Link-up For Fully Finished Gallery SAL - April 2025

Hello all!

It's the 10th of the month so therefore time for the Fully Finished Gallery SAL. This is the place to show your cross stitched FFOing achievements since your last link-up.

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.

This month I have just two very small and very quick finishes. These are the Mouseloft kits I completed earlier this year after they had sat in my WIP pile for far too long. It was literally a case of cutting them to size and popping them into the little frames; a task which took no more than ten minutes!

Now it's your turn.

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 April.

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And please don't forget to follow other links and support fellow fully-finish-offers.

See you again next month!

Take care,
Rachel x

Smalls SAL link-up - March 2025

Hi all!

It's the last Friday of the month so welcome to the Smalls SAL!

Entries can be anything Small you have cross stitched during the month, be it an individual piece, part of a set, a portion of a big design, or even an unfinished Small if you haven't been able to complete it. All Smalls, or part(s) thereof, are welcome!

This month I am back to having just the one Small; the Nordic Advent Calendar piece. And, as usual, the design has been adjusted to account for the omitted number, and the colours adjusted more to my liking!

Nordic Advent day 3 - Hope by Zindagi Designs (etsy)

Stitched on 16ct White aida with pearl/iridescent flecks

Started - 1st March 2025

Finished - 7th March 2025

Total Stitching Time - 5 hours

There are a couple of Smalls I am close to finishing, but I'll save the reveal for another post.

Now it's your turn.

Please link up using the URL of your Smalls SAL post, with a title (usually your name) and a thumbnail. The link will stay open until 10th March.

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I look forward to seeing your contributions!

See you again next month.

Take care,

Rachel x

Link-up For Fully Finished Gallery SAL - March 2025

Hello all!

It's the 10th of the month so therefore time for the Fully Finished Gallery SAL. This is the place to show your cross stitched FFOing achievements since your last link-up.

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.

Following on from how pleased I was with last month's finish of the trio of dolphins, I decided to FFO my trio of parrots the same way... well, almost the same. They are the same size and shape but, as you can see, I used three different colours of card, ribbon and washi tape instead of one, and cut square apertures instead of round. You can't see it from the pictures, but there's also a bit of wadding behind each one to give it a bit of a 'puffy' look:

Now it's your turn.

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 March.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
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And please don't forget to follow other links and support fellow fully-finish-offers.

See you again next month!

Take care,
Rachel x

Smalls SAL link up - February 2025

Hi all!

It's the last Friday of the month so welcome to the Smalls SAL!

Entries can be anything Small you have cross stitched during the month, be it an individual piece, part of a set, a portion of a big design, or even an unfinished Small if you haven't been able to complete it. All Smalls, or part(s) thereof, are welcome!

This month I have three smalls.

The first is one of the Nordic Advent Calendar pieces which I stitch specifically for this SAL. And as usual I have altered the design slightly to take into account the fact I omit the number:

Nordic Advent day 5 - Bauble by Zindagi Designs (etsy)

Stitched on 16ct White aida with pearl/iridescent flecks

Started - 1st February 2025

Finished - 6th February 2025

Total Stitching Time - 5 hours 15 minutes

The other two Smalls you might have seen in previous posts as finishes from my WIP pile:

Japan (Mount Fuji) Bauble

Night Lantern Stamp

Now it's your turn.

Please link up using the URL of your Smalls SAL post, with a title (usually your name) and a thumbnail. The link will stay open until 10th March.

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I look forward to seeing your contributions!

See you again next month.

Take care,

Rachel x

Night Lantern Stamp - finished!

Hi all!

I have another finish!

This is one of my four 2022 Mischievous March starts, although only the second to be completed.

Here's how I left Night Lantern Stamp after returning and adding a bit to it in 2023...

... and here it is completed:

Night Lantern Stamp by SweetAnnet (etsy)

Stitched on 16ct cream aida

Started - 26th March 2022

Finished - 20th February 2025

Total stitching time - 15 hours 40 minutes

The frosted white and gold beads replace charted white and yellow french knots respectively. I don't think they look as good as the french knots would but as french knots are a definite no-go area for me, beads it was. And I'm still really really happy with the finish.

At the moment, I'm getting on well with this new 'no-plans' approach to my stitching. I never thought I'd be a OAAT stitcher but I'm finding it really satisfying to simply pick up a WIP and stitch a little each day until the project is completed. Of course, it helps that these are small projects so maybe that will change once I've exhausted my supply of small WIPs, but that's quite a way off yet!

Having said that, this was a Mischievous March project and since March is almost upon us I am at odds about whether to start four new projects for Mischievous March 2025. Part of me wants to (well, why not?) but I'm also asking myself if I want increase my WIPs again. I've got a week to make up my mind...

Take care,

Rachel x

 

Link-up For Fully Finished Gallery SAL - February 2024

Hello all!

It's the 10th of the month so therefore time for the Fully Finished Gallery SAL. This is the place to show your cross stitched FFOing achievements since your last link-up.

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.

For February I have a trio of finishes. These are three dolphins from LaSelvaDesign on etsy which I stitched at the end of 2023 and had intended to FFO using this fabric:

However, I changed my mind and finished them as a trio of hanging cards.

I sandwiched the dolphins between two pieces of card (the front obviously having an aperture cut into it!) and with a piece of 2oz wadding behind, and strung them together with pieces of ribbon. I then used washi tape around the edges and in the corners of the card to hide the joins. I can't tell you how happy I am at how they turned out. For size reference, each card is 10cmx10cm:

Now it's your turn.

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 February.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
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And please don't forget to follow other links and support fellow fully-finish-offers.

See you again next month!

Take care,
Rachel x

Japan (Mount Fuji) Bauble - finished!

Hi all!

After the success of showing three Small finishes in the Smalls SAL post, I'm back with another one!

This was the final of the four pieces started for Mischievous March last year.

Here's how I left it after 3h 30m of work:

... and here it is completed:

Japan (Mount Fuji) Bauble by 1000sPatterns (etsy)

Stitched on 16ct Cloud Spring Sky aida

Started - 4th March 2024

Finished - 31st January 2025

Total stitching time - 10 hours 5 minutes

It is supposed to have a bauble top but I just wanted it to be a circle so left it out and adjusted the pattern to compensate. Considering how small it is (39 x 38) I love how this turned out. Now to add this to my Box Of Shame whilst working out how to fully-finish it.

In the meantime I need to find another WIP to finish...

Take care,

Rachel x

Smalls SAL link up - January 2025 (including three Small WIP finishes!)

Hi all!

And welcome to the first Smalls SAL of 2025!

Entries can be anything Small you have cross stitched during the month, be it an individual piece, part of a set, a portion of a big design, or even an unfinished Small if you haven't been able to complete it. All Smalls, or part(s) thereof, are welcome!

As happens to a lot of us in January, I'm off to a flying start with four - yes, four - entries! One was a January new start, the other three were WIPs.

First is one of the Nordic Advent Calendar pieces which I would like to stitch at one a month specifically for this SAL. As usual I have left off the number and adjusted the pattern a little:

Nordic Advent day 7 - Heart by Zindagi Designs (etsy)

Stitched on 16ct White aida with pearl/iridescent flecks

Started - 1st January 2025

Finished - 10th January 2025

Total Stitching Time - 6 hours 45 minutes

So having finished the Smalls SAL piece I was free to work on whatever I wanted, and that gave me a choice of 63 WIPs!

I started with one left over from Mischievous March 2024, having decided it was small and simple enough to not require much brain power. There is supposed to be a spider on the left of the pumpkin but that is one thing I absolutely won't stitch. Here's the finish:

Halloween Pumpkin (magazine chart)

Stitched on 16ct Azalea aida

Started - 11th March 2024

Finished - 20th January 2025

Total Stitching Time - 11 hours 55 minutes

Then I went right back to my fourth oldest WIP. I started this back in 2008 and wasn't sure why I had never finished it. Then I discovered that I was using some of the DMC metallic threads, including for the backstitching, and they are really awful to work with. I'd left it with only the two eyes, the eight crumbs and the majority of the backstitching to do, so just over one hour (and a lot of frustration) later I had another Small finish:

Greedy Robin by Mouseloft

Stitched on 14ct cream aida

Started - September 2008

Finished - 21st January 2025

Total Stitching Time - 4 hours 5 minutes

Then I picked up another WIP from 2008. This one was put aside after stitching just the giraffe's face as it had bad memories attached to it. But 16 years have made a difference so I bit the bullet and finished it in just under two hours:

Giraffe by Mouseloft

Stitched on 14ct rustic green aida

Started - March 2008

Finished - 23rd January 2025

Total Stitching Time - 3 hours 5 minutes

So not only is that a good Smalls start, it's also a good start for the year, and clears out three old WIPs, which made me question why I'd never finished them sooner! Only 60 WIPs now left to choose from!

Now it's your turn.

Please link up using the URL of your Smalls SAL post, with a title (usually your name) and a thumbnail. The link will stay open until 10th February.

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Back next month, but probably not with four Smalls!

Take care,

Rachel x

Link-up For Fully Finished Gallery SAL - January 2025

Hello all!

It's the 10th of January and therefore time for the first Fully Finished Gallery SAL of 2025. This is the place to show your cross stitched FFOing achievements since your last link-up.

And here's the new logo:

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.

In January I usually take a look back at the previous year but I haven't quite finished updating the stats so I'll do the review next month.

What I have been doing, though, is re-familiarising myself with all my stitching, especially WIPs and UFOs both of which are quite numerous! Funnily enough, it's the UFOs which caught my attention more but I'll be happy if I can do a bit of both. So far so good this year.

So start off 2025 I have just one finish. This is the April Biscornu, started during Mischievous March 2024 and finished last November. As with all biscornus, it's been whip stitched and completed with a matching button:

Now it's your turn.

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.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
If this widget does not appear, click here to display it.

And please don't forget to follow other links and support fellow fully-finish-offers.

See you again next month!

Take care,
Rachel x

Annual Stitching Plans 2025

Good morning again and Happy New Year 2025!!

So this first-of-January post is usually full of all sorts of ridiculous and overambitious plans... but not this year.

This year I want to focus on three things using teeny tiny steps:

1) Post the two SALs I host on time each month and with actual content.

FFG SAL - 10th of the month

Smalls SAL - last Friday of the month

2) Catch up with blog reading, emails, comments and replies.

3) Stitch regularly, and preferably on WIPs for the Smalls SAL.

And that's it. Nothing ambitious, just the basics.

If things start to improve and I can get more done than this, then I will consider that a massive win.

I so desperately want to get back into stitching but nothing seems to work for long. I am really hoping the New Year will provide the psychological effect for wiping the past clean and only looking forward.

Oh, there is one other thing... I will, over no specific time, frame be contacting all of you who have stuck with me. I know I have been unreliable at posting and rude for not reading emails or replying to comments, but I want that to change.

So all that remains for me to say at the moment is, Happy New Year, and I hope it is filled with happiness, good health, and lots of stitching!

Take care,

Rachel x