Link-up For Fully Finished Gallery SAL - November 2022

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.

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.

I've got just the one this month.

This is Snuffles in yellow, August's Smalls SAL piece, FFOd with some semi-coordinating beads which I'm not all that happy with the colour, but were the best match I had; the yellows just looked wrong.

Now it's 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 November.

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I look forward to seeing your own contributions this month.

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

Take care,
Rachel x

People's Choice SAL - Travel

Hello all!

It's the first Saturday of the month so time for the People's Choice SAL run by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching. Continued thanks to Jo for hosting this unique SAL which has a different theme each month.

This month's theme is Travel.

To be honest, I'm not really interested in actually travelling to places - as in seeing the world for myself - but I do like pictures of scenery and special places. I haven't actually stitched much in the way of travel either.

I live close to London so am familiar with all of these sights in Satsuma Street's Pretty Little London:

And I've been to Paris a couple of times, so have visited most of these places in Satsuma Street's Pretty Little Paris too:

I'd like to stitch all of Satsuma Street's Pretty Little City designs but, well, you know!

During the Tokyo Olympics I made a start on all eight of Soda Stitch's A Journey Around The World designs, depicting sights in the UK, France, The Netherlands, Italy, USA, Russia, Korea and Mexico but, again, only made tiny starts on each of them, so here are their pictures instead!

And finally, although I have made lots of train journeys, especially when commuting to work in London, I've never been here...

... to take this train to this rather magical place!

And finally, as is customary, I'll show something I've seen. This is by Teeny Weeny Stitches on etsy and is a set of 63 scenes of America's National Parks (and a bonus one!) Now, there seems to be some debate on the interweb about how many National Parks there actually are, but these seem to cover most of them. Each design is only 40x44 and I think they're really sweet!

That's it for my travelling. Next month's theme is Glitter.

Take care,

Rachel x

Link-up For Fully Finished Gallery SAL - October 2022

Hello all!

Firstly, huge apologies for not getting this post up on time.

Secondly, I've cheated by back-posting it to when it should have been posted!

Thirdly, I've back-posted the two previous posts too, if you're interested.

Now I'm going to continue as if this was a normal post...

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.

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 it's back to one FFO, which is the the January Biscornu.

This was my first attempt at a biscornu, and certainly won't be my last. I think I may have pulled the whip stitching a bit tight, and overstuffed it a bit, but it was a learning curve. Here it is:

I've just realised I really should get a side picture of it; I'll try and do that and add it tomorrow.

Now it's 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 October.

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
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I look forward to seeing your own contributions this month.

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

Take care,
Rachel x

People's Choice SAL - Wild Animals

Hello all!

It's the first Saturday of the month so time for the People's Choice SAL run by Jo from Serendipitous Stitching. Continued thanks to Jo for hosting this unique SAL which has a different theme each month.

This month's theme is Wild Animals.

Back in August 2020, the theme of this SAL was 'Freedom' which I interpreted as being wild animals in their natural habitat, so many of my pieces which I would have included here, such as elephants, dolphins, koalas and pandas, have already been shown.

So, I'm going to think smaller; animals that live in the wild, but aren't particularly 'wild'.

Let's start off with five Harvest Mice, or rather the story of one mouse who likes more than a little bit to eat!

Or how about six little Woodland Folk by DMC. Toby, Ollie, Bert, Frankie, Molly and Sally aren't exactly intimidating, but they're still wild:

As are these Red Foxes from the Young'uns collection by Gloria and Pat. They look so cute, and since urban foxes can be quite 'tame' it's sometimes hard to accept they are actually wild (apart from when they howl or fight outside my house in the middle of the night!)

Finally, I'm going back to big wildlife with an I-wouldn't-touch-this-with-a-bargepole chart... The Amazing Animal Kingdom by Aimee Stewart, available where else but HAED. Like some other similar Aimee Stewart pictures, I might buy this as a print.

Next month's theme is Travel... I quite fancy a trip around the world!

Take care,

Rachel x

Smalls SAL - September 2022

Hello all!

It's the last Friday of the month so time for the Smalls SAL. Thank you, Mary, for continuing to host this fun little SAL. Pop over to Mary's Blog to see what other participants have been stitching in the way of Smalls this month.

Each month I stitch a small project specifically for this SAL which doesn't appear elsewhere on my blog.

But this month, for the first time in nearly eight years, I didn't :(

So the only small thing I have to show is the recently-finished biscornu by Magicalquilts, stitched on Bermuda aida using Jodyri thread Flowering Cactus:

It's already been FFOd, so you'll see it soon as an actual biscornu!

Next month's Small will be something spooky for Dark October - and I know that for a fact as it's already been stitched (but not shown as it's a gift).

Take care,
Rachel x

Back to zero!

Hi again!

Those who have been following me a long time will know that stitching every day, even if only for five minutes, is a bit of an obsession. 

Starting on 1st January 2015, I made it to 540 days before a trip to A&E with my son ended that streak.

Restarting on 26th June 2016, all looked well, right up to 20th September 2022 when, after 2278 stitching days in a row, the counter reset to zero and stayed there for Three. Full. Days.  :(

Although I'm a little frustrated, I can more than see the funny side of this obsession, so am OK if you want to laugh along with me at my 'failure'!

I have calculated it will take until 18th December 2028 to surpass 2278 days in a row again, and it made me wonder (a) if I'd make it, and (b) if I'd still be stitching the same WIPs I have now! Only time will tell...

Take care,

Rachel x

'January' Biscornu - started and finished!

Hi all,

Whilst life means I still can't stitch for long each night, and my plans for the last few months (and probably the remainder of the year) have long since flown away, I thought I'd stitch something I've wanted to try for a while - a biscornu.

With thanks to Leonore for providing the link, I armed myself with bright fabric and a Jodyri variegated thread and stitched the January Biscornu by Magicalquilts. The front is stitched as charted but the back is a simplified version containing only the cross-stitch elements.

January Biscornu by Magicalquilts

Stitched on 16ct Bermuda over-dyed aida with Jodyri thread 'Flowering Cactus'

Started - 19th August 2022

Finished - 7th September 2022

Total stitching time - 9 hours 40 minutes

I think it's going to look quite sweet once FFOd.

Now I've done one, I doubt this will be my last biscornu, especially as they're simple to stitch and aren't finished as one of my usual ornies! And since this is the 'January' biscornu by Magicalquilts, I still have another 11 months to choose from.

Take care,

Rachel x