SFS - May

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From last month the carry over was € 29.59

This month:

Month: May
Budget:  € 25.00
Spent: €20.00
Earned: € 14.68
Carry over: (€ 29.59 + € 14.68 + € 25.00) - € 20.00 = € 49.27

My spending:

This month I bought some beads to do my May and June ornaments. In the photo's on the bead site the beads to the left looked like they were transparent with a nice rainbow like sparkle but in reality they are blueish rather than anything else so will not be use able as "moonstone" for the June ornament. The green beads were bought for May's Emerald ornament, I was happy to find I'd chosen a good colour. On the far right you can see beads that are for July's ornament. The string of beads below them all are real moonstone chips. As I had a coupon I only had to pay € 20.00.

Gifts:

As always the site kindly included some lovely beads for me as a gift packed in a cute gift bag, this month the string of beads did not match what I'd already bought but were the same as I'd received previously, which means that I now have more in stock - a wonderful thing!

At the end of April my darling bf came to visit and somehow managed to fit all this into his bag for me and the kids, including 2 cross stitch magazines and 5 packs of craft thread to top up what I already had. Much feasting was had due to the yummy foods brought along and I spent an age putting the 100 skeins of craft thread onto bobbins - 2 of each colour per packet, with only a couple of overlaps between the packs and between what I already had.

Here you can see all my craft thread in their box just waiting for me to need some for tassels, cord or anything else I need a lot of thread for - I just love having this on hand!

My subscription stuff:

I have a monthly subscription at Jodyri for the monthly hand dyed fabric, monthly hand dyed thread and a subscription for a set of 5 threads from the standard collection. May's theme was Birthday Candles as it's the site's second year of doing business.

 

My earnings:

The May ornaments:
This month I finished 2 ornaments as usual using the pattern I've made for my Ornament of the Month SAL. The fabric is 16ct antique white Aida that I got last summer when I was in the UK and the threads are from my stash, most of which were collected before 1995 though of course I have since added any new colours and topped up colours I finished. The seed beads I bought this month and the pendent beads I already had.
















As you can see the photo's were taken on different days, in reality they are both the same colour. The bigger ornament is 47 stitches square and the smaller one 35 stitches square so each ornament earns me $ 4.00 each for a total of $ 8.00 which according to the currency converter today is € 7.34

Fob a Month May Edition:




















For May's Fob a Month I made a two sided fob - one red and one blue. I used fabric thread and beads mostly from older stash, but one of the threads was bought last month. You can find the pattern here:  A Fob a Month - 3. It's 28 x 36 stitches, which according to the rules should be calculated to a square (28+36 = 64/2=32) so the fob earns me $ 4.00 per side for a total of $ 8.00 which is € 7.34

This brings my total earnings at:  € 7.34 + € 7.34 = € 14.68

I have not finished anything else yet but I have been working very hard to make June's ornaments as there are 3 birthstones in June, one of which has 2 very different colours depending on the light source, so I designed a pattern for each! I will also have to complete Celtic Wolf - the beading was a disaster so I'm back to stitching the neck area after all - the deadline for this is June 30th. So next month there will be lots of finishes.

A Fob a Month - 3

It is again that time of the month when I bring you a new fob design. This month my mind turned to Crete, the lovely blue sea they have and that special colour in the sky I can only dream about seeing where I live. The Legends of Crete talk about the Minotaur - a bull headed person who lived in the labyrinth under the palace killing anyone who entered. All these things have ended up on the fob - the colours of the sea, sky, blood (both old and new) and the head of the Minotaur, though not all on the same side of the 2 sided fob.

I decided to use DMC Colour Variations as the base, though any variegated thread will do, you just need it to have 4 colours you can match to plain threads for this to work. This of course also means you can take your favourite Colour Variations and pick your colours from that if you don't like the blue/red combination I chose for this.

The fob is 2 5/8" high and 2" wide, 28 x 36 stitches.

What you need to make the example above:

• 2 pieces of 4 1/2" x 4", I used 28ct light brown Jobelan
• DMC thread in the following colours:
• 995
• 3843
• 3845
• 3846
• 4022 (Colour Variations)
• B 5200
• 349
• 3350
• 3685
• 3801
• 4205 (Colour Variations)
• Your stuffing of choice
• Blue and red thread for the tassel and cord, I used the threads that were leftover after stitching, some just one thread, some more, you could choose one colour, or even white.
• DMC or thread to coordinate 
• Blue and red transparent seed beads.

You can find the patterns here

Instructions: First stitch the two sides of the fob or, if you prefer, just do one side and use another fabric for the back. The red backstitch lines are the stitching lines to make the fob.

If you wish to use the closing method often used for a biscornu then back stitch the red lines on both the front and the back, then cut a short way away from the back stitching. Whip stitch the sides together right sides out. Include the cord and tassel at the top and bottom while closing the seam, remembering to add some stuffing before closing the last bit.

Otherwise use the red back stitch lines to make a template, mark it out on the back of the fabric and cut the pieces out about 1/4 inch away from the cutting lines. Pin the loop and tassel in the right places making sure to have them ticked between the layers and only have the ends that will be on the inside sticking out. Turn, stuff, and sew the final seam shut.

I hope you enjoy these patterns, please do share a link to yours if you make them!

Ornament of the Month - May

It's not only the first Friday of the month but the first day of the month and that also brings you the monthly ornament! This month the birthstone is Emerald and fortunately DMC has some lovely emerald colours. The pattern is inspired in part by the "gingerbread" trimming Victorian houses have, something I love and always reminds me of Christmas. In the centre is a flower surrounded by wispy leaves.

Ornament of the Month - May

This month things are a bit hectic so I decided not to wait till I'd done the garland ornament before posting about it, but to do it straight away. May's birthstone of the month is Emerald - a lovely colour to use and very easy to find the right colours for! I was inspired this month by the "gingerbread" trimmings that Victorian houses have along the roof lines - it's so pretty and always reminds me of Christmas. I decided to add this to the border of the ornament to mimic that feel. I was going to do 4 Christmas trees in the middle but it ended up looking more like a flower - I found I loved the way this looked though, so I decided to keep it. The backstitching is meant to represent the very fragile wispy leaf fronds some flowers have.


I had to order some seed beads for this as I wasn't entirely happy with the many greens I already had, they just didn't have the exact shade of emerald I was looking for, most were just too dark.

I have learned my lesson (for now) with all the backstitching last month so this month has a lot less, the backstitching fans amongst you won't be so happy but people (like me hehe) that don't like it so much will breathe a sigh of relief!

Both designs are stitched on 16ct antique white Aida with 3 colours of DMC - pattern can be found here: Ornament of the Month - May - The hanging loops are made with craft thread. The beads along the edges are size 11 TOHO Silver lined Green Emerald (TR-11-36) seed beads that I loved using as they can be stitched with a size 28 tapestry needle.

I shall post the garland finish as soon as I have completed it.