2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL Part 10

Welcome back for part ten of the 2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL!  Some of you may not have noticed but in the seventh pattern I made a mistake which Judi pointed out to me over on Facebook: I'd missed a stitch out! Many of you stitched it as it was meant to be - with the stitch in place keeping things symmetrical however if you followed the pattern exactly as given then you need to add a stitch still.

2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL Part 9

Welcome back for part nine of the 2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL! Hopefully there have been times during this SAL that you have been caught up, even if it was only for a few minutes before the next part drops! If not don't worry... this isn't a race, just a bit of fun and not everyone has the same amount of free time - or stitching speed. There is after all, only one Speedy Gonzales!

2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL Part 8

Welcome back for part eight of the 2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL! We are now at the half way point for the SAL with just seven parts left! I'm sure you are eager to see what's next but first the picture of what I have done so far.

2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL Part 7

Welcome back for part seven of the 2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL! We are getting close to the half way point - just one more pattern to go! How are the guesses going for what's going to be the end result? I'm fairly certain you didn't expect what you will find in this part's pattern!

2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL Part 6

Welcome to part six of the 2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL! Hopefully you have all been able to more or less keep up! I have seen some wonderful embroideries in the Facebook group - in all sorts of colours, some even on beautiful hand dyed fabric! Can you guess what it will be yet? If not don't worry, you weren't supposed to be able to yet hehe.

2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL Part 5

Welcome back for the fifth part of the NYE Mystery! I hope stitching is going well. When I was stitching this part I was so caught up stitching I forgot one important thing... to take the photo before rushing off to do part five! So this time you will have to make do with a digitally rendered version.

2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL Part 4

Welcome back for part four of the 2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL! If all is well you have now stitched up to part three of the SAL - if not go back and get that done first! Though I'm sure you are dying to know what's next.

2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL Part 3

Welcome back for part three of the 2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL! If all is well you have now stitched up to part two of the SAL - if not go back and get that done first! It's more fun if you don't sneak a peek at what is to come.

2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL - Part 2

Welcome to the NYE Mystery SAL! If you found my blog in time, had enough in your stash (or been out shopping), and had time then you will have stitched part one already. For the next 56 hours you will be given a new part for the mystery pattern every four hours - starting now! Just in case you missed the first post about it here is the post with the information about the NYE Mystery SAL (it's also part one so if you clicked that link then you have seen it already)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! By the time this pops up in your RSS feed I will be having our traditional Christmas breakfast with the kids - more of a buffet than a sit down breakfast as I just put Dutch sugar bread, Italian Panettone, German style stollen, raisin bread, assorted packs of fruit juice, and butter on the table and they graze as per their hunger levels until I clear it up. They get to open their gifts before we eat, though I will be caffeinating while we do this as I NEED coffee in the am to function.

Freebie: Christmas Trees

Happy Christmas Eve! I hope all the last minute things are going to plan - or at least more to plan than mine as I have discovered that my dinner plans for tonight have to change as the thing I ordered from the supermarket is not available any more (never mind that I ordered 10 days ago!). I guess I will have to enter a shop to sort it out. Back to the reason for this post: Another pre-Christmas freebie! This time a Christmas tree filled with Christmas trees - perfect for using up bits of leftover floss as each tree is only 28 stitches in total.

25 x 25 for 2019

 25 x 25 is pretty small but gives space to do lots of fun stuff - and to make lots of fun stuff too! You can make a fob, ornament, earrings, or even a pendant with them if you wish! In some cases the pattern will tessellate nicely and you could make it as big as you wish!

50 x 50 for 2019

50 x 50 is a really nice size for making patterns that can be used for a wide variety of things... pincushions, biscornu, cards, ornaments, and framed pictures - you name it, the patterns can be used to make it! The patterns for this year each use only one colour so are perfect for trying out variegated threads or speciality threads before embarking on a larger project with them.

Freebie: Snowflakes

Happy Sunday! I hope all of you are not too rushed with Christmas preparations! Today's freebie is a versatile pattern that can be used for lots of things due to its size and shape. It could be an ornament, a card, a coaster - you name it! Just use your imagination and adjust the colours if you have or prefer other colours than the ones I picked.

Ornament of the Month 2019

I wasn't going to do an overview post for this SAL as it's been ongoing for a while but then I decided it would be a good idea for people new to the SAL to have a place to start if they want to join in, so here it is! When I first started this SAL back in 2015 I wanted to make an ornament a month for an entire year so at the end of it I'd have twelve ornaments for my Christmas tree. I chose birthstones as my theme and then discovered that which stones they are depends on where you live. So instead of just picking one and leaving it at that for every month that had more I made more patterns! In the end I'd made 19 patterns which I tried to stitch twice every month - which I didn't always manage.

Finish it in 2019

Way back in 2012 I started attacking my Cross stitch UFOs (UnFinished Objects) that had been lurking in the back of a cupboard haunting me as they do if left too long. I got eight done that year, mostly smalls but still a good start. In 2013 I decided to make it a more "official" thing to do and called my project "Finish it in 2013" hoping to complete ALL of my UFO's that I had at the time. Unfortunately I didn't manage that and some are still UFOs to this day! Looking back I didn't do too much UFO finishing but I did still do a lot of things.

Blackwork SAL

This is the last of the SALs that gets posted on Tuesdays, and the smallest too, but you will certainly put what feels like a few miles of Holbein/double running stitch or backstitch in. During this SAL I will share a pattern using an assortment of traditional blackwork patterns, each of which you should be able to expand and use in other projects just working from the section given in this SAL. The picture above is NOT a section of the SAL - I'm keeping the patterns I'm including a secret for now. What I won't be keeping secret is the outline for the SAL - I thought it would be easier to let you stitch that before the SAL starts so you can add each part more easily.

Freebie: Snowflakes for Christmas

Happy Saturday! In the run (I typed rum to start with... I guess I need some to keep me going lol) up to Christmas I'm giving a few extra patterns just in case you have time to stitch a few extra ornaments or gifts.

Friday Freebie: Golden Star

Christmas is almost upon us and I'm sure many of you are busy doing last minute preparations - some because it's planned that way and some because eek time happened. I'm somewhere in the middle of those two... some things are going according to plan while others suddenly jump at me to remind me that things need doing - at least all the gift shopping is done!

Medieval Owl SAL

This has got to be one of the most complicated patterns I have ever offered as a SAL. But he's so fun I couldn't resist! I found this little chap hidden away in an illuminated manuscript some years ago, sadly I can't remember which one any more as that would have been fun to include right now but I'm pretty sure it was a bestiary, and have been fiddling around with the pattern ever since.

Mamluk Cross Stitch SAL

As patterns go the Mamluk Cross Stitch SAL isn't very big or very complicated but it is very old and as a result the pattern was drafted from the only surviving section of the embroidery. It's made from flax fabric and embroidered with cotton - as you can see above it's not very clear which colour it was before other than small fragments of red. I suspect it was probably black due to how black seems to discolour as it ages (I could be wrong, this is just a guess of mine and I'm not an expert in the field). Edit: It seems I was wrong... it was blue as can be seen in the Ashmolean link I posted below - which proves that I am indeed not an expert!

Weavers Birds SAL - Information and Border Pattern

After the success of last year's Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL I decided to make a somewhat smaller pattern based on the same weavers draft patterns found on the Antique Pattern Library for this year. The theme this year is birds.

2018/2019 NYE Mystery SAL!

Yes the time is upon us to prepare for the most fun NYE possible for us stitchers - well I hope it is anyway! Like last year we will be starting on what is December 30th for some and December 31st for the Australians etc. amongst us.

Friday Freebie: Fob a Month - December

Welcome to the last of the Fob a Month patterns - for now at least. If you have been enjoying these smaller patterns don't worry as I'll be doing a series of 25 x 25 stitch patterns next year! They will make great fobs if you use 14ct Aida/28ct evenweave. At the time of writing this I haven't yet made an overview post about these but some general information can be found in yesterday's post. That said on to the reason for this post: the Fob a Month for December! It being December I didn't have to think twice about which flower to choose: poinsettia - what could be more Christmassy?

SALs for 2019 - an Overview of Plans and Days

Next year is going to be super busy here when it comes to SAL's I have a lot of plans and idea's and will be making them happen in different ways. This is a post to let you know what I'm planning and when to expect things to happen! Note: This is an overview post so exact information for each SAL will be given at a later date.

Friday Freebie on a Saturday: Ornament of the Month - December

Welcome back for the twelfth Ornament of the Month! It's a little late as I have to admit that I completely forgot yesterday. This is the last pattern for this year and it has by far the most beads/French knots of any of the patterns - if done with beads it will be full of bling! Of course if you wish to use less beads/French knots then by all means do less - it's entirely up to you.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 48

Welcome back for the long awaited (and slightly late) last part of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! I do hope you have all enjoyed the ride and had fun stitching - I know I have loved seeing what you have all been up to week to week! I really do need to get round to posting some more pictures of what you have all stitched as the results have been amazing so far!

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 47

Welcome back for part 47 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! I'm sorry about the delay! I'd completely forgotten it was Tuesday - it's been so busy I'm messing up days. And that so close to the end of it all too - I bet you have all been chomping at the bit to get to this post.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 46

Welcome back for part 46 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! There is so little left of this pattern now I bet those of you who have had time to do the patterns as they were released can smell the end! I'm going to be mean though and stick to the schedule! Not much longer to wait though as the last part will be given before the end of this month - so if you are up to date (or still have a few weeks to do) there is still time to finish before Christmas!

Friday Freebie: Fob a Month - November

Welcome to the eleventh edition of the Fob a Month for 2018! While it might be a given to do the poppy in November because of Remembrance Day I won't be doing that because I did the poppy in August. I did however choose another of my favourite flowers instead: the Anemone. I love the white ones the most with the big purple-black centre so that's the one I designed.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 45

Welcome back for part 45 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! This week the first part of the last band. I do hope you enjoy this last band too! As some people showed in the past that they didn't like the partial beasts I am giving a second picture below to show how you can stitch the beasts instead to have no partial beasts.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - November

Welcome back for the eleventh Ornament of the Month! Now it's November, some of you may already be thinking about Christmas decorating - maybe some of you even have trees out! Personally I wait until after Sinterklaas (the Dutch "Santa") has been on December 5th before getting my tree up but that's mostly because with kids it's easier to do one holiday before the other rather than mixing them up. Now it's a family tradition to do it like this and the one time I did it a few days sooner as the kids no longer believed in Sinterklaas it felt really weird to have it up "that early" so I haven't done that again. I'd love to hear what your family or personal traditions are in this respect!

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 44

Welcome back for part 44 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! So... if you are in the USA or any other part of the world that didn't change to winter time last weekend this post is only a little late... if you are in Europe, where the clocks changed to winter time last weekend, this post is more than an hour late - sorry about that! All I can say in my defence is that I got caught up watching Heston Blumenthal first making a Gothic Horror dinner for six unsuspecting diners and then he made chicken tikka masala though I did manage to drag myself away before he started making the naan bread.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 43

Welcome back for part 43 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! This week you get the "missing" bits from last week's pattern section as well as this week's ten lines of stitching for a total of twelve lines of stitching. I'm very glad I realised what day of the week it was just in time to post this as I was busy stressing about my oldest son who just arrived in Italy for a school exchange trip - he will be fine but I always stress during the flight.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 42

Welcome back for part 42 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! This week is a little exciting as it's the end of the band - and shorter than usual as well for that very same reason! As always I like to round off the band with the separating band and not do any part of the following band just because one or two lines of stitching isn't nice to try and work in, especially if you are using multiple colours.

Friday Freebie: Fob a Month - October

Welcome to the tenth edition of the Fob a Month for 2018! This month is all about Halloween for many people and although my fob a month series has been flower themed I did sneak in a little Halloween anyway. One of my favourite autumn flowers is the humble dahlia. It's not always appreciated for what it is: a blaze of colour towards the end of the gardening season brightening things up with the many shapes and colours the flowers come in.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 41

Welcome back for part 41 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! I'm so sorry this is delayed! I had a parent's evening and expected to be home on time so I could get this post made before it was time to go up - as you can tell I didn't.

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - October

Welcome back for the tenth Ornament of the Month! A few people may recognise the images below - they were the ones you might have briefly been able to see last month when I posted the incorrect images and posted this month's instead, fortunately I got last month's pattern correct so not all was released too soon! This month the correct images and pattern have been included. The colours remind me of pumpkins and Halloween.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 40

Welcome back for part 40 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! After this week there will be just 8 more weeks of patterns and if you have been able to keep up (unlike me hehe) then it will be finished! But first we continue with the ninth band...

Friday Freebie: Arabic Tiles

Happy Friday - though as it's fairly late here in Europe it's probably not Friday any more for many of you. It's been a busy day for me but I got lots done, but as always not always things I *should* have been doing - it seems to go that way for me quite frequently but I expect I'm not the only one this happens to.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 39

Welcome back for part 39 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! This week I finally got back to stitching this project! If you look below you will see it in all its glory as I took a photo of it all today.

Friday Freebie: So Many Plus Points

Happy Friday! This week's Friday freebie can be made any size you wish as you can add in or leave out as much or as little as you like with this pattern. If you don't like the colours you can easily change them to colours you prefer too as all you need are a light, medium, and a dark of two colours and replace accordingly.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 38

Welcome back for part 38 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! The new washing machine arrived and got to work very hard over the weekend as I caught up on wash! I'm also almost all caught up with the Randje Per Week I've been working on - then I think that Weavers will be back on my desk for some TLC in the form of lots of stitching. This week you get half the main body as the pattern so a nice chunk of stitching!

Friday Freebie: Fob a Month - September

Welcome to the ninth edition of the Fob a Month for 2018! It's a bit later than usual for the Friday freebie but my new washing machine arrived at last and I was so focussed on playing the WMR game (Wash Mountain Reduction) I forgot it was Friday. This month I was inspired by Asters - while I'm not a fan of purple and pink I do love all the shades Asters have and picked a pale bluish purple for the pattern.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 37

Welcome back for part 37 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! I've been having some "fun" this past week as my washing machine died - and costs more to repair than a new one would (eeek) - so I've been doing some of the wash in an old baby bath tub with my sons as the power behind the wash. Think of the old westerns where they shoot at the guy's feet to make him "dance" and then think of 15/17 year old teenagers doing that (not at the same time!) in a baby blue baby bath (try saying that fast!) and you can see how amusing that is! I had the "joy" of rinsing it all out properly in the sink and then my poor drier had to deal with wetter than usual wash which of course took hours longer than usual as we just can't wring as much out as the 1600rpm spin cycle my washing machine had. Fortunately the new washing machine should arrive this week so I'll be able to catch up on the mountain of wash that's growing! But enough of my latest trial and tribulation (it's just there to keep my arm muscles toned, I'm sure of it!) time for this week's band!

Friday Freebie: Ornament of the Month - September

Welcome back for the ninth Ornament of the Month! With it being September the weather is being a bit more reasonable in temperature - and amount of rain. This is good for me as I've been able to get quite a bit of stitching done but on other projects at the moment still.

The people who looked quickly after I originally published this post will have seen other pictures than you can see now - I'd added the wrong pictures to the post - sorry about that. The pattern was and still is the correct one.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 36

Welcome back for part 36 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! Thank you for all the condolences, both here, Instagram and on Facebook. I'm not sure if I'll be able to thank you all personally but please do not take this to be me ignoring your messages, it's just very difficult for me to deal with them.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 35

Welcome back for part 35 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! I found out last Thursday that my brother died of lung cancer so there wasn't a Friday freebie but as you can see the Weavers is here on schedule. This week brings the start of the next animal band - it's another of the bigger bands and will take eight weeks to stitch.

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 34

Welcome back for part 34 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! I'm sorry this is late, I'm ill and completely forgot it was Tuesday yesterday. This week sees the second and last part of band eight! I do hope you like it.

Friday Freebie: Dragon Dots

Happy Friday - more or less, for some of you it might be Saturday by the time you see this. I'm running a bit later than usual as I got caught up stitching on the Viking Dragon (If you haven't seen him yet go check out my Instagram or look below)

Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL: Part 33

Welcome back for part 33 of the Weavers Tapestry Band Sampler SAL! This week is the first part of the eighth band! How exciting is that?!? It's a two week band and not much can be seen this week - as it's so short I'm not showing the full band this week.