted to do they different but just couldn't! I think I may have the same issue when it comes to lots of things; I like sameness and symmetry! Tia says I have a touch of OCD but I am ok with that ;) Again congrats on all the fabulous finishes!

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  8. You've been busy, Rachel and you have a lovely selection of finishes. I didn't get my act together for this month but I will have something to show in February.
    Thanks for running Fully Finished Gallery again.

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  9. I LOVE the finish of the animal calendar! Really inspiring! <3

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  10. Wow you are certainly starting the year of strong! Well done getting the calendar pieces done, I can see how cutting them apart must have been very scary, but they look great now!

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  11. Thanks so much for the shout out. I only have one finish this month but I've done lots of stitching! Congrats to everyone who finished so many things in 2020. I still have a few things in my bin to finish that are not new starts, so maybe this year will be the year!

    Congrats on your finishes during "Twixmas". I love that word! I did lots of stitching and watched movies during my Twixmas vacation. Not one thing on my list of to do's was completed. :)

    Here's to lots of stitching and finishing in 2021!

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  12. Oh, I love those!! Well done on all the finishes, but I do like how the months came out.

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